Diazo compounds diazoacetates

Ando et aU have published details of the thermal reaction of diazo-com-pounds with sulphides. For the reaction to be of use, a stabilized diazo-compound and a dialkyl sulphide must be employed, but some aryl sulphides have been used successfully. Thus, diazomalonate and dimethyl sulphide afforded the ylide in 75% yield, and the use of diphenyl sulphide afforded ylide in 85% yield. The use of olefinic sulphides afforded two competitive sites for attack by the carbene presumably formed from the diazo-compound. Diazoacetate and the vinyl sulphide (2) produced a 5% yield of the cyclopropane, resulting from carbene attack at the double bond, and a 39% yield of a rearranged vinyl sulphide (3), resulting from carbene... 

From Diazo Compounds via 1,3-Dipolar Cycloaddition. This method has been utilized widely in heterocychc chemistry. Pyrazohne (57) has been synthesized by reaction of ethyl diazoacetate (58) with a,P-unsaturated ester in the presence of pyridine (eq. 12) (42). 

In this review an attempt is made to discuss all the important interactions of highly reactive divalent carbon derivatives (carbenes, methylenes) and heterocyclic compounds and the accompanying molecular rearrangements. The most widely studied reactions have been those of dihalocarbenes, particularly dichlorocarbene, and the a-ketocarbenes obtained by photolytic or copper-catalyzed decomposition of diazo compounds such as diazoacetic ester or diazoacetone. The reactions of diazomethane with heterocyclic compounds have already been reviewed in this series. ... 

Whereas the utility of these methods has been amply documented, they are limited in the structures they can provide because of their dependence on the diazoacetate functionality and its unique chemical properties. Transfer of a simple, unsubstituted methylene would allow access to a more general subset of chiral cyclopropanes. However, attempts to utilize simple diazo compounds, such as diazomethane, have never approached the high selectivities observed with the related diazoacetates (Scheme 3.2) [4]. Traditional strategies involving rhodium [3a,c], copper [ 3b, 5] and palladium have yet to provide a solution to this synthetic problem. The most promising results to date involve the use of zinc carbenoids albeit with selectivities less than those obtained using the diazoacetates. 

Diazo-benzol, n. diazobenzene, -essigsaure,/. diazoacetic acid, -kdrper, m. diazo compound. -Idsung, /. diazo solution, -salz, n. diazo salt (usually a diazonium salt), -schwarz, n, diazo black, diazotierbar, a. diazotizable. diazotieren, v.t. diazotize. 

Cyclization of the diazo compounds 1 a or 1 b, obtained from 2,4,6-trimethylpyrylium tetra-fluoroborate and ethyl diazoacetate or dimethyl diazomethanephosphonate, respectively, thus gives 1//-1,2-diazepines 2, which are stabilized by hydrogen bonding.71... 

Compounds containing the neutral (formally zwitterionic) group =N2 attached by one atom to carbon are named by adding the prefix diazo- to the name of the parent compound (Rule 931.4), e.g., diazomethane, ethyl diazoacetate. Diazo is a so-called characteristic group appearing only as a prefix in substitutive nomenclature. Chemical Abstracts and Beilstein indexing of diazo compounds is analogous to that mentioned above for diazonium ions and salts, but Diazo compounds is not... 

These complexes can be isolated in some cases in others they are generated in situ from appropriate precursors, of which diazo compounds are among the most important. These compounds, including CH2N2 and other diazoalkanes, react with metals or metal salts (copper, palladium, and rhodium are most commonly used) to give the carbene complexes that add CRR to double bonds. Ethyl a-diazoacetate reacts with styrene in the presence of bis(ferrocenyl) bis(imine), for example, to give ethyl 2-phenylcyclopropane-l-carboxylate. Optically active complexes have... 

The readily accessible dibenzothiapyrylium salt (62)m reacts with ethyl lithio diazoacetate 47) in a 1 1 mixture of ether and tetrahydrofuran at —120 °C to form the diazo compound (65). Treatment of 65 with 5 mol-% of it-allylpalladium chloride dimer in a 1 2 mixture of chloroform and carbon tetrachloride at 0 °C and... 

Alkinyloxy)diazoacetic esters 11 give rise to product mixtures that could be separated only partially. The isolated products result from a tandem intramolecular cyclopropenation/cyclopropene —> vinylcarbene isomerization (12, 14) and from a twofold intermolecular (3+2)-cycloaddition of the intact diazo compound (13). 

The same difference in regioselectivity holds for cyclopropanation with ethyl diazoacetate 25 K It is assumed that Cu(OTf)2 or Cu(BF4)2 are reduced to the Cu(I) salts by the diazo compound the ability of CuOTf to form stable complexes with olefins may then explain why, with these catalysts, cyclopropanation is governed by the steric environment around a double bond rather than by its electron-richness. 

