Enol ethers, fluorination

A -dien-3-ol ethers gives rise to 6-substituted A" -3-ketones. 6-Hydroxy-A" -3-ketones can be obtained also by autooxidation.Structural changes in the steroid molecule may strongly affect the stability of 3-alkyl-A -ethers. Thus 11 j5-hydroxyl and 9a-fluorine substituents greatly increase the lability of the enol ether/ while halogens at C-6 stabilize this system to autooxidation and acid hydrolysis. 

The enamines, enol ethers and enol acetates of A -3-keto steroids provide important substrates for fluorination with FCIO3. Reaction of such A -enol ethers and acetates (6) with perchloryl fluoride results in 6a- and 6jff-fluoro-A -3-ketones (7) and (8), the latter representing the more abundant isomer. Tetrahydrofuran or dioxane-water mixtures appear to be particu-... 

It is more reactive than perchloryl fluoride and therefore not without danger. It forms, for instance, a highly explosive product with pyridine. Like perchloryl fluoride it reacts with enol ethers, esters and enamines, but at lower temperature (—78°) to yield the fluorinated ketones as well as addition... 

Selective fluonnation in polar solvents has proved commercially successful in the synthesis of 5 fluorouracil and its pyrimidine relatives, an extensive subject that will be discussed in another section Selective fluonnation of enolates [47], enols [48], and silyl enol ethers [49] resulted in preparation of a/phn-fluoro ketones, fieto-diketones, heta-ketoesters, and aldehydes The reactions of fluorine with these functionalities is most probably an addition to the ene followed by elimination of fluonde ion or hydrogen fluoride rather than a simple substitution In a similar vein, selective fluonnation of pyridmes to give 2-fluoropyridines was shown to proceed through pyridine difluondes [50]... 

Systems usually fluonnated by electropositive fluorine reagents include acti-vated alkenes (enol ethers, enol acetates, silyl enol ethers, and enamines), activated aromatic systems, certain slightly activated carbon-hydrogen bonds, and selected organometallics. 

Trimelhylsilyl enol ethers are effective substrates in fluorination with fluo-roxytrifluoromethanefor the preparation of a-fluoro esters, amides and aldehydes [J7] (equations 13-15)... 

These reactions liberate carbonyl fluonde and fluorotnmethylsilane and thus require no hydrolysis A fluorinated erythromycin derivative is obtained from fluorination of 3 O raycarosyl-8 9-anhydroerythronolideB 6,9 hemiacetal, an enol ether [iS] (equation 16)... 

Both the Af-fluorosulfonamides and the A -fluoroammonium salts are very effective in the fluormation of enol acetates, enamines, silyl enol ethers, and enolates (Table 2) The reactions are thought to proceed through a mechanism which involves Sf 2 attack on the fluorine atom, but contributions from electron-transfer pathways also exist [65, 68, 73, 75, 76, 79, 80, 81, 82]... 

The enol ether formed by a reaetion of benzyl alcohol with perfluorocyclo-pentene is transformed on heating in the presence of concentrated sulfunc acid into a fluorinated enol [25] (equation 22)... 

A fluormated enol ether formed by the reaction of sodium ethoxide with chlorotnfluoroethylene is much less reactive than the starting fluoroolefin To replace the second fluorine atom, it is necessary to reflux the reaction mixture. The nucleophilic substitution proceeds by the addition-elimination mechanism [30] (equation 26). 

The reactions of fluorinated esters and amides to form, respectively, enol ethers [47] and enamines [4S] give high yields and are interesting synthetic transformations (equations 34 and 35) (Table 12)... 

Table 12. Fluorinated Esters and Amides in the Wittig Reaction to Form Enol Ethers [47 and Enamines 48 ...

Fluorination of an enamine, enol ether, or enol acetate with CF3OF gave 60-70% yields of fluoroketone (708). Bromination of an endiamine gave the bis-imonium salt (647). 

A second example concerns the instability of prostacyclin in physiological mediam, which is connected to the presence of the enol ether function (ti/2 = 5-10 min at pH = 7.4 and at 37°C). Hydrolysis is so fast that its use as a vasodilator and as an inhibitor of platelet adhesion cannot be exploited. The introduction of fluorine atoms in jS of the enol double bond led to compounds with good metabolic stability while retaining the strong activity as an inhibitor of platelet adhesion (Figure 3.18) (cf. Chapter 4). Proteolysis is slowed down as the oxonium, resulting from the protonation of the enol ether, is destabilized by the CF2 group. " ... 

While fluoroxy compounds react well with enol derivatives, fluorine in general does not. However, there are various reports where such reactions are described and in certain cases even with decent yields. In 1982 it was reported that pyruvates with a dominant enolic form react well with fluorine, to give the corresponding fluoro derivatives l.78 Several silyl enol ethers 2 and 379 including ones made from 1,3-dicarbonyl derivatives 480 react quite satisfactorily with fluorine to give the expected a-fluoro ketones. Steroidal 16-enol acetates react with fluorine to form mainly 16a-fluoro-17-oxo steroids e.g. 5.81... 

Enol ethers can be regiospecifically fluorinated to form a-fluoro carbonyl compounds. In this way it is possible to synthesize fluorinated oxo steroids as the carbonyl groups not activated by the trimethylsilyl (or acetyl) enol ethers are not fluorinated.54... 

Fluoropyridinium triflate (la) exhibits high selectivity in fluorinations. In a steroid 8 with two reaction sites, a conjugated and a nonconjugated vinyl acetate moiety, 1-fluoropyridinium triflate (la) reacts at the conjugated site only. On the other hand, steroid 9 with a silyl enol ether and a conjugated acetate moiety affords the product resulting from reaction at the former site only.44,52... 

It was found that the counteranion of the 1-fluoropyridinium salts considerably affects selective fluorinations.54 For example, fluorination with 1-fluoropyridinium triflate (la) was compared to that with l-fluoro-4-methylpyridinium-2-sulfonate (2b) using a steroid 10 containing an acetoxy function and a conjugated trimethylsilyl enol ether as the substrate.54... 

F-Teda BF4 (6) is very effective for the fluorination of a wide variety of organic substrates steroidal enol acetates (Table 7)92 and silyl enol ethers, certain carbanions, mildly activated aromatic compounds, and sulfides bearing oc-H atoms.73,75,76,77,84,88 90 The products are obtained with good yields and regioselectivity under very mild reaction conditions (Table 8). 

Pentafluoro-3-methoxypropene (1) has been found to isomcrizc spontaneously over a period of several days at room temperature to the fluorinated enol ether 2.5(1... 

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