Enolates control

A related mechanism can be drawn for acid-catalysed halogenation. Again, the halogen concentration does not figure in the rate equation, and the rate of enolization controls the rate of reaction. 

Equation B5.6 depicts the reaction of an achiral aldehyde with a homochiral boron enolate derived from (5)-mandelic acid. Again the geometry of the enolate controls the relative stereochemistry of C2 and C3 and so only the two erythro isomers are formed. In this case, however, the homochiral centre in the boron enolate results in approach to one face of the aldehyde being strongly preferred over approach to the other face and a product ratio of 2R,3S 2S,3R = 28 1 is observed. 

Aldol Reactions. The dibutyl boryl enolates of chiral acylox-azolidinones react to afford the syn-aldol adducts with virtually complete stereocontrol (eq 32). 14,43.61-64 Notably, the sense of induction in these reactions is opposite to that predicted from the analogous alkylation reactions. This reaction is general for a wide range of aldehydes and imide enolates. - Enolate control overrides induction inherent to the aldehyde reaction partner. 

A good example of enolate control comes in Stork s synthesis of abietic acid.32 The first two reactions each involve regioselectivity of enolates in the formation of 115 and 117. 

The initial assumption that the ( )-relationship of the methyl substituent and the lithiooxide in the ester enolate controlled the diastereomeric preference proved incorrect. (R)-Oxazoline enolate 94, which has a (Z)-relationship between the corresponding substituents similarly strongly favors the (R,R)-product (96) (Scheme 8.21). Stereoselection is strong enough that from an equilibrating mixture of (a-bro-moalkyl)boronic ester enantiomers (95R/95S R = Me, Bu). only the (S)-isomer reacts, yielding the (R,R)-product (96) in 98-99% diastereopurity [53]. 

Related thermodynamic enolization control has been observed using metallated hexamethyldisilazide to give the more substituted bromomagnesium ketone enolates. Metallation reactions of HMDS to yield Li, K, and Na derivatives are well known and the resulting nonnucleophilic bases have found extensive applications in organic synthesis. ... 

The principle of enolate controlled stereochemistry can be demonstrated by use of the chiral acetate 83. When doubly deprotonated (R)- and (S)-HYTRA 83 reacts with enantiomerically pure 3-benzyloxybutanal 99 the (R)-configured acetate enolate attacks the aldehyde 99 (irrespective of its chirality) predominantly from the Re face so that, after hydrolysis, anti hydroxycarboxylic acid 100a results. On the other hand, the (S)-configured enolate of 83 attacks the enantiomerically pure aldehyde preferentially from the Si side to give syn carboxylic acids 100b with comparable selectivity, as shown in Scheme 1.22 [175]. 

Enolate controlled addition of doubly deprotonated (R) and (S) acetate 83 to (R)-benzyloxybutanal. 

When the ketone has two nonequivalent a-carbon atoms, the acid-catalyzed reaction yields the a-haloketone with the halogen on the more substituted atom. We can explain this observation by considering the two possible enol intermediates. The more highly substituted site gives the more highly substituted double bond of the enol. Because halogenation under acidic conditions requires the formation of an enol, the stability of the enol controls the formation of the halogen product. 

The first report of the use of N-acyl oxazolidinones in asymmetric alkylation was by Evans et al. in 1982. The reactions described were found to proceed with high levels of diastereoselectivity and with very good yields (Table 7.2). The primary factor in determining the stereochemical course of the reaction is the geometry of the enolate intermediate. Studies have shown the level of /Z-enolate control transfers directly to the level of diastereoselectivity of the alkylated product. Conveniently, it has also been established that the use of bulky bases (e.g., EDA and NaHMDS) for the deprotonation of A-acyl oxazolidinones strongly favors formation of the Z-(0)-enolate. Another factor influencing the stereochemical course of the reaction is the nature of the auxiliary itself. In particular, the ability of the... 

The condensation conditions must be as mild as possible, because we want to get only the most stable of the three possible enols (from the aldehyde). Though you could not haye predicted the exact conditions either for the double bond. cleayage or for the condensation, you should haye seen that control was possible as in each case the two functional groups are different enough. ( J. Amer. Chem. Soc.. 1960, 636 J. Org. Chem.. 1964, 29, 3740 ... 

The ketone is added to a large excess of a strong base at low temperature, usually LDA in THF at -78 °C. The more acidic and less sterically hindered proton is removed in a kineti-cally controlled reaction. The equilibrium with a thermodynamically more stable enolate (generally the one which is more stabilized by substituents) is only reached very slowly (H.O. House, 1977), and the kinetic enolates may be trapped and isolated as silyl enol ethers (J.K. Rasmussen, 1977 H.O. House, 1969). If, on the other hand, a weak acid is added to the solution, e.g. an excess of the non-ionized ketone or a non-nucleophilic alcohol such as cert-butanol, then the tautomeric enolate is preferentially formed (stabilized mostly by hyperconjugation effects). The rate of approach to equilibrium is particularly slow with lithium as the counterion and much faster with potassium or sodium. 

