Ester lithium enolates structure

The ester 7-1 gives alternative stereoisomers when subjected to Claisen rearrangement as the lithium enolate or as the silyl ketene acetal. Analyze the respective transition structures and develop a rationale to explain these results. 

Detailed investigations indicate that the enolization process (LDA, THF) affords enolates 37 and 38 with at/east 97% (Z)-stereoselection. Related observations have recently been reported on the stereoselective enolization of dialkylthioamides (38). In this latter study, the Ireland-Claisen strategy (34) was employed to assign enolate geometry. Table 10 summarizes the enolization stereo selection that has been observed for both esters and amides with LDA. Complementary kinetic enolization ratios for ketonic substrates are included in Table 7. Recent studies on the role of base structure and solvent are now beginning to appear in the literature (39,40), and the Ireland enolization model for lithium amide bases has been widely accepted, A tabular survey of the influence of the ester moiety (ORj) on a range of aldol condensations via the lithium enolates is provided in Table 11 (eq. [24]). Enolate ratios for some of the condensations illustrated may be found in Table 10. It is apparent from these data that ( )-enolates derived from alkyl propionates (Rj = CH3, t-C4H9) exhibit low aldol stereoselectivity. In contrast, the enolates derived from alkoxyalkyl esters (Rj = CHjOR ) exhibit 10 1 threo diastereo-... 

Carboxylic acids can be alkylated in the a position by conversion of their salts to dianions [which actually have the enolate structures RCH=C(0 )21497] by treatment with a strong base such as lithium diisopropylamide.1498 The use of Li as the counterion is important, because it increases the solubility of the dianionic salt. The reaction has been applied1499 to primary alkyl, allylic, and benzylic halides, and to carboxylic acids of the form RCHjCOOH and RR"CHCOOH.1454 This method, which is an example of the alkylation of a dianion at its more nucleophilic position (see p. 368), is an alternative to the malonic ester synthesis (0-94) as a means of preparing carboxylic acids and has the advantage that acids of the form RR R"CCOOH can also be prepared. In a related reaction, methylated aromatic acids can be alkylated at the methyl group by a similar procedure.1500... 

Be this as it may, lithium attempts to bind to several bonding partners the structural consequences for the enolates of a ketone, an ester, and an amide are shown in Figure 13.2 In contrast to the usual notation, these enolates are not monomers at all The heteroatom that carries the negative charge in the enolate resonance form is an excellent bonding partner such that several of these heteroatoms are connected to every lithium atom. Lithium enolates often result in tetramers if they are crystallized in the absence of other lithium salts and in the absence of other suitable neutral donors. The lithium enolate of fert-butyl methyl ketone, for example, crystallizes from THF in the form shown in Figure 13.3. 

The structure of mixed aggregates involving ester enolates is also of major interest to macromolecular chemists, since ionic additives are often introduced in the polymerization medium. The more stable arrangement between lithium 2-methoxyethoxide and MIB lithium enolate was thus calculated (at the DFT level) to be a 5 1 hexagonal complex with similar O—Li lateral coordinations212. The same team has recently extended this study to complexes formed between the same enolate in THF and a-ligands such as TMEDA, DME, 12-crown-4 and cryptand-2,1,1213. Only in the case of the latter ligand could a separate ion pair [(MIB-Li-MIB),2 THF]-, Li(2,l,l)+ be found as stable, still at the DFT level, as the THF solvated dimer [(MIB-Li)2,4 THF]. 

As shown below (Section IV), the lithium enolates are remarkable vectors of asymmetry. Indeed, the development of many chiral auxiliaries has been associated (in particular through their ester derivatives) with the enolate chemistry. We conclude this section with the contribution of a group of mathematical chemists who have tried to quantify the desymmetrization induced on enolate orbitals by common chiral auxiliaries219. This unusual viewpoint suggests that when the allylic stereogenic center is in the / position, the (Z) isomer has more chirality content than its (E) counterpart. This paper also concludes that in the enolates derived from Meyers oxazolines, the lithium cation distorts the structure but has little influence on its chirality. 

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). ... 

Few ester enolate crystal structures have been described. The lack of structural information is no doubt due to the fact that the ester enolates undergo a-elimination reactions at or below room temperature. A good discussion of the temperatures at which lithium ester enolates undergo this elimination is presented in the same paper with the crystal structures of the lithium enolates derived from r-butyl propionate (163), r-butyl isobutyrate (164) and methyl 3,3-dimethylbutanoate (165). It is significant Aat two of the lithium ester enolates derived from (163) and (165) are both obtained with alkene geometry such that the alkyl group is trans to the enolate oxygen. It is also noteworthy that the two TMEDA-solvated enolates from (163) and (164) are dimeric, while the THF-solvated enolate from (165) exists as a tetramer. 

The least highly substituted amide enolate whose structure is known is the lithium enolate of N -di-methylpropionamide (170). This enolate is obtained as a dimer solvated by TriMEDA, i.e. (171). The alkene geometry in (171) is opposite that found in the ester enolates from (163) and (165). Thus in the... 

For more conformationally-constrained chiral substrates, however, diastereoselectivity can be expected to be good to excellent. Lithium enolates derived from sterically unencumbered cyclohexanones undergo preferential axial acylation as illustrated by the reductive acylation of (R)-(-)-carvone 4 to afford a 3 1 mixture of esters 5 and 6. whereas equatorial acylation is favored in compounds that possess an alkyl substituent in a 1,3-syn-axial relationship to the reacting center, as in the conversion of tricyclic enone 7 to ester 8 (epimeric with the product from the more traditional sequence of acylation followed by alkylation). (In substrates of this kind it is assumed that the transition state structure is based on a twist-boat conformation which permits the reagent to approach along an axial-like trajectory on the less encumbered, lower face of the substrate.) ... 

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