Equilibration of enolates

The equilibration of enol lactones with the corresponding nonenolizable /3-diketones, induced by heat, acid, or base, has long been known. In recent years several examples of their reversible photorearrangement of the type 43 44 have been published. Thus, the photorearrangement of enol lac-... 

EXAMPLE 10.8 Enols, compounds with an OH group directly bonded to a vinyl carbon, are normally less stable than the corresponding carbonyl ( keto ) isomer. [A few enols (e.g., phenols) exist predominantly or exclusively in the end form.] Though the uncatalyzed equilibration of enols with their keto isomers is usually slow, the rate of isomerization increases dramatically in the presence of a small amount of acid (HA) or base (B) ... 

There are numerous base-solvent combinations that are capable of quantitatively converting even weakly acidic simple ketones into their enolate anions. However, in order to avoid aldol condensation and unwanted equilibration of enolates of unsymmetrical ketones during enolate formation, it is best to choose conditions under which the ketone, the base and the metal enolate are soluble. Likewise, solutions should be produced when indirect methods of enolate formation are employed. While certain metal cations such as Hg form a-metallated ketones, most of the metal cations in Groups 1, II and III exist as 0-metallated tautomers. - For organotin derivatives both the 0-metallated and C-metallated forms probably exist in equilibrium. ... 

For esters, thermodynamic equilibration of enolates is less likely, but additives can still affect the selectivity. Using LDA in THF for example, deprotonation of ethyl propionate is 94% fO)-selective, but in THF containing 45% DMPU, deprotonation is 93-98% ZfO)-selective [36]. Ireland rationalizes this observation in terms of the transition states in Scheme 3.4 as follows in the absence of additives, there is a close interaction between the metal, the carbonyl oxygen and the base which leads to a tight transition structure and E(0)i is favored. In the presence of coordinating additives, there is more effective solvation for the lithium, and therefore weakened interaction between the lithium and the carbonyl oxygen. The cyclic transition structures will be expanded, and may even open to an acyclic transition structure. When the association between the base and the ester is diminished, the 1,3-diaxial strain in Z(0) is reduced, whereas E(O) (and acyclic structures with similar torsion angles) are still destabilized by AL3 strain [36]. 

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. 

A convenient synthesis of A -3-ketones in the 5 5 series uses DDQ in one step. This introduction has to be done indirectly because of the unfavorable direction of enolization. In this scheme, advantage is taken of the equilibrated formylation at C-2 of 5i5-3-ketones. Dehydrogenation of the 2-formyl derivative (72) proceeds rapidly with DDQ and deformylation is achieved in the presence of a homogeneous catalyst. A related approach involves preparation of the 2i -bromo-5i5-3-ketone by bromination of the 2-formyl compound (72). ... 

The classical aldol addition, which is usually run in protic solvents, is reversible. Most modern aldol methodologies, however, rely on highly reactive preformed metal enolates, whereby proton donors are rigorously excluded. As a consequence, the majority of recent stereoselective aldol additions are performed under kinetic control. Despite this, reversibility and, as a consequence, an equilibration of yrn-aldolates to a t/-aldolates by retro-aldol addition, should not be excluded a priori. 

The equilibrium ratios of enolates for several ketone-enolate systems are also shown in Scheme 1.1. Equilibrium among the various enolates of a ketone can be established by the presence of an excess of ketone, which permits reversible proton transfer. Equilibration is also favored by the presence of dissociating additives such as HMPA. The composition of the equilibrium enolate mixture is usually more closely balanced than for kinetically controlled conditions. In general, the more highly substituted enolate is the preferred isomer, but if the alkyl groups are sufficiently branched as to interfere with solvation, there can be exceptions. This factor, along with CH3/CH3 steric repulsion, presumably accounts for the stability of the less-substituted enolate from 3-methyl-2-butanone (Entry 3). 

John Ward has functionalized an indane using method D in route to tetra-petalone A (46) (Fig. 4.24).25 The o-OBoc benzyl alcohol 44 undergoes addition with two equivalents of Grignard and affords after acidic workup the phenolic indane 45 in 73% yield. Because of steric effects, only one diastereomer is observed after hydrolysis of the enol ether and thermodynamic equilibration of the... 

It has been postulated that these cycloheptenes must be formed via a 7r-allylruthenium intermediate (Scheme 59). The cyclization is initiated by activation of the allylic C-H bond to form the 7r-allylruthenium 234. The 1-exo-dig carboruthenation of the alkynoate 234 produces the hydrido-ruthenium enolate 235. Equilibration of 235 followed by reductive elimination gives the corresponding cycloheptenes 237 and regenerates the cationic ruthenium complex. 

Other studies have provided additional data on the relative stabilities of the lithium aldolates 14 and 15 derived from the condensation of dilithium enediolates 13 (Rj = alkyl, aryl) with representative aldehydes (eq. [ 10]) (16). Kinetic aldol ratios were also obtained for comparison in this and related studies (16,17). As summarized in Table 4, the diastereomeric aldol chelates 14a and ISa, derived from the enolate of phenylacetic acid 13 (R = Ph), reach equilibrium after 3 days at 25° C (entries A-D). The percentage of threo diastere-omer 15 increases with the increasing steric bulk of the aldehyde ligand R3 as expected. It is noteworthy that the diastereomeric aldol chelates 14a and 15a (Rj = CH3, C2HS, i-C3H7) do not equilibrate at room temperature over the 3 day period (16). In a related study directed at delineating the stereochemical control elements of the Reformatsky reaction, Kurtev examined the equilibration of both... 

