Hydrogenation benzylic esters

By condensing the salts or the esters of either dithioformic (207) or dithiophenacetic acids with a-aminonitriles (206) 5-aminothiazoles (209), in which R] = hydrogen, benzyl and Rj = phenyl, carbethoxy, or car-bophenoxy, were obtained in fairly good yields (Scheme 108) (271). These reactions were carried out in aqueous ethereal solution at room temperature. Acyclic thioamides as intermediates in this reaction have been isolated in some cases (208). 

Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (entries 2 and 3 below) can be used to cleave benzyl esters in some compounds that contain sulfur, a poison for hydrogenolysis catalysts. 

Hydrogenolysis (Section 26.7) Cleavage of a bond by reaction with hydrogen. Benzylic ethers and esters, for instance, are cleaved by hydrogenolysis. 

Merck s thienamycin synthesis commences with mono (V-silylation of dibenzyl aspartate (13, Scheme 2), the bis(benzyl) ester of aspartic acid (12). Thus, treatment of a cooled (0°C) solution of 13 in ether with trimethylsilyl chloride and triethylamine, followed by filtration to remove the triethylamine hydrochloride by-product, provides 11. When 11 is exposed to the action of one equivalent of tm-butylmagnesium chloride, the active hydrogen attached to nitrogen is removed, and the resultant anion spontaneously condenses with the electrophilic ester carbonyl four atoms away. After hydrolysis of the reaction mixture with 2 n HC1 saturated with ammonium chloride, enantiomerically pure azetidinone ester 10 is formed in 65-70% yield from 13. Although it is conceivable that... 

Although these Boc derivatives underwent methylation with poor selectivity (compared to 3-amino-N-benzoyl butanoates [106] and Z-protected methyl 4-phen-yl-3-aminobutanoate [107]), epimers were succesfully separated by preparative HPLC or by flash chromatography. However, saponification of the methyl ester caused partial epimerization of the a-stereocenter and a two-step (epimerization free) procedure involving titanate-mediated transesterification to the corresponding benzyl esters and hydrogenation was used instead to recover the required Boc-y9 -amino acids in enantiomerically pure form [104, 105]. N-Boc-protected amino acids 19 and 20 for incorporation into water-soluble /9-peptides were pre-... 

Concomitant hydrogenolysis of a benzyl ester and hydrogenation of a diene were performed in one step over Pt02 in AcOEt.207 In contrast, 10% Pd(OH)2/C in AcOEt or EtOH at room temperature for 1 hour under hydrogen was used for the hydrogenolysis of a benzyl group without the saturation of a cyclic carbon-carbon double bond.208... 

Nitro Compounds. Under mild conditions, aromatic nitro compounds are hydrogenated easily to amines.518 The reaction may give partially reduced products, according to the circumstances. Palladium, platinum, and nickel are used frequently for this reaction. For example, nitro and benzyl ester functions are reduced on Pd(OH)2/C on THF and on Pd/C in EtOH.519 Aliphatic nitro groups are reduced more slowly. 

D Ben-Ishai. The use of hydrogen bromide in acetic acid for the removal of car-bobenzoxy groups and benzyl esters of peptides. J Org Chem 19, 62, 1954. 

Thus, the best compromises for Boc and Fmoc chemistries seem to be cyclohexyl and 2,4-dimethylpent-3-yl (Dmpn), which is of intermediate stability, and the removal of which by trifluoromethanesulfonic acid with the aid of thioanisole (see Section 6.22) leads to minimal imide formation (see Section 6.13). Points to note are that acidolysis of esters by hydrogen fluoride can lead to fission at the oxy-car-bonyl bond instead of the alkyl-oxy bond, thus generating acylium ions that can react with nucleophiles (see Sections 6.16 and 6.22), and that benzyl esters may undergo transesterification if left in methanol. The side reactions of cyclization (see Section 6.16) and acylation of anisole (see Section 6.22) caused by acylium ion formation do not occur at the side chain of aspartic acid.47-51... 

Hydrogenation is widely used for deproteetion of benzyl and benzyloxycarbonyl groups. Kappe s group [67,68] deprotected benzyl esters using continuous flow and then performed comparative experiments using conventional heating and microwave assisted transfer hydrogenation, whieh resulted in lower yields (53-65%) than when eompared to flow (80-85%). 

Common esters such as alkyl and benzyl carboxylates are easily dealkylated by sodium hydrogen telluride, sodium telluride and sodium ditelluride in DMF. In accordance with a typical S 2 displacement at the aUcoxy group carbon, methyl, ethyl and benzyl esters react smoothly. The nucleophilicity of the reagents is enhanced by the polar aprotic solvent, and the reactivity decreases with higher alkoxy chains due to steric hindrance (e.g. 

For the unsubstituted compound 197a-Me the 2R/2S ratio was only 5.6 1 [ 10b, c], yet in this case the absolute configuration was checked by X-ray crystal structure analysis. The a-azidoesters 197-R were converted to the a,)3-diamino acids 198-R as described above, i.e. by catalytic hydrogenation over palladium on charcoal and hydrolysis of the ester group (Scheme 58) [10b, c, 62]. Saponification was not necessary for the benzyl esters 197a,b,i-Bn. 

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