Enolate anions, amide, reaction with

Many types of carbonyl compounds, including aldehydes, ketones, esters, thioesters, acids, and amides, can be converted into enolate ions by reaction with LDA. Table 22.1 lists the approximate pKa values of different types of carbonyl compounds and shows how these values compare to other acidic substances we ve seen. Note that nitriles, too, are acidic and can be converted into enolate-like anions. 

Reaction between Two Different Aldehydes. In the most general case, this will produce a mixture of four products (eight, if the alkenes are counted). However, if one aldehyde does not have an a hydrogen, only two aldols are possible, and in many cases the crossed product is the main one. The crossed-aldol reaction is often called the Claisen-Schmidt reaction. The crossed aldol is readily accomplished using amide bases in aprotic solvent. The first aldehyde is treated with LDA in THF at —78°C, for example, to form the enolate anion. Subsequent treatment with a second aldehyde leads to the mixed aldol product. The crossed aldol of two aldehydes has been done using potassium ferf-butoxide and Ti(OBu)4. ... 

When primary or secondary amides are treated with a base, there is a complicating reaction that was not possible with esters, ketones, or aldehydes. The N—H moiety is acidic enough to react with the bases used for deprotonation. Treatment of 56 with base gave the A-lithio derivative, but the a-lithio derivative (57) can be generated by addition of two equivalents of base. Enolate anion formation is straightforward with tertiary amides, such as dimethylisobutyramide (56, R = Me) and the resultant enolate anion (58) reacted with butanal to give amido-alcohol 59 in 68% yield O (see sec. 9.4.B). 

Under ordinary conditions, aryl or alkenyl halides do not react with enolate anions, although reaction can occur with aryl halides bearing strongly electronegative substituents in the ortho and para positions. 2,4-Dinitrochlorobenzene, for example, with ethyl cyanoacetate gives ethyl (2,4-dinitrophenyl)cyanoacetate (90%) by an addition-elimination pathway. Unactivated aryl halides may react with enolates under more vigorous conditions, particularly sodium amide in liquid ammonia. Under these conditions, the reaction of bromobenzene with diethyl-malonate, for example, takes place by an elimination-addition sequence in which benzyne is an intermediate (1.8). 

What does all of this mean The reaction of 2-pentanone with LDA in THF at -78°C constitutes typical kinetic control conditions. Therefore, formation of the kinetic enolate and subsequent reaction with benzaldehyde to give 34 is predictable based on the kinetic versus thermodynamic control arguments. In various experiments, the reaction with an unsymmetrical ketone under what are termed thermodynamic conditions leads to products derived from the more substituted (thermodynamic) enolate anion. Thermodynamic control conditions typically use a base such as sodium methoxide or sodium amide in an alcohol solvent at reflux. The yields of this reaction are not always good, as when 2-butanone (37) reacts with NaOEt in ethanol for 1 day. Self-condensation at the more substituted carbon occurs to give the dehydrated aldol product 38 in 14% yield. Note that the second step uses aqueous acid and, under these conditions, elimination of water occurs. 

The formation of the above anions ("enolate type) depend on equilibria between the carbon compounds, the base, and the solvent. To ensure a substantial concentration of the anionic synthons in solution the pA" of both the conjugated acid of the base and of the solvent must be higher than the pAT -value of the carbon compound. Alkali hydroxides in water (p/T, 16), alkoxides in the corresponding alcohols (pAT, 20), sodium amide in liquid ammonia (pATj 35), dimsyl sodium in dimethyl sulfoxide (pAT, = 35), sodium hydride, lithium amides, or lithium alkyls in ether or hydrocarbon solvents (pAT, > 40) are common combinations used in synthesis. Sometimes the bases (e.g. methoxides, amides, lithium alkyls) react as nucleophiles, in other words they do not abstract a proton, but their anion undergoes addition and substitution reactions with the carbon compound. If such is the case, sterically hindered bases are employed. A few examples are given below (H.O. House, 1972 I. Kuwajima, 1976). 

Besides ordinary esters (containing an a hydrogen), the reaction can also be carried out with lactones and, as in 16-38, with the y position of a,p-unsaturated esters (vinylogy). There are also cases, where the enolate anion of an amide was condensed with an aldehyde. ... 

Under the conditions of the Birch reduction, IV-Boc amides such as 60 can be reductively alkylated in high yields, presumably via a dianion intermediate which is protonated by ammonia at C-5 leaving an enolate anion at C-2 <96JOC7664>. Quenching the reaction with alkyl halides or ammonium chloride then affords the 3-pyrrolines 61. 

When the carbonyl compound is added to this base, abstraction of a proton and formation of the enolate anion follow, as seen with sodinm hydride or sodium amide above. Again, this reaction is essentially irreversible because the other product is the weak base diisopropylamine (pATa 36). So far, there does not seem any particular advantage in nsing LDA rather than sodium hydride or sodium amide. 

Another synthetic approach towards the synthesis of compound 80 involves prior deprotonation of the carboxylic amide with f-BuLi, which is then followed by reaction with dimethylzinc (Scheme 10). All three compounds have similar structural features, i.e. they are dimers as a result of two O-bridging enolate anions between two lithium atoms. The... 

Ketone dilithio-c /S-dianions (30, formed by treatment of /3 -stannylketones, RCOCH2-CH2SnBuCl2, with 4 equiv. of BuLi) react with imines and hydrazone selectively at the /3-anion portion to give dilithium enolate amides (31).82 Subsequent reaction with electrophiles gives y-amino ketones and related heterocycles. 

Bromopyridine undergoes photoassisted SrnI reaction with a variety of stabilized carbanions <1997JOC6152>. The reaction is carried out in the presence of potassium amide in liquid ammonia at —33 °C under photoirradiation at 350 nm and proceeds in moderate to good yield with anions derived from 2-benzyl-4,4-dimethyloxazoline, 2,4-dialkylthiazoles, and dimethyl methylphosphonate and also with carboxamide and ester enolates. 

Oxazolones are attacked by a variety of electrophiles at C(4) these reactions, which require the presence of bases, proceed through the enolate anions (197). This type of anion adds to carbonyl compounds, a key step in the Erlenmeyer synthesis of unsaturated azlactones (equation 35) (see Section 4.18.4.3.4). The anions are intermediates in the formation of the amides (198) when oxazolones are treated with enamines (Scheme 15) (71JCS(C)598>. 

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