Enol specials

Silyl enol ethers are other ketone or aldehyde enolate equivalents and react with allyl carbonate to give allyl ketones or aldehydes 13,300. The transme-tallation of the 7r-allylpalladium methoxide, formed from allyl alkyl carbonate, with the silyl enol ether 464 forms the palladium enolate 465, which undergoes reductive elimination to afford the allyl ketone or aldehyde 466. For this reaction, neither fluoride anion nor a Lewis acid is necessary for the activation of silyl enol ethers. The reaction also proceed.s with metallic Pd supported on silica by a special method[301j. The ketene silyl acetal 467 derived from esters or lactones also reacts with allyl carbonates, affording allylated esters or lactones by using dppe as a ligand[302]... 

By analogy to the hydration of alkenes hydration of an alkyne is expected to yield an alcohol The kind of alcohol however would be of a special kind one m which the hydroxyl group is a substituent on a carbon-carbon double bond This type of alcohol IS called an enol (the double bond suffix ene plus the alcohol suffix ol) An important property of enols is their rapid isomerization to aldehydes or ketones under the condi tions of their formation... 

DimeriZa.tlon. A special case of the [2 + 2] cyclo additions is the dimerization of ketenes. Of the six possible isomeric stmctures, only the 1,3-cyclobutanediones and the 2-oxetanones (P-lactones) are usually formed. Ketene itself gives predominandy (80—90%) the lactone dimer, 4-methylene-2-oxetanone (3), called diketene [674-82-8], approximately 5% is converted to the symmetrical dimer, 1,3-cyclobutanedione [15506-53-3] (4) which undergoes enol-acetylation to so-called triketene [38425-52-4] (5) (44). 

Enols of simple ketones can be generated in high concentration as metastable species by special techniques. Vinyl alcohol, the enol of acetaldehyde, can be generated by very careful hydrolysis of any of several ortho ester derivatives in which the group RC02 is acetate acid or a chlorinated acetate acid. ... 

More recently, further developments have shown that the reaction outlined in Scheme 4.33 can also proceed for other alkenes, such as silyl-enol ethers of acetophenone [48 b], which gives the endo diastereomer in up to 99% ee. It was also shown that / -ethyl-/ -methyl-substituted acyl phosphonate also can undergo a dia-stereo- and enantioselective cycloaddition reaction with ethyl vinyl ether catalyzed by the chiral Ph-BOX-copper(ll) catalyst. The preparative use of the cycloaddition reaction was demonstrated by performing reactions on the gram scale and showing that no special measures are required for the reaction and that the dihydro-pyrans can be obtained in high yield and with very high diastereo- and enantioselective excess. 

A carbonyl compound with a hydrogen atom on its a carbon rapidly equilibrates with its corresponding enol (Section 8.4). This rapid interconversion between two substances is a special kind of isomerism known as keto-enol tautomerism, from the Greek Canto, meaning "the same," and meros, meaning "part." The individual isomers are called tautomers. 

Although the methodology described so far produces <5-oxo esters via diastereoselective enolate additions to enones, the same product may be obtained via an alternate sequence, i.e., addition of ketone or aldehyde enolates to a,j3-unsaturated esters or amides. Enolates of ketones are known to react with a,/ -unsaturated esters to give the Michael adducts50, however, the study of simple diastcrcoselectivity has, so far, been limited to special cases (MIMIRC reactions, Section 1.5.2.4.4.). 

The facial selectivity of a number of more specialized enolates has also been explored, sometimes with surprising results. Schultz and co-workers compared the cyclic enolate H with I." Enolate H presents a fairly straightforward picture. Groups such as methyl, allyl, and benzyl all give selective (3-alkylation, and this is attributed to steric factors. Enolate I can give either a- or (3-alkylation, depending on the conditions. The presence of NH3 or use of LDA favors a-alkylation, whereas the use... 

