Ethyl 2- acrylate nucleophilic addition

Additional evidence for the contention that metathesis carbenes are nucleophilic was offered by Gassman in an interesting series of trapping experiments utilizing Michael acceptors as carbene traps (15, 17). Thus, an ethylidene carbene generated from 2-butene was trapped by ethyl acrylate to yield the expected ethylcyclopropyl ester, although yields were quite low. 

The Michael reaction involves conjugate addition of a nucleophile onto an a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compound, or similar system. Such reactions take place in nature as well, and some can be potentially dangerous to us. For example, the a,P-unsaturated ester ethyl acrylate is a cancer suspect agent. This electrophile can react with biological nucleophiles and, in so doing, bind irreversibly to the nucleophile, rendering it unable to carry out its normal functions. A particularly important enzyme that can act as a nucleophile is DNA polymerase, which is responsible for the synthesis of strands of DNA, especially as part of a DNA repair mechanism (see Section 14.2.2). The nucleophilic centre is a thiol grouping, and this may react with ethyl acrylate as shown. 

The nucleophilic reagent will depend on the heteroatom. If X=0 or S, base will probably be necessary, but if X=N, the amine itself should be nucleophilic enough to do conjugate addition. An example would be the amino ester 13. Numbering the carbon atoms 13a reveals the 1,3-relationship and C-N disconnection gives the secondary amine 14 and ethyl acrylate as reagents. 

The reaction starts with the (relatively nucleophilic) DABCO undergoing conjugate addition to ethyl acrylate. This will form an enolate that can then attack the acetaldehyde in an aldol reaction. 

KF/AI2O3 catalyzed hetero-Michael addition of ethyl acrylate with pyrrole as weakly nucleophile gives ethyl pyrrol-l-yl)propanoate 145 in moderate yield <2005TL3279>. 

In the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction, enolate intermediates are formed by addition of a nucleophilic catalyst to an a, 3-unsaturated carbonyl compound. These intermediates can be trapped with a variety of electrophiles,402 including azodicarboxylic esters (Eq. 102).403 The reaction fails with ethyl acrylate. 

One of the best methods developed by Whitesides et al. was an indium mediated direct nucleophilic addition of ethyl 2-(bromomethyl)acrylate to unprotected aldoses in aqueous media [111] (Scheme 36). An other advantage of this reaction is that it can be compatible with a variety of functional groups [111,112], The resulting allyl-compounds were produced in good yield. Ozonolysis, then cyclization of the resulting ketones afforded the corresponding ulosonic acids. 

In the late nineteenth century, Michael found that the enolate anion (46) derived from diethyl malonate reacts with ethyl acrylate at the P-carbon (as shown in the illustration) to give an enolate anion, 47, as the product. Remember from Chapter 22 (Section 22.7.4) that the a-proton of a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound such as diethyl malonate is rather acidic (pK of about 11), and even a relatively weak base will deprotonate to form the enolate anion. Michael addition of 46 with ethyl acrylate will give enolate anion 47, and aqueous acid workup leads to the isolated product, 48. Attack at the -carbon is possible because that carbon is less hindered than the acyl carbon, so reaction at the C=C unit is somewhat faster than attack at the acyl carbon. Michael addition occurs with relatively stable carbanion nucleophiles, such as malonate derivative 46 and some other common nucleophiles. Other conjugated carbonyl derivatives react similarly. 

Based on Mannich-type reactions of N-acryliminoacetates with silyl enol ethers, a new method for the preparation of N-acylated amino acid derivatives via nucleophilic addition to N-acrylimino ester has been developed using a polymer-supported amine and scandium catalysts (Scheme 12.5) [9]. Ethyl N-benzoyl-2-bromoglycine was used as a substrate. It could be readily converted to reactive N-acrylimino ester in situ by treatment with a base. Immobilizations of the amine and the scandium species into polymeric supports prevented loss of activity of the catalyst. The method is simple and provides a convenient method for the preparation of N-acrylated amino acid derivatives. 

Nitrogen nucleophiles Investigation of the Michael addition of imidazole to ethyl acrylate in dry media over basic catalysts by the in situ real-time Raman spectroscopy confirmed that the reactions proceed via a direct C-N bond formation no intermediate has been detected. ... 

Bicyclic keto esters can easily be prepared by a process called a,a -annulation.29 Thus, treatment of the enamine of cyclopentanone (64) with ethyl a-(bromomethyl)acrylate (98) affords, after work-up, the bicyclic keto ester (99) in 80% yield (equation IS).2911 The mechanism probably involves an initial Michael addition and elimination (or a simple Sn2 or Sn2 alkylation) followed by an intramolecular Michael addition of the less-substituted enamine on the acrylate unit. The use of the enamine of 4,4-bis(ethoxycarbonyl)cyclohexanone (100 equation 26) with (98) gives a 45% yield of the adaman-tanedione diester (101) (yield based on 100 70% when based on 98) via a,a -annulation followed by Dieckmann condensation.29 Enamines of heterocyclic ketones can also serve as the initial nucleophiles, e.g. (102) and (103) give (105) via (104), formed in situ, in 70% yield (Scheme 11 ).29>... 

Protected glycine derivatives have been used as the nucleophilic partner in enantioselective syntheses of amino acid derivatives by chiral PTC (Scheme 10.9). Loupy and co-workers have reported the addition of diethyl acetylaminomalonate to chalcone without solvent with enan-tioselectivity up to 82% ee [44]. The recent report from the Corey group, with catalyst 8a used in conjunction with the benzophenone imine of glycine t-butyl ester 35, discussed earlier, results in highly enantioselective reactions (91-99% ee) with various Michael acceptors (2-cyclo-hexenone, methyl acrylate, and ethyl vinyl ketone) to yield products 71-73 [21], Other Michael reactions resulting in amino acid products are noted [45]. 

Michael Addition. Titanium imide enolates are excellent nucleophiles in Michael reactions. Michael acceptors such as ethyl vinyl ketone, Methyl Acrylate, Acrylonitrile, and f-butyl acrylate react with excellent diastereoselection (eq 21 ). - Enolate chirality transfer is predicted by inspection of the chelated (Z)-enolate. For the less reactive unsaturated esters and nitriles, enolates generated from TiCl3(0-j-Pr) afford superior yields, albeit with slightly lower selectivities. The scope of the reaction fails to encompass p-substituted, a,p-unsaturated ketones which demonstrate essentially no induction at the prochiral center. Furthermore, substimted unsamrated esters do not act as competent Michael acceptors at all under these conditions. 

Attack on Unsaturated Carbon.- Tervalent phosphorus compounds are effective catalysts for the polymerization of acrylic acid derivatives, and the monomeric adducts which initiate the polymerization usually cannot be isolated. However, by addition of ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate to strongly nucleophilic tervalent phosphorus compounds it was possible to isolate monomeric adducts,... 

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