Rhodium compounds reaction with diazoalkanes

The reaction of thiocarbonyl compounds with diazoalkanes (alkyl, aryl substituted) frequently gives good to excellent yields of thiiranes. The mechanism may involve addition of a carbene across the thiocarbonyl group, especially in the presence of rhodium(II) acetate... 

Reaction of diazo compounds with a variety of transition metal compounds leads to evolution of nitrogen and formation of products of the same general type as those formed by thermal and photochemical decomposition of diazoalkanes. These transition metal-catalyzed reactions in general appear to involve carbenoid intermediates in which the carbene becomes bound to the metal.83 The metals which have been used most frequently in synthesis are copper and rhodium. 

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. ... 

In contrast to the wealth of chemistry reported for catalyzed reactions of diazocarbonyl compounds, there are fewer applications of diazomethane as a carbenoid precursor. Catalytic decomposition of diazomethane, CH2N2, has been reported as a general method for the methylenation of chemical compounds [12]. The efficacy of rhodium catalysts for mediating carbene transfer from diazoalkanes is poor. The preparative use of diazomethane in the synthesis of cyclopropane derivatives from olefins is mostly associated with the employment of palladium cat-... 

Aldehydes and ketones can also be converted to epoxides by treatment with a diazoalkane, most commonly diazomethane, but an important side reaction is the formation of an aldehyde or ketone with one more carbon than the starting compound (reaction 18-9). The reaction can be carried out with many aldehydes, ketones, and quinones, usually with a rhodium catalyst. ° A mechanism that accounts for both products is... 

The reactions illustrated in equations (62-64) are each catalyzed by rhodium acetate. Diazo compounds, especially diazoalkanes, can also react by a simple ionic mechanism. The esterification of a carboxylic acid with diazomethane is a familiar example. The ionic pathway is especially likely when the intermediate carbocation would be stabilized. Thus, diazine (158) couples smoothly with phenols, presumably by thermal rearrangement to the corresponding diazo sugar, followed by acid-catalyzed N2 loss... 

Rhodium(II)-mediated reactions have found many applications. The literature up to 1985 in intramolecular and intermolecular cyclopropanations, including choice of catalysts and mechanistic aspects, has been thoroughly reviewed by Maas [9]. More recent reviews are available that focus on the ligand effects and mechanism [10], and on their utilization in fine organic synthesis as well as in natural product synthesis [11]. All of these reviews, and in particular McKervey s comprehensive review [11a] on organic synthesis with a-diazocarbonyl compounds, deal with the utilization of functionalized diazo compounds as carbenoid precursors. Herrmann et al. surveyed the organometallic chemistry of diazoalkanes [11c, lid]. 

Rhodium(Il) acetate (Structure 3), a dinuclear molecule of D4 symmetry and vacant coordination sites (—>) at each metal atom, is the most commonly employed catalyst for this reaction. Copper catalysts are no longer used because they are inferior in terms of both activity and selectivity. The diazoalkane constitution in eq. (1) includes compounds with... 

Allyl sulfides and allyl amines. Rhodium-catalyzed decomposition of ethyl diazoacetate in the presence of these allyl compounds generates products 136 and 137, respectively, derived from [2,3] rearrangement of an S- or N-ylide intermediate, besides small amounts of carbene dimers No cyclopropane and no product resulting from the ylide by [1,2] rearrangement were detected. Besides RhjfOAc) and Rhg(CO)i6, the rhodium(I) catalysts [(cod)RhCl]2 and [(CO)2RhCl]2 were found to behave similarly, but yields with the only allyl amine tested, CH =CH—CH NMe, were distinctly lower with the latter two catalysts. Reaction temperatures are higher than usually needed in rhodium-promoted diazoalkane decomposition, which is certainly due to competition between the diazo compound and the allylic hetero-... 

The reaction system (6-37) includes the thermal azo-extrusion of a cyclic azo compound to a cyclopropane derivative and the direct formation of cyclopropanes, catalyzed by metal complexes. Synthetic routes to cyclopropane derivatives became an important subject in the last two decades, and one frequently used method is the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of a diazoalkane to an alkene followed by thermal or photolytic azo-extrusion of the 4,5-dihydro-3//-pyrazole formed to the cyclopropane derivative (6-37 A). This route can be followed in many cases without isolation, or even without direct observation, of the 4,5-dihydro-3//-pyrazole. Therefore, it is formally very similar to cyclopropane formation from alkenes with diazoalkanes, in which a carbene is first formed by azo-extrusion of the diazoalkane (see Sect. 8.3). As shown in pathway (6-37 B), this step can be catalyzed by copper, palladium, or rhodium complexes (see Sects. 8.2, 8.7, and 8.8). There are cases where it is not clearly known whether route A or B is followed. Scheme 6-37 also includes... 

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