Enamine carbonyls synthesis methods

This method has found particular application in the synthesis of spiro-annelated chromenes, which are of interest because of their photochromic behaviour. The alkene is commonly a 2-methylenedihydroindole, which leads to spiro 2//-l-benzopyranoindolines, or the corresponding benzothiazole (67BSF2824). Provided a base is present to liberate the free heterocyclic base, indolinium or thiazolinium salts may be used in the synthesis. Enamine attack at the carbonyl group is followed by dehydration and cyclization (Scheme 9). 

A standard method for enamine synthesis from aldehydes or ketones is to heat the carbonyl compound and the secondary amine in benzene or toluene and remove the water formed by azeotropic distillation. This method cannot, however, be used the preparation of enamines from methyl ketones which undergo self-condensation under these conditions. A procedure which overcomes these difficulties has been given by White and Weingarten [31]. The method employs anhydrous titanium tetrachloride as water scavenger. In the original procedure by White and Weingarten, titanium tetrachloride is added dropwise to a cooled... 

Michael addition of metal enolates to a,/3-unsaturated carbonyls has been intensively studied in recent years and provides an established method in organic synthesis for the preparation of a wide range of 1,5-dicarbonyl compounds (128) under neutral and mild conditions . Metal enolates derived from ketones or esters typically act as Michael donors, and a,-unsaturated carbonyls including enoates, enones and unsaturated amides are used as Michael acceptors. However, reaction between a ketone enolate (125) and an a,/3-unsaturated ester (126) to form an ester enolate (127, equation 37) is not the thermodynamically preferred one, because ester enolates are generally more labile than ketone enolates. Thus, this transformation does not proceed well under thermal or catalytic conditions more than equimolar amounts of additives (mainly Lewis acids, such as TiCU) are generally required to enable satisfactory conversion, as shown in Table 8. Various groups have developed synthons as unsaturated ester equivalents (ortho esters , thioesters ) and /3-lithiated enamines as ketone enolate equivalents to afford a conjugate addition with acceptable yields. 

A standard method for enamines synthesis from carbonyl compounds is to heat the parent aldehyde or ketone and a secondary amine in benzene or toluene and to remove the eliminated water by azeotropic distillation. However, this method fails with methyl ketone substrates which are prone to self-condensation imder these conditions. These difficulties could be overcome by a procedure using anhydrous titanium tetrachloride as water scavenger.[6] In the original procedure, titanium tetrachloride was added dropwise to a cold solution of the ketone and the amine, followed by prolonged stirring at room temperature. It was later found that the reaction time could be considerably shortened by a modified procedure, in which the... 

The synthesis of enamines by the modified titanium tetrachloride method was discussed in Chapter 12. The final yield and the rate of enamine formation depend on the molar ratios of TiCl4/substrate and amine/substrate. The optimum conditions with regard to these variables were determined by response surface technique and/or simplex technique for a series of carbonyl compounds. The results obtained for the morpholine enamines are summarized in Fig. 14.2. It is seen that the more crowded substrates require an excess of the reagents. The use of standardized conditions would have led to the wrong conclusions as to the utility of the method. For instance, when the optimum conditions for synthesis of the morpholine enamine from methyl isobutyl ketone were applied to diisopropyl ketone a yield of 12 % was obtained after 4 h. Under optimized conditions yields > 70 % could be obtained. 

In the recent literature numerous reactions in which enamines are used for synthesis of enantiomerically pure compounds (EPC) can be found . Optically active enamines from substituted pyrrolidine (e.g. 27, R = CH20Me, CH20SiMe3, or 28, R = Me, CH20Me), or from piperidine , such as 29, (S)-phenylethylamine (30) " and stanna-N,0-heterocyclic amine (31) , are used. The cyclohexanenamines seem to be the preferred test compounds for this kind of reaction, whereas enamines of open-chain ketones and aldehydes have been investigated only rarely . Enamines from carbonyl compounds and secondary amines are obtained with azeotropic removal of water or by die Weingarten method with TiC. A titanium chloride-catalysed variation in which perfluorinated alkyl groups can be introduced is also known " . 

An interesting application to the synthesis of a-diketones, a-ketoesters and a-ketoa-mides, starting from ketones, esters and amides, was achieved by Wasserman and Ives . The method involves conversion of the starting carbonyl compound to the corresponding enamino carbonyl compound, followed by oxidative cleavage of the enamine double bond by singlet oxygen (Scheme 7). 

The intermediate (45a) previously employed1" in a synthesis of aspidospermine has been neatly prepared52 by a potentially general method which has already been applied to the syntheses of several other alkaloid systems. The key step is the reaction of a cyclic enamine, in this case (46a), with methyl vinyl ketone and the formation of a homocyclic ring and the required carbonyl function. Scheme 16... 

Another classic method is that known as the Hantzsch pyrrole synthesis (Scheme 9.4). The nitrogen starting material is an enamine (9.2), which is prepared from a beta-keto ester and ammonia. The beta-position of the enamine is electron-rich and is alkylated with an alpha-haloketone. The amino and the carbonyl groups interact in the familiar way to close the ring. 

There are methods for the preparation of pyridine derivatives, but they usually produce highly functionalized pyridines. One method is related to methods shown for the preparation of other heterocycles. When 2,4-pentanedione (117) is treated with ammonium acetate (NH4OAC), the product is an enamine-ke-tone, 128. This enamine subsequently reacts with a second equivalent of 117 to give the acyl addition product (the enamine attacks the carbonyl), which is imine 129. The amine (NH2) group attacks the second carbonyl and elimination gives the aromatic pyridine product (130). There are several variations of this fundamental approach, as well as other completely different approaches. The synthesis of pyrimidines will be delayed until the discussion of DNA and RNA in Chapter 28. 

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