Dienes alkene-alkyne metathesis

Until recently, intermolecular enyne metathesis received scant attention. Competing CM homodimerisation of the alkene, alkyne metathesis and polymerisation were issues of concern which hampered the development of the enyne CM reaction. The first report of a selective ruthenium-catalysed enyne CM reaction came from our laboratories [106]. Reaction of various terminal alkynes 61 with terminal olefins 62 gave 1,3-substituted diene products 63 in good-to-excellent yields (Scheme 18). It is interesting that in these and all enyne CM reactions subsequently reported, terminal alkynes are more reactive than internal analogues, and 1,2-substituted diene products are never formed thus, in terms of reactivity and selectivity enyne CM is the antithesis of enyne RCM. The mechanism of enyne CM is not well understood. It would appear that initial attack is at the alkyne however, one report has demonstrated initial attack at the alkene (substrate-dependent) is also possible, see Ref. [107]. 

Intermolecular-enyne metathesis, if it is possible, is very unique because the double bond of the alkene is cleaved and each alkylidene part is then introduced onto each alkyne carbon, respectively, as shown in Scheme 9. If metathesis is carried out between alkene and alkyne, many olefins, dienes and polymers would be produced, because intermolecular enyne metathesis includes alkene metathesis, alkyne metathesis and enyne metathesis. The reaction course for intermolecular enyne metathesis between a symmetrical alkyne and an unsym-metrical alkene is shown in Scheme 9. The reaction course is very complicated, and it seems impossible to develop this reaction in synthetic organic chemistry. 

SCHEME 1. Types of alkene and alkyne metathesis reactions. DBC, double bond cleavage TBC, triple bond cleavage ADMET, acyclic diene metathesis RCM ring-closing metathesis ROMP ring-opening metathesis polymerization... 

Metathesis is a versatile reaction applicable to almost any olefinic substrate internal, terminal or cyclic alkenes, as well as dienes or polyenes. (Alkyne metathesis is a growing area, but will not be dealt with here.) The reaction is also known as olefin disproportionation or olefin transmutation, and involves the exchange of fragments between two double bonds. Cross metathesis (CM, Figure 1) is defined as the reaction of two discrete alkene molecules to form two new alkenes. Where the two starting alkene molecules are the same it is called self-metathesis. Ethenolysis is a specific type of cross metathesis where ethylene... 

Enyne metathesis, which combines alkene and alkyne metathesis, is a means of forming a 1,3-diene system by interaction of a C=C and a C=C bond with an... 

Treatment of an alkyne/alkene mixture with ruthenium carbene complexes results in the formation of diene derivatives without the evolution of byproducts this process is known as enyne cross-metathesis (Scheme 22). An intramolecular version of this reaction has also been demonstrated, sometimes referred to as enyne RCM. The yield of this reaction is frequently higher when ethylene is added to the reaction mixture. The preferred regiochemistry is opposite for enyne cross-metathesis and enyne RCM. The complex mechanistic pathways of Scheme 22 have been employed to account for the observed products of the enyne RCM reaction. Several experiments have shown that initial reaction is at the alkene and not the alkyne. The regiochemistry of enyne RCM can be attributed to the inability to form highly strained intermediate B from intermediate carbene complex A in the alkene-first mechanism. Enyne metathesis is a thermodynamically favorable process, and thus is not a subject to the equilibrium constraints facing alkene cross-metathesis and RCM. In a simple bond energy analysis, the 7r-bond of an alkyne is... 

Alkene metathesis catalysts are also capable of undergoing reaction with aUene and alkyne functionality, which can lead to the synthesis of polyene compounds. For example. Diver has explored the use of alkene/alkyne CM, which leads to 2-substituted 1,3-dienes (Scheme 2.11). Prunet has recently disclosed an elegant metathesis cascade sequence towards the synthesis of Taxol, involving two alkenes and one alkyne functional group (Scheme 2.12) the desired product was accompanied by small quantities of a side product that resulted from metathesis of the two alkenes. 

Intramolecular alkyne metathesis is now well-established as a robust and useful method for organic S5mthesis. It was also known that Ru-mediated metathesis of an alkyne with ethylene could lead to the diene. The question facing Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 5545) Alois Fiirstner of the Max-Planck-Institut, Mulheim was whether these transformations could be carried out on the very deUcate epoxy alkene 21. In fact, the transformations of 21 to 22 and of 22 to 23 proceeded weU, setting the stage for the total synthesis of Amphidinolide V 25. 

Since then, the metathesis reaction has been extended to other types of alkenes, viz. substituted alkenes, dienes and polyenes, and to alkynes. Of special interest is the metathesis of cycloalkenes. This gives rise to a ring enlargement resulting in macrocyclic compounds and eventually poly-... 

