Ethyl carbene

The chemistry of l,3-dithian-2-ylidene ethyl carbene has been studied. This carbene was prepared by the reaction of the parent hydrazone with NaH (Equation 57). It reacted with nucleophiles in situ to give a variety of trapping products <1996J(P1)2773>. 

The hydrolysis of 146 (isopropyl carbene) is also catalyzed by light although the effect is smaller than for 144a or 144b and the phenomenon was not studied in detail. On the other hand, no light-induced rate accelerations were observed for the hydrolysis of the cyclic carbene complexes 8 and 141, " or of the ethyl carbene complex 145. " It is unclear at this point what structural factors power the photochemical reaction shown in Scheme 18. 

An a-hydrogen elimination is the microscopic reverse of hydride insertion/imino formyl formation and affords the nickel(ii) hydride complex (c. Scheme 2). Subsequent olefin insertion and isocyanide insertion gives hydrocarbation product (f. Scheme 2). Isotopic labeling experiments by using < 4-ethylene or [Ni C(D)N(D)xylyl (triphos)](CF3S03)2 showed deuterium at both the methylene group and the methyl group of the a-ethyl carbene (f. Scheme 2), not expected in an alkene pathway. 

Analysis The carbene synthon is easy it can be ethyl diazoacetate NiCHCOiEt. The diene can be made by the Wittig reaction from a familiar aUylic bromide (TM 31). 

H-Pyran, 2-alkoxy-4-methyl-2,3-dihydro-conformation, 3, 630 4H-Pyran, 2-amino-IR spectra, 3, 593 synthesis, 3, 758 4H-Pyran, 4-benzylidene-synthesis, 3, 762 4H-Pyran, 2,3-dihydro-halogenation, 3, 723 hydroboration, 3, 723 oxepines from, 3, 725 oxidation, 3, 724 reactions, with acids, 3, 723 with carbenes, 3, 725 4H-Pyran, 5,6-dihydro-synthesis, 2, 91 4H-Pyran, 2,6-diphenyl-hydrogenation, 3, 777 4H-Pyran, 6-ethyl-3-vinyl-2,3-dihydro-reactions, with acids, 3, 723 4H-Pyran, 2-methoxy-synthesis, 3, 762 4H-Pyran, 2,4,4,6-tetramethyl-IR spectra, 3, 593 4H-Pyran, 2,4,6-triphenyl-IR spectra, 3, 593... 

Ring enlargement via an insertion of a carbene generated in the a-position to the ring is an established method and has also been applied to the synthesis of oxepins. The ()3-allylpalladium chloride catalyzed decomposition of substituted ethyl diazo(4/7-pyran-4-yl)acetates in benzene at room temperature gives ethyl oxepin-4-carboxylates 1 in excellent yield.190 The ester function can be replaced by the phosphonate group and other P = 0-functions (see Houben-Weyl,... 

Dibenzo[/>,rf]thiopyrylium tetrafluoroborate (1) reacts with ethyl lithiodiazoacetate at — 120 C to form the diazo compound 2 which, with dimeric ( 3-allyl)chloropalIadium at 20 C, gives ethyl dibenzo[ ,d]thiepin-6-carboxylate (3), via a carbene intermediate.5 Compound 3 is quite stable the ethoxycarbonyl group can be hydrolyzed by alkali and decarboxylated to give the corresponding parent compound 4 in good yield. 

Dichlorocarbene, generated by the action of 50 % potassium hydroxide on chloroform, adds to ethyl 1 W-azepine-l-carboxylate to furnish the all /rntu-trishomoazepine 12 in 35% yield280 (see Houben-Weyl, Vol. E 19b, p 1523). Subsequently, and as a result of a careful and detailed study of the addition of dichlorocarbene generated by the thermal decomposition of phenyl(trichloromethyl)mercury, it was deduced that carbene addition takes place sequentially in the order C4 —C5, C2—C3 and C6 — Cl. The intermediary mono- 10 and bis(dichlorocar-bene) 11 adducts have been isolated and characterized. 

Chlorins are also accessible by carbene additions to C-C double bonds on the periphery of metalloporphyrins. The most effective reaction on a preparative scale is the addition of ethyl diazoacetate in refluxing benzene to copper octaethylporphyrin (4) or meso-tetraphenylpor-phyrin in the presence of copper(I) iodide,100108b 110 which gives a diastereomcric mixture of chlorins, e.g. 5. 

Synthesis of aziridines by treatment of carbenes with imines was reported by Jacobsen [56]. A metallocarbene 104 derived from ethyl diazoacetate and copper fluorophosphate was treated with N-arylaldimines to form aziridines with reasonable diastereoselectivities (>10 1 in favor of cis) but with low enantioselectivities (about 44% ee). This was shown to result from a competitive achiral reaction path-... 

This area of research has only recently attracted the attention of synthetic organic chemists, but there has been a flurry of impressive activity in the area. Simple (i. e., unstabilized) carbenes suffer from many of the problems of nitrenes (vide infra) and most reported synthetically useful procedures use carbenoids the majority of recent reports have focussed upon reactions between a-diazoesters and imines in the presence of a range of catalysts. In one of the earliest reports of enantioselective carbene-imine reactions, for instance, Jacobsen and Finney reported that ethyl diazoacetate reacts with N-arylaldimines in the presence of cop-per(i) hexafluorophosphate with mediocre stereoselectivity to give N-arylaziridine carboxylates. Though the diastereoselectivities of the reaction were often acceptable (usually >10 1, in favor of the cis isomers) the observed enantioselectivity was low (no more than 44% ee Scheme 4.27) [33],... 

