Enolate ions, preparation

Another general method of enol triflate synthesis is by conversion of a ketone into its enolate ion followed by trapping. For example, the enolate ion prepared by deprotonation of 4-tm-butylcyclohexanone with lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) was trapped by N-phenyltriflimide, but not by triflic anhydride, to give the corresponding enol triflate in 82% yield8,77 (equation 51). 

Owing to the instability of a-halogenoaldehydes it is occasionally preferable to use more stable derivatives, such as enol acetate prepared according to Bedoukian s method (204) and a-bromoacetals (4, 8, 10, 16, 22, 67, 101, 426). An advantage is said to be in the yield however, this appears to be slight. The derivatives react in the same sense as the aldehydes themselves, that is, the acetal group as the more polarized reacts first and enters the C-4 position. It is likely that the condensation and cyclization occur by direct displacement of alkoxide ions. Ethyl-a,/3-dihalogeno ethers (159, 164, 177, 248) have also been used in place of the free aldehydes in condensation with thioamides. 

Section 21 9 Michael addition of the enolate ions derived from ethyl acetoacetate and diethyl malonate provides an alternative method for preparing their a alkyl derivatives... 

The familiar alkylation of -ketoesters followed by decarboxylation is still a useful route to a-alkyl ketones, although the alkylation of enamines is frequently the preferred route. Given below are two examples of alkylation of 2-carbethoxycycloalkanones (prepared in Chapter 10, Section I). In the first case, sodium ethoxide is the base employed to generate the enolate ion of 2-carbethoxycyclohexanone. In the second case, the less acidic 2-carbethoxycyclooctanone requires sodium hydride for the generation of the enolate ion. 

Because carbonyl compounds are only weakly acidic, a strong base is needed for enolate ion formation. If an alkoxide such as sodium ethoxide is used as base, deprotonation takes place only to the extent of about 0. l% because acetone is a weaker acid than ethanol (pKa - 16). If, however, a more powerful base such as sodium hydride (NaH) or lithium diisopropylamide ILiNO -CjHy ] is used, a carbonyl compound can be completely converted into its enolate ion. Lithium diisopropylamide (LDA), which is easily prepared by reaction of the strong base butyllithium with diisopropylamine, is widely used in the laboratory as a base for preparing enolate ions from carbonyl compounds. 

Enolate ions are more useful than enols for two reasons. First, pure enols can t normally be isolated but are instead generated only as short-lived intermediates in low concentration. By contrast, stable solutions of pure enolate ions are easily prepared from most carbonyl compounds by reaction with a strong base. Second, enolate ions are more reactive than enols and undergo many reactions that enols don t. Whereas enols are neutral, enolate ions are negatively charged, making them much belter nucleophiles. As a result, enolate ions are more common than enols in both laboratory and biological chemistry. 

Both the malonic ester synthesis and the acetoacetic ester synthesis are easy to cany out because they involve unusually acidic dicarbonyi compounds. As a result, relatively mild bases such as sodium ethoxide in ethanol as solvent can be used to prepare the necessary enolate ions. Alternatively, however, it s also possible in many cases to directly alkylate the a position of monocarbonyl compounds. A strong, stericaliy hindered base such as LDA is needed so that complete conversion to the enolate ion takes place rather than a nucleophilic addition, and a nonprotic solvent must be used. 

There are two advantages to the enaroine-Michael reaction versus the enolate-ion-Michael that make enamines so useful in biological pathways. First, an enamine is neutral, easily prepared, and easily handled, while an enolate ion is charged, sometimes difficult to prepare, and must be handled with care. 

Prepare the desired one of the two possible enolate ions. The two ions, for example, 127 and 128 for 2-heptanone, interconvert rapidly only in the... 

The enol acetates, in turn, can be prepared by treatment of the parent ketone with an appropriate reagent. Such treatment generally gives a mixture of the two enol acetates in which one or the other predominates, depending on the reagent. The mixtures are easily separable. An alternate procedure involves conversion of a silyl enol ether (see 12-22) or a dialkylboron enol ether (an enol borinate, see p. 560) to the corresponding enolate ion. If the less hindered enolate ion is desired (e.g., 126), it can be prepared directly from the ketone by treatment with lithium diisopropylamide in THE or 1,2-dimethoxyethane at —78°C. ... 