The common by-products obtained in the transition-metal catalyzed reactions are the formal carbene dimers, diethyl maleate and diethyl fumarate. In accordance with the assumption that they owe their formation to the competition of olefin and excess diazo ester for an intermediate metal carbene, they can be widely suppressed by keeping the actual concentration of diazo compound as low as possible. Usually, one attempts to verify this condition by slow addition of the diazo compound to an excess (usually five- to tenfold) of olefin. This means that the addition rate will be crucial for the yields of cyclopropanes and carbene dimers. For example, Rh6(CO)16-catalyzed cyclopropanation of -butyl vinyl ether with ethyl diazoacetate proceeds in 69% yield when EDA is added during 30 minutes, but it increases to 87 % for a 6 h period. For styrene, the same differences were observed 65). 

As it is known from experience that the metal carbenes operating in most catalyzed reactions of diazo compounds are electrophilic species, it comes as no surprise that only a few examples of efficient catalyzed cyclopropanation of electron-poor alkeiies exist. One of those examples is the copper-catalyzed cyclopropanation of methyl vinyl ketone with ethyl diazoacetate 140), contrasting with the 2-pyrazoline formation in the purely thermal reaction (for failures to obtain cyclopropanes by copper-catalyzed decomposition of diazoesters, see Table VIII in Ref. 6). 

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. 

It has already been mentioned that prochirality of the olefin is not necessary for successful enantioselective cyclopropanation with an alkyl diazoacetate in the presence of catalysts 207. What happens if a prochiral olefin and a non-prochiral diazo compound are combined Only one result provides an answer to date The cyclopropane derived from styrene and dicyanodiazomethane shows only very low optical induction (4.6 % e.e. of the (25) enantiomer, catalyst 207a) 9S). Thus, it can be concluded that with the cobalt chelate catalysts 207, enantioface selectivity at the olefin is generally unimportant and that a prochiral diazo compound is needed for efficient optical induction. As the results with chiral copper 1,3-diketonates 205 and 2-diazodi-medone show, such a statement can not be generalized, of course. 

Rhodium(II) acetate was found to be much more superior to copper catalysts in catalyzing reactions between thiophenes and diazoesters or diazoketones 246 K The outcome of the reaction depends on the particular diazo compound 246> With /-butyl diazoacetate, high-yield cydopropanation takes place, yielding 6-eco-substituted thiabicyclohexene 262. Dimethyl or diethyl diazomalonate, upon Rh2(OAc)4-catalysis at room temperature, furnish stable thiophenium bis(alkoxycarbonyl)methanides 263, but exclusively the corresponding carbene dimer upon heating. In contrast, only 2-thienylmalonate (36 %) and carbene dimer were obtained upon heating the reactants for 8 days in the presence of Cul P(OEt)3. The Rh(II)-promoted ylide formation... 

Aziridines have been synthesized, albeit in low yield, by copper-catalyzed decomposition of ethyl diazoacetate in the presence of an inline 260). It seems that such a carbenoid cyclopropanation reaction has not been realized with other diazo compounds. The recently described preparation of 1,2,3-trisubstituted aziridines by reaction of phenyldiazomethane with N-alkyl aldimines or ketimines in the presence of zinc iodide 261 > most certainly does not proceed through carbenoid intermediates rather, the metal salt serves to activate the imine to nucleophilic attack from the diazo carbon. Replacement of Znl2 by one of the traditional copper catalysts resulted in formation of imidazoline derivatives via an intermediate azomethine ylide261). 

Iodorhodium(III) porphyrins generally lead to alkylrhodium(III) porphyrins (Scheme 42)398>. This is also true for the reaction with ethyl diazoacetate in the presence of HOAc or an alcohol, and the insertion product 412 (M = Rh) could not be detected, in contrast to the corresponding cobalt porphyrin. A mechanistic scheme, which includes the diverse reaction modes of metalloporphyrins towards diazo compounds, has been proposed by Callot 393,398). 

The Lewis acid-Lewis base interaction outlined in Scheme 43 also explains the formation of alkylrhodium complexes 414 from iodorhodium(III) meso-tetraphenyl-porphyrin 409 and various diazo compounds (Scheme 42)398), It seems reasonable to assume that intermediates 418 or 419 (corresponding to 415 and 417 in Scheme 43) are trapped by an added nucleophile in the reaction with ethyl diazoacetate, and that similar intermediates, by proton loss, give rise to vinylrhodium complexes from ethyl 2-diazopropionate or dimethyl diazosuccinate. As the rhodium porphyrin 409 is also an efficient catalyst for cyclopropanation of olefins with ethyl diazoacetate 87,1°°), stj bene formation from aryl diazomethanes 358 and carbene insertion into aliphatic C—H bonds 287, intermediates 418 or 419 are likely to be part of the mechanistic scheme of these reactions, too. 

