Heterocycles from malonic esters

Monocyclic Selenophens.—Selenophen has been prepared from butadiene and selenium dioxide. Selenophen-3-malonic esters have been prepared by condensation of l,4-dichlorobut-3-en-2-one with malonic esters followed by reaction with sodium selenide and cyclization. 2-(2-Selenienyl)-3,4-dicarbeth-oxyfuran has been prepared analogously to the thiophen derivative.The transient absorption spectra in the flash photolysis of selenophen have been studied. "" Butyl-lithium and phenyl-lithium attack 2,5-dimethoxyselenophen at the selenium atom, giving dibutyl selenide and diphenyl selenide, respectively, together with some dienes. " Quantitative studies of the acid- and base-catalysed hydrolyses of ethyl selenophen-2-carboxylate, of the reactions of selenophen-2-sulphonyl chloride and of 2-(chloromethyI)selenophen with aniline, and of selenophen-2-carboxaldehyde with aniline and with a phosphorus ylide have been carried out. The results were rationalized by correlation analyses with polar or electrophilic constants of heterocycles, depending on the electron demand of the side-chain. ""... 

Zhao, G.-L., Cordova, A. (2007). A one-pot combination of amine and heterocyclic car-bene catalysis direct asymmetric synthesis of p—hydroxy and p-malonate esters from a,p-unsaturated aldehydes. Tetrahedron Letters, 48, 5976-5980. 

PhSSPh with retention/ or photochemically/ Methyl phenyl N-methyl-sulphoximide gives adducts with ketones after conversion into its carban-ion, from which either tertiary alcohols are obtained by Al-Hg reduction under neutral conditions, or alkenes by reduction in aqueous acid, thus providing an alternative to the Wittig methylenation reaction/ Oxosul-phonium ylides formed by N-dimethylation followed by carbanion formation with NaH are useful as alkylidene-transfer reagents/ Uses of sulphoximides in heterocyclic synthesis have been reported methyl phenyl sulphoximide reacts through N with ethoxymethylene malonate esters. ... 

In its original form, the Michael addition consisted on the addition of diethyl malonate across the double bond of ethyl cinnamate in the presence of sodium ethoxide to afford a substituted pentanedioic acid ester. Currently, all reactions that involve a 1,4-addition of stabilized carbon nucleophiles to activated 7i-systems are known as Michael additions. Among the various reactants, enolates derived from p-dicarbonyl compounds are substrates of choice due to their easy deprotonation under mild conditions. Recently, Michael addition-based MCRs emerged as highly potential methodologies for the synthesis of polysubstituted heterocycles in the five- to seven-membered series. 

If we copy Nature rather more exactly, the Claisen ester condensation can be carried out under neutral conditions. This requires rather different reagents. The enol component is the magnesium salt of a malonate mono-thiol-ester, while the electrophilic component is an imidazolide—an amide derived from the heterocycle imidazole. Imidazole has a pK of about 7, Imidazolides are therefore very reactive amides, of about the same electrophilic reactivity as thiol esters. They are prepared from carboxylic acids with carbonyl diimidazole (CDI). 

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