Enolic intermediates

Acid catalyzed hydration (Section 9 12) Water adds to the triple bond of alkynes to yield ketones by way of an unstable enol intermediate The enol arises by Markovnikov hydration of the alkyne Enol formation is followed by rapid isomerization of the enol to a ketone... 

With certain other nucleophiles addition takes place at the carbon-carbon double bond rather than at the carbonyl group Such reactions proceed via enol intermediates and are described as conjugate addition ox 1 4 addition reactions... 

Reactions that proceed via enol or enolate intermediates are summarized m Table 18 1... 

The enol intermediate subsequently tautomerizes to acetic acid... 

Strong acids in aqueous solution convert allenes to ketones via an enol intermediate. This process also involves protonation at a terminal carbon. 

Hydration of alkynes (Section 9.12) Reaction occurs by way of an enol intermediate formed by Markovnikov addition of water to the triple bond. 

FIGURE 19.13 (a) A mechanism for the fructose-l,6-bisphosphate aldolase reaction. The Schlff base formed between the substrate carbonyl and an active-site lysine acts as an electron sink, Increasing the acidity of the /3-hydroxyl group and facilitating cleavage as shown. (B) In class II aldolases, an active-site Zn stabilizes the enolate Intermediate, leading to polarization of the substrate carbonyl group. 

Step conversion of 6 to 7 via an enol intermediate. It is important to note that this initial hypothesis was made with little supporting evidence. Amamath s data was inconsistent with the formation of the enol intermediate, thus the mechanism was revised to the version illustrated below. 

The halogenation is a typical a-substitution reaction that proceeds by acid-catalyzecl formation o.f an enol intermediate, as shown in Figure 22.4. 

Loss of an acidic proton from the alpha carbon takes place in ihe normal way to yield an enol intermediate. 

Another example of enzyme- and acid-catalyzed DKR has been reported by Bornscheuer [45]. Acyloins were racemized by using an acidic resin through the formation of enol intermediates. The enzymatic resolution was catalyzed by CALB. Since deactivation of this enzyme occurred in the presence of the acidic resin, they designed a simple reactor setup with two glass vials cormected via a pump to achieve a spatial separation between the acidic resin and the enzyme (Figure 4.20). 

The decarboxylation reaction usually proceeds from the dissociated form of a carboxyl group. As a result, the primary reaction intermediate is more or less a carbanion-like species. In one case, the carbanion is stabilized by the adjacent carbonyl group to form an enolate intermediate as seen in the case of decarboxylation of malonic acid and tropic acid derivatives. In the other case, the anion is stabilized by the aid of the thiazolium ring of TPP. This is the case of transketolases. The formation of carbanion equivalents is essentially important in the synthetic chemistry no matter what methods one takes, i.e., enzymatic or ordinary chemical. They undergo C—C bond-forming reactions with carbonyl compounds as well as a number of reactions with electrophiles, such as protonation, Michael-type addition, substitution with pyrophosphate and halides and so on. In this context,... 

Figure 2. Mechanism for exchange in methyl pyruvate and for its hydrogenation to methyl lactate via an enol intermediate. R = COOCH3...

Asymmetric conjugate addition of dialkyl or diaryl zincs for the formation of all carbon quaternary chiral centres was demonstrated by the combination of the chiral 123 and Cu(OTf)2-C H (2.5 mol% each component). Yields of 94-98% and ee of up to 93% were observed in some cases. Interestingly, the reactions with dialkyl zincs proceed in the opposite enantioselective sense to the ones with diaryl zincs, which has been rationalised by coordination of the opposite enantiofaces of the prochiral enone in the alkyl- and aryl-cuprate intermediates, which precedes the C-C bond formation, and determines the configuration of the product. The copper enolate intermediates can also be trapped by TMS triflate or triflic anhydride giving directly the versatile chiral enolsilanes or enoltriflates that can be used in further transformations (Scheme 2.30) [110],... 

A range of a-functionalised aldehydes have been used to generate acylazolium species via the corresponding enol intermediate. For example, addition of an NHC to an a-halo aldehyde 84 presumably generates the Breslow species 86, with elimination of HX to afford the enol 87. Subsequent in situ tautomerisation generates... 

Whilst the addition of a chiral NHC to a ketene generates a chiral azolium enolate directly, a number of alternative strategies have been developed that allow asymmetric reactions to proceed via an enol or enolate intermediate. For example, Rovis and co-workers have shown that chiral azolium enolate species 225 can be generated from a,a-dihaloaldehydes 222, with enantioselective protonation and subsequent esterification generating a-chloroesters 224 in excellent ee (84-93% ee). Notably, in this process a bulky acidic phenol 223 is used as a buffer alongside an excess of an altemativephenoliccomponentto minimise productepimerisation (Scheme 12.48). An extension of this approach allows the synthesis of enantiomericaUy emiched a-chloro-amides (80% ee) [87]. 

Alkynes are reactive toward hydroboration reagents. The most useful procedures involve addition of a disubstituted borane to the alkyne, which avoids complications that occur with borane and lead to polymeric structures. Catechol borane is a particularly useful reagent for hydroboration of alkynes.212 Protonolysis of the adduct with acetic acid results in reduction of the alkyne to the corresponding cw-alkene. Oxidative workup with hydrogen peroxide gives ketones via enol intermediates. 