In an intramolecular aldol condensation of a diketone many products are conceivable, since four different ends can be made. Five- and six-membered rings, however, wUl be formed preferentially. Kinetic or thermodynamic control or different acid-base catalysts may also induce selectivity. In the Lewis acid-catalyzed aldol condensation given below, the more substituted enol is formed preferentially (E.J. Corey, 1963 B, 1965B). 

E. Vedejs (1978) developed a general method for the sterically controlled electrophilic or-hydroxylation of enolates. This uses a bulky molybdenum(VI) peroxide complex, MoO(02)2(HMPTA)(Py), which is rather stable and can be stored below 0 °C. If this peroxide is added to the enolate in THF solution (base e.g. LDA) at low temperatures, oneO—O bond is broken, and a molybdyl ester is formed. Excess peroxide is quenched with sodium sulfite after the reaction has occurred, and the molybdyl ester is cleaved to give the a-hydroxy car-... 

Difunctional target molecules are generally easily disconnected in a re/ro-Michael type transform. As an example we have chosen a simple symmetrical molecule, namely 4-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2,6-heptanedione. Only p-anisaldehyde and two acetone equivalents are needed as starting materials. The antithesis scheme given helow is self-explanatory. The aldol condensation product must be synthesized first and then be reacted under controlled conditions with a second enolate (e.g. a silyl enolate plus TiCl4 or a lithium enolate), enamine (M. Pfau, 1979), or best with acetoacetic ester anion as acetone equivalents. 

Unique chemistry is associated with the cyclopentenone all five carbon atoms can be functionalized, and the endo-methyl groups of the acetonide assure clean stereoselective addition of the alkenylcopper reagent from the convex side. The use of the acetonide group to control enolate regioselectivity and to mask alcohols should be generally applicable. 

The 7, i5-unsaturated alcohol 99 is cyclized to 2-vinyl-5-phenyltetrahydro-furan (100) by exo cyclization in aqueous alcohol[124]. On the other hand, the dihydropyran 101 is formed by endo cyclization from a 7, (5-unsaturated alcohol substituted by two methyl groups at the i5-position. The direction of elimination of /3-hydrogen to give either enol ethers or allylic ethers can be controlled by using DMSO as a solvent and utilized in the synthesis of the tetronomycin precursor 102[125], The oxidation of the optically active 3-alkene-l,2-diol 103 affords the 2,5-dihydrofuran 104 in high ee. It should be noted that /3-OH is eliminated rather than /3-H at the end of the reac-tion[126]. 

The chemoselective desilylation of one of the two different silyi enoi ethers in 10 to give the monosilyl enol ether II is realized by the Pd-catalyzed reaction of Bu3SnF. The chemoselectivity is controlled by steric congestion and the relative amount of the reagent[7,8]. An interesting transformation of the 6-alkoxy-2,3-dihydro-6//-pyran-3-one 12 into the cyclopentenone derivative 13 proceeds smoothly with catalysis by Pd(OAc)2 (10 mol%)[9]. 

The idea of kinetic versus thermodynamic control can be illustrated by discussing briefly the case of formation of enolate anions from unsymmetrical ketones. This is a very important matter for synthesis and will be discussed more fully in Chapter 1 of Part B. Most ketones, highly symmetric ones being the exception, can give rise to more than one enolate. Many studies have shown tiiat the ratio among the possible enolates that are formed depends on the reaction conditions. This can be illustrated for the case of 3-methyl-2-butanone. If the base chosen is a strong, sterically hindered one and the solvent is aptotic, the major enolate formed is 3. If a protic solvent is used or if a weaker base (one comparable in basicity to the ketone enolate) is used, the dominant enolate is 2. Enolate 3 is the kinetic enolate whereas 2 is the thermodynamically favored enolate. 

Structural effects on the rates of deprotonation of ketones have also been studied using veiy strong bases under conditions where complete conversion to the enolate occurs. In solvents such as THF or DME, bases such as lithium di-/-propylamide (LDA) and potassium hexamethyldisilylamide (KHMDS) give solutions of the enolates in relative proportions that reflect the relative rates of removal of the different protons in the carbonyl compound (kinetic control). The least hindered proton is removed most rapidly under these... 

Steric and stereoelectronic effects control the direction of approach of an electrophile to the enolate. Electrophiles approach from the least hindered side of the enolate. Numerous examples of such effects have been observed. In ketone and ester enolates that are exocyclic to a conformationally biased cyclohexane ring there is a slight... 

