Cyclopropanation with titanium carbene complexes

Fig. 3.34. Cyclopropanation with titanium carbene complexes generated in situ [33].

Although the reaction of a titanium carbene complex with an olefin generally affords the olefin metathesis product, in certain cases the intermediate titanacyclobutane may decompose through reductive elimination to give a cyclopropane. A small amount of the cyclopropane derivative is produced by the reaction of titanocene-methylidene with isobutene or ethene in the presence of triethylamine or THF [8], In order to accelerate the reductive elimination from titanacyclobutane to form the cyclopropane, oxidation with iodine is required (Scheme 14.21) [36], The stereochemistry obtained indicates that this reaction proceeds through the formation of y-iodoalkyltitanium species 46 and 47. A subsequent intramolecular SN2 reaction produces the cyclopropane. 

Experimental Procedure 3.2.2. Cyclopropanation with a Titanium Carbene Complex (E)-l-Hexyl-2-(2-phenylethenyl)cyclopropane [33]... 

Another broad class of compounds are the bridged carbene complexes. These compounds contain two identical or two different metal centers with the carbene centers bonded to both of the metal atoms in a bridging relationship. However, these binuclear complexes generally do not show classical carbene reactivity and will therefore not be discussed further, except to mention briefly the special case of the titanium-aluminum complex (3) developed by Tebbe and Grubbs and their coworkers.101 This, and related complexes, has proven to be particularly useful in organic synthesis, although its principal importance is in reactions other than cyclopropanations. 

Interestingly, the subsequent reactions of the titanium-alkylidene species 12 obtained from dithioacetals are not limited to carbonyl olefina-tions. When the carbene complex is prepared in the presence of olefins, the latter are smoothly cyclopropanated (Scheme 8 13) [14]. Furthermore, the reaction of symmetrically disubstituted acetylenes with dithioacetals containing a methylene unit provides the corresponding trisubsti-tuted 1,3-dienes 14 in a stereoselective fashion 115]. 

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