Grubbs synthesis

Fig. 8. First synthesis of carbohydrate-substituted polymers by ROMP using a defined orga-nometallic initiator. Grubbs synthesis of glucosamine-substituted polymers...

B. Mohr, D.M. Lynn, and R.H. Grubbs, Synthesis of water-soluble, aliphatic phosphines and their application to well-defined ruthenium olefin metathesis catalysts, Organometallics, 15(20) 4317 4325,1996. 

M. Scholl, S. Ding, C. W. Lee, and R. H. Grubbs, Synthesis and Activity of a New Generation of Ruthenium-Based Olefin Metathesis Catalysts Coordinated with 1,3-Dimesityl-4,5-dihydroimidazol-2-ylidene Ligands, Org. Lett. 1, 953-956 (1999). 

Internationally renowned authors, among them K. C. Nicolaou, H. Iwamura, R. H. Grubbs and H. Hopf, present the full potential of acetylene chemistry, from organic synthesis through materials science to bioorganic chemistry. 

Grubbs reported the synthesis of several N, N -aryl substituted imidazolinium salts 35 from chiral Ar,AT -aryl diamines obtained by palladium-catalyzed amination of the appropriate aryl bromide with (li, 2i )-diaminocyclohexane... 

In contrast, substituting the ort/to-methyl groups of SIMes with ortho-fluoride atoms profoundly alters the catalytic metathesis performance. In 2006, Grubbs and co-workers reported the synthesis of the fluorinated NHC-Ru catalysts 25 and 26 [41] (Fig. 3.8). Catalytic tests in the RCM of 1 to form 2 showed that the phosphine-free catalyst 26 was slower than the standard catalyst 16, which was consistent with theoretical investigations suggesting the electron-withdrawing fluoride atoms would lead to a decrease in catalyst activity [42]. However, in contrast to the computational... 

Olefin metathesis is one of the most important reaction in organic synthesis [44], Complexes of Ru are extremely useful for this transformation, especially so-called Grubbs catalysts. The introduction of NHCs in Ru metathesis catalysts a decade ago ( second generation Grubbs catalysts) resulted in enhanced activity and lifetime, hence overall improved catalytic performance [45, 46]. However, compared to the archetypal phosphine-based Ru metathesis catalyst 24 (Fig. 13.3), Ru-NHC complexes such as 25 display specific reactivity patterns and as a consequence, are prone to additional decomposition pathways as well as non NHC-specific pathways [47]. 

Scheme 4.14 Schreiber diversity-oriented synthesis plan (2000). (a) MeOH/THF, heat (57%) (b) 2KN(SiMe3)2, 2 CH2=CH2 Br (89%) (c) Grubbs catalyst (59%) (d) HF, pyridine (95%).

Olefin-metathesis is a useful tool for the formation of unsaturated C-C bonds in organic synthesis.186 The most widely used catalysts for olefin metathesis include alkoxyl imido molybdenum complex (Schrock catalyst)187 and benzylidene ruthenium complex (Grubbs catalyst).188 The former is air- and moisture-sensitive and has some other drawbacks such as intolerance to many functional groups and impurities the latter has increased tolerance to water and many reactions have been used in aqueous solution without any loss of catalytic efficiency. 

Hoveyda and coworkers [227] used a domino process to give chromanes 6/3-8 by treatment of 6/3-7 in the presence of ethylene. One of the first-generation Grubbs catalyst 6/3-9 and one of Blechert s [228] early examples allowed the synthesis of bicyclic compounds of different sizes, depending on the length of the tether thus, the reaction of 6/3-10 led to 6/3-11 using 30 mol% of the Schrock Mo complex 6/3-12. 

Another example of an efficient domino RCM is the synthesis of the highly functionalized tricyclic ring system 6/3-72 by Hanna and coworkers [252], which is the core structure of the diterpene guanacastepene A (6/3-73) (Scheme 6/3.21) [253]. Reaction of 6/3-71 in the presence of 10 mol% of Grubbs II catalyst 6/3-15 led to 6/3-372 in 93 % yield. Interestingly, the first-generation Ru-catalyst 6/3-13 did not allow any transformation. 

Another intramolecular ene-yne metathesis followed by an intermolecular metathesis with an alkene to give a butadiene which is intercepted by a Diels-Alder reaction was used for the synthesis of condensed tricyclic compounds, as described by Lee and coworkers [266]. However, as mentioned above, the dienophile had to be added after the domino metathesis reaction was completed otherwise, the main product was the cycloadduct from the primarily formed diene. Keeping this in mind, the three-component one-pot reaction of ene-yne 6/3-94, alkene 6/3-95 and N-phenylmaleimide 6/3-96 in the presence of the Grubbs II catalyst 6/3-15 gave the tricyclic products 6/3-97 in high yield (Scheme 6/3.28). 

Grubbs applied his ring-closing olefin metathesis reaction to the synthesis of (lS,5R)-44 as shown in Scheme 67 [99]. The key-step was the cyclization of A to give C. The unreacted anti-isomer B could be recovered and equilibrated to a mixture of A and B. 

A similar strategy served to carry out the last step of an asymmetric synthesis of the alkaloid (—)-cryptopleurine 12. Compound 331, prepared from the known chiral starting material (l )-( )-4-(tributylstannyl)but-3-en-2-ol, underwent cross-metathesis to 332 in the presence of Grubbs second-generation catalyst. Catalytic hydrogenation of the double bond in 332 with simultaneous N-deprotection, followed by acetate saponification and cyclization under Mitsunobu conditions, gave the piperidine derivative 333, which was transformed into (—)-cryptopleurine by reaction with formaldehyde in the presence of acid (Scheme 73) <2004JOC3144>. 

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