Enamines, formation, alkylation

The formation of bicyclic imines (263,264) from piperidine enamines and y-bromopropyl amines may appear at first sight to be a simple extension of the reactions of enamines with alkyl halides. However, evidence has been found that the products are formed by an initial enamine exchange, followed by an intramolecular enamine alkylation. Thus y-bromodiethylamino-propane does not react with piperidinocyclohexene under conditions suitable for the corresponding primary amine. Furthermore, the enamine of cyclopentanone, but not that of cyclohexanone, requires a secondary rather than primary y-bromopropylamine, presumably because of the less favorable imine to enamine conversion in this instance. 

A related enamine alkylation is seen in the rearrangement of an ethylene imine vinylogous amide, which was heated with sodium iodide in diglyme. The presumed internal enamine alkylation constitutes a critical step in an oxocrinane synthesis (265). Use of an ethylene imine urethane for alkylation of an enamine and formation of the hexahydroindole system has also been reported (266). 

The formation of 3-acylpyridinium compounds (59/) from primary amines and l-methoxybutene-3-one can be regarded as the enamine alkylation of a vinylogous amide followed by cyclization and loss of methanol and water. 

The carbanion generated by ot-proton abstraction of a 2-alkyloxazoline is capable of typical enolate chemistry. Thus, the carbanion was found to react with nitriles to give an enamine, with formate esters to give an aldehyde that can be trapped,with chiral sulfinate esters to give chiral sulfoxides,and with alkylating agents. A carbamate-protected aminomethyl chiral oxazoline was deprotonated and alkylated with diastereoselectivities up to 92% de. ... 

A variety of secondary amines have been used for enamine alkylation. Nonetheless, the three most commonly used, pyrrolidine, piperidine and morpholine, appear to still represent the best compromise between ease of access to the amine and formation of the enamine and the degree of conversion to mono-alkylated product. Pyrrolidine appears to be the best amine for the specific case where the electrophilic paitner for the enamine is a Michael acceptor, such as an a, 3-unsaturated ester, - and enamines derived from this base are generally more reactive than the piperidine and morpholine analogs. The use of optically active amines for asymmetric induction will be covered in Section 4.1.2.3. 

Enamines, N-C=C, usually alkylate on carbon with this sink, and produce an iminium ion, +N=C-C-R, which is normally hydrolyzed to the ketone in an acidic water workup (the reverse of imine formation. Section 8.5.1). Enamine alkylation example ... 

Deprotonation to the enamine anion, selective coupling with the allylic terminus of dibromide 114, followed by an intramolecular enamine alkylation, afforded reduced isoquinoline 119. A rather elegant conversion to aminoaldehyde 122 ensued. Immonium ion formation in 119 via protonation with perchloric acid at first yielded the kinetic trans isomer, which underwent equilibration upon reflux in methanol to give the corresponding crystalline cis product 120. Diazomethane treatment led to aziridinium salt 121, which upon exposure to DMSO, ring opened with concomitant oxidation in a Komblum fashion to the aldehyde 122.63 Treatment with Lewis acid effected B-ring closure, thus... 

Reaction conditions depend on the reactants and usually involve acid or base catalysis. Examples of X include sulfate, acid sulfate, alkane- or arenesulfonate, chloride, bromide, hydroxyl, alkoxide, perchlorate, etc. RX can also be an alkyl orthoformate or alkyl carboxylate. The reaction of cycHc alkylating agents, eg, epoxides and a2iridines, with sodium or potassium salts of alkyl hydroperoxides also promotes formation of dialkyl peroxides (44,66). Olefinic alkylating agents include acycHc and cycHc olefinic hydrocarbons, vinyl and isopropenyl ethers, enamines, A[-vinylamides, vinyl sulfonates, divinyl sulfone, and a, P-unsaturated compounds, eg, methyl acrylate, mesityl oxide, acrylamide, and acrylonitrile (44,66). 

The presence of 1,3-diaxial interaction between the C-2 alkyl group and the C-4 axial hydrogen atom is reflected in the rate of enamine formation of 2-substituted cyclohexanone. It has been shown by Hunig and Salzwedel (20) that even under forcing conditions, the yield of pyrrolidine and morpholine enamines of 2-methylcyclohexanone does not exceed 58%, whereas the C-2 unsubstituted ketones underwent enamine formation under rather milder conditions in better than 80 % yield. 

Similar results were encountered by Bianchetti et al. (i52), who found that e ketal derivatives of //-alkyl methyl ketones with morpholine led to the enamines of the condensation products of these ketones. The authors have Suggested the following probable mechanism for the dienamine formation. 

The acid-catalyzed reaction of acetophenone with acyclic secondary amines results in the formation of the expected enamine and a rearrangement product. The latter product arises from the transfer of one of the amino N-alkyl groups to the cnamine s carbon to produce a ketimine (53a). 

The addition of secondary amines to 1-cyanoallenes (161) results in the formation of enamines in 80-90% yield (124). Addition can occur at the 1,2 or 2,3 double bonds so that a mixture of isomeric enamines (162 and 163) is formed. The ratio of products is influenced by the alkyl substituents on the cyanoallenes and the structure of the secondary amine. 

Experimental evidence, obtained in protonation (3,6), acylation (1,4), and alkylation (1,4,7-9) reactions, always indicates a concurrence between electrophilic attack on the nitrogen atom and the -carbon atom in the enamine. Concerning the nucleophilic reactivity of the j3-carbon atom in enamines, Opitz and Griesinger (10) observed, in a study of salt formation, the following series of reactivities of the amine and carbonyl components pyrrolidine and hexamethylene imine s> piperidine > morpholine > cthyl-butylamine cyclopentanone s> cycloheptanone cyclooctanone > cyclohexanone monosubstituted acetaldehyde > disubstituted acetaldehyde. 

