Ester Lithium enolate formation

Silyl ketene acetals from esters.1 Ireland has examined various factors in the enolization and silylation of ethyl propionate (1) as a model system. As expected from previous work (6, 276-277), use of LDA (1 equiv.) in THF at —78 -+ 25° results mainly in (E)-2, formed from the (Z)-enolate. The stereoselectivity is markedly affected by the solvent. Addition of TMEDA results in a 60 40 ratio of (Z)- and (E)-2 and lowers the yield significantly. Use of THF/23% HMPA provides (Z)- and (E)-2 in the ratio of 85 15 with no decrease in yield. This system has been widely used for (E)-selective lithium enolate formation from esters and ketones. Highest stereoselectivity is observed by addition of DMPU, recently introduced as a noncar-... 

As an alternative to lithium enolates. silyl enolates or ketene acetals may be used in a complementary route to pentanedioates. The reaction requires Lewis acid catalysis, for example aluminum trifluoromethanesulfonate (modest diastereoselectivity with unsaturated esters)72 74 antimony(V) chloride/tin(II) trifluoromethanesulfonate (predominant formation of anti-adducts with the more reactive a,/5-unsaturated thioesters)75 montmorillonite clay (modest to good yields but poor diastereoselectivity with unsaturated esters)76 or high pressure77. 

Ester enolates are somewhat less stable than ketone enolates because of the potential for elimination of alkoxide. The sodium and potassium enolates are rather unstable, but Rathke and co-workers found that the lithium enolates can be generated at -78° C.69 Alkylations of simple esters require a strong base because relatively weak bases such as alkoxides promote condensation reactions (see Section 2.3.1). The successful formation of ester enolates typically involves an amide base, usually LDA or LiHDMS, at low temperature.70 The resulting enolates can be successfully alkylated with alkyl bromides or iodides. HMPA is sometimes added to accelerate the alkylation reaction. 

One problem in the anti-selective Michael additions of A-metalated azomethine ylides is ready epimerization after the stereoselective carbon-carbon bond formation. The use of the camphor imines of ot-amino esters should work effectively because camphor is a readily available bulky chiral ketone. With the camphor auxiliary, high asymmetric induction as well as complete inhibition of the undesired epimerization is expected. The lithium enolates derived from the camphor imines of ot-amino esters have been used by McIntosh s group for asymmetric alkylations (106-109). Their Michael additions to some a, p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds have now been examined, but no diastereoselectivity has been observed (108). It is also known that the A-pinanylidene-substituted a-amino esters function as excellent Michael donors in asymmetric Michael additions (110). Lithiation of the camphor... 

Lithium ester enolate-imine condensation has been used for the preparation of / -lactam rings via addition at the imine moiety <1996H(43)1057>. But treatment of imino derivatives of the pyridazine 293 with the lithium enolate of ethyl a,a-dimethylacetate 294 in THE led to the formation of the pyrido[3,4-r/ pyridazine 295 and its oxidized form 296. Compound 295 was obtained by nucleophilic attack of the carbanion species at C-5 of the pyridazine ring followed by cyclization (Equation 24) <1996JHC1731>. 

Zinc enolates, made from the bromoesters, are a good alternative to lithium enolates of esters. The mechanism for zinc enoiate formation should remind you of the formation of a Grignard reagent. 

The original system considered by this group involved the lithium enolate and a chiral diether. The results suggest that the presence of an excess of the achiral lithium amide used to deprotonate the ester improves the induction level (Scheme 134)618. Remarkably, employing substoichiometric amounts (20 mol%) of the chiral ligand led to a marginal decrease in the e.e. value. The authors proposed that the formation of an intermediate ternary complex between the enolate, the excess lithium amide and the chiral diether could be responsible for the observed enantiomeric excesses. 

Selenenylations of ketones, esters, lactones and lactams are usually effected by the reaction of the corresponding lithium enolates with PhSeCl, PhSeBr and PhSeSePh (with the exception of ketones) at low temperature. Aldehydes have not been selenenylated in this manner. Table 4 illustrates some typical products that have been made in this way. Selenenylation has been especially useful in natural piquet synthesis for the formation of a-methylenelactones from the parent a-methyl compounds (Scheme 15 and Table 4), and has significant advantages over the more traditional methods for ef-... 

The formation of carbon-carbon bonds by conjugate addition of carbonucleophiles to a,/3-unsaturated systems has been studied intensively and reviewed over the past few years . Interestingly, applications with simple, unstabilized lithium enolates are relatively rare. Most reported examples are limited to the addition of stabilized enolates, such as those derived from malonates or acetoacetates. Nevertheless, some diastereo- and enantioselective versions of the conjugate addition, even with unstabilized lithium enolates, are well known. In 2004, Tomioka and coworkers studied the influence of a chiral diether (191) on the 1,4-addition of lithium ester enolates (189) to a,-unsaturated ketones (equation 51) . Their investigations showed that good enantioselectivities were obtained with cyclic enones, like 2-cyclopentenone (190) addition to a mixture of 189 and 191 gave the desired 1,4-adduct (R)-192 with 74% ee, but only 47% yield. Unfortunately, also the Peterson product 193 was formed in a yield of 22% by initial 1,2-addition of the enolate to the Michael acceptor. 

This method was further improved when it was found that readily available allyl esters of the general formula 493 could also be involved in Claisen rearrangements via intermediate formation of ketene derivatives such as lithium enolates 494 or trimethylsilyl ketene acetals 495 (the Ireland-Claisen variant" ). Moreover, rearrangement of these substrates into unsaturated acids 496 occurred easily at room temperature or below. This was in striking contrast to all previous versions of the Claisen rearrangement, which required heating at elevated temperatures (140-160 °C). The Ireland (silyl ketene acetal) variant of... 

The preferred formation of the kinetically favored (Z)-silylketene acetal with amide bases in THF can be rationalized by a cyclic transition state model (128) that enables a close interaction between Li cation, carbonyl oxygen and base (Scheme 23). The presence of additives such as HMPA or DMPU results in a greater degree of solvation of the lithium cation and a weakened Li -caibonyl oxygen interaction. Accordingly, the association between base and ester is diminished and the 1,3-diaxial strain in transition state (129) is reduced, whereas transition state (128) is still destabilized by A -strain." In the presence of a slight excess of ester in the enolization mixture, a kinetic resolution process accounts for an additional increase in the ratio of the ( )- vj. the (Z)-lithium enolate (Table 3). ° ... 

Generally, ester enolates of structure (202 R = M, R = Oalkyl) rearrange via a 3,3-shift, whereas the corresponding amide enolates (202 R = M, R = N(alkyl)2) and acid dianions (202 R = M, R = OM) prefer the 2,3-pathway (equation 20). Both pathways have been observed with ketone enolates (202 R = M, R = alkyl). With substrate (179), Koreeda and Luengo observed only traces of Wittig rearrangement product (205), except for the lithium enolate, where (205) accounted for up to 20% of the reaction mixture (equation 21). ° Thomas and Dubini, however, reported predominant formation of 2,3 Wittig products (207) and (209) under base treatment of ketones (206) and (208) (equation 22). ... 

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