Diazoalkanes, reaction with carbenes

By analogy with cyclopropane formation from carbenes and C=C bonds, azo compounds might be expected to give diaziridines in their reaction with carbenes. Although acyclic ADC compounds react readily with diazoalkanes... 

Diazoalkanes can also be converted to ethers by thermal or photochemical cleavage in the presence of an alcohol. These are carbene or carbenoid reactions. Similar intermediates are involved when diazoalkanes react with alcohols in the presence of /-BuOCl to give acetals. ... 

The q1-coordinated carbene complexes 421 (R = Ph)411 and 422412) are rather stable thermally. As metal-free product of thermal decomposition [421 (R = Ph) 110 °C, 422 PPh3, 105 °C], one finds the formal carbene dimer, tetraphenylethylene, in both cases. Carbene transfer from 422 onto 1,1-diphenylethylene does not occur, however. Among all isolated carbene complexes, 422 may be considered the only connecting link between stoichiometric diazoalkane reactions and catalytic decomposition [except for the somewhat different results with rhodium(III) porphyrins, see above] 422 is obtained from diazodiphenylmethane and [Rh(CO)2Cl]2, which is also known to be an efficient catalyst for cyclopropanation and S-ylide formation with diazoesters 66). 

Knowledge of the intramolecular product distribution may allow for the partitioning of k between competitive intramolecular reactions, but one must be certain that noncarbenic routes to the products do not compete with the carbenic pathways. In particular, we must be concerned with the possible intervention of RIES (cf. Section m.C), especially when diazirines or diazoalkanes are the carbene precursors. Again, corrections for RIES can be made to quantitate the carbenic routes see, for example, the discussion of the cyclobutylhalocarbene rearrangements (Section m.C.1). 

The transition metal-catalyzed cyclopropanation of alkenes is one of the most efficient methods for the preparation of cyclopropanes. In 1959 Dull and Abend reported [617] their finding that treatment of ketene diethylacetal with diazomethane in the presence of catalytic amounts of copper(I) bromide leads to the formation of cyclopropanone diethylacetal. The same year Wittig described the cyclopropanation of cyclohexene with diazomethane and zinc(II) iodide [494]. Since then many variations and improvements of this reaction have been reported. Today a large number of transition metal complexes are known which react with diazoalkanes or other carbene precursors to yield intermediates capable of cyclopropanating olefins (Figure 3.32). However, from the commonly used catalysts of this type (rhodium(II) or palladium(II) carboxylates, copper salts) no carbene complexes have yet been identified spectroscopically. 

The normal byproducts formed during the transition metal-catalyzed decomposition of diazoalkanes are carbene dimers and azines [496,1023,1329], These products result from the reaction of carbene complexes with the carbene precursor. Their formation can be suppressed by slow addition (e.g. with a syringe motor) of a dilute solution of the diazo compound to the mixture of substrate and catalyst. Carbene dimerization can, however, also be a synthetically useful process. If, e.g., diazoacetone is treated with 0.1% RuClCpIPPhjij at 65 °C in toluene, cw-3-hexene-2,5-dione is obtained in 81% yield with high stereoselectivity [1038]. 

The properties of 5-azido and 5-diazomethyl-l,4-diphenyltriazole are unusual in that both compounds lose nitrogen under very mild conditions. The products derived from the azide are mainly those of ring cleavage (Section IV, G), but the diazoalkane gives a carbene which undergoes addition and insertion reactions with several solvents. These reactions are illustrated in Scheme 49. 

The complications that occasionally arise in the use of diazoalkanes reflect the possible further reactions of carbene ligands, which will be dealt with subsequently, e.g. insertion into adjacent M-H or M-halide bonds and the formation of bimetallic complexes supported by bridging carbene ligands. In some cases, transition metals may catalyse reactions of diazoalkanes, leading to products which are suggestive of the reactions of free carbenes, i.e. dimerization, addition to alkenes (cyclo-propanation) and insertion into C-H bonds (Figure 5.9). In such cases, however, the actual mechanism does not involve free carbenes but rather transient diazoalkane/carbene complexes. This is supported by the obser-... 

Polymer-supported benzenesulfonyl azides have been developed as a safe diazotransfer reagent. ° These compounds, including CH2N2 and other diazoalkanes, react with metals or metal salts (copper, paUadium, and rhodium are most commonly used) to give the carbene complexes that add CRR to double bonds. Diazoketones and diazoesters with alkenes to give the cyclopropane derivative, usually with a transition-metal catalyst, such as a copper complex. The ruthenium catalyst reaction of diazoesters with an alkyne give a cyclopropene. An X-ray structure of an osmium catalyst intermediate has been determined. Electron-rich alkenes react faster than simple alkenes. ... 

