Enolization definition

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. 

This area of reactivity has been the subject of excellent reviews (J5). Silyl enol ethers are not sufficiently nucleophilic to react spontaneously with carbonyl compounds they do so under the influence of either Lewis acids or fluoride ion, as detailed above. Few clear trends have emerged from the somewhat limited number of definitive studies reported so far, with ambiguities in diastereoisomeric assignments occasionally complicating the issue even further. 

Much attention has been devoted to the examination of chiral enolate systems in which metal ion chelation may play an important role in establishing a fixed stereochemical relationship between the resident chirality and the enolate moiety. This has resulted in the conclusion that enolate geometry is critical in the definition of 7r-l acial selection. The following sections discuss this effort in several different chemical systems. 

R3 R2 and R2 Ri gauche interactions however, for the same set of substituents, an increase in the steric requirements of either Rj or R3 will influence only one set of vicinal steric interactions (Rj R2 or R3 R2). Some support for these conclusions has been cited (eqs. [6] and [7]). These qualitative arguments may also be relevant to the observed populations of hydrogen- and nonhydrogen-bonded populations of the aldol adducts as well (see Table 1, entries K, L). Unfortunately, little detailed information exists on the solution geometries of these metal chelates. Furthermore, in many studies it is impossible to ascertain whether the aldol condensations between metal enolates and aldehydes were carried out under kinetic or thermodynamic conditions. Consequently, the importance of metal structure and enolate geometry in the definition of product stereochemistry remains ill defined. This is particularly true in the numerous studies reported on the Reformatsky reaction (20) and related variants (21). 

These equations do not provide complete definition of the reactions that may be of significance in particular solvent extraction systems. For example, HTTA can exist as a keto, an enol, and a keto-hydrate species. The metal combines with the enol form, which usually is the dominant one in organic solvents (e.g., K = [HTTA]en i/[HTTA]]jet = 6 in wet benzene). The kinetics of the keto -> enol reaction are not fast although it seems to be catalyzed by the presence of a reagent such as TBP or TOPO. Such reagents react with the enol form in drier solvents but cannot compete with water in wetter ones. HTTA TBP and TBP H2O species also are present in these synergistic systems. However, if extraction into only one solvent (e.g., benzene) is considered, these effects are constant and need not be considered in a simple analysis. 

R. E. Ireland and J. P. Vevert, A chiral total synthesis of (—) and (+) nonactic acids from carbohydrate precursors and the definition of the transition for the enolate Claisen rearrangement in heterocyclic systems, J. Org. Chem. 45 4259 (1980). 

Reactions of this type are referred to in a variety of terms, many of which are rather confusing and nondescriptive. They sometimes are classified as 1,4-additions, implying that addition occurs across the terminal positions of the conjugated system. A synonymous term is conjugate addition. When the nucleophile is a carbanion, the reaction is called a Michael addition. Thus, by this definition, Equation 17-7 represents a Michael addition. Another, perhaps more typical, example is the addition of an enolate to a conjugated ketone ... 

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