Enolate anions electrophiles

This problem covers a reaction sequence and a variety of different reactions, some easier than others. This one includes enolate anions, electrophilic cyclization, nucleophilic substitution, and simple carboxylic acid chemistry. 

So far in this section we have combined enolate anions with other carbonyl compounds by direct attack at the carbonyl group. We can expand the scope of this reaction by using a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds as the electrophiles. This is the Michael reaction. Remind yourself of tliis by writing out the mechanism of a Michael reaction such as ... 

The obvious diseonnection on a 1,4-dicarbonyl compoimd gives us a logieal nucleophilie synthon (an enolate anion) A but an illogieal electrophilic synthon B ... 

Reaction of Enolate Anions. In the presence of certain bases, eg, sodium alkoxide, an ester having a hydrogen on the a-carbon atom undergoes a wide variety of characteristic enolate reactions. Mechanistically, the base removes a proton from the a-carbon, giving an enolate that then can react with an electrophile. Depending on the final product, the base may be consumed stoichiometricaHy or may function as a catalyst. Eor example, the sodium alkoxide used in the Claisen condensation is a catalyst ... 

Inductive and resonance stabilization of carbanions derived by proton abstraction from alkyl substituents a to the ring nitrogen in pyrazines and quinoxalines confers a degree of stability on these species comparable with that observed with enolate anions. The resultant carbanions undergo typical condensation reactions with a variety of electrophilic reagents such as aldehydes, ketones, nitriles, diazonium salts, etc., which makes them of considerable preparative importance. 

The reactions of ketenes or ketene equivalents with imines, discussed above, all involve the imine acting as nucleophile. Azetidin-2-ones can also be produced by nucleophilic attack of enolate anions derived from the acetic acid derivative on the electrophilic carbon of the imine followed by cyclization. The reaction of Reformatsky reagents, for example... 

The alkylation reactions of enolate anions of both ketones and esters have been extensively utilized in synthesis. Both very stable enolates, such as those derived from (i-ketoesters, / -diketones, and malonate esters, as well as less stable enolates of monofunctional ketones, esters, nitriles, etc., are reactive. Many aspects of the relationships between reactivity, stereochemistry, and mechanism have been clarified. A starting point for the discussion of these reactions is the structure of the enolates. Because of the delocalized nature of enolates, an electrophile can attack either at oxygen or at carbon. 

The same behavior has been observed in the attack of electrophiles on the ambident enolate anions, of which many reactions are closely related to those of enamines [Eq. (2)] ... 

Compare atomic charges for the enolate anion and the lithium salt. Are there major differences, in particular, for the oxygen and the a carbon Also compare the highest-occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) in the two molecules. This identifies the most nucleophilic sites, that is, the most likely sites for attack by electrophiles. Are the two orbitals similar or do they differ substantially Elaborate. 

This involves an aryl carbanion/enolate anion (64), and also eCQ3 derived from the action of strong bases on HCC13 (p. 267), though the latter has only a transient existence decomposing to CC12, a highly electron-deficient electrophile that attacks the aromatic nucleus ... 

Elimination reactions (Figure 5.7) often result in the formation of carbon-carbon double bonds, isomerizations involve intramolecular shifts of hydrogen atoms to change the position of a double bond, as in the aldose-ketose isomerization involving an enediolate anion intermediate, while rearrangements break and reform carbon-carbon bonds, as illustrated for the side-chain displacement involved in the biosynthesis of the branched chain amino acids valine and isoleucine. Finally, we have reactions that involve generation of resonance-stabilized nucleophilic carbanions (enolate anions), followed by their addition to an electrophilic carbon (such as the carbonyl carbon atoms... 

In Section 10.6 we shall meet the Mannich reaction, where an imine or iminium ion acts as an electrophile for nucleophiles of the enolate anion type. 

Furthermore, the product formed still contains an acidic proton on a carbon flanked by two carbonyls, so it can form a new enolate anion and participate in a second Sn2 reaction. The nature of the product will thus depend on electrophile availability. With 1 mol of methyl iodide, a monomethylated compound will be the predominant product, whereas with 2 mol of methyl iodide the result will be mainly the dimethyl ated compound. 

