Diazo carbenoid reactions

Muller et al. have also examined the enantioselectivity and the stereochemical course of copper-catalyzed intramolecular CH insertions of phenyl-iodonium ylides [34]. The decomposition of diazo compounds in the presence of transition metals leads to typical reactions for metal-carbenoid intermediates, such as cyclopropanations, insertions into X - H bonds, and formation of ylides with heteroatoms that have available lone pairs. Since diazo compounds are potentially explosive, toxic, and carcinogenic, the number of industrial applications is limited. Phenyliodonium ylides are potential substitutes for diazo compounds in metal-carbenoid reactions. Their photochemical, thermal, and transition-metal-catalyzed decompositions exhibit some similarities to those of diazo compounds. 

Despite the volume of work concerned with metal-catalyzed decomposition of diazo compounds and carbenoid reactions 28>, relatively little work has been reported on the metal-catalyzed decomposition of sulphonyl azides. Some metal-aryl nitrene complexes have recently been isolated 29 31>. Nitro compounds have also been reduced to nitrene metal complexes with transition metal oxalates 32K... 

Enantioselective carbenoid cyclopropanation can be expected to occur when either an olefin bearing a chiral substituent, or such a diazo compound or a chiral catalyst is present. Only the latter alternative has been widely applied in practice. All efficient chiral catalysts which are known at present are copper or cobalt(II) chelates, whereas palladium complexes 86) proved to be uneflective. The carbenoid reactions between alkyl diazoacetates and styrene or 1,1 -diphenylethylene (Scheme 27) are usually chosen to test the efficiency of a chiral catalyst. As will be seen in the following, the extent to which optical induction is brought about by enantioselection either at a prochiral olefin or at a prochiral carbenoid center, varies widely with the chiral catalyst used. 

As with any modern review of the chemical Hterature, the subject discussed in this chapter touches upon topics that are the focus of related books and articles. For example, there is a well recognized tome on the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction that is an excellent introduction to the many varieties of this transformation [1]. More specific reviews involving the use of rhodium(II) in carbonyl ylide cycloadditions [2] and intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions have also appeared [3, 4]. The use of rhodium for the creation and reaction of carbenes as electrophilic species [5, 6], their use in intramolecular carbenoid reactions [7], and the formation of ylides via the reaction with heteroatoms have also been described [8]. Reviews of rhodium(II) ligand-based chemoselectivity [9], rhodium(11)-mediated macrocyclizations [10], and asymmetric rho-dium(II)-carbene transformations [11, 12] detail the multiple aspects of control and applications that make this such a powerful chemical transformation. In addition to these reviews, several books have appeared since around 1998 describing the catalytic reactions of diazo compounds [13], cycloaddition reactions in organic synthesis [14], and synthetic applications of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition [15]. 

A vast array of chiral catalysts have been developed for the enantioselective reactions of diazo compounds but the majority has been applied to asymmetric cyclopropanations of alkyl diazoacetates [2]. Prominent catalysts for asymmetric intermolecular C-H insertions are the dirhodium tetraprolinate catalysts, Rh2(S-TBSP)4 (la) and Rh2(S-DOSP)4 (lb), and the bridged analogue Rh2(S-biDOSP)2 (2) [7] (Fig. 1). A related prolinate catalyst is the amide 3 [8]. Another catalyst that has been occasionally used in intermolecular C-H activations is Rh2(S-MEPY)4 (4) [9], The most notable catalysts that have been used in enantioselective ylide transformations are the valine derivative, Rh2(S-BPTV)4 (5) [10], and the binaphthylphosphate catalysts, Rh2(R-BNP)4 (6a) and Rh2(R-DDNP)4 (6b) [11]. All of the catalysts tend to be very active in the decomposition of diazo compounds and generally, carbenoid reactions are conducted with 1 mol % or less of catalyst loading [1-3]. 

Functionalized cyclopropenes are viable synthetic intermediates whose applications [99.100] extend to a wide variety of carbocyclic and heterocyclic systems. However, advances in the synthesis of cyclopropenes, particularly through Rh(II) carboxylate—catalyzed decomposition of diazo esters in the presence of alkynes [100-102], has made available an array of stable 3-cyclopropenecarboxylate esters. Previously, copper catalysts provided low to moderate yields of cyclopropenes in reactions of diazo esters with disubstituted acetylenes [103], but the higher temperatures required for these carbenoid reactions often led to thermal or catalytic ring opening and products derived from vinylcarbene intermediates (104-107). 

A similar reaction of ylide 200 can also be carried out under thermal conditions or in the presence of catalytic amounts of Cu(acac)2 [143]. The carbenoid reactions of iodonium ylides can also be effectively catalyzed by rhodium(II) complexes [144, 145]. The product composition in the rhodium(II) catalyzed reactions of iodonium ylides was found to be identical to that of the corresponding diazo compounds, which indicates that the mechanism of both processes is similar and involves metallocarbenes as key intermediates as it has been unequivocally established for the diazo decomposition [144]. 

Nozaki, H., Takaya, H., Moriuti, S. and Noyori, R. (1968) Homogeneous catalysis in the decomposition of diazo compounds by copper chelates. Asymmetric carbenoid reactions. Tetrahedron, 24, 3655. 

