Dialkylamide bases

Ester enolates generated by proton abstraction with dialkylamide bases add to aldehydes and ketones to give (3 hydroxy esters... 

This important synthetic problem has been satisfactorily solved with the introduction of lithium dialkylamide bases. Lithium diisopropylamide (LDA, Creger s base ) has already been mentioned for the a-alkylation of acids by means of their dianions1. This method has been further improved through the use of hexamethylphosphoric triamide (HMPA)2 and then extended to the a-alkylation of esters3. Generally, LDA became the most widely used base for the preparation of lactone enolates. In some cases lithium amides of other secondary amines like cyclo-hexylisopropylamine, diethylamine or hexamethyldisilazane have been used. The sodium or potassium salts of the latter have also been used but only as exceptions (vide infra). Other methods for the preparation of y-Iactone enolates. e.g., in a tetrahydrofuran solution of potassium, containing K anions and K+ cations complexed by 18-crown-6, and their alkylation have been successfully demonstrated (yields 80 95 %)4 but they probably cannot compete with the simplicity and proven reliability of the lithium amide method. 

In pyridine-A-oxide, 2-proton acidity is considerably enhanced by the inductive effect of the oxide and by the complexing capability of the lone pair on oxygen with lithium. Hence, 2-lithiation and sometimes 2,6-dilithiation with alkyllithium and lithium dialkylamide bases is feasible. In the case of ring substituted pyridine-A-oxides 498, fair to good yields of... 

Reacts with dialkylamines to yield lithium dialkylamide bases such as LDA [lithium diisopropyl-amide] (Section 22.5). 

Ketones, esters, and nitriles can all be olKylated using LT>A or related dialkylamide bases inTHF. Aldehydes rarely give high yields of pure product because their enolate ions -undergo cart>oniyl condensation reactions instead of alkylation. We ll study this condensntden reaction in the next chapter) Some specific examples of alkylation reactions are shown below. 

In 1972, a further brilliant improvement on the Claisen rearrangement was realized by Ireland and co-woikers. Ester enolization wiA lithium dialkylamide bases, followed by silylation with TMS-Cl, generated reactive silyl ketene acetals at -78 °C or lower temperatures. Sigmatropic rearrangement to easily hydrolyzable 7,8-unsaturated silyl esters occurred at ambient tempontures (15 16 17 equa-... 

The nucleophilicity of silyl enol ethers has been examined. Base-induced formation of the enolate anion generally leads to a mixture of (E)- and (Z)-isomers, and dialkyl amide bases are used in most cases. The (EjZ ) stereoselectivity depends on the structure of the lithium dialkylamide base, with the highest EjZ) ratios obtained with LiTMP-butyllithium mixed aggregates in THF. ° The use of LiHMDS resulted in a reversal of the (E/Z) selectivity. In general, metallic (Z) enolates give the syn (or erythro) pair, and this reaction is highly useful for the diastereoselective synthesis of these products. 

Reaction of an imine with a strong base represents the most straightforward avenue for the formation of imine anions. The first bases used were lithium dialkylamides and Grignard reagents (equation 37) employed in the seminal studies of Wittig and Stork. The rate of deprotonation with both reagents is relatively low (for example in comparison to the reaction of ketones with dialkylamide bases) and the... 

Formation of an imine from a symmetrical ketone effects a desymmetrization of the two a-carbons. The deprotonation of such imines has been extensively investigated by Bergbreiter and Newcomb. In general, there is little observed selectivity for deprotonation by lithium dialkylamide bases, as, for example, with the 3-pentanone imine in equation (38). 

The regiochemistry of deprotonation of imines derived from unsymmetrical ketones is of special significance for the synthetic applications of these anions for carbon-carbon bond formation. This selectivity is sensitive to both the amine moiety and the base used. With imines derived from cyclohexyl- or r-butyl-amine, deprotonation with either Grignard reagents or lithium dialkylamide bases will result in high selectivity (>98 2) for removal of the proton on the less substituted a-carbon as in equations (39) and (40). 3i... 

A variety of lithium dialkylamide bases can be used to produce cross-conjugated lithium dienolates, which may then be alkylated with even less reactive alkylating agents, e.g. propyl iodide, in good to excellent yields without equilibration to the corresponding extended dienolates. a -Alkylations of cyclo-hex-2-enones, certain cyclopent-2-enones, l(9)-octalin-2-ones and steroidal 4-en-3-ones have been accomplished by this procedure. ... 

