Ester lithium enolates solid state

SCHEME 60. Solid-state aggregation of (thio)ester lithium enolates (A) chelated dimer [(c-Pr= C(OLi)SBu-f)2, 2 TMEDA]236 (B) chelated hexamer of racemic (NH2CH(Me)CH2CH=C(OMe) OLi]6240... 

A few comments concerning the crystallization of carbanions are in order. These comments are based upon the personal experience developed in our own laboratory and also upon observations noted in the literature in the course of crystallizing enolate anions. Although alkali metal enolate anions are relatively unstable compounds, they have been prepared in the solid state, isolated, and characterized by IR and UV spectroscopy in the 1970s. Thus the ot-lithiated esters of a number of simple esters of isobutyric acid are prepared by metallation of the esters with lithium diisopropylamide in benzene or toluene solution. The soluble lithiated esters are quite stable at room temperature in aliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbon solvents and are crystallized out of solution at low temperature (e.g. -70 °C.). Alternatively the less soluble enolates tend to precipitate out of solution and are isolated by centrifugation and subsequent removal of the solvent. Recrystallization from a suitable solvent can then be attempted. The thermal stability of the lithiated ester enolates is dramatically decreased in the presence of a solvent with a donor atom such as tetrahydrofuran. 

Another example of the nucleophilic chloro ligand substitution involves the reaction of the zirconium dichloride complex 468 with lithium ester enolates (Scheme 112). Its reaction with 2 equiv. of stable lithium ester enolates such as lithium tert-butyl isobutyrate in TF1F produces the bis(ester enolate) complex 499 as a crystalline solid.344 The same reaction but with the unstable lithium methyl isobutyrate leads to the isolation of the decomposition product, the bis(methoxide) complex 500, which exists as a dimer in the solid state. Treatment of the bis(ester enolate)... 

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