Ethyl ketones, asymmetric aldol reaction

For the first example of direct catal3ftic asymmetric aldol reaction of ethyl ketones, see Mahrwald, R. Ziemer, B. Tetrahedron Lett. 2002, 43, 4459-4461. 

By the use of chiral oxazolidines derived from a chiral norephedrine and methyl ketones, an asymmetric aldol reaction proceeds in a highly enantioselective manner. In the case of ethyl or a-methoxy ketones, the corresponding anti aldol products were obtained with high diastereo- and enantioselectivities. A chiral titanium reagent, generated from... 

The development of enantioselective aldol reactions has been widely studied in conjunction with the synthesis of natural products. Highly enantioselective aldol reactions have been achieved by employing chiral enolates of ethyl ketones and propionic acid derivatives.(1) On the other hand, achieving high asymmetric induction in the asymmetric aldol reaction of methyl ketones is still a problem.(2)... 

Table 2. Asymmetric Aldol Reaction of Ethyl Ketones...

Fluoral hydrate and hemiacetals are industrial products. They are stable liquids that are easy to handle, and they react as fluoral itself in many reactions. Thus, in the presence of Lewis acids, they react in Friedel-Crafts reactions. They also react very well with organometallics (indium and zinc derivatives) and with silyl enol ethers.Proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric aldol reaction of fluoral ethyl hemiac-etal with ketones produced jS-hydroxy-jS-trifluoromethylated ketones with good to excellent diastereo- (up to 96% de) and enantioselectivities. With imine reagents, the reaction proceeds without Lewis acid activation. The use of chiral imines affords the corresponding 8-hydroxy ketones with a 60-80% de (Figure 2.49). ° ... 

Asymmetric aldol reactions.4 The borane complex 3 can also serve as the Lewis acid catalyst for the aldol reaction of enol silyl ethers with aldehydes (Mukaiyama reactions).5 Asymmetric induction is modest (80-85% ee) in reactions of enol ethers of methyl ketones, but can be as high as 96% ee in reactions of enol ethers of ethyl ketones. Moreover, the reaction is syn-selective, regardless of the geometry of the enol. However, the asymmetric induction is solvent-dependent, being higher in nitroethane than in dichloromethane. 

In 1999, Shibasaki et al. reported on the direct catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction (Scheme 8.36), which was not necessary to preconvert the ketone moiety into the more reactive species such as an enolate ion and enol ether." The addition of bulky aldehyde 248 into the mixture of ethyl methyl ketone 249 and LaLi3tris(/ -binaphthoxide) [(/ )-LLB)] afforded aldol adduct 250 in excellent stereoselectivity. However, this reaction required a large amount of ketones (50 equiv), and catalyst (20 mol%) were required. They improved the conditions to reduce the amount of ketone (5 equiv) and catalyst (8 equiv) by using the hetero-polymetallic asymmetric catalyst (Scheme 8.37). The addition of the catalytic amount of potassium bis(trimethylsilyl) amide (KHMDS) and H2O was found to be effective to the catalysis. Adduct 253 was converted into ester 254 by the... 

Extensive stmcture activity relationship (SAR) studies in this series revealed that unsymmetrical substitution on the heterocyclic ring and hence the introduction of chirality on the central carbon atom led to increased potency. Such asymmetrical dihydro-pyridines can be prepared by stepwise variation of the Hantzsch synthesis, based on the hypothetical alternate route to nifedipine. Thus, aldol condensation of methyl acetoacetate with 2,3-dichlorobenzaldehyde (13-1) gives the cinnamyl ketone (13-2). Reaction of that with the enamine (13-3) from ethyl acetoacetate gives the calcium channel blocker felodipine (13-4) [14]. 

In a similar manner, syn aldol reactions can be carried out with ethyl ketones using the Ipc2BOTf reagent. We showed that the asymmetric induction using diethyl ketone is reasonable (66-91% ee), with best results for a,jS-unsaturated aldehydes [35]. We also showed that this reaction could be extended to chiral ketones, for example, the stereoselective synthesis of either syn adduct 51 or 52 was achieved, depending on the configuration of IpciBOTf reagent (Scheme 9-17) [II]. 

The achiral ethyl ketone 218 (Scheme 9-59) has been used in the synthesis of epothilone B [79]. Here the asymmetric induction comes from aldehyde 219 alone and, at very low temperature, is surprisingly high (85%ds). It appears the unsaturated sidechain of the aldehyde plays an important role, as aldol addition to saturated aldehyde 220 led to an unselective reaction. 

Paterson et have prepared the enolate of 3-pentanone, an achiral ketone, with (-( )- or (-)-IpcaBOTf and have found that its aldol reactions with various aldehydes proceed with high syn.anti ratios (>9 1) and respectable enantioselectivities (5 1-20 1) (Scheme 44). High degrees of asymmetric induction are noted with unhindered aldehydes, llie combination of the chiral ethyl ketone (104) and (-t-)-Ipc2BOTf constitutes a matched pair, which enhances the diastereofacial selectivity of the resulting enolate (compared to that obtained with an achiral boron reagent), and provides via aldol reactions high... 

The asymmetric catalysis using SiCU and (107) is effective also in enantioselective Mukaiyama aldol reaction of TMS enolates derived from methyl ketones [164]. Addition of i-Pr2NEt improves the yield of adducts. The amine probably acts as a proton scavenger to suppress the protodesilylation of the enolates with adventitious HCl. The reaction of TMS enolates derived from ethyl ketones shows high anti diastereoselectivity as in the case of the TBS enolate of t-butyl propanoate. 

The preparation of the methyl ketone required for the aldol coupling reaction was accomplished by using the asymmetric alkylation of the unsaturated amide 158 according to a protocol developed by Myers [112]. Asymmetric alkylation of 158 with ethyl iodide gave 159 which was reduced to the primary alcohol (LiNH2, BH3) and protected as a PMB ether to produce, after oxidative cleavage of the olefin, the methyl ketone 160 which was converted to the trimethylsilyl enol ether 161 (LiHMDS, TMSC1) (Scheme 31). 

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