Reaction with diazoalkanes. Catalytic amounts of nickel carbonyl decompose diazoalkanes to products evidently formed from an intermediate carbene. Use of a large excess of reagent in the presence of ethanol leads to formation of carboxylic acid esters in yields of 20-25%. 

New evidence as to the nature of the intermediates in catalytic diazoalkane decomposition comes from a comparison of olefin cyclopropanation with the electrophilic metal carbene complex (CO)jW—CHPh on one hand and Rh COAc) / NjCHCOOEt or Rh2(OAc)4 /NjCHPh on the other . For the same set of monosubstituted alkenes, a linear log-log relationship between the relative reactivities for the stoichiometric reaction with (CO)5W=CHPh and the catalytic reaction with RhjfOAc) was found (reactivity difference of 2.2 10 in the former case and 14 in the latter). No such correlation holds for di- and trisubstituted olefins, which has been attributed to steric and/or electronic differences in olefin interaction with the reactive electrophile . A linear relationship was also found between the relative reactivities of (CO)jW=CHPh and Rh2(OAc) NjCHPh. These results lead to the conclusion that the intermediates in the Rh(II)-catalyzed reaction are very similar to stable electrophilic carbenes in terms of electron demand. As far as cisjtrans stereoselectivity of cyclopropanation is concerned, no obvious relationship between Rh2(OAc) /N2CHCOOEt and Rh2(OAc),/N2CHPh was found, but the log-log plot displays an excellent linear relationship between (CO)jW=CHPh and Rh2(OAc) / N2CHPh, including mono-, 1,1-di-, 1,2-di- and trisubstituted alkenes In the phenyl-carbene transfer reactions, cis- syn-) cyclopropanes are formed preferentially, whereas trans- anti-) cyclopropanes dominate when the diazoester is involved. 

The mechanism that has been proposed to explain the relative and absolute configurations of these examples is illustrated in Scheme 6.35 [128]. The catalyst, shown on the left of the scheme, is coordinatively unsaturated. Reaction with the diazoalkane affords the copper carbene shown at the top. The olefin approaches from the less hindered back side (note that the absolute configuration of the carbene carbon is set at this point), such that the indicated carbon (, which is the one most... 

As with other diazoalkanes, diazomethane reacts with alkenes to form cyclopropane derivatives (sec. 13.9.C.i).272 Reaction with aromatic derivatives leads to ring expansion to cycloheptatriene derivatives.223 Both of these reactions (addition to an alkene or arene insertion) involve generation of an intermediate carbene and addition to a jt bond they will be discussed below. Many of the reactions of diazomethane tend to be ionic in nature and are, therefore, set aside from the other diazoalkane chemistry in this section. One of the commonest uses of diazomethane itself is esterification of small quantities of acids, especially acids that are precious for one reason or another. The reaction is quantitative and gives good yields of a single product, as in Tadano s conversion of 338 to the methyl ester of 339224 in a synthesis of (-)-verrucarol. 

As mentioned briefly in Section 6.5, it should be emphasized that there is no clear evidence available whether cyclopropanes, including these methanofullerenes, are formed via dihydropyrazoles, i.e., by a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, or by the primary dediazoniation of the diazoalkane to a carbene that subsequently reacts with 50-It may be that the mechanism is a dipolar cycloaddition followed by azo-extrusion at low temperature (20°C, i.e., Suzuki s conditions), but a carbene reaction in boiling toluene (Isaacs and Diederich), as shown in Section 6.5, Scheme 6-37, pathways C and A, respectively. In addition, the dihydropyrazole may be the product of a side-equilibrium only, but the reagents form the cyclopropane-type methanofullerene via pathway C. A mechanism via primary dediazoniation is, however, unlikely as dediazoniation of diazoacetate without C o in boiling toluene is much slower than it is in the presence of 50 (Diederich, 1994). 

The discussed reactions of carbene and carbyne complexes show that they have essential significance as catalysts or unstable transient intermediate compounds in such catalytic processes as metathesis of olefins and other unsaturated compounds, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, syntheses of cyclopropanes from diazoalkanes and olefins, and polymerization of olefins and alkynes as well as in organic synthesis. Except for alkynes [reaction (5.132) ] some compounds containing double bonds react with carbon monoxide and carbene ligands to form bonds with those groups. Examples of such compounds are enamines, ynamines, and Schiff bases. The JV-vinylpyrrolidone (enamine), methoxyphenylcarbene, and excess of CO (higher pressure) react to furnish enaminoketone. 

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