For enolate ions

Because carbonyl compounds are only weakly acidic, a strong base is needed for enolate ion formation. If an alkoxide such as sodium ethoxide is used as base, deprotonation takes place only to the extent of about 0. l% because acetone is a weaker acid than ethanol (pKa - 16). If, however, a more powerful base such as sodium hydride (NaH) or lithium diisopropylamide ILiNO -CjHy ] is used, a carbonyl compound can be completely converted into its enolate ion. Lithium diisopropylamide (LDA), which is easily prepared by reaction of the strong base butyllithium with diisopropylamine, is widely used in the laboratory as a base for preparing enolate ions from carbonyl compounds. 

The acetoacetate enolate ion (A in frame 54) is a reagent for the synthon B, the acetone anion. We shall discover how to add the COiEt activating group later. 

The nucleophilic portion of the reagent (Y m HY) becomes bonded to the p carbon For reactions carried out under conditions m which the attacking species is the anion Y an enolate ion precedes the enol... 

A reaction of great synthetic val ue for carbon-carbon bond for mation Nucleophilic addition of an enolate ion to a carbonyl group followed by dehydration of the 3 hydroxy aldehyde yields an a p unsaturated aldehyde... 

You have already had considerable experience with carbanionic compounds and their applications in synthetic organic chemistry The first was acetyhde ion m Chapter 9 followed m Chapter 14 by organometallic compounds—Grignard reagents for example—that act as sources of negatively polarized carbon In Chapter 18 you learned that enolate ions—reactive intermediates generated from aldehydes and ketones—are nucleophilic and that this property can be used to advantage as a method for carbon-carbon bond formation... 

Section 21 9 Michael addition of the enolate ions derived from ethyl acetoacetate and diethyl malonate provides an alternative method for preparing their a alkyl derivatives... 

Two techniques have been described for producing trimethylsilyl enol ethers from aldehydes or ketones (10) reaction of (CH2)2SiCl and (C2H3)2N in DMF and reaction of LiN(C2H3)2, which generates enolate ions in the presence of... 

Generally, methylation of enolate ions with isotopically tagged methyl iodide is a satisfactory labeling procedure. For example, application of this method has given the C-18 labeled steroids, (244) and (245) (see above), 17 -acetoxy-4jS-trideuteriomethyl-4a-methyl-l9-norandrost-5-en-3-one (264) and 19- C-testosterone acetate (268). Methylation of the anion derived from 17jS-acetoxy-4-methyl-l9-norandrost-4-en-3-one (263) with d3-methyl iodide occurs predominantly at C-4, yielding mainly the 4)S-trideuterio-methyl derivative (264) and about 10% of the corresponding C-4 epimer... 

In this paper Speziale and Smith 109) described experiments which led them to modify the mechanism proposed earlier 108) for the reaction of trivalent phosphorus compounds with haloamides. The first step is considered to be attack of the trivalent phosphorus compound on a chlorine atom of the halo amide (132) to produce a resonance-stabilized enolate ion (133). This is reasonable since under conditions where the trichloroamide... 

The familiar alkylation of -ketoesters followed by decarboxylation is still a useful route to a-alkyl ketones, although the alkylation of enamines is frequently the preferred route. Given below are two examples of alkylation of 2-carbethoxycycloalkanones (prepared in Chapter 10, Section I). In the first case, sodium ethoxide is the base employed to generate the enolate ion of 2-carbethoxycyclohexanone. In the second case, the less acidic 2-carbethoxycyclooctanone requires sodium hydride for the generation of the enolate ion. 

For reasons that we ll explore in Chapter 22, the presence of a carbonyl group renders the hydrogens on the a carbon acidic. Carbonyl compounds therefore react with strong base to yield enolate ions. 

Because they re negatively charged, enolate ions act as nucleophiles and undergo many of the reactions we ve already studied. For example, enolates react with primary alkyl halides in the SK2 reaction. The nucleophilic enolate ion displaces halide ion, and a new C-C bond forms ... 

The Sn2 alkylation reaction between an enolate ion and an alkyl halide is a powerful method for making C-C bonds, thereby building up larger molecules from smaller precursors. We ll study the alkylation of many kinds of carbonyl compounds in Chapter 22. 