Several investigations have addressed the synthesis of boryl eno-lates by carbonyl enolization. Kbster has examined in detail the thermal reaction of triethylborane with substituted ethyl ketones catalyzed by diethylboryl pivalate (58) (eq. [40]) (61). The boryl pivalate 58 is undoubtedly the active reagent in this system, and it is regenerated by the illustrated protonolysis (eq. [41]) (62). The vigorous conditions employed in this procedure probably result in the generation of the equilibrated boryl enolates. The enolate ratios obtained by way of this procedure are summarized in Table 18. 

It is important to perform both the Birch reduction of 5 and the alkylation of enolate 6 at —78 °C. Enolate 6 obtained directly from 5 at low temperatures is considered to be a kinetic enolate . A thermodynamic enolate obtained from 6 by equilibration techniques has been shown to give an opposite sense of stereoselection on alkylation. Although a comprehensive study of this modification has not been carried out, diastereoselectivities for formation of 8 were found to be greater than 99 1 for alkylations with Mel, EtI, and PhCH2Br. Thus, it should be possible to obtain both enantiomers of a target structure by utilization of a single chiral benzamide. SE... 

Evidently equilibration of the C-2 stereocentre occurs via the enol form of the ketester and only the 2(S)-3-oxobutanoate 12 is a substrate for the dehydrogenase DH-2 catalysing the irrerversible (S)-selective reduction. Because of the... 

It is important that the indicator color, showing a small excess of strong base, not be discharged completely since the presence of any excess enol acetate or ketone will permit equilibration of the isomeric metal enolates. Consequently, the addition of this reactant is complete if further additions will discharge completely the color of the indicator. 

If this precaution is not followed, partial or complete equilibration of the enolates will occur because of proton transfers between the enolates and the excess un-ionized ketone. In an experiment where a slight excess of ketone was added, the distilled, monoalkylated product (40% yield) contained 77% of the undesired 2,2-isomer and only 23% of the desired 2,6-isomer. However, it is also important in this preparation not to allow a large excess of lithium diisopropylamide to remain in the reaction mixture this base reacts with benzyl bromide to form iraws-stilbene which is difficult to separate from the reaction product. 

The abstraction of a proton a to a carbonyl group is not the only method for generating enolates and these alternative methods also offer possibilities for regio- and stereoselectivity. Thus, cleavage of silyl enol ethers (e.g., 1 and 3)9, 12 17 and enol acetates (e.g., 5)18 has been used for the generation of specific enolates. The conditions for these cleavages have to be chosen so that there is no equilibration of the lithium enolates formed. 

When treated with lithium diisopropylamide, the unsubstituted simple bicyclic y-lactam, hexa-hydro-3//-pyrrolizin-3-one (1), furnishes the corresponding enolate which reacts with (halo-methyl)benzenes to give the a-alkylation products with rather poor diastereoselectivity10. The major product 2 has cis configuration. Equilibration of the product with base gives a 72 28 mixture in favor of the frans-diastereomer10. 

The diastereoselectivity is reversed in the alkylation of the enolate derived from the structurally very similar bicyclic lactam, tetrahydro-3-phenyl-l//.577-pyrrolof 1,2-c]oxazol-5-one (3). Thus, the major diastereomer 4 produced has the tram relationship between the newly introduced substituent in the pyrrolidine ring and the fused oxazolidine ring residue11,12. Only active electrophiles such as iodomethane, 3-halopropenes or (halomethyl)benzenes react11,12. Base-catalyzed equilibration of the product obtained by reaction with 3-bromocyclohexene gives a 50 50 mixture of the cis- and rra s-diastereomers11. 

However, the more hindered, less basic lithium hexamethyldisilazamide reacts slowly with 1 at 0 °C to provide chemoselectively the desired enolate species 5. The a-protons of these rhenium-acyl complexes are believed to have a lower pKa than the cyclopentadienyl protons, but unless treated with hulky, selective hases the cyclopentadienyl protons exhibit greater kinetic acidity due to statistical factors and an earlier, reactant-like transition state since minimal rchybridiza-tion is required at the anionic center after cyclopentadienyl deprotonation. Equilibration of the cyclopentadienyl anion to the thermodynamically more stable enolate species cannot compete with the rapid acyl migration84. 

An investigation of keto-enol tautomerism for perfluorinated keto-enol systems was undertaken. N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) catalyzes equilibration of the keto and enol forms, but if used in more than trace amounts, it drives the equilibrium strongly toward enol because of hydrogen bonding to the amide. The enol is much more thermodynamically stable than its ketone, and it was found that in mildly Lewis basic solvents, such as ether, THE, acetonitrile, and NMP, the enohzation equilibrium lies too far right to allow detection of ketone (Correa et al., 1994). 

---