Elimination—addition imine-forming

A second issue is that catalytic aminations are plagued by several notable side reactions. Most prevalent among these is jS-hydride elimination (see -Hydride Elimination) of imine from the intermediate Pd-amido complex (equation 31). This reaction also produces a Pd H species, which can then reduce the substrate to form arene, the generation of which can be considered a second side reaction. Furthermore, aryl-aryl exchange has also been noted in amination reactions, and, for the monoarylation of primary amines, by-products caused by overarylation (equation 32) to form tertiary amines pose an additional difficulty. 

Overall, the addition of a nitrogen nucleophile to an aldehyde or a ketone is a nucleophilic addition-elimination reaction nucleophilic addition of an amine to form an unstable tetrahedral intermediate, followed by elimination of water. The tetrahedral intermediates are unstable because the newly formed sp carbon is bonded to an oxygen and to a nitrogen—another electronegative atom. Water is eliminated, and loss of a proton from the resulting protonated imine forms a stable imine. 

The tetrahedral addition product that is formed first is similar to a hemiacetal, but with an NH group in place of one of the oxygens. These addition products are normally not stable. They eliminate water to form a product with a carbon-nitrogen double bond. With primary amines, the products are called imines. Imines are like carbonyl compounds, except that the O is replaced by NR. They are important intermediates in some biochemical reactions, particularly in binding carbonyl compounds to the free amino groups that are present in most enzymes. 

Formation of C—Nu The second mode of nucleophilic addition, which often occurs with amine nucleophiles, involves elimination of oxygen and formation of a C=Nu bond. For example, aldehydes and ketones react with primary amines, RNH2, to form imines, R2C=NR. These reactions proceed through exactly the same kind of tetrahedral intermediate as that formed during hydride reduction and Grignard reaction, but the initially formed alkoxide ion is not isolated. Instead, it is protonated and then loses water to form an imine, as shown in Figure 3. 

Imine formation and enamine formation appear different because one leads to a product with a C=N bond and the other leads to a product with a C=C bond. Actually, though, the reactions are quite similar. Both are typical examples of nucleophilic addition reactions in which water is eliminated from the initially formed tetrahedral intermediate and a new C=Nu bond is formed. 

The intramolecular Heck reaction presented in Scheme 8 is also interesting and worthy of comment. Rawal s potentially general strategy for the stereocontrolled synthesis of the Strychnos alkaloids is predicated on the palladium-mediated intramolecular Heck reaction. In a concise synthesis of ( )-dehydrotubifoline [( )-40],22 Rawal et al. accomplished the conversion of compound 36 to the natural product under the conditions of Jeffery.23 In this ring-forming reaction, the a-alkenylpalladium(n) complex formed in the initial oxidative addition step engages the proximate cyclohexene double bond in a Heck cyclization, affording enamine 39 after syn /2-hydride elimination. The latter substance is a participant in a tautomeric equilibrium with imine ( )-40, which happens to be shifted substantially in favor of ( )-40. 

The synthesis of aziridines through reactions between nitrenes or nitrenoids and alkenes involves the simultaneous (though often asynchronous vide supra) formation of two new C-N bonds. The most obvious other alternative synthetic analysis would be simultaneous formation of one C-N bond and one C-C bond (Scheme 4.26). Thus, reactions between carbenes or carbene equivalents and imines comprise an increasingly useful method for aziridination. In addition to carbenes and carbenoids, ylides have also been used to effect aziridinations of imines in all classes of this reaction type the mechanism frequently involves a stepwise, addition-elimination process, rather than a synchronous bond-forming event. 

An analogous cyclization to eventually form five-membered rings has also been observed for l-metalla-l,3,5-hexatrienes with an additional heteroatom within the chain, such as in the complexes 157. These are obtained by Michael additions of imines to alkynylcarbene complexes in good to excellent yields (reaction type F in Scheme 4), and their configurations were determined to be Z (>91%) in all cases. Upon warming in THF solution, complexes 157 underwent cyclization with reductive elimination to furnish 2Ff-pyrroles 158 in up to 97% yield (Scheme 34). With two cyclopropyl substituents at the terminus in... 

