Enolate anions nitro compounds

Nitro groups attached to a primary and secondary alkyl group in a highly basic (pH > 13) medium exist as the nitronate (enolate) anions. These anions must be very difficult to reduce by electron transfer and are surely much more difficult to reduce than water. Since the electrohydrogenation of such nitro compounds to the corresponding amines is veiy efficient at Raney metal cathodes in 0.1 to 0.15 M KOH (or NaOH) aqueous alcohol (pH > 13) (12), as... 

The combination of silyl enol ethers and fluoride ion provides more reactive anions to give alkylated nitro compounds in good yields after oxidation with DDQ, as shown in Eq. 9.22.36 This process provides a new method for synthesis of indoles and oxyindoles (see Chapter 10, Synthesis of Heterocyclic Compounds). 

The anion formed by removal of the 3-H is analogous to the enolate anion of Eq. 13-6 and has a strong structural similarity to the readily formed anions of organic nitro compounds. The nitronate anions may, perhaps, be regarded as transition state inhibitors. 

In chapter 21 we mentioned nitro compounds as promoters of conjugate addition they also stabilise anions strongly but do not usually act as electrophiles so that self-condensation is not found with nitro compounds. The nitro group is more than twice as good as a carbonyl group at stabilising an enolate anion. Nitromethane (p/ a 10) 1 has a lower pKa than malonates 4 (pKa 13). In fact it dissolves in aqueous NaOH as the enolate anion 3 formed in a way 2 that looks like enolate anion formation. 

Because non-basic substances may also produce a similar reaction, it was later suggested by Anslow and King [66] that the enolate anion of creatinine forms a coordinate bond with the positively charged nitrogen atom of one of the nitro groups. The structure of the compound they postulated is VII ... 

The enolate ion intermediate is now much more basic than the anion of the nitro compound so it removes a proton from the nitro compound and provides another molecule of anion for the seeond round of the reaction,... 

Ambident anions are mesomeric, nucleophilic anions which have at least two reactive centers with a substantial fraction of the negative charge distributed over these cen-ters ) ). Such ambident anions are capable of forming two types of products in nucleophilic substitution reactions with electrophilic reactants . Examples of this kind of anion are the enolates of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds, phenolate, cyanide, thiocyanide, and nitrite ions, the anions of nitro compounds, oximes, amides, the anions of heterocyclic aromatic compounds e.g. pyrrole, hydroxypyridines, hydroxypyrimidines) and others cf. Fig. 5-17. 

Aliphatic nitro compounds show a number of reactions which parallel those of carbonyl chemistry. Primary and secondary nitro compounds exhibit tautomerism paralleling keto-enol tautomerism (Scheme 3.94a). Aliphatic nitro compounds dissolve in aqueous sodium hydroxide with the formation of sodium salts. The resultant anions behave as carban-ions and will condense with aldehydes. An example involves the formation of m-nitrostyrene from nitromethane and benzaldehyde (Scheme 3.94b). 

In many of these cases, both the enolate anion and substrate can exist as (Z) or (E) isomers. With enolates derived from ketones or carboxylic esters. The (E) enolates gave the syn pair of enantiomers (p. 166), while (Z) enolates gave the anti pair. Nitro compounds add to conjugated ketones in the presence of a dipeptide and a piperazine. ° Malonate derivatives also add to conjugated ketones, and keto esters add to conjugated esters.Addition of chiral additives to the reaction, such as metal-salen complexes,proline derivatives, or (—)-sparteine, ... 

NaBHj/NiC or Raney nickel, the menthyloxy group is removed with NaBH /KOH to give 3,4-disubstituted butyrolactones with a high diastereo- and enantioselectivity (Figure 7.69). Corey and Houpis [1458] have described asymmetric Michael reactions of ketone enolates with a 2-thiophenyl crotonate of 8-phenmenthol. Chirality has also been introduced on the amino group of 2-ami-nomethyiacrylates to perform the asymmetric addition of the anion of the tert-Bu ester of cyclopentanecarboxylate [1459], More important developments have been reported with chiral a,p-unsaturated sulfoxides and nitro compounds as Michael acceptors (see below). 

