Fluxional aggregates

The high nucleophilicity of heterosubstituted allyllithium compounds makes them attractive reagents in synthetic organic chemistry. Structural studies of these compounds give a fundamental understanding about the control of the regioselectivity. Often, these studies are difficult due to the tendency of the compounds to form complex fluxional aggregates in solution. Piffl and coworkers have studied the dependency of the oxidation state of sulfur on the structure and electronic properties of the heterosubstituted... 

Static aggregates are characterized by coupling to next neighbours, while in fluxional aggregates remote nuclei are also involved. An empirical rule [13,55,74] for the coupling in static aggregates of type (RLi) is... 

Figure 4 Statistical distribution of deuterated and non-deuterated ligands in simple organolithium aggregates (a) monomer (b) dimer (c) static tetramer (d) fluxional tetramer...

Figure 5 Deuterium-induced isotopic fingerprints in Li NMR spectra of partially deuteriated organolithium aggregates (a) phenyllithium monomer (THF/penta-methyldiethylenetriamine — 122°Q (b) phenyllithium dimer (Et20/tetramethylethyl-enediamine -111°C) (c) methylhthium tetramer (R=CHj EtjO, — 92 Q (d) fluxional phenyllithium tetramer (Et20, — 102 C). The measu H/ H isotope shifts for 5( Li) are 19.2, 10.4, 15.6, and 7.0 ppb, respectively. All systems were Li labelled and 50% of the organic ligands were perdeuterated v C Li) = 58.88 MHz...

Fig. 19. Calculated intensities of C U1 multiplets of fluxional (RLi) aggregates in Li /-modulated spin-echo spectra as a function of evolution time for = 2 (—), 3 (...), 4 (-------). Data from ret 26.

So far computational studies had only limited influence on the development of new catalysts and were mainly used to explain results after the fact. Given the high fluxion-ality and multifaceted aggregation behavior of iridium hydride species and the many... 

Hilmersson and Davidsson studied by means of intensive NMR investigations a mixed 1 1 complex of n-BuLi and the Hthiated methoxyamine 6 (Scheme 1) in diethyl ether at -80°C [68]. A fluxional exchange between tetrameric and dimeric structures of the chiral Hthiated pyrrolidine 14 and -BuLi is apparent in diethyl ether solution [69]. With the Hthiated amine 15, a derivative of 6,75% ee of (S)-l-phenyl-l-pentanol was obtained in n-BuLi additions to PhCHO, using a ratio of 1.0 0.45 0.25 in diethyl ether at -116°C [37]. The N-methyl derivative gave only 2% ee, while the N-isopropyl derivative 16 yielded 82% ee under the same conditions. This demonstrates Ae crucial role of the N-isopropyl substituent in 16. Addition of dimethoxymethane increased the enantioselectivity of 16 to 91% ee of (S)-l-phenyl-l-pentanol. With Hthiated 16, enantioselectivities of up to 98.5% ee were achieved in butylations of aHphatic aldehydes [70]. Hilmersson demonstrated that the mixed Hthium amide/ -BuLi aggregate alkylates aldehydes faster than the pure -BuLi oHgomers, Eq. (2) [71]. 

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