Enolate With crown ethers

With crown ether 5, the preferential association of the complexed cation with oxygen favors the alkylation of the less-electronegative center, the carbon, and hence, only the C-alkylation product is obtained. Conversely, cryptand 10, which realizes a better cation-anion separation, leads to an increase in the nucleophilicity of the enolate 0-center, resulting in a greater quantity of 0-alkylated product and, hence, lower regioselectiv-... 

Figure 4.11 Molecular structures of typical crown-ether complexes with alkali metal cations (a) sodium-water-benzo-I5-crown-5 showing pentagonal-pyramidal coordination of Na by 6 oxygen atoms (b) 18-crown-6-potassium-ethyl acetoacetate enolate showing unsymmelrical coordination of K by 8 oxygen atoms and (c) the RbNCS ion pair coordinated by dibenzo-I8-crown-6 to give seven-fold coordination about Rb.

The highest enantioselectivities in the base-catalyzed Michael additions have so far been obtained using achiral bases complexed to chiral crown ethers. The addition of methyl 2,3-dihydro-l-oxo-1//-indene-2-carboxylate (1) to 3-buten-2-one using 4 mol% of a [l,T-binaphthalcnc]-2,2 -diol derived optically active crown ether 3 in combination with potassium AY/-butoxide as the base illustrates this successful method 259 260 It is assumed that the actual Michael donor is the potassium enolate complex of 1 and crown ether 3. 

The proportion of the /rans-O-alkylated product [101] increases in the order no ligand < 18-crown-6 < [2.2.2]-cryptand. This difference was attributed to the fact that the enolate anion in a crown-ether complex is still capable of interacting with the cation, which stabilizes conformation [96]. For the cryptate, however, cation-anion interactions are less likely and electrostatic repulsion will force the anion to adopt conformation [99], which is the same as that of the free anion in DMSO. This explanation was substantiated by the fact that the anion was found to have structure [96] in the solid state of the potassium acetoacetate complex of 18-crown-6 (Cambillau et al., 1978). Using 23Na NMR, Cornelis et al. (1978) have recently concluded that the active nucleophilic species is the ion pair formed between 18-crown-6 and sodium ethyl acetoacetate, in which Na+ is co-ordinated to both the anion and the ligand. 

Conversion of tight ion pairs into crown ether-separated ion pairs leads in many cases to increased basicity. For example, Dietrich and Lehn (1973) have shown that a homogeneous solution of sodium t-amyloxide in benzene is unable to deprotonate triphenylmethane, whereas the reaction occurs rapidly in the presence of [2.2.2]-cryptand [37]. In THF or diethyl ether, alkali metal enolates do not react with triphenyl- or diphenylmethane (Pierre et al.,... 

Only Cram (36) has published a rationale for the very high (99%) enantiomeric excess achieved in the reaction of methyl vinyl ketone and the hydrindanone in the presence of the chiral crown ether. This mechanism envisions a bimolecular complex comprising the potassium cation and chiral host as one entity and the enolate anion of the hydrindanone as the counterion. Methyl vinyl ketone lies outside this complex. The quinine-catalyzed reaction appears to have a termo-lecular character, since the hydroxyl of the alkaloid probably hydrogen bonds with the methyl vinyl ketone—enhancing its acceptor properties—while the quin-uclidine nitrogen functions as the base forming the hydrindanone—alkaloid ion pair. 

The idea that the stereochemical outcome of an intramolecular enolate alkylation is determined by chelation in the transition state was recently demonstrated by Denmark and Henke, who observed a marked preference for a "closed transition state (coordination of the cationic counterion to an enolate and the developing alcohol) resulting in a syn product. For example, the highest syn anti ratio (89 11) was obtained in toluene and the lowest syn.anti ratio (2 98) was obtained with a crown ether. These observations parallel the facial selectivities described herein and in ref 11 on the intramolecular SN2 reaction see (a) Denmark, S. A. Henke, B. R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 2177. (b) Denmark, S. A. Henke, B. R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1989, 111, 8022. 