The term Michael addition has been used to describe 1,4- (conjugate) additions of a variety of nucleophiles including organometallics, heteroatom nucleophiles such as sulfides and amines, enolates, and allylic organometals to so-called Michael acceptors such as a,p-unsaturated aldehydes, ketones, esters, nitriles, sulfoxides, and nitro compounds. Here, the term is restricted to the classical Michael reaction, which employs resonance-stabilized anions such as enolates and azaenolates, but a few examples of enamines are also included because of the close mechanistic similarities. 

Carbanions derived from carbonyl compounds are often referred to as enolates, a name derived from the enol tautomer of carbonyl compounds. The resonance-stabilized enolate anion is the conjugate base of both the keto and enol forms of carbonyl compounds. The anions of nitro compounds are called nitronates and are also resonance stabilized. The stabilization of anions of sulfones is believed to be derived primarily from polar and polarization effects. 

The higher rate of O-protonation than that of C-protonation at temperatures when the thermodynamic stability of the oxonium cation is lower than or comparable with that of the C-protonated form has analogies. Thus, mesomeric anions formed by the heterolysis of a-C—H bonds of aliphatic ketones and nitro compounds are usually more readily protonated at O than at C though a thermodynamically less stable tautomer (enol, an acinitro form) is formed. TTiese deviations from the Bronsted principle are explained 34i. 342> O-protonation requiring a smaller rearrangement... 

Treatment of ll,ll-dichloro-l,6-methano[10]annulene with Bu"Li in an ether solvent yields C22H hydrocarbons of labile and complex nature/ Trapping experiments support the intermediacy of compounds ( )6) and (607) formed by the sequence of rearrangements (605)- (606)- (607). Reaction of cyclo-octa-2,4,6-trien-l-one with the anion of methyl 4-(dimethylphosphinyl)but-2-enoate gave (608) and (609) the predominant isomer (609) resulted from base-catalysed isomerization of (608) under the conditions of reaction. Low-temperature oxygenation of the enolate anion derived from the mixture of (608) and (609), followed by reduction with triethyl phosphite, gave a 1 1 mixture of 8-methoxycarbonylbicyclo[5,3,l]undeca-l,3,5,9-tetraen-8-exo-ol and -1,3,5,8-tetraen-lO-exo-ol. Pyrolysis of the p-nitro-benzoate esters of these alcohols effected their conversion into methyl 1,5-methano-[10]annulenecarboxylate (610). 

There has been a major review of substitution by the radical-chain 5rn1 mechanism. It has been shown that reaction by the SrnI pathway of the enolate anions of 2- and 3-acetyl-l-methylpyrrole may yield a-substituted acetylpyrroles. The dichotomy of reactions of halonitrobenzenes with nucleophiles has been nicely summarized major pathways include reduction via radical pathways and. SnAt substitution of halogen. EPR spectroscopy has been used to detect radical species produced in the reactions of some aromatic nitro compounds with nucleophiles however, whether these species are on the substitution pathway is questionable. The reaction of some 4-substimted N,N-dimethylanilines with secondary anilines occurs on activation by thallium triacetate to yield diphenylamine derivatives radical cation intermediates are proposed. ... 

A new synthesis of aldehydes with 2-methyl-2-thiazoline has the advantage of releasing the aldehydes from the thiazolidine intermediate under neutral conditions . Acetylene derivatives can be obtained from aldehydes via dibromomethylene compounds Novel reactions of alkynes with cationoid electrophiles have been published. -Diketones and 2-ketoalkoximes can be obtained by this reaction from acid chlorides and aliphatic nitro compounds respectively Addition of aldehydes to activated carbon-carbon double bonds occurs smoothly in the presence of cyanide ions as catalysts . Poly- -carbonyl compounds have been prepared by condensation of two anions, whereby the enolate salt of a y8-keto ester condenses as an electrophilic anion with strong nucleophiles such as the dianion of benzoylacetone. ... 

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