While diene metathesis or diyne metathesis are driven by the loss of a (volatile) alkene or alkyne by-product, enyne metathesis (Fig. 2) cannot benefit from this contributing feature to the AS term of the reaction, since the event is entirely atom economic. Instead, the reaction is driven by the formation of conjugated dienes, which ensures that once these dienes have been formed, the process is no longer a reversible one. Enyne metathesis can also be considered as an alkylidene migration reaction, because the alkylidene unit migrates from the alkene part to one of the alkyne carbons. The mechanism of enyne metathesis is not well described, as two possible complexation sites (alkene or alkyne) exist for the ruthenium carbene, leading to different reaction pathways, and the situation is further complicated when the reaction is conducted under an atmosphere of ethylene. Despite its enormous potential to form mul-... 

Enyne metathesis is unique and interesting in synthetic organic chemistry. Since it is difficult to control intermolecular enyne metathesis, this reaction is used as intramolecular enyne metathesis. There are two types of enyne metathesis one is caused by [2+2] cycloaddition of a multiple bond and transition metal carbene complex, and the other is an oxidative cyclization reaction caused by low-valent transition metals. In these cases, the alkyli-dene part migrates from alkene to alkyne carbon. Thus, this reaction is called an alkylidene migration reaction or a skeletal reorganization reaction. Many cyclized products having a diene moiety were obtained using intramolecular enyne metathesis. Very recently, intermolecular enyne metathesis has been developed between alkyne and ethylene as novel diene synthesis. 

To investigate if the ruthenium catalyst first reacts with the alkyne part or with the alkene part, the reaction of 64 with ruthenium catalyst 52a was carried out (Eq. 30). Two metathesized products, enyne metathesis product 65 and diene metathesis product 66, were obtained in 19% and 5% yields, respectively. This result indicates that the reaction of the alkyne part with 52a is faster than that of the alkene part with 52a. 

Intermolecular enyne metathesis has recently been developed using ethylene gas as the alkene [20]. The plan is shown in Scheme 10. In this reaction,benzyli-dene carbene complex 52b, which is commercially available [16b], reacts with ethylene to give ruthenacyclobutane 73. This then converts into methylene ruthenium complex 57, which is the real catalyst in this reaction. It reacts with the alkyne intermolecularly to produce ruthenacyclobutene 74, which is converted into vinyl ruthenium carbene complex 75. It must react with ethylene, not with the alkyne, to produce ruthenacyclobutane 76 via [2+2] cycloaddition. Then it gives diene 72, and methylene ruthenium complex 57 would be regenerated. If the methylene ruthenium complex 57 reacts with ethylene, ruthenacyclobutane 77 would be formed. However, this process is a so-called non-productive process, and it returns to ethylene and 57. The reaction was carried out in CH2Cl2 un-... 

Only recently a selective crossed metathesis between terminal alkenes and terminal alkynes has been described using the same catalyst.6 Allyltrimethylsilane proved to be a suitable alkene component for this reaction. Therefore, the concept of immobilizing terminal olefins onto polymer-supported allylsilane was extended to the binding of terminal alkynes. A series of structurally diverse terminal alkynes was reacted with 1 in the presence of catalytic amounts of Ru.7 The resulting polymer-bound dienes 3 are subject to protodesilylation (1.5% TFA) via a conjugate mechanism resulting in the formation of products of type 6 (Table 13.3). Mixtures of E- and Z-isomers (E/Z = 8 1 -1 1) are formed. The identity of the dominating E-isomer was established by NOE analysis. 

Blechert reported a skillful method of cross-enyne metathesis. Solid-supported alkyne 139 is reacted with alkene in the presence of Ic to give 140. For cleavage of 1,3-diene from solid-supported product 140 having an allyl acetate moiety, palladium-catalyzed allylic substitution is used. Thus, 140 is treated with Pd(PPh3)4 in the presence of methyl malonate to afford three-component coupling product 141 in good yield ... 

Cross-metathesis of enynes having various functional groups on the alkyne and an alkene gives dienes having useful functional groups such as vinyl silane or enol ether as the sole product ... 

Metathesis of enynes, which have alkene and alkyne moieties in the molecule, is also a very interesting reaction. In this reaction, the double bond is cleaved and carbon-carbon bond formation occurs between the double and triple bonds, and the cleaved alkylidene part migrates onto the alkyne carbon to produce a cyclic compound having a diene... 

Blechert et al. succeeded in intermolecular CM of terminal alkyne and terminal alkene. A reaction carried out in CH2CI2 at RT in the presence of 5-7mol% Ic gives a mixture of ( )- and (Z)-isomers (Table 2). Because of the nonselective stereochemical course, a silyl-protected ally alcohol is employed and the resulting metathesis product is deprotected and oxidized to afford the desired diene having an -configuration (Equation (13)). 

Allosedamine, via ring-closing diene metathesis, 11, 224-225 Allyamines, isomerization, 10, 71 Allyindation reactions, alkenes and alkynes, 9, 693 Allyl acetals... 

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