Although the conversion of an aldehyde or a ketone to its enol tautomer is not generally a preparative procedure, the reactions do have their preparative aspects. If a full mole of base per mole of ketone is used, the enolate ion (10) is formed and can be isolated (see, e.g., 10-105). When enol ethers or esters are hydrolyzed, the enols initially formed immediately tautomerize to the aldehydes or ketones. In addition, the overall processes (forward plus reverse reactions) are often used for equilibration purposes. When an optically active compound in which the chirality is due to an asymmetric carbon a to a carbonyl group (as in 11) is treated with acid or base, racemization results. If there is another asymmetric center in the molecule. 

Many of the reactions assembled in Scheme 5.4are of undiminished interest in modern allene chemistry when relatively simple alkyl derivatives are the preparative goal. For example, /3-eliminations of enolphosphates prepared from saturated ketones constitute a simple route to 1,3-dialkylated allenes. Thus 3-octanone (49), on LDA treatment followed by quenching the generated enolate ions with diethyl chlor-ophosphate, affords a mixture of the enolphosphates 50. When these are treated with further LDA in THF at low temperatures, 2,3-octadiene (51) is produced in 50% yield (Scheme 5.5) [15]. 

The procedure reported here is based on a reaction discovered by Bunnett and Creary, and was first employed for preparative purposes by Bunnett and Traber.3 It is attractive because of the high yield obtained, the ease of work-up, and the cleanliness of the reaction. The reaction is believed to occur by the SRN1 mechanism, which involves radical and radical anion intermediates.2,4 The SRN1 arylation of other nucleophiles, especially ketone enolate ions,5 ester enolate ions,6 picolyl anions,7 and arenethiolate ions,8 has potential application in synthesis. 

Furans can be prepared by acid catalyzed cyclization of masked 1,4-diketones. /3-Chloroallyl ketones which are obtained by alkylation of enamines or enolate ions behave as masked 1,4-diketones and afford furans on treatment with acid (67JA4557). 2,4-Dialkyl-furans (40) have been prepared by cyclization of the 3-chloroallyl ketone (39), which may be obtained by acylation of allyl chlorides (73KGS1434). 

Enolate ions, which are usually strong nucleophiles, are more important in preparative applications than are the enols. In additions to carbonyl groups, the carbon end, rather than the oxygen end, attacks but in SA,2 substitutions on alkyl halides, significant amounts of O-alkylation occur. The more acidic compounds, such as those with the j3-dicarbonyl structure, yield enolates with the greater tendency toward O-alkylation. Protic solvents and small cations favor C-alkylation, because the harder oxygen base of the enolate coordinates more strongly than does the carbon with these hard Lewis acids.147... 

Benzene derivatives with two nucleofuges have been used in the preparation of polymeric materials with varying degrees of success. Poly(l,4-phenylene sulfide) has been prepared by condensation of p-di-chlorobenzene with sodium sulfide,99,100 and in a related process, diazonium ions have been shown to initiate the polymerization of p-halobenzenethiolate ions.101 In a preliminary study, poorly characterized polymers were obtained from reaction of equimolar amounts of p-dihalobenzenes and the enolate ions from ketones in the presence of excess base. When an excess of the ketone enolates was used, the normal p-disubstituted derivatives were formed.102... 

The isoquinoline system is conveniently prepared from treatment of o-iodobenzylamines with the enolate ions derived from symmetrical ketones (or ketones with one a-position blocked), aldehydes, or the dimethyl acetal of pyruvaldehyde, to give aminocarbonyl compounds which condensed in situ to give 2- and/or 3-substituted 1,2-dihydroisoquinolines. Catalytic dehydrogenation or borohydride reduction of these products then led to the corresponding isoquinolines or tetrahydroisoquinolines in moderate to high... 

Silyl enol ethers are generally prepared from enolate ions as illustrated in Equation Si3.1. 

The a-protons of a ketone like propanone are only weakly acidic and so a powerful base (e.g. lithium diisopropylamide) is required to generate the enolate ion needed for the alkylation. An alternative method of preparing the same product by using a milder base is to start with ethyl acetoacetate (a [3-keto ester) (Fig.G). The a-protons in this structure are more acidic because they are flanked by two carbonyl groups. Thus, the enolate can be formed using a weaker base like sodium ethoxide. Once the... 

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