Dienes transition metal catalysis

Conjugated dienes are among the most significant building blocks both in laboratories and in the chemical industry [1], Especially, 1,3-butadiene and isoprene are key feedstocks for the manufacture of polymers and fine chemicals. Since the discovery of the Ziegler-Natta catalyst for the polymerizations of ethylene and propylene, the powerful features of transition metal catalysis has been widely recognized, and studies in this field have been pursued very actively [2-7]. 

Because dienes have relatively high-energy HOMOs and low-energy LUMOs they should be able to take part in cycloadditions with themselves. And they do. What they cannot do is form an eight-membered ring in one step (though this is possible photo chemically or with transition metal catalysis as we shall see later). 

Vinyl stannanes also undergo oxidative homo-coupling under transition metal catalysis to result in dienes (equation An intramolecular version of this method... 

Previously in Chapter 12 we have seen several examples of cydization reactions that have involved transition metal catalysis. In Chapter 11, we introduced Mo- and Ru-catalyzed RCM as a means of converting acyclic dienes, alkene-alkynes, and dialkynes into rings containing carbon-carbon double and triple bonds. Section 12-5 will cover a few cases where organotransition metal complexes effectively promote the construction of rings where two or more C-C bond connections occur during the same transformation. Some examples will be extensions of reactions already covered, whereas others will entail new chemistry. 

ABSTRACT The review covers particularly the synthesis of fine chemicals via the formation of C-C bonds between carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons. In the reactions of CO2 with alkenes, dienes and alkynes a great number of carboxylic acids, dicarboxylic acids, esters, lactones and pyrones are formed, whether in stoichiometric or catalytic reactions. In each chapter the reactions are considered in the order of the transition metals applied. In addition, some syntheses will be mentioned which are closely related to transition metal catalysis, for instance the electrocarboxylation ofolefinic hydrocarbons. 

Late transition-metal-catalyzed asymmetric Claisen rearrangement takes place in a different mode from that of Lewis-acid-catalyzed Claisen rearrangement Late transition metal catalysis is based on affinity for the Claisen diene system. Among late transition metals, palladium complexes are the most useful and effective for the Claisen rearrangement. 

Addition of HCN to unsaturated compounds is often the easiest and most economical method of making organonitnles. An early synthesis of acrylonitrile involved the addition of HCN to acetylene. The addition of HCN to aldehydes and ketones is readily accompHshed with simple base catalysis, as is the addition of HCN to activated olefins (Michael addition). However, the addition of HCN to unactivated olefins and the regioselective addition to dienes is best accompHshed with a transition-metal catalyst, as illustrated by DuPont s adiponitrile process (6—9). 

The catalytic cyclo-oligomerization of 1,3-butadiene mediated by transition-metal complexes is one of the key reactions in homogeneous catalysis.1 Several transition metal complexes and Ziegler-Natta catalyst systems have been established that actively catalyze the stereoselective cyclooligomerization of 1,3-dienes.2 Nickel complexes, in particular, have been demonstrated to be the most versatile catalysts.3... 

After that, studies on the palladium-catalyzed reactions of conjugated dienes attracted little attention. They have only been reexamined since the late 1960 s. The scope of the reaction of butadiene catalyzed by palladium complexes has gradually been established. The catalysis by palladium is different from those of other transition metals. Although palladium is located below nickel in the periodic table, the catalytic... 

More synthetic interest is generated by the potentially very useful hydration of dienes. As shown on Scheme 9.6, methylethylketone (MEK) can be produced from the relatively cheap and easily available 1,3-butadiene with combined catalysis by an acid and a transition metal catalyst. Ruthenium complexes of several N-N chelating Hgands (mostly of the phenanthroline and bipyridine type) were found active for this transformation in the presence of Bronsted acids with weakly coordinating anions, typically p-toluenesulfonic acid, TsOH [18,19]. In favourable cases 90 % yield of MEK, based on butadiene, could be obtained. 

The same transition metal systems which activate alkenes, alkadienes and alkynes to undergo nucleophilic attack by heteroatom nucleophiles also promote the reaction of carbon nucleophiles with these unsaturated compounds, and most of the chemistry in Scheme 1 in Section 3.1.2 of this volume is also applicable in these systems. However two additional problems which seriously limit the synthetic utility of these reactions are encountered with carbon nucleophiles. Most carbanions arc strong reducing agents, while many electrophilic metals such as palladium(II) are readily reduced. Thus, oxidative coupling of the carbanion, with concomitant reduction of the metal, is often encountered when carbon nucleophiles arc studied. In addition, catalytic cycles invariably require reoxidation of the metal used to activate the alkene [usually palladium(II)]. Since carbanions are more readily oxidized than are the metals used, catalysis of alkene, diene and alkyne alkylation has rarely been achieved. Thus, virtually all of the reactions discussed below require stoichiometric quantities of the transition metal, and are practical only when the ease of the transformation or the value of the product overcomes the inherent cost of using large amounts of often expensive transition metals. 

The catalytic system described above has been further developed to an asymmetric catalytic complexation of prochiral 1,3-dienes (99% yield, up to 86% ee) using an optically active camphor-derived 1-azabutadiene ligand [56]. This method provides for the first time planar-chiral transition metal 7t-complexes by asymmetric catalysis. 

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