Enol ether protons are interesting in that their chemical shifts are unusually high field in comparison with other alkenes on account of lone pair donation into the double bond from oxygen (Structure 5.5). No special precautions are necessary when dealing with them as this is reflected in the values obtained using Table 5.6. 

Still another possibility in the base-catalyzed reactions of carbonyl compounds is alkylation or similar reaction at the oxygen atom. This is the predominant reaction of phenoxide ion, of course, but for enolates with less resonance stabilization it is exceptional and requires special conditions. Even phenolates react at carbon when the reagent is carbon dioxide, but this may be due merely to the instability of the alternative carbonic half ester. The association of enolate ions with a proton is evidently not very different from the association with metallic cations. Although the equilibrium mixture is about 92 % ketone, the sodium derivative of acetoacetic ester reacts with acetic acid in cold petroleum ether to give the enol. The Perkin ring closure reaction, which depends on C-alkylation, gives the alternative O-alkylation only when it is applied to the synthesis of a four membered ring ... 

Arthur Lachman. The Spirit of Organic Chemistry (New York Macmillan, 1899) 71. Also see Russell, "Specialism and Its Hazards," 2021 and Ihde, The Development of Modern Chemistry, who notes that while Wilhelm Wislicenus in 1896 isolated two ethyl formyl phenyl acetates that had keto and enol properties, it was only in 1911 that each form of acetoacetic ester was isolated free of contamination by the other at temperatures around - 78°C (330). 

The chemical diversity of carboxylic acid esters (R-CO-O-R ) originates in both moieties, i.e., the acyl group (R-CO-) and the alkoxy or aryloxy group (-OR7). Thus, the acyl group can be made up of aliphatic or aromatic carboxylic acids, carbamic acids, or carbonic acids, and the -OR7 moiety may be derived from an alcohol, an enol, or a phenol. When a thiol is involved, a thioester R-CO-S-R7 is formed. The model substrates to be discussed in Sect. 7.3 will, thus, be classified according to the chemical nature of the -OR7 (or -SR7) moiety, i.e., the alcohol, phenol, or thiol that is the first product to be released during the hydrolase-catalyzed reaction (see Chapt. 3). Diesters represent substrates of special interest and will be presented separately. 

Thus, ketone enolates easily substitute chlorine in position 2 of the electrophilic nucleus of pyrazine (1,4-diazabenzene), and even in the dark, the reaction proceeds via the Sj l mechanism (Carver et al. 1981). It is expected that the introduction of the second chlorine in the ortho position to 4-nitrogen in the electrophilic nucleus of pyrazine promotes the ion-radical pathway even more effectively. However, 2,6-dichloropyrazine in the dark or subjected to light reacts with the same nucleophiles by Sr.,2 and not S nI mechanism (Carver et al. 1983). The authors are of the opinion that two halogens in the pyrazine cycle facilitate the formation of a-complex to the extent that deha-logenation of anion-radicals in solution and a subsequent nucleophilic attack of free pyrazine radical become virtually impossible. Thus, the reaction may either involve or exclude the intermediate a-complex, and only special identification experiments can tell which is the true one. 

Aldol reactions have also been used as a means of macrocychzation in total synthesis and were quite successful in some cases. However, over a broader spectrum of substrates, the results are unpredictable at best and yields and stereochemical outcome vary greatly. The predominant reasons are difficulties in selective enolate formation in multi-carbonyl compounds, competing and equilibrating retro-aldolizations—especially with polyketides, which often possess several aldol moieties—and intermolecular instead of intramolecular reaction preference. Whereas most of these drawbacks may be overcome, substrate-independent stereocontrol plays a crucial role. At least one new stereocenter is formed during a macroaldolization, and because of the folding constraints involved, its configuration cannot be adequately predicted. Therefore, this can be useful in special cases but with the current possibilities is not the method of choice for a general diversity-oriented synthesis. 

Phenoxide ions are a special case related to enolate anions but with a strong preference for O-alkylation because C-alkylation disrupts aromatic conjugation. 

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