The aldol addition can be carried out under either ofitwo broad sets of conditions, with the product being determined by kinetic factors undenone set of conditions and by thermodynamic factors under the other. To achieve kinetic control, the enolate that is to... 

For the other broad category of reaction conditions, the reaction proceeds under conditions of thermodynamic control. This can result from several factors. Aldol condensations can be effected for many compounds using less than a stoichiometric amount of base. Under these conditions, the aldol reaction is reversible, and the product ratio will be determined by the relative stability of the various possible products. Conditions of thermodynamic control also permit equilibration among all the enolates of the nucleophile. The conditions that permit equilibration include higher reaction temperatures, protic solvents, and the use of less tightly coordinating cations. 

The fundamental mechanistic concept by which the stereochemical course of the aldol addition under conditions of kinetic control has been analyzed involves a cyclic transition state in which both the carbonyl and enolate oxygens are coordinated to a Lewis... 

Kinetic studies have shown that the enolate and phosphorus nucleophiles all react at about the same rate. This suggests that the only step directly involving the nucleophile (step 2 of the propagation sequence) occurs at essentially the diffusion-controlled rate so that there is little selectivity among the individual nucleophiles. The synthetic potential of the reaction lies in the fact that other substituents which activate the halide to substitution are not required in this reaction, in contrast to aromatic nucleophilic substitution which proceeds by an addition-elimination mechanism (see Seetion 10.5). 

A carbonyl group cannot be protected as its ethylene ketal during the Birch reduction of an aromatic phenolic ether if one desires to regenerate the ketone and to retain the 1,4-dihydroaromatic system, since an enol ether is hydrolyzed by acid more rapidly than is an ethylene ketal. 1,4-Dihydro-estrone 3-methyl ether is usually prepared by the Birch reduction of estradiol 3-methyl ether followed by Oppenauer oxidation to reform the C-17 carbonyl function. However, the C-17 carbonyl group may be protected as its diethyl ketal and, following a Birch reduction of the A-ring, this ketal function may be hydrolyzed in preference to the 3-enol ether, provided carefully controlled conditions are employed. Conditions for such a selective hydrolysis are illustrated in Procedure 4. 

Protonation of the a-carbanion (50), which is formed both in the reduction of enones and ketol acetates, probably first affords the neutral enol and is followed by its ketonization. Zimmerman has discussed the stereochemistry of the ketonization of enols and has shown that in eertain cases steric factors may lead to kinetically controlled formation of the thermodynamically less stable ketone isomer. Steroidal unsaturated ketones and ketol acetates that could form epimeric products at the a-carbon atom appear to yield the thermodynamically stable isomers. In most of the cases reported, however, equilibration might have occurred during isolation of the products so that definitive conclusions are not possible. 

As first demonstrated by Stork,the metal enolate formed by metal-ammoni reduction of a conjugated enone or a ketol acetate can be alkylated in liquic ammonia. The reductive alkylation reaction is synthetically useful since ii permits alkylation of a ketone at the a-position other than the one at whicf thermodynamically controlled enolate salt formation occurs. Direct methyl-ation of 5a-androstan-17-ol-3-one occurs at C-2 whereas reductive methyl-... 

A commonly used alternative to the direct bromination of ketones is the halogenation of enol acetates. This can be carried out under basic conditions if necessary. Sodium acetate, pyridine or an epoxide is usually added to buffer the reaction mixture. The direction of enolization is again dependent upon considerations of thermodynamic and kinetic control therefore, the proportion of enol acetates formed can vary markedly with the reaction conditions. Furthermore, halogenation via enol acetates does not necessarily give the same products as direct halogenation of ketones 3. 23... 

In the absence of steric factors e.g. 5 ), the attack is antiparallel (A) (to the adjacent axial bond) and gives the axially substituted chair form (12). In the presence of steric hindrance to attack in the preferred fashion, approach is parallel (P), from the opposite side, and the true kinetic product is the axially substituted boat form (13). This normally undergoes an immediate conformational flip to the equatorial chair form (14) which is isolated as the kinetic product. The effect of such factors is exemplified in the behavior of 3-ketones. Thus, kinetically controlled bromination of 5a-cholestan-3-one (enol acetate) yields the 2a-epimer, (15), which is also the stable form. The presence of a 5a-substituent counteracts the steric effect of the 10-methyl group and results in the formation of the unstable 2l5-(axial)halo ketone... 

The equatorial orientation of the newly introduced alkyl group may be controlled in both (3) and (6) by stereoelectronic and steric factors. The attack of the enolate anions (2) and (5) by the alkyl halide proceeds in a plane that is perpendicular to the plane of the enolate system. Products result from attack at the less hindered a- or -face, respectively... 

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