Esters zinc ester enolates, preparation

The insight that zinc ester enolates can be prepared prior to the addition of the electrophile has largely expanded the scope of the Reformatsky reaction.1-3 Substrates such as azomethines that quaternize in the presence of a-halo-esters do react without incident under these two-step conditions.23 The same holds true for acyl halides which readily decompose on exposure to zinc dust, but react properly with preformed zinc ester enolates in the presence of catalytic amounts of Pd(0) complexes.24 Alkylations of Reformatsky reagents are usually difficult to achieve and proceed only with the most reactive agents such as methyl iodide or benzyl halides.25 However, zinc ester enolates can be cross-coupled with aryl- and alkenyl halides or -triflates, respectively, in the presence of transition metal catalysts in a Negishi-type reaction.26 Table 14.2 compiles a few selected examples of Reformatsky reactions with electrophiles other than aldehydes or ketones.27... 

Zinc ester enolates may also be obtained by the addition of ZnX2 to lithium or sodium enolates as first described by Hauser and Puterbaugh (equation 6)P This approach has so far received little attention but similar reactions have been used to obtain zinc ketone enolates. In this regard, it should be noted that Heathcock and coworkers have shown that deprotonation reactions of ketones with zinc dialkylamide bases reach equilibrium at only about 50% conversion (equation 7). This result implies that attempts to prepare zinc enolates from solutions of amide-generated lithium enolates will be successful only when the lithium enolate is made amine-free. 

The optimum approach to kinetic stereoselection in the Reformatsky reaction would appear to be the use of two-stage procedures, which allows the zinc aldolates to be formed at the lowest possible temperature. Gaudemar-Bardone and Gaudemar prepared a variety of zinc ester enolates in dimethoxymethane at 40 C which were then reacted at lower temperatures with benzaldehyde or with acetophenone (equation 38). Selected data from their study are shown in Table 5. If these data are the result of total kinetic control, as concluded by the authors, it is clear that the reactions exhibit only a modest kinetic stereoselectivity. 

Van Koten and coworkers prepared zinc ester enolates of IV-protected a-amino esters from the corresponding lithium enolates and allowed them to react with imines at low temperature to obtain trans-3-amino-P-lactams, often with high stereoselectivity as shown in Scheme 19. Interestingly, the authors interpreted their results in terms of an internally chelated zinc-oxygen bonded enolate (37). 

The reaction between acyl halides and alcohols or phenols is the best general method for the preparation of carboxylic esters. It is believed to proceed by a 8 2 mechanism. As with 10-8, the mechanism can be S l or tetrahedral. Pyridine catalyzes the reaction by the nucleophilic catalysis route (see 10-9). The reaction is of wide scope, and many functional groups do not interfere. A base is frequently added to combine with the HX formed. When aqueous alkali is used, this is called the Schotten-Baumann procedure, but pyridine is also frequently used. Both R and R may be primary, secondary, or tertiary alkyl or aryl. Enolic esters can also be prepared by this method, though C-acylation competes in these cases. In difficult cases, especially with hindered acids or tertiary R, the alkoxide can be used instead of the alcohol. Activated alumina has also been used as a catalyst, for tertiary R. Thallium salts of phenols give very high yields of phenolic esters. Phase-transfer catalysis has been used for hindered phenols. Zinc has been used to couple... 

Further variations of the Claisen rearrangement protocol were also utilized for the synthesis of allenic amino acid derivatives. Whereas the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement led to unsatisfactory results [133b], a number of variously substituted a-allenic a-amino acids were prepared by Kazmaier [135] by chelate-controlled Claisen rearrangement of ester enolates (Scheme 18.47). For example, deprotonation of the propargylic ester 147 with 2 equiv. of lithium diisopropylamide and transmetallation with zinc chloride furnished the chelate complex 148, which underwent a highly syn-stereoselective rearrangement to the amino acid derivative 149. 

An alternative method for the preparation of a kinetic zinc ketone enolate (123) from an arene thiol ester 121 and bis(iodozincio)methane (122) in the presence of a palladium(O) catalyst was developed by Matsubara and coworkers (equation 36) . The modest reactivity of the zinc reagent 122 makes this transformation highly chemo- and regioselective neither isomerization of the kinetic enolate 123 nor a palladium-catalyzed coupling with the thiol ester 121 could be observed. Thus, treatment of zinc enolate 123 with various aldehydes or ketones led regioselectively to one aldol product 124. The method provides access to reactive functionalized zinc enolates which are otherwise hard to obtain. 

Anti diastereoselectivity gives the optically active (S)-p-hydroxy ester while syn diastereoselectivity leads to the (/ )-P-hydroxy ester, via a chelated six-membered transition state (eq 3). Since the anti intermediate is more stable, the (S)-P-hydroxy ester predominates under thermodynamic conditions (Table 1, entry 1). Higher diastereoselectivity is achieved by changing the counterion from lithium to a more chelating one such as zinc (Table 1, entry 2). On the other hand, in order to obtain diastereoselection under kinetic control, zirconium enolates (prepared by treating the lithium enolate with Dichlorobis(cyclopentadienyl)zirconium) are used, leading to the (/ )-p-hydroxy ester (Table 1, entry 3) in high yield. 

The six amino acids 63 were prepared individually, and mixed to give acids M-64 (see Scheme 13.15) [51]. Esterification of M-64, zinc-chelated ester enolate Claisen rearrangement of M-65, tert-butyl esterification, and removal of the Me3Si group yielded M-66. The alkynyl allenes M-67 were obtained by Af-propargylation. The allenic Pauson-Khand reaction of M-67 afforded three products (/ )-alkylidenecyclopentenone... 

The first report on the synthesis of P-lactams through an ester enolate-imine condensation was reported by Gilman and Specter close to 45 years ago [68]. The method involved reaction between an a-bromoester and an imine in the presence of zinc and iodine as catalyst to give P-aminoesters or P-lactams, depending on the reaction conditions employed. The mechanistic and stereochemical features of this reaction have been widely studied [69], however its utility in the preparation of valuable P-lactams for carbapenem synthesis has received very little attention. Recently we [70a] demonstrated the utility of this reaction for the preparation of 3-alkyl-4-acetoxyazetidin-2-ones as precursors for the synthesis of ( ) PS-5 and ( ) PS-6 antibiotics. 

Enol esters are prepared by interaction of a fatty acid with an alkyne (in the presence of zinc stearate) or with isopropenyl acetate. They are powerful... 

Transition Metal-Catalyzed Allylie Alkylation. Chelated amino acid ester enolates were found to be suitable nucleophiles for palladium-catalyzed allylie alkylations (eq 25). They were conveniently prepared by deprotonation of a glycine derivative with LHMDS followed by transmetallation with zinc chloride. The palladium-catalyzed allylie alkylation then takes place in the presence of allyl carbonates to produce the desired anti amino acid derivative. ... 

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