Cyclopropanes synthesis using sulfur ylides

Reagent-controlled asymmetric cyclopropanation is relatively more difficult using sulfur ylides, although it has been done. It is more often accomplished using chiral aminosulfoxonium ylides. Finally, more complex sulfur ylides (e.g. 64) may result in more elaborate cyclopropane synthesis, as exemplified by the transformation 65 66 ... 

A very convenient asymmetric synthesis of cyclopropane or epoxide systems developed by Johnson (184) is based on the use of chiral sulfur ylides as the agents that induce optical activity. Generally, this method consists of the asymmetric addition of a chiral sulfur ylide to the C=C or C=0 bond and subsequent cyclization of the addition product to form a chiral cyclopropane or epoxide system together with chiral sulfinamide. A wide range of chiral... 

Sulfur ylides are among the most interesting carbon nucleophiles and their synthetic importance has been recently reviewed.One especially interesting use of these ylides is their application to the synthesis of cyclopropane derivatives using unsaturated oxazolones. For example, stabilized sulfur yhdes react with unsaturated oxazolones 629 via a Michael reaction to give oxazolone spirocyclopropanes 630 as shown in Scheme 7.202 and Table 7.46 (Fig. 7.57), whereas the less stabilized sulfur ylides give ring-opened products 631 as the major compounds (Scheme 7.202). ... 

Chiral cyclopropanes. Carrie el al.b l have developed a highly enantioselective synthesis of cyclopropanes from the aldehyde 2, in which the butadiene group is protected as the iron tricarhonyl complex. The complex (2) is resolved by the method of Kelly and Van Rheenan (5, 289-290), and the two optical isomers arc then converted separately into a cyclopropanealdehyde (5a and 5b) as formulated. A sulfur ylide such as (CH3)2S=CHCOOCH3 can be used in place of diazomethane for cyclopropanation. Optical yields are > 90%,... 

Recently, Tang, Wu and co-workers have reported the synthesis of vinylcyclopro-panes using an alternative catalytic cycle for sulfur ylide-catalyzed cyclopropanation (see Scheme 10.22) [98]. Sulfonium salt 41a or 41b was deprotonated by CS2CO3 to form an ylide which then reacted with chalcones 37 to form cyclopropanes and a sulfide. The sulfonium salt was regenerated in situ through reaction... 

In addition to sulfur ylides, examples are known of cyclopropanations using other ylides containing group V or group VI elements. Among these, triphenylphosphonium ylides have most frequently been studied. Some examples are collected in Table 19. The products obtained in entries 1-3 and 10 of Table 19 are suitable precursors for chrysanthemic acid. An enantioselec-tive synthesis of cyclopropanes was achieved by using electron-deficient alkenes substituted with an optically pure oxazolidine or acetonide function. When the alkene is stabilized by a ketone or nitro function instead of an ester function, the yield dropped considerably. 

For the synthesis of cyclopropyl amino acids, Williams has used an oxazinone auxiliary (cf. Scheme 3.12) as an electrophilic component in a sulfur ylide cyclopropanation using Johnson s sulfoximines, as illustrated in Scheme 6.41 [148]. Surprisingly, the sulfur ylide approaches from the P face the authors speculate that there may be some sort of 7t-stacking between the phenyls on the oxazinone ring and the phenyl in the sulfoximine to account for this [149]. With Corey s [147] dimethylsulfonium methylide, the diastereoselectivity was only about 75%, but with Johnson s sulfoximines (used in racemic form), only one diastereomer could be detected for most substrates studied (with the exception of R = H, [149]). Dissolving metal reduction afforded moderate yields of the cyclopropyl amino acids. 

Generation of Sulfur Ylides Julia Olefination and Related Processes. Recently, the modified Julia olefination, which employed certain heteroarylsulfones instead of the traditional phenyl-sulfones, has emerged as a powerful tool for alkene synthesis. Although the reaction was first reported with LDA, bases such as LHMDS, NaHMDS, and KHMDS are now commonly used. In addition, solvent as well as base counter-cation have been shown to markedly affect the stereochemical outcome of the olefination reaction. For instance, KHMDS was less selective than NaHMDS for the coupling between benzothiazoylsulfone (1) and cyclopropane carboxaldehyde (2) in toluene, furnishing a 3.7 1 ratio compared to a 10 1 ratio favoring the Z-isomer. However, both bases provided a 1 1 mixture of isomers when the reaction was run in DMF (eq 54). ... 

The one-pot synthesis of dibenzoyl cyclopropanes with a cis trans stereoselectivity by Wittig olefination-sulfur ylide cyclopropanation sequence has been described. When 0 CS2CO3 was used as the base and CHjCN/water (8 2, v/v) as the solvent, the major product was the c -1,2-dibenzoyl cyclopropane. In contrast, when using DBU as the base and MeOH as the solvent, the major product was fra i-dibenzoyl cyclopropane. 

Sulfur ylides are usually used for cyclopropanation [27]. Recently, chiral cyclopropane synthesis has been actively investigated. Chiral S-ylide 19 serves as a chiral donor for... 

---