Enol sulfonates reaction with carbonyl compounds

Abstraction of acidic protons a to a carbonyl or nitrile function can occur in competition with desired Grignard addition reactions (see Section 5.6). In HMPA, this is the major reaction, and is useful for preparing magnesium enolates of carbonyl compounds, sulfones, and so on. 

In the original study by Peterson, the alkenation procedure was found to be compatible with sulfur and phosphorus substitution. The alkenation reaction has been tqrplied successfully to a variety of substituted alkenes. Because of the aiuon-stabilizing nature of the thiophenyl, the p-hydroxysiliuie is not isolated and the elimination to the alkene takes place directly to form a 1 1 mixture of ( )- and (Z)-isomers. Ager studied the reaction of the lithio anions of phenyl (trimethylsilyl)methyl sulfides (318) with a variety of carbonyl compounds (equation 72). Yields of this process were good, and addition occurred even with enolizable substrates. This reaction was extended to vinyl sulfones. In contrast to the sulfide case, the substituted sulfone silyl anion behaves as a base, leading to undesired enolization. The best yields were observed for the case where R is a hydrogen or phenyl. 

Sulfenylation of lithium enolates with PhS-SPh or of silyl enol ethers with PhS-Cl allows any a-PhS carbonyl compound to be made regioselectively, e.g. 149 and 152 from 147 (see chapter 5). Oxidation with sodium periodate gives the sulfoxide without over-oxidation to the sulfone, but elimination requires reasonably high temperatures (about 120 °C for MeSO but only about 50 °C for PhSO). Together with the unpleasant by-products, the results of disproportionation of unstable PhSOH, this has led to a preference for the selenium version of the reaction, though we must admit that the by-products are even more offensive.22... 

A large number of reactions have been presented in this chapter. However, all of these reactions involve an enolate ion (or a related species) acting as a nucleophile (see Table 20.2). This nucleophile reacts with one of the electrophiles discussed in Chapters 8, 18, and 19 (see Table 20.3). The nucleophile can bond to the electrophilic carbon of an alkyl halide (or sulfonate ester) in an SN2 reaction, to the electrophilic carbonyl carbon of an aldehyde or ketone in an addition reaction (an aldol condensation), to the electrophilic carbonyl carbon of an ester in an addition reaction (an ester condensation) or to the electrophilic /3-carbon of an a,/3-unsaturated compound in a conjugate addition (Michael reaction). These possibilities are summarized in the following equations ... 

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