Imine salts from ketones

When enamines are treated with alkyl halides, an alkylation occurs that is analogous to the first step of 12-14. Hydrolysis of the imine salt gives a ketone. Since the enamine is normally formed from a ketone (16-12), the net result is alkylation of the ketone at the a position. The method, known as the Stork enamine reaction is an alternative to the ketone alkylation considered at 10-105. The Stork method has the advantage that it generally leads almost exclusively to monoalkylation of the ketone, while 10-105, when applied to ketones, is difficult to stop with the introduction of just one alkyl group. Alkylation usually takes place on the less substituted side of the original ketone. The most commonly used amines are the cyclic amines piperidine, morpholine, and pyrrolidine. 

One of the most spectacular and useful template reactions is the Curtis reaction , in which a new chelate ring is formed as the result of an aldol condensation between a methylene ketone or inline and an imine salt. The initial example of this reaction was the formation of a macrocyclic nickel(II) complex from tris(l,2-diaminoethane)nickel(II) perchlorate and acetone (equation 53).182 The reaction has been developed by Curtis and numerous other workers and has been reviewed.183 In mechanistic terms there is some circumstantial evidence to suggest that the nucleophile is an uncoordinated aoetonyl carbanion which adds to a coordinated imine to yield a coordinated amino ketone (equation 54). If such a mechanism operates then the template effect is largely, if not wholly, thermodynamic in nature, as described for imine formation. Such a view is supported by the fact that the free macrocycle salts can be produced by acid catalysis alone. However, this fact does not... 

Acid (S)-12 was separated as its brucine salt [20,21] and subsequently converted into ketone (S)-ll. Hydroxyketones (K)-IO [22] and (S)-ll [23] were obtained by separation of the mixture of diastereoisomeric imines obtained from rac-10 or rac-ll and (-)-(S)-phenylethylamine. 

The mechanism of Gutknecht pyrazine synthesis has been studied and is well understood. Reduction of the a-oximino ketone affords an a-amino ketone. If the reduction is carried out under acidic conditions, the a-amino ketone may be isolated as an acid salt. These acid addition salts are entirely stable. In these salts the ketone carbonyl may be hydrated, and this is particularly true for a-amino aldehydes. However, as soon as the free base of the amine is generated, either from the salt or during reduction of the oxime if this is carried out under neutral or basic conditions, rapid bimolecular imine formation occurs, which is then followed by rapid intramolecular formation of a second imine to afford a dihydropyrazine. Oxidation to the pyrazine may occur spontaneously upon exposure to air, particularly in the presence of transition metals, and it is this facile aerobic oxidation that doubtless accounts for the isolation of pyrazines by early workers in the field. 

Aldehydes and ketones serve as useful precursors to amino acids when they are converted to a Schiff base (from aldehydes) or an imine (from ketones). Reduction of the imino C=N moiety, usually in situ, generates the amine. When 1.83 (m = 1, 2) was treated with ammonia, for example, the resulting iminium salt (1,84) was hydrogenated to give either 8-aminooctanoic acid (7.[Pg.18]

The imines are prepared by 16-12. The enamine salt method has also been used to give good yields of mono a alkylation of a,P-unsaturated ketones. Enamines prepared from aldehydes and butylisobutylamine can be alkylated by simple primary alkyl halides in good yields. N-alkylation in this case is presumably prevented by steric hindrance. 

Cyclopropyl ketones 32 and cyclopropyl imines 33 can also undergo [3+2] cycloaddition reactions with enones 34 in presence of NHC-Ni complexes to afford the corresponding cyclopentane compounds 35 (Scheme 5.9) [11]. The catalytic system is prepared in situ from the use of [Ni(COD),], SIPr HCl salt and KOBu, the reaction also required the use of Ti(O Bu) as an additive to improve yields and increase reactions rates. In most of the cases, th products 35 were obtained in good to excellent diastereoselectivities. 

The reactions proceeded efficiently under mild conditions in short time. The silyl enol ethers reacted with the activated acetals or aldehydes at -78 °C to give predominant erythro- or threo-products [136, 137] respectively. In the same manner, the aldol reaction of thioacetals, catalyzed by an equimolar amount of catalyst, resulted in <-ketosulfides [139] with high diastereoselectivity. In the course of this investigation, the interaction of silyl enol ethers with a,]3-unsaturated ketones, promoted by the trityl perchlorate, was shown to proceed regioselec-tively through 1,2- [141] or 1,4-addition [138]. The application of the trityl salt as a Lewis acid catalyst was spread to the synthesis of ]3-aminoesters [142] from the ketene silyl acetals and imines resulting in high stereoselective outcome. 

These are the most favourable of all and the precursors, such as the hydroxy acids, e.g. 15, cannot usually be isolated, though the carboxylate salts are stable. The only important thing is to get the oxidation level of the precursor right. Using cyclic amines as examples, a fully saturated ring 45 would come from an alkylation reaction on 46 X = a leaving group. Imines 47 or enamines 49 would come from aldehydes or ketones 48. 

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