We now have examples of the generation of enolate anions from carbonyl compounds, and their potential as nucleophiles in simple Sn2 reactions. However, we must not lose sight of the potential of a carbonyl compound to act as an electrophile. This section, the aldol reaction, is concerned with enolate anion... 

An alternative approach to mixed aldol reactions, and the one usually preferred, is to carry out a two-stage process, forming the enolate anion first using a strong base like EDA (see Section 10.2). The first step is essentially irreversible, and the electrophile is then added in the second step. An aldol reaction between butan-2-one and acetaldehyde exemplifies this approach. Note also that the large base EDA selectively removes a proton from the least-hindered position, again restricting possible combinations (see Section 10.2). 

Both the aldol and reverse aldol reactions are encountered in carbohydrate metabolic pathways in biochemistry (see Chapter 15). In fact, one reversible transformation can be utilized in either carbohydrate biosynthesis or carbohydrate degradation, according to a cell s particular requirement. o-Fructose 1,6-diphosphate is produced during carbohydrate biosynthesis by an aldol reaction between dihydroxyacetone phosphate, which acts as the enolate anion nucleophile, and o-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, which acts as the carbonyl electrophile these two starting materials are also interconvertible through keto-enol tautomerism, as seen earlier (see Section 10.1). The biosynthetic reaction may be simplihed mechanistically as a standard mixed aldol reaction, where the nature of the substrates and their mode of coupling are dictated by the enzyme. The enzyme is actually called aldolase. 

Accordingly, it is possible to generate analognes of enolate anions containing cyano and nitro groups, and to use these as nucleophiles towards carbonyl electrophiles in aldol-like processes. Simple examples are shown. 

The Mannich reaction is best discussed via an example. A mixture of dimethylamine, formaldehyde and acetone under mild acidic conditions gives N,N-dimethyl-4-aminobutan-2-one. This is a two-stage process, beginning with the formation of an iminium cation from the amine and the more reactive of the two carbonyl compounds, in this case the aldehyde. This iminium cation then acts as the electrophile for addition of the nucleophile acetone. Now it would be nice if we could use the enolate anion as the nucleophile, as in the other reactions we have looked at, but under the mild acidic conditions we cannot have an anion, and the nucleophile must be portrayed as the enol tautomer of acetone. The addition is then unspectacular, and, after loss of a proton from the carbonyl, we are left with the product. 

Acetyl-CoA is a good biochemical reagent for two main reasons. First, the a-protons are more acidic than those in ethyl acetate, comparable in fact to a ketone, and this increases the likelihood of generating an enolate anion. As explained above, this derives from sulfur being larger than oxygen, so that electron donation from the lone pair that would stabilize the neutral ester is considerably reduced. This means it is easier for acetyl-CoA to lose a proton and become a nucleophile. Second, acetyl-CoA is actually a better electrophile than ethyl acetate. 

The nucleophile will be the enolate anion from ethyl acetoacetate, which attacks the P-carbon of the electrophile, generating an addition complex that then acquires a proton at the a-position with restoration of the carbonyl group. The product is a 8-ketoester with an ester side-chain that has a... 

Hydroxycoumarin can be considered as an enol tautomer of a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound conjugation with the aromatic ring favours the enol tautomer. This now exposes its potential as a nucleophile. Whilst we may begin to consider enolate anion chemistry, no strong base is required and we may formulate a mechanism in which the enol acts as the nucleophile, in a simple aldol reaction with formaldehyde. Dehydration follows and produces an unsaturated ketone, which then becomes the electrophile in a Michael reaction (see Section 10.10). The nucleophile is a second molecule of 4-hydroxycoumarin. 

We can insert the heteroatom into the rest of the carbon skeleton, or attempt to join two units, one of which contains the heteroatom, by means of C-C and C-heteroatom linkages. To make the new bonds, two reaction types are most frequently encountered. Heteroatom-C bond formation is achieved using the heteroatom as a nucleophile to attack an electrophile such as a carbonyl group (see Section 7.7.1). Aldol-type reactions may be exploited for C-C bond formation (see Section 10.3), employing enamines and enols/enolate anions (see Section 10.5). 

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