Enolates reactions with electrophiles

Fluoroalkyl ketones may be used as the electrophilic partners in condensation reactions with other carbonyl compounds The highly electrophilic hexafluo-roacetone has been used in selective hexafluoroisopropyhdenation reactions with enol silyl ethers and dienolsilyl ethers [f] (equation 1)... 

In reactions with azides, ketones are directly converted to 5-hydroxytriazolines. Ketone enolate 247, generated by treatment of norbornanone 246 with LDA at 0°C, adds readily to azides to provide hydroxytriazolines 248 in 67-93% yield. Interestingly, l-azido-3-iodopropane subjected to the reaction with enolate 247 gives tetracyclic triazoline derivative 251 in 94% yield. The reaction starts from an electrophilic attack of the azide on the ketone a-carbon atom. The following nucleophilic attack on the carbonyl group in intermediate 249 results in triazoline 250. The process is completed by nucleophilic substitution of the iodine atom to form the tetrahydrooxazine ring of product 251 (Scheme 35) <2004JOC1720>. 

A special subject of comprehensive investigation is electrophilic attack (see Section V,C). This reaction can be considered to be an electrophilic aromatic substitution and also to be an electrophilic reaction with enamines,234 enol... 

A second important reaction of silyl enol ethers is their reaction with Enolates, enamines, and silyl enol strong electrophiles, which is depicted schematically in Figure Si3.3. ethers all exhibit similar reactivity... 

Other species of general stmcture RSeX, where X = a nonhalide leaving gronp, are also known and often show similar behavior to that of the selenenyl hahdes. " For example, benzeneselenenyl acetate (20), trifluoroacetate (21), and tosylate (22) can be generated in situ from the reactions of the selenenyl halides with silver acetate, trifluoroacetate, or tosylate, respectively (Scheme 10). The former two electrophiles react with enol acetates to produce a-seleno ketones and with alkenes and acetylenes to give 1,2-addition products, while the latter adds similarly to acetylenes. Examples are shown in equations (16) to (18). 

Good crossed aldol condensations require one component to enolize and act as a nucleophile and the other not to enolize and to act as the electrophile. Here follows a list of carbonyl substituents that prevent enolization and therefore force a carbonyl compound to take the role of the electrophilic partner. They are arranged roughly in order of reactivity with the most reactive towards nucleophilic attack by an enolate at the top. You do, of course, need two substituents to block enolization so typical compounds also appear in the list. Note that the last two entries—esters and amides—do not normally do aldol reactions with enolates, but they do react as acylating agents for enolates, as you will see later in this chapter. 

Electrophilic Reactions with Ketones, Reactions of the enolic forms of ketones with various electrophilic reagents are widely used in total steroid synthesis for the formation of all the centers of asymmetry of interest to us (Table 5). As an example of electrophilic reactions we must mention in the first place the ketonization-enolization reaction. In this reaction, the splitting off and addition of a proton to a carbon atom in the O -position to the keto group is controlled by the stereoelectronic factor and takes place predominantly in the axial direction [74]. 

Reaction of Enolate Anions. In the presence of certain bases, eg, sodium alkoxide, an ester having a hydrogen on the a-carbon atom undergoes a wide variety of characteristic enolate reactions. Mechanistically, the base removes a proton from the a-carbon, giving an enolate that then can react with an electrophile. Depending on the final product, the base may be consumed stoichiometricaHy or may function as a catalyst. Eor example, the sodium alkoxide used in the Claisen condensation is a catalyst ... 

Inductive and resonance stabilization of carbanions derived by proton abstraction from alkyl substituents a to the ring nitrogen in pyrazines and quinoxalines confers a degree of stability on these species comparable with that observed with enolate anions. The resultant carbanions undergo typical condensation reactions with a variety of electrophilic reagents such as aldehydes, ketones, nitriles, diazonium salts, etc., which makes them of considerable preparative importance. 

Fluoroalkenolphosphates are not only stable but also sufficiently reactive to undergo olefinaaon reactions with yiides themselves. These enol phosphates are not only precursors to enolates or ketones but also can be used directly as electrophilic reagents [79] (equation 66) (Table 26). 

In contrast, fluorinated ketones have been used as both nucleophilic and electrophilic reaction constituents The (Z)-lithium enolate of 1 fluoro 3,3-di-methylbutanone can be selectively prepared and undergoes highly diastereoselec-tive aldol condensations with aldehydes [7] (equation 8) (Table 4)... 