Initial one-electron oxidation of the diazo compound by Ag(I), Hg(II) or Cu(II) acetates may also be responsible for the formation of Ph2C(OAc)—C(OAc)Ph2 from diazodiphenylmethane and of EtOOCCH(OAc)—CH(OAc)COOEt from ethyl diazoacetate in DMF/H20 417). Direct evidence for reduction of Cu(II) triflate to the Cu(I) salt by alkyl diazoacetates has been furnished by the disappearance of the... 

Methyl diazoacetate was obtained according to a procedure for ethyl diazoacetate (Searle, N.E. Org. Synth., Coll. Vol. A/1963, 42). Although the experiments were usually performed with distilled methyl diazoacetate (bp 43°C at 25 mm, bath temperature below 60°C) without any problems, the cyclopropanation reaction described works equally well with undistilled diazo compound. If distilled diazo compound is desired, the submitters have stated that "a spatula of K2CO3 Is added to the crude diazo ester to trap traces of add and then distill behind a safety shield . The checkers did not evaluate this aspect of the procedure. 

It the solution of methyl diazoacetate is dropped through the condenser the diazo compound is further diluted by the refluxing solvent. This simple technique diminishes formation of dimethyl lumarate and dimethyl maleate as side products. 

The synthesis of 1,2,3-selenadiazole derivatives has been reported. The reaction of aroyl chlorides such as 102 with potassium isoselenocyanate and ethyl diazoacetate yielded 5-(aroylimino)-2,5-dihydro-l, 2,3-selenadiazole-4-carboxylate esters such as 104. A reaction mechanism via the initial formation of the corresponding aroyl isoselenocyanate 103 followed by a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of the diazo compound with the C=Se bond is proposed <00HCA539>. 

So far, the reports on copper and silver scorpionate catalysis are limited to ethyl diazoacetate as the carbenoid precursor, and it is questionable whether these catalysts can be used with other classes of diazo compounds. The reaction of the more stable methyl diazomalonate resulted in the formation of a remarkable O-bound diazo complex, which was thermally stable (Equation (9)).76... 

Certain transition metal complexes catalyze the decomposition of diazo compounds. The metal-bonded carbene intermediates behave differently from the free species generated via photolysis or thermolysis of the corresponding carbene precursor. The first catalytic asymmetric cyclopropanation reaction was reported in 1966 when Nozaki et al.93 showed that the cyclopropane compound trans- 182 was obtained as the major product from the cyclopropanation of styrene with diazoacetate with an ee value of 6% (Scheme 5-56). This reaction was effected by a copper(II) complex 181 that bears a salicyladimine ligand. 

An important competing process with significant practical consequences is the catalytic dimerization of diazoacetate to form maleate and fumarate esters. Most catalysts suffer from this side reaction, leading to the use of the alkene as solvent in order to accelerate the productive pathway and the slow addition of diazo compound in order to minimize dimerization. Since this problem is generally shared across most catalyst architectures, it will be mentioned in discussions of individual asymmetric catalyst systems only in those instances where these precautions prove to be unnecessary. 

Mechanistic details of this reaction are scarce, but Aratani (14) mentions that the catalyst needs to be activated by heating in the presence of the diazo compound at 75-80°C until nitrogen evolution is observed and the color of the complex changes from green to brown. Reduction of the cupric precatalyst with a substituted hydrazine results in a yellow cuprous complex capable of inducing an instantaneous decomposition of diazoacetate at ambient temperature. Aratani proposes that the active catalyst is tetrahedral Cu(I), 26 in Scheme 2. Reaction with the diazoester from the less hindered face forms the Cu carbenoid having one hemilabile ligand (al-... 

The simple primary amines of the aliphatic series, then, do not form diazo-compounds because the reaction which would le, d to their formation only occurs at a temperature at which they are destroyed. The reactivity of the NH2-group can, however, be increased by a neighbouring carbonyl group. Thus we come to the case of the esters of the a-amino-carboxylic acids and of the a-amino-ketones. The ethyl ester of glycine can be diazotised even in the cold the diazo-compound which does not decompose under these conditions undergoes stabilisation by elimination of water and change into ethyl diazoacetate ... 

For further reactions of the aliphatic diazo-compounds see ethyl diazoacetate (below). 

Like those of all the simple aliphatic diazo-compounds the manifold reactions of ethyl diazoacetate are determined by the lability of the nitrogen. The elimination of the latter is catalytically accelerated by aqueous acids, and, indeed, the velocity of decomposition is directly proportional to the hydrogen ion concentration, so that a means is provided by which this concentration can be measured for acids of... 

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