Alkylation of enamines can take place on carbon or on nitrogen (see Section I). The theoretical considerations and reaction conditions which determine whether C or N alkylation takes place have already been studied extensively 26-32). These studies have shown that the facility with which alkylation takes place depends on the basicity of theenamine, on the ease of formation of a trigonal atom in the transition state, and on the nature of the enamine, the alkylating agent, and the solvent. 

Enamines prepared from the more basic amines are alkylated more easily and in higher yield, but yields are also affected by the ease of formation of an exocyclic double bond in the transition state (32). Thus the enamines derived... 

The reactions of electrophilic alkenes (alkenes attached to electron-withdrawing groups) with enamines produce one or more of the following products simple alkylation (2), 1,2 cycloaddition (3), and 1,4 cycloaddition (4). Competition with C alkylation by N alkylation is inconsequential and therefore will be largely ignored (5,7). A stepwise ionic mechanism leading to these products necessarily involves the formation of a zwitterion intermediate (1) as the first step, which is then followed either by one of the... 

It is noteworthy that only in the case of dehydroquinolizidine derivatives does monomethylation produce the N-alkylated product. The formation of dialkylated products can be explained by a disproportionation reaction of the monoalkylated immonium salt caused by either the basicity of the starting enamine or some base added to the reaction mixture (most often potassium carbonate) and subsequent alkylation of the monoalkylated enamine. Reinecke and Kray 113) try to explain the different behavior of zJ -dehydroquinolizidine and zJ -dehydroquinolizidine derivatives by the difference in energies of N- and C-alkylation transition states because of the presence of I strain. 

This method has been used for the reduction of l-methyl-2-alkyl-.d -pyrrolinium and l-methyl-2-alkyl-.d -piperideinium salts by Lukes et al. (42,249-251) and for the reduction of more complex bases containing the dehydroquinolizidine skeleton by Leonard et al. (252). The formic add reduction may be satisfactorily explained by addition of a hydride ion, or an equivalent particle formed from the formate anion, to the -carbon atom of the enamine (253), as shown in Scheme 13. 

Reactions of Enamine Salts with OrganometalUc Compounds Organolithium and organomagnesium compounds react with enamine salts to give amines substituted on the ix-carbon atoms. The treatment of. -dehydroquinolizidinium perchlorate (163) with alkylmagnesium halides gives 9-alkylated quinolizidines (164) (252,256). Formation of... 

The illumination of enamines as general activa ting derivatives of ketones in alkylation reactions also threw light on their special usefulness for controlling alkylations (3), particularly in the formation of monosubstituted cyclohexanones. Thus 2-methylcyclohexanone could be obtained in 80% yield from the pyrrolidine enamine of cyclohexanone, and further alkylation, which required more drastic conditions, gave only 2,6-dimethylcyclo-hexanone (1,237). 

Thus the reactions of cyclic or acyclic enamines with acrylic esters or acrylonitrile can be directed to the exclusive formation of monoalkylated ketones (3,294-301). The corresponding enolate anion alkylations lead preferentially to di- or higher-alkylation products. However, by proper choice of reaction conditions, enamines can also be used for the preferential formation of higher alkylation products, if these are desired. Such reactions are valuable in the a substitution of aldehydes, which undergo self-condensation in base-catalyzed reactions (117,118). Monoalkylation products are favored in nonhydroxylic solvents such as benzene or dioxane, whereas dialkylation products can be obtained in hydroxylic solvents such as methanol. The difference in products can be ascribed to the differing fates of an initially formed zwitterionic intermediate. Collapse to a cyclobutane takes place in a nonprotonic solvent, whereas protonation on the newly introduced substitutent and deprotonation of the imonium salt, in alcohol, leads to a new enamine available for further substitution. 

Unsaturated sulfoncs (314,315) and nitroolcfins (303,315-317) also give alkylation products with enamines. In the latter reactions the formation of nitroethyl or cyclobutane derivatives has been found (316) to depend on the reaction medium as well as steric and electronic parameters which determine the fate of zwitterionic intermediates. Thus no enamine products could... 

The salicylic acid functionality incorporated in a rather complex molecule interestingly leads to a compound that exhibits much the same activity as the parent. The 1,4 diketone required for formation of the pyrrole ring can be obtained by alkylation of the enamine from 2-tetralone (38) with phenacyl bromide. Condensation of the product, 39, with salicylic acid derivative 40 leads to the requisite heterocyclic system (41). The acid is then esterified (42) and the compound dehydrogenated to the fully aromatic system (43). Saponification affords fendosal (44). ... 

Among the compounds capable of forming enolates, the alkylation of ketones has been most widely studied and applied synthetically. Similar reactions of esters, amides, and nitriles have also been developed. Alkylation of aldehyde enolates is not very common. One reason is that aldehydes are rapidly converted to aldol addition products by base. (See Chapter 2 for a discussion of this reaction.) Only when the enolate can be rapidly and quantitatively formed is aldol formation avoided. Success has been reported using potassium amide in liquid ammonia67 and potassium hydride in tetrahydrofuran.68 Alkylation via enamines or enamine anions provides a more general method for alkylation of aldehydes. These reactions are discussed in Section 1.3. 

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