Homoenolate Enantioselective generation

A-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) are also efficient organocatalytic tools for generating homoenolate equivalents from a,P-unsaturated aldehydes. These reactive intermediates display a versatile reactivity in a number of catalytic transformations attesting to an important synthetic potential [38]. Recently, Scheldt et al. [39a] accomplished the first enantioselective protonation of a homoenolate species generated by a chiral NHC precursor 93 in the presence of DIE A and an excess of ethanol as the achiral proton source (Scheme 3.46). The suggested mechanism involves an initial addition of NHC 93 to the enal 89 followed by a formal 1,2-proton shift resulting in the formation of the chiral homoenolate equivalent 91. A diastereose-lective P-protonation/tautomerization sequence leads to the acyl triazolinium inter-... 

In 2007, Scheldt and co-workers reported the intramolecular desynunetrization of 1,3-diketones utilizing triazolinm pre-catalyst 249 (Scheme 39) [129], Generation of a homoenolate is followed by P-protonation and aldol reaction. In accordance with the proposed mechanism by Nair (Scheme 37), acylation occurs followed by loss of carbon dioxide. Cyclopentenes are formed in enantioselectivities up to 94% ee. The scope of this reaction is limited to aryl substitution of the diketone and alkyl substitution of R. 

The catalyzed generation of a chiral enolate equivalent, formed from an enal and a triazoHum-derived chiral V-heterocyclic car-bene, can undergo a hetero-Diels-Alderreaction withenones with excellent enantioselectivity and diastereoselectivity (eq 14, left side). Alternatively, the authors have previously shown that stronger bases, such as DBU, instead result in a homoenolate... 

In 2008, Zhang, Ying, and co-workers reported an organocatalytic p-amination reaction of a,p-unsaturated aldehydes with nitrosobenzene catalyzed by an NHC. Specifically, the addition of NHC to a,p-unsaturated aldehyde generates a homoenolate intermediate that reacts with nitrosobenzene to afford Af-phenylisoxazolidin-5-ones, followed by an acid-catalyzed esterification and Bamberger-type rearrangement to produce Af-PMP-protected p-amino esters. A preliminary study on the enantioselective reaction of... 

The Scheidt group reported a highly diastereo- and enantioselective NHC-catalyzed reaction of a,p-unsaturated aldehydes with nitrones to afford y-amino esters. It is postulated that a rare six-membered heterocycle is generated as the initial product of the reaction, which gives the final y-amino ester product upon the addition of an alcohol. The mechanism for this reaction involves the addition of the homoenolate equivalent to the nitrone as the stereochemical-determining step, and catalyst turnover is promoted by an intramolecular acylation after the tautomerization of enol to acyl azolium (Scheme 7.60). 

The Bode group have documented an NHC-catalyzed enantioselective synthesis of ester enolate equivalents with a,p-unsaturated aldehydes as starting materials and their application in inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reactions with enones. Remarkably, the use of weak amine bases was crucial DMAP (conjugate acid = 9.2) andN-methyl morpholine (NMM, conjugate acid pAa = 7.4) gave the best results. A change in the co-catalytic amine base employed in these reactions could completely shift the reaction pathway to the hetero-Diels-Alder reaction, which proceeded via a catalytically generated enolate. An alternative pathway that occurred via a formal homoenolate equivalent was therefore excluded. It is demonstrated that electron-rich imidazolium-derived catalysts favor the homoenolate pathways, whereas tri-azolium-derived structures enhance protonation and lead to the enolate and activated carboxylates (Scheme 7.71). 

The use of NHC catalysts to generate homoenolates for C-C bond formation has been reviewed (56 references), including enantioselective cases. °... 

In the absence of a suitable nucleophile, the homoenolate-derived acyl azolium intermediate can undergo deprotonation to generate a nucleophilic azolium enolate. Bode and coworkers showed such enolates to be competent dienophiles in hetero-Diels-Alder reactions with N-sulfonyl azadiene partners, providing dihy-dropyridinone products in very high diastereo- and enantioselectivity [106]. This work was quickly followed up by an analogous hetero-Diels-Alder reaction with oxodienes 130 (Scheme 18.25) [107]. In this case, the enolate intermediates (132)... 

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