Promising examples of the catalytic asymmetric Darzens condensation, which yields an epoxide product via carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen bond formation, have been reported recently by two groups (Scheme 10.11). Toke and co-workers used crown ether 24 in the reaction to form the a,P-unsaturated ketone 78 [38b] with 64% ee, whereas the Shioiri group used the cinchona-derived salt 3a [52], which resulted in 78 with 69% ee. The latter authors propose a catalytic cycle involving generation of a chiral enolate in situ from an achiral inorganic base... 

Akiyama s group employed naturally occurring L-quebrachitol 6 to prepare the C2-symmetrical 18-membered chiral crown ether 7 [14]. Compound 7 was found to be an active catalyst for the enantioselective Michael additions of glycine enolates. Thus, deprotonation of ester 8 using potassium tert-butoxide in dichloromethane (DCM) in the presence of crown ether 7 (20 mol %), followed by addition of a Michael acceptor, gave amino-acid derivatives 9 with up to 96% ee, as shown in Scheme 8.4. 

The conformational situation for twisted 2,2-diacyl compounds of type 29 is quite different from that for sodium or lithium 1,3-diketone enolates. In the latter, the ZZ form is stabilized by complexation with the cation75, and only in the presence of crown ethers is the EZ form observed76. The barrier to EZ - ZE exchange in the free carbanion is 12.9 kcal mol-1, as expected quite close to that found for 29. 

The ion-pair dissociation of ambident alkali enolates, which results in increasing 0/C alkylation ratios, can be promoted not only by dissociating solvents but also by specific cation solvation. In the latter case, EPD solvents cf. DMF and DMSO in Table 5-22b) or macro(poly)cyclic ligands such as coronands ( crown ethers ) or cryptands are used [376, 377, 660]. For example, the alkylation of sodium y9-naphtholate with (bromomethyl)benzene or iodomethane in the presence of benzo[18]crown-6 gives high O/C alkylation ratios when tetrahydrofuran or benzene are the solvents [660]. In dissociating solvents such as A,A-dimethylformamide or acetonitrile, however, so far no... 

Kobayashi et al. recently developed the Pb(OTf)2-crown ether 56 complex as an efficient chiral catalyst of asymmetric aldol reactions in aqueous media (Scheme 10.51) [146]. This catalyst system achieves good to high yields and high levels of diastereo- (syn-selective) and enantioselectivity in the aldol reaction of a variety of aldehydes with propiophenone TMS enolate. The hole size of 56 is essential because 57 and 58 show no chiral induction. The unique structure of the Pb(OTf)2-56 complex as a chiral catalyst has been revealed by X-ray diffraction. 

Lewis acid-catalyzed asymmetric aldol reactions of silyl enol ethers with aldehydes are among the most powerful carbon-carbon bond-forming methods aprotic anhydrous solvents and low reaction temperatures are, however, usually needed for successful reaction. To perform the catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction in aqueous media a chiral crown ether-Pb(OTf)2 complex was employed as a chiral catalyst stable in water-ethanol [9]. Good to high yields and high levels of diastereo-and enantioselectivity were obtained at 0°C in aqueous media (Scheme 13.64). 

Thermodynamic control. Note that it is also possible for the aldolate adduct to revert to aldehyde and enolate, and equilibration to the thermodynamic product may afford a different diastereomer (the anti aldolate is often the more stable). The tendency for aldolates to undergo the retro aldol addition increases with the acidity of the enolate amides < esters < ketones (the more stable enolates are more likely to fragment), and with the steric bulk of the substituents (bulky substituents tend to destabilize the aldolate and promote fragmentation). On the other hand, a highly chelating metal stabilizes the aldolate and retards fragmentation. The slowest equilibration is with boron aldolates, and increases in the series lithium < sodium < potassium, and (with alkali metal enolates) also increases in the presence of crown ethers. ... 

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