The reaction has been applied to nonheterocyclic aromatic compounds Benzene, naphthalene, and phenanthrene have been alkylated with alkyllithium reagents, though the usual reaction with these reagents is 12-20, and Grignard reagents have been used to alkylate naphthalene. The addition-elimination mechanism apparently applies in these cases too. A protected form of benzaldehyde (protected as the benzyl imine) has been similarly alkylated at the ortho position with butyl-lithium. ... 

A wide variety of five-membered zirconacydes 8 may be formed by the formal co-cycliza-tion of two 7i-components (3 and 6 alkene, alkyne, allene, imine, carbonyl, nitrile) on zir-conocene ( Cp2Zr ) (Scheme 3.2) [2,3,8]. The co-cydization takes place via the r 2-complex 5 of one of the components, which is usually formed by complexation of 3 with a zircono-cene equivalent (path a) ( Cp2Zr itself is probably too unstable to be a true intermediate) or by oxidation on the metal (cyclometallation/p-hydrogen elimination) (path b). Two additional routes to zirconocene r 2-complexes are by the reverse of the co-cyclization reaction (i. e. 8 reverting to 5 or 9 via 7), and by rearrangement of iminoacyl complexes (see Section... 

In Section 7.7.2 we met enamines as products from addition-elimination reactions of secondary amines with aldehydes or ketones. Enamines are formed instead of imines because no protons are available on nitrogen for the final deprotonation step, and the nearest proton that can be lost from the iminium ion is that at the P-position. 

Lithium aluminum hydride in tetrahydrofuran has been found to reduce aromatic nitriles to give an amine and to give an imine which is formed from the addition of the amine to the nonisolatable imine intermediate followed by an elimination of ammonia [24] (Eq. 14). This is simpler than catalytic hydrogenation of nitriles [25], which gives poor yields of imines. 

As we have seen already, many enzymatic reactions depend upon formation of imines, which are commonly called Schiff bases. The two-step formation of Schiff bases consists of addition of an amino group to a carbonyl group to form a carbinolamine followed by elimination of water (Eq. 13-4).26 One group of aldolases (Section D) have, at their active centers,... 

Another more efficient catalytic version of the reaction consists of the interaction of ketones with chiral amines [6] to form enolate-like intermediates that are able to react with electrophilic imines. It has been postulated that this reaction takes place via the catalytic cycle depicted in Scheme 33. The chiral amine (130) attacks the sp-hybridized carbon atom of ketene (2) to yield intermediate (131). The Mannich-like reaction between (131) and the imine (2) yields the intermediate (132), whose intramolecular addition-elimination reaction yields the (5-lactam (1) and regenerates the catalyst (130). In spite of the practical interest in this reaction, little work on its mechanism has been reported [104, 105]. Thus, Lectka et al. have performed several MM and B3LYP/6-31G calculations on structures such as (131a-c) in order to ascertain the nature of the intermediates and the origins of the stereocontrol (Scheme 33). According to their results, conformations like those depicted in Scheme 33 for intermediates (131) account for the chiral induction observed in the final cycloadducts. 

The addition of nucleophiles to the carbonyl group may be catalysed by acids obtained by the protonation of the carbonyl oxygen (equilibrium 26). Acid catalysis can also occur during the elimination step which follows the addition step. For example, the reactions of aldehydes with amines (and of all the ammonia derivatives) to form imines are generally assumed to occur in two steps the first is the addition of nucleophile to yield a gem amino alcohol, the second includes the elimination of water from the tetrahedral adduct 138 (see Scheme 45). This elimination is usually thought to be catalysed by electrophiles171,212. 

Formation of C—N bonds is frequently achieved by condensation reactions between amines and aldehydes or ketones. A typical nucleophilic addition is followed by elimination of water to give an imine or Schiff base [Figure 2.12(a)], Of almost equal importance is the reversal of this process, i.e. the hydrolysis of imines to amines and alde-hydes/ketones [Figure 2.12(b)], The imine so produced, or more likely its protonated form the... 

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