The chemistry of alkynes is dominated by electrophilic addition reactions, similar to those of alkenes. Alkynes react with HBr and HC1 to yield vinylic halides and with Br2 and Cl2 to yield 1,2-dihalides (vicinal dihalides). Alkynes can be hydrated by reaction with aqueous sulfuric acid in the presence of mercury(ll) catalyst. The reaction leads to an intermediate enol that immediately isomerizes to yield a ketone tautomer. Since the addition reaction occurs with Markovnikov regiochemistry, a methyl ketone is produced from a terminal alkyne. Alternatively, hydroboration/oxidation of a terminal alkyne yields an aldehyde. 

When an alkene reacts with an electrophile, such as HC1, initial addition of H+ gives an intermediate cation and subsequent reaction with Cl" yields an addition product (Section 6.7). When an enol reacts with an electrophile, however, only the initial addition step is the same. Instead of reading with Cl- to give an addition product, the intermediate cation loses the -OH proton to give an cr-substituted carbonyl compound. The general mechanism is showm in Figure 22.3. 

Perhaps the single most important reaction of enolate ions is their alkylation by treatment with an alkyl halide or tosylate, thereby forming a new C-C bond and joining two smaller pieces into one larger molecule. Alkylation occurs when the nucleophilic enolate ion reacts with the electrophilic alkyl halide in an SN2 reaction and displaces the leaving group by backside attack. 

Carbonyl compounds are in a rapid equilibrium with called keto-enol tautomerism. Although enol tautomers to only a small extent at equilibrium and can t usually be they nevertheless contain a highly nucleophilic double electrophiles. For example, aldehydes and ketones are at the a position by reaction with Cl2, Br2, or I2 in Alpha bromination of carboxylic acids can be similarly... 

The mixed Claisen condensation of two different esters is similar to the mixed aldol condensation of two different aldehydes or ketones (Section 23.5). Mixed Claisen reactions are successful only when one of the two ester components has no a hydrogens and thus can t form an enolate ion. For example, ethyl benzoate and ethyl formate can t form enolate ions and thus can t serve as donors. They can, however, act as the electrophilic acceptor components in reactions with other ester anions to give mixed /3-keto ester products. 

In order to overcome the poor electrophilicity ofimines, nitrones arc used as partners for reaction with iron acyl enolates 428. Benzaldehyde phenylnitrone (5) reacts rapidly with the aluminum-based enolate at —78 C to give a crude /J-hydroxyamino iron acyl 6 (68% yield). Treatment with aqueous titanium trichloride in tetrahydrofuran at room temperature causes a selective reduction of the N—O bond and affords the /1-amino iron acyl 7 with inverse configuration compared to the addition ofimines (99% yield d.r. 11 23). 

For those substrates more susceptible to nucleophilic attack (e.g., polyhalo alkenes and alkenes of the type C=C—Z), it is better to carry out the reaction in basic solution, where the attacking species is RO . The reactions with C=C—Z are of the Michael type, and OR goes to the side away from the Z. Since triple bonds are more susceptible to nucleophilic attack than double bonds, it might be expected that bases would catalyze addition to triple bonds particularly well. This is the case, and enol ethers and acetals can be produced by this reaction. Because enol ethers are more susceptible than triple bonds to electrophilic attack, the addition of alcohols to enol ethers can also be catalyzed by acids. " One utilization of this reaction involves the compound dihydropyran... 

This enolate can then react with a plethora of electrophiles, setting a new stereocenter by a diastereoface-selective reaction. The simplest electrophile to trap enolate 71 is H" ", which can, for example, originate from methanol [89] or diphenyl acetaldehyde (as a readily enolizable aldehyde) [90] leading to the acy-lated catalyst species (Fig. 38). The free catalyst is regenerated by acyl-group transfer to methanol(ate) or the aldehyde-derived enolate, producing methyl or enolesters 72/73 in good yields and enantioselectivities. 

In a related reaction, enolate 71 is undergoing an electrophilic chlorination with 2,2,6,6-tetrachloro-cyclohexanone (74, Fig. 39), eventually leading to a-chlorinated enol esters 75 [91]. However, a different mechanism cannot be completely ruled out, where the catalyst is not acylated by the ketene, but chlorinated by the tetrachloro-ketone to form [64c-Cl] as the reactive species. 

The decarboxylation reaction usually proceeds from the dissociated form of a carboxyl group. As a result, the primary reaction intermediate is more or less a carbanion-like species. In one case, the carbanion is stabilized by the adjacent carbonyl group to form an enolate intermediate as seen in the case of decarboxylation of malonic acid and tropic acid derivatives. In the other case, the anion is stabilized by the aid of the thiazolium ring of TPP. This is the case of transketolases. The formation of carbanion equivalents is essentially important in the synthetic chemistry no matter what methods one takes, i.e., enzymatic or ordinary chemical. They undergo C—C bond-forming reactions with carbonyl compounds as well as a number of reactions with electrophiles, such as protonation, Michael-type addition, substitution with pyrophosphate and halides and so on. In this context,... 

---