As noted previously, conjugate addition of a nucleophile to the j3 carbon of an cr,/3-unsaturated aldehyde or ketone leads to an enolate ion intermediate, which is protonated on the a carbon to give the saturated product (Figure 19.16). The net effect is addition of the nucleophile to the C=C bond, with the carbonyl group itself unchanged. In fact, of course, the carbonyl group is crucial to the success of the reaction. The C=C bond would not be activated for addition, and no reaction would occur, without the carbonyl group. 

As noted in Section 22.1, a hydrogen on the a position of a carbonyl compound is weakly acidic and can be removed by a strong base to yield an enolate ion. In comparing acetone (pK, = 19.3) with ethane (p/C, 60), for instance, the... 

Carbonyl compounds are more acidic than alkanes for the same reason that carboxylic acids are more acidic than alcohols (Section 20.2). In both cases, the anions are stabilized by resonance. Enolate ions differ from carboxylate ions, however, in that their two resonance forms are not equivalent—the form with the negative charge on oxygen is lower in energy than the form with the charge on carbon. Nevertheless, the principle behind resonance stabilization is the same in both cases. 

When a hydrogen atom is flanked by two carbonyl groups, its acidity is enhanced even more. Table 22.1 thus shows that compounds such as 1,3-dikotoncs (/3-diketoncs). 3-oxo esters (/3-keto esters), and 1,3-diesters are more acidic than water. This enhanced acidity of jS-dicarbonyl compounds is due to the stabilization of the resultant enolate ions by delocalization of the negative charge over both carbonyl groups. The enolate ion of 2,4-pentanedione, for instance,... 

Enolate ions are more useful than enols for two reasons. First, pure enols can t normally be isolated but are instead generated only as short-lived intermediates in low concentration. By contrast, stable solutions of pure enolate ions are easily prepared from most carbonyl compounds by reaction with a strong base. Second, enolate ions are more reactive than enols and undergo many reactions that enols don t. Whereas enols are neutral, enolate ions are negatively charged, making them much belter nucleophiles. As a result, enolate ions are more common than enols in both laboratory and biological chemistry. 

As an example of enolate-ion reactivity, aldehydes and ketones undergo base-promoted o halogenation. Even relatively weak bases such as hydroxide ion are effective for halogenation because it s not necessary to convert the ketone completely into its enolate ion. As soon as a small amount of enolate is generated, it reacts immediately with the halogen, removing it from the reaction and driving the equilibrium for further enolate ion formation. 

The three-step sequence of 0) enolate ion formation, (2) alkylation, and (3) hydrolvsis/decarboxylation is applicable to all /Tketo esters with acidic a hydrogens, not just to acetoacetic ester itself. For example, cyclic /3-keto esters such as ethyl 2-oxocycIohexanecarboxylate can be alkylated and decarboxy-lated to give 2-substituted cyclohexanones. 

Two of the four general carbonyl-group reactions—carbonyl condensations and basic conditions and involve enolate-ion intermediates. Because the experimental conditions for the two reactions... 

There is no simple answer to this question, but the exact experimental conditions usually have much to do with the result. Alpha-substitution reactions require a full equivalent of strong base and are normally carried out so that the carbonyl compound is rapidly and completely converted into its enolate ion at a low temperature. An electrophile is then added rapidly to ensure that the reactive enolate ion is quenched quickly. In a ketone alkylation reaction, for instance, we might use 1 equivalent of lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) in lelrahydrofuran solution at -78 °C. Rapid and complete generation of the ketone enolate ion would occur, and no unreacled ketone would be left so that no condensation reaction could take place. We would then immediately add an alkyl halide to complete the alkylation reaction. 

On the other hand, carbonyl condensation reactions require only a catalytic amount of a relatively weak base rather than a full equivalent so that a small amount of enolate ion is generated in the presence of unreacted carbonyl compound. Once a condensation has occurred, the basic catalyst is regenerated. To carry out an aldol reaction on propanal, for instance, we might dissolve the aldehyde in methanol, add 0.05 equivalent of sodium methoxide, and then warm the mixture to give the aldol product. 

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