Ketones are oxidatively cleaved by Cr(VI) or Mn(VII) reagents. The reaction is sometimes of utility in the synthesis of difunctional molecules by ring cleavage. The mechanism for both reagents is believed to involve an enol intermediate.206 A study involving both kinetic data and quantitative product studies has permitted a fairly complete description of the Cr(VI) oxidation of benzyl phenyl ketone.207 The products include both oxidative-cleavage products and benzil, 7, which results from oxidation a to the carbonyl. In addition, the dimeric product 8, which is suggestive of radical intermediates, is formed under some conditions. 

The ZnO was a very effective reagent as it caused dehydrobromination, simultaneous deacetylation, and tautomerization of the resulting enol intermediate.69... 

In Section 3.5 on alkene isomerization, it was mentioned that Li and co-workers reported a RuCl2(PPh3)3-catalyzed shuffling of functional groups of allylic alcohols in water (Eq. 3.35).140 Since the reaction proceeds through an enol intermediate, allyl alcohols can thus be considered as enol equivalents.203 This has been developed into an aldol-type reaction by reacting allyl alcohols with aldehyde (Scheme 3.11).204 The presence of In(OAc)3 promoted the aldol reaction with a-vinylbenzyl alcohol and aldehyde.205... 

Irradiation of the following ketone in acetic acid-d4 failed to produce product containing deuterium. Thus an enol intermediate cannot be involved in the ring opening<78) ... 

Some evidence for this mode of decarboxylation of the free acid has been obtained by trapping the enol intermediate (48). (3y-Unsaturated acids (49) probably also decarboxylate by an analogous pathway ... 

The occurrence of the indole subunit is well established within the class of natural products and pharmaceutically active compounds. Recently, the Reissig group developed an impressive procedure for the assembly of highly functionalized in-dolizidine derivatives, highlighting again the versatility of domino reactions [8]. The approach is based on a samarium(II) iodide-mediated radical cydization terminated by a subsequent alkylation which can be carried out in an intermolecular - as well as in an intramolecular - fashion. Reaction of ketone 3-11 with samarium(ll) iodide induced a 6-exo-trig cydization, furnishing a samarium enolate intermediate... 

Dehydration converting the imidazolone ring to imidazolinone seems to be sensitive to the aromatic nature of residue 66 [61, 62]. This step is thought to lead to the formation of an enolate intermediate, which can be trapped by reverse anaerobic chemical reduction of the mature chromophore using dithionite and other reducing agents [63]. 

Barondeau DP, Tainer JA, Getzoff ED (2006) Structural evidence for an enolate intermediate in GFP fluorophore biosynthesis. J Am Chem Soc 128 3166-3168... 

The Cu(acac)2-promoted transformation 368 - 369 represents an intramolecular carbenoid insertion into the penicillin C5—S bond 347). The original report did not mention the low-yield formation of a second product to which the tricyclic structure 370 was assigned 348,349 >. In both 369 and 370, the original stereochemistry at C-5 of 368 has been inverted this is seen as a consequence of intramolecular nucleophilic a-face attack in a presumed azetidinium enolate intermediate. Attempts to realize a more flexible intermediate which then would have a chance to undergo p-face attack centered on the chain-extended diazoketone 371. Its catalytic decomposition led to the tricycle 372 exclusively, however, C7/N rather than C5/S insertion having taken place 349). 

Initiation of MMA polymerization by complexes such as (192) was shown to proceed via a bimetallic bis(enolate) intermediate, arising from the dimerization of a radical anion.478" 80 Such a mechanism481,482 explains why efficiencies with such initiators (calculated from polymer molecular weights) are always <50%. Using a similar methodology, the bimetallic bisallyl complex (198) was shown to polymerize MMA in a living fashion (Mw/Mn 1.1) and triblock copolymers with methacrylate and acrylate segments have been prepared. 

It is supposed that the nickel enolate intermediate 157 reacts with electrophiles rather than with protons. The successful use of trimethylsilyl-sub-stituted amines (Scheme 57) permits a new carbon-carbon bond to be formed between 157 and electrophiles such as benzaldehyde and ethyl acrylate. The adduct 158 is obtained stereoselectively only by mixing nickel tetracarbonyl, the gem-dibromocyclopropane 150, dimethyl (trimethylsilyl) amine, and an electrophile [82]. gem-Functionalization on a cyclopropane ring carbon atom is attained in this four-component coupling reaction. Phenyl trimethyl silylsulfide serves as an excellent nucleophile to yield the thiol ester, which is in sharp contrast to the formation of a complicated product mixture starting from thiols instead of the silylsulfide [81]. (Scheme 58)... 

Alternatively, hydrogen sulfide could be produced alongside ammonia and acetaldehyde by the breakdown of the mercaptoimino-enol intermediate of the decarboxylation reaction of the cysteine-dicarbonyl condensation product. Fisher also points out that hydrogen sulfide is forms many odiferous an hence intensely flavoured products.2 Cysteine is important as it is one of the major sources of sulfur. 

The formation of methyl-oxazole compounds was also described by Wang et al. [34] utilizing an analog of the keto-enol intermediate (22) described in Sect. 2.1.1, Scheme 2. Scheme 11 shows the synthesis of compound 57 which exhibits anti-tubulin activity of 7.7. iM [34], In addition, a range of oxazole COX-2 inhibitors has been reported by Hashimoto et al. [55] employing similar chemistry. 

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