Although carboxylic acids and their derivatives are somewhat weaker carbon acids than aldehydes and ketones, it is generally possible to quantitatively convert them to the corresponding metal enolates with dialkylamide bases, the most popular of which is LDA. - - Thus, monoanions of saturated esters, lactones, nitriles, /VA -dialkylamides and V-alkyllactams and dianions of carboxylic acids and V-unsub-stituted amides and lactams are easily prepared in aprotic solvents such as THF and C-alkylated with a variety of simple and functionalized SN2-reactive alkylating agents at room temperature or below. When more-hindered systems are involved, the basicity of the metal dialkylamide and the reactivity of the metal enolate can be enhanced by the addition of HMPA. Of course, many of the indirect methods used for the generation of aldehyde and ketone enolates are also applicable to the preparation of enolates of carboxylic acid derivatives (Section 1.1.2.1). O-Alkylations or dialkylations at carbon generally are of minimal importance with metal enolates of carboxylic acid derivatives. 

Deprotonation of carbonyl compounds by lithium dialkylamide bases is the single most common method of forming alkali enolates. Four excellent reviews have already been published. " Sterically hindered amide bases are employed to retard nucleophilic attack on the carbonyl group. The most common and generally useful bases are (i) lithium diisopropylamide (LDA 5) (ii) lithium isopropylcyclo-hexylamide (LICA 6) (iii) lithium 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidide (LITMP 7) (iv) lithium hexamethyldisilylamide (LHMDS 8) and (v) lithium tetramethyldiphenyldisilylamide (LTDDS 9). Bases that are not amides include sodium hydride, potassium hydride and triphenylmethyllithium. 

Zinc ester enolates may also be obtained by the addition of ZnX2 to lithium or sodium enolates as first described by Hauser and Puterbaugh (equation 6)P This approach has so far received little attention but similar reactions have been used to obtain zinc ketone enolates. In this regard, it should be noted that Heathcock and coworkers have shown that deprotonation reactions of ketones with zinc dialkylamide bases reach equilibrium at only about 50% conversion (equation 7). This result implies that attempts to prepare zinc enolates from solutions of amide-generated lithium enolates will be successful only when the lithium enolate is made amine-free. 

An achiral acetal can be ort/zo-lithiated enantioselectively using a chiral base. A dialkylamide base gives large amounts of benzylic deprotonation [37], whereas a hydrocarbon base derived from menthol (45) selectively deprotonated the benzene ring with good stereoselectivity [90]. 

It has been known for some time that the acid-catalyzed solvolysis of epoxides can lead to products other than the anticipated 1,2-glycols, but the reaction of epoxides with bases has been slower to develop. The reactivity of epoxides with strong hindered bases was originally studied by Cope, Crandall, and Rickbom. Reactions of epoxides with dialkylamide bases take one of two general forms (a) a-lithiation by insertion of the base between one H-CO bond or (b) -elimination with the formation of an allytic alcohol (Scheme 9). ... 

Sterically Hindered Base for Enolate Formation. Like other metal dialkylamide bases, sodium bis(trimethylsilyl)amide is sufficiently basic to deprotonate carbonyl-activated carbon acids and is sterically hindered, allowing good initial kinetic vs. thermodynamic deprotonation ratios. The presence of the sodium counterion also allows for subsequent equilibration to the thermodynamically more stable enolate. More recently, this base has been used in the stereoselective generation of enolates for subsequent alkylation or oxidation in asymmetric syntheses. As shown in eq 1, NaHMDS was used to selectively generate a (Z)-enolate alkylation with lodomethane proceeded with excellent diastereoselectivity. In this case, use of the sodium enolate was preferred as it was more reactive than the corresponding lithium enolate at lower temperatures. 

In 1972, Ireland and Mueller reported the transformation that has come to be known as the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement (Scheme 4.2) [1]. Use of a lithium dialkylamide base allowed for efficient low temperature enolization of the allyUc ester. They found that sUylation of the ester enolate suppressed side reactions such as decomposition via the ketene pathway and Claisen-type condensations. Although this first reported Ireland-Claisen rearrangement was presumably dia-stereoselective vide infra, Section 4.6.1), the stereochemistry of the alkyl groups was not an issue in its application to the synthesis of dihydrojasmone. 

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