Photolysis of the sulphinyl-3H-pyrazole 587 in ether or methylene chloride leads to the formation of a relatively stable carbene 588 that can be identified by physical methods. When the irradiation is performed in ethyl vinyl ether or in furan, the expected cyclopropanes are formed smoothly and stereospecifically683 (equation 374). 

These complexes can be isolated in some cases in others they are generated in situ from appropriate precursors, of which diazo compounds are among the most important. These compounds, including CH2N2 and other diazoalkanes, react with metals or metal salts (copper, palladium, and rhodium are most commonly used) to give the carbene complexes that add CRR to double bonds. Ethyl a-diazoacetate reacts with styrene in the presence of bis(ferrocenyl) bis(imine), for example, to give ethyl 2-phenylcyclopropane-l-carboxylate. Optically active complexes have... 

The most significant and widely studied reactivity of the ruthenium and osmium porphyrin carbene complexes is their role in catalyzing both the decomposition of diazoesters to produce alkenes and the cyclopropanation of alkenes by diazoesters. Ethyl diazoacetate is used to prepare the carbene complex 0s(TTP)(=CHC02Et)... 

Rh(Por)l (Por = OEP. TPP, TMP) also acts as a catalyst for the insertion of carbene fragments into the O—H bonds of alcohols, again using ethyl diazoacetate as the carbene source. A rhodium porphyrin carbene intermediate was proposed in the reaction, which is more effective for primary than secondary or tertiary alcohols, and with the bulky TMP ligand providing the most selectivity. ... 

One such agent is prepared by NBS and peroxide bromination of ethyl 4-chiorophenylacetate (108) to give 109. This is converted by sodium hydride to the benzylic carbene, which is inserted into the double bond of ethyl acrylate to give cis-cyclopropane 110. Partial saponification cleaves the less hindered ester moiety to give 111. This is next converted to the alkoxyimide (112) on reaction with diethyl carbonate and diammonium phosphate. Stronger base (NaOEt)... 

Carbene complexes have also been prepared by transmetallation reactions. Lithiated azoles react with gold chloride compounds and after protonation or alkylation the corresponding dihydro-azol-ylidene compounds, e.g., (381) or (382), are obtained.22 9-2264 Silver salts of benz-imidazol have also been used to obtain carbene derivatives.2265 Mononuclear gold(I) carbene complexes also form when trimeric gold(I) imidazolyl reacts with ethyl chlorocarbonate or ethyl idodate.2266,2267 The treatment of gold halide complexes with 2-lithiated pyridine followed by protonation or alkylation also yields carbene complexes such as (383).2268 Some of these carbene complexes show luminescent properties.2269-2271... 

The synthetic utility of the ring expansion reaction was demonstrated by its application to the synthesis of thermolabile thiepins. When the diazo compound (66) obtained from benzo[c]thiopyrylium salt 65 was treated with palladium catalyst under the same conditions as in the case of 63, the product isolated was ethyl 2-naphthoate (68)48). The plausible reaction pathway is one comprising i) decomposition of 66 to the corresponding carbene intermediate, ii) ring expansion to the... 

The common by-products obtained in the transition-metal catalyzed reactions are the formal carbene dimers, diethyl maleate and diethyl fumarate. In accordance with the assumption that they owe their formation to the competition of olefin and excess diazo ester for an intermediate metal carbene, they can be widely suppressed by keeping the actual concentration of diazo compound as low as possible. Usually, one attempts to verify this condition by slow addition of the diazo compound to an excess (usually five- to tenfold) of olefin. This means that the addition rate will be crucial for the yields of cyclopropanes and carbene dimers. For example, Rh6(CO)16-catalyzed cyclopropanation of -butyl vinyl ether with ethyl diazoacetate proceeds in 69% yield when EDA is added during 30 minutes, but it increases to 87 % for a 6 h period. For styrene, the same differences were observed 65). 

As it is known from experience that the metal carbenes operating in most catalyzed reactions of diazo compounds are electrophilic species, it comes as no surprise that only a few examples of efficient catalyzed cyclopropanation of electron-poor alkeiies exist. One of those examples is the copper-catalyzed cyclopropanation of methyl vinyl ketone with ethyl diazoacetate 140), contrasting with the 2-pyrazoline formation in the purely thermal reaction (for failures to obtain cyclopropanes by copper-catalyzed decomposition of diazoesters, see Table VIII in Ref. 6). 

Palladium(II) acetate was found to be a good catalyst for such cyclopropanations with ethyl diazoacetate (Scheme 19) by analogy with the same transformation using diazomethane (see Sect. 2.1). The best yields were obtained with monosubstituted alkenes such as acrylic esters and methyl vinyl ketone (64-85 %), whereas they dropped to 10-30% for a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds bearing alkyl groups in a- or p-position such as ethyl crotonate, isophorone and methyl methacrylate 141). In none of these reactions was formation of carbene dimers observed. 7>ms-benzalaceto-phenone was cyclopropanated stereospecifically in about 50% yield PdCl2 and palladium(II) acetylacetonate were less efficient catalysts 34 >. Diazoketones may be used instead of diazoesters, as the cyclopropanation of acrylonitrile by diazoacenaph-thenone/Pd(OAc)2 (75 % yield) shows142). 

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