A select number of transition metal compounds are effective as catalysts for carbenoid reactions of diazo compounds (1-3). Their catalytic activity depends on coordination unsaturation at their metal center which allows them to react as electrophiles with diazo compounds. Electrophilic addition to diazo compounds, which is the rate limiting step, causes the loss of dinitrogen and production of a metal stabilized carbene. Transfer of the electrophilic carbene to an electron rich substrate (S ) in a subsequent fast step completes the catalytic cycle (Scheme I). Lewis bases (B ) such as nitriles compete with the diazo compound for the coordinatively unsaturated metal center and are effective inhibitors of catalytic activity. Although carbene complexes with catalytically active transition metal compounds have not been observed as yet, sufficient indirect evidence from reactivity and selectivity correlations with stable metal carbenes (4,5) exist to justify their involvement in catalytic transformations. 

Summary. Intra- and intermolecular carbene or carbenoid reactions resulting from the photochemical and Cu(I)-, Rh(II)-, or Ru(I)-catalyzed decomposition of a-diazo-a-silylacetic esters are described. Among the products reported are (alkoxysilyl)ketenes, silaheterocycles, 1-trialkylsilylcyclopropane-l-carboxylates, and products derived from transient carbonyl ylides. 

The carbocyclic [6-7] core of guanacastepenes was prepared by. D. Trauner et al. using the intramolecular reaction between carbenoids derived from diazo carbonyl compounds and furans. The required diazo carbonyl substrate was synthesized using p-acetamidobenzenesulfonyl azide (p-ABSA) as the diazo-donor component in the Regitz diazo transfer reaction. 

The carbenoid reaction between a-diazo ketones and simple alkenes or styrenes leads to acylcyclopropanes. (For the enantioselective cyclopropanation of styrene with 2-diazo-5,5-dimethylcyclohexane-l,3-dione, see Section 1.2.1.2.4.2.6.3.2.). With ketene acetals, 2,3-dihyd-rofurans are obtained. In contrast, l-acyl-2-oxycyclopropanes or 2-oxy-2,3-dihydrofurans can be formed in reactions with enol ethers and enol acetates the result depends strongly on the substitution pattern of both reaction partners.Whereas simple diazo ketones usually lead to cyclopropanes (Table 15), 3-diazo-2-oxopropanoates and 2-diazo-l,3-dicarbonyl compounds, such as 2-diazoacetoacetates, 3-diazopentane-2,4-dione, and 2-diazo-5,5-dimethylcy-clohexane-1,3-dione, yield 2,3-dihydrofurans and occasionally acyclic structural isomers thereof when reacted with these electron-rich oxy-substituted alkenes. 

In a similar manner, transfer of oxocarbenes from a-diazo ketones to benzene mediated by tetrakis(trifluoroacetato)dirhodium(II) yields, in some cases, 7-(l-oxoalkyl)cyclohepta-l,3,5-trienes. These compounds undergo facile acid-catalyzed isomerization to benzyl ketones 36. In other cases, the latter products are formed directly under the conditions of the carbenoid reaction " for examples, see Houben-Weyl, Vol. E19b, pl313. 

Intramolecular carbenoid reactions of diazo compounds have been limited to the formation of only a few silicon-substituted cyclopropanes from unsaturated silicon-substituted diazo compounds. 

This section has clearly demonstrated that enantioselective rhodium-carbenoid reactions only developed strongly in recent years, but it seems that today (1995), they are at the frontier of scientific activities on diazo-carbenoid chemistry. There, I see... 

Reaction with benzene follows a similar pathway, yielding a bicyclo[3.2.2]nonatriene structure. Vinylcarbenoids also react with pyrroles to give tropanes via a cyclopropanation-Cope rearrangement route. The direct addition of carbenes to acetylenes does not give satisfactory yields of cyclopropanes, but the rhodium carboxylate catalysed reaction of diazo compounds with acetylenes is a useful source of cyclopro-panes. Carbenoids can also attack a carbonyl oxygen atom, giving rise to a zwitterion (249). An excellent review of intramolecular carbenoid reactions has appeared. ... 

The catalytic effectiveness of ruthenium porphyrins for ylide generation in reactions of ethyl diazo acetate and diisopropyl diazomethylphosphonate with some allylic substrates was described for the first time by Simoimeaux and coworkers (Scheme 20) [194]. These reactions result in products of the [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of intermediate allylic ylides. It was demonstrated that simple ruthenium porphyrins are highly effective catalysts for carbenoid reactions with alkyl allyl sulfides and alkyl allyl amines providing... 

Double cyclopropanation of benzene occurs in the Rh(II)-catalyzed reaction of dimethyl diazomalonate 22. Heating a benzene solution of this diazo compound and rhodium(II) acetate (1 mol %) under reflux gives a mixture of [23 + 24] (19%), 25 (8% yield) and bis-cyclopropanation product 26 (58% yield). When the same reaction is carried out using rhodium(II) trifluoroacetate instead of rhodium(II) acetate as the catalyst, a vastly different product distiibution is obtained [23 + 24], 64% 25, 32% 26, 4%. The low yield of double cyclopropanation product 26 obtained with rhodium(II) trifluoroacetate is comparable to other carbenoid reactions with aromatic substrates, where double cyclopropanation is rare. 

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