Grignard reagents conjugate addition

Addition-elimination. Axially chiral l,l -biphenyl-2-carboxylate esters are obtained by the reaction of 2-menthoxybenzoates with aryl Grignard reagents. Conjugate addition followed by elimination of a malonic ester unit constitutes a useful method for the access to (Z)-alkenes. The reagents are 1,1-dimetalloalkanes. 

Conjugate addition of vinyllithium or a vinyl Grignard reagent to enones and subsequent oxidation afford the 1.4-diketone 16[25]. 4-Oxopentanals are synthesized from allylic alcohols by [3,3]sigmatropic rearrangement of their vinyl ethers and subsequent oxidation of the terminal double bond. Dihydrojasmone (18) was synthesized from allyl 2-octenyl ether (17) based on Claisen rearrangement and oxidation[25] (page 26). 

Kharasch has shown that the presence of a small amount of cuprous chloride favored the conjugate addition of Grignard reagents to a, -un-saturated ketones rather than 1,2-addition. 

The Grignard reagent attacks the unsaturated ketones (3) and (6) from the relatively unhindered ot- or jS-side, respectively, perpendicular to the plane of the conjugated system. An analogous transition state (10) leading to axially substituted 1,6-addition products (11) from A -3-ketones (9) with methylmagnesium halide was suggested by Marshall. ... 

An alternate method for preparing a A -acetoxypregnane from A -20-keto starting materials involves the conjugate 1,4-addition of a Grignard reagent to C-16, followed by acetylation of the resulting enolate before work-... 

In contrast to these ring-opening reactions, it was observed by Horner and Schwahn that 4-arylidene-(isopropylidene and cyclo-hexylidene)-oxazolones react with alkyl Grignard reagents by conjugate addition to give saturated azlactones 29a as the only products [Eq. (18)]. 

The addition of Grignard reagents to unsaturated ketones gives mixtures resulting from 1,2-addition and 1,4-addition. In the presence of cuprous salts, however, the conjugate (1,4) addition is enhanced to the extent that the reaction becomes synthetically useful (11). Two examples of this procedure are given. 

Conjugate addition of an alkyl group to an c /S-unsaturated ketone (but not aldehyde) is one of the more useful 1,4-addition reactions, just as direct addition of a Grignard reagent is one of the more useful 1,2-additions. 

Substantially high diastereoselectivity was accomplished by the conjugate addition of Grignard reagents to the amide 1 derived from 1-ephedrine32. The reagent attacked from the Re-face of the double bond, as shown in 2, via a chelated intermediate. Low asymmetric induction was observed when butyllithium was used instead of butylmagnesium bromide. 

The conjugate addition of Grignard reagents to 2-cyclohexenone was promoted by catalytic amounts (2-4 mol %) of alkylcopper(I) complexes of the lithium amide prepared from N- (R)-1 -phenylethyl]-2-[(/ )-l-phenylethyliminojcycloheptatrienamine, Li[CuR(CHIRAMT)]52,11. However, 3-substituted cyclohexanones were obtained in very low ee (4-14%). 

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