Iminium ions

Na(CN)BH3 reduces iminium ions much more quickly than ketones or aldehydes... 

Presumably the species that undergoes reduction here is a carbinolamine an iminium ion derived from it or an enamme... 

The protonated imine is the dominant reactive form. Although the protonated aldehyde is more reactive, its concentration is very low because it is much less basic than the imine or the reactant hydroxylamine. On the other hand, even though the aldehyde may be present in a greater concentration than the protonated imine, its reactivity is sufficiently less that the iminium ion is the major reactant. ... 

The tetrasubstituted isomer of the morpholine enamine of 2-methyl-cyclohexanone (20) because cf the diminished electronic overlap should be expected to exhibit lower degree of enamine-type reactivity toward electrophilic agents than the trisubstituted isomer. This was demonstrated to be the case when the treatment of the enamine with dilute acetic acid at room temperature resulted in the completely selective hydrolysis of the trisubstituted isomer within 5 min. The tetrasubstituted isomer was rather slow to react and was 96% hydrolyzed after 22 hr (77). The slowness might also be due to the intermediacy of quaternary iminium ion 23, which suffers from a severe. 4< strain 7,7a) between the equatorial C-2 methyl group and the methylene group adjacent to the nitrogen atom, 23 being formed by the stereoelectronically controlled axial protonation of 20. 

The formation of 88 is postulated to be occurring by the nucleophilic attack of a hydride ion (47), abstracted from the secondary amine, on the a-carbon atom of the iminium salt (89). The resulting carbonium ion (90) then loses a proton to give the imine (91), which could not be separated because of its instability (4H). In the case of 2-methyIhexamethylenimine, however, the corresponding dehydro compound /l -2-methylazacyclo-heptene (92) was isolated. The hydride addition to the iminium ion occurs from the less hindered exo side. 

Steroidal a,j8-unsaturated ketones such as /l -3-ketones undergo a facile reaction with pyrrolidine to give the corresponding, d - -dienamines (111) (40,53). The reaction is much slower with morpholine and piperidine, which is undoubtedly due to the generation of the double bond exocyclic to the six-membered hetero rings in the step involving the dehydration of the intermediate carbinolamine (112) to the corresponding iminium ion (113). 

The reduction of the double bond of an enamine is normally carried out either by catalytic hydrogenation (MS) or by reduction with formic acid (see Section V.H) or sodium borohydride 146,147), both of which involve initial protonation to form the iminium ion followed by hydride addition. Lithium aluminum hydride reduces iminium salts (see Chapter 5), but it does not react with free enamines except when unusual enamines are involved 148). 

Two-step 1,4 cycloaddition of enamines, such as was observed with methyl vinyl ketone, is not possible with acrylate or maleate esters. This is due to the fact that, following the initial simple substitution, no side-chain carbanion is available for nueleophilic attack on the a carbon of the iminium ion. Likewise two-step 1,3 eycloaddition, such as that found when alicyclic enamines were treated with acrolein, is impossible with acrylate or maleate esters because transfer of the amine moiety from the original enamine to the side chain to form a new enamine just prior to the final cyclization step is not possible. That is, the reaction between a seeondary amine and an ester does not produce an enamine. 

Photolysis with visible light, DAP " TMSCN. The photochemical reaction generates an iminium ion that is trapped with cyanide."... 

A more practical solution to this problem was reported by Larson, in which the amide substrate 20 was treated with oxalyl chloride to afford a 2-chlorooxazolidine-4,5-dione 23. Reaction of this substrate with FeCL affords a reactive A-acyl iminium ion intermediate 24, which undergoes an intramolecular electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction to provide 25. Deprotection of 25 with acidic methanol affords the desired dihydroisoquinoline products 22. This strategy avoids the problematic nitrilium ion intermediate, and provides generally good yields of 3-aryl dihydroisoquinolines. 

Under acidic conditions, imine 12 is protonated to give the iminium ion 13 which undergoes an electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction to form the new carbon-carbon bond. Rapid loss of a proton and concomitant re-aromatization gives the tetrahydroisoquinoline 14. 

Treatment of an epimeric mixture of 4-substituted 2-(trimethylsilyloxy)-5-phenyl-3-phenylthio-l,4-oxazine 264 with ZnBr2 led to the stereoselective formation of perhydropyrido[2,l-c][l,4]oxazine 266 via the iminium ion 265 by the phenyl bearing stereocenter directed addition of the olefinic double bond from the /S-face of the cyclic moiety (97SL799, 98T10309). Similarly, an epimeric mixture of (45,9aS)-l-trimethylsilyloxy-4-phenyl-3,4,6,7-tetra-hydropyrido[2,l-c][l,4]oxazine was prepared by cyclization of (Z)-5(S)-phenyl-3-phenvlsulfanyl-2-trimethylsilyloxy-4-[4-(trimethylsilyl)but-3-enyll morpholine (OOSC2565). 

In all the reactions described so far a chiral Lewis acid has been employed to promote the Diels-Alder reaction, but recently a completely different methodology for the asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction has been published. MacMillan and coworkers reported that the chiral secondary amine 40 catalyzes the Diels-Alder reaction between a,/ -unsaturated aldehydes and a variety of dienes [59]. The reaction mechanism is shown in Scheme 1.73. An a,/ -unsaturated aldehyde reacts with the chiral amine 40 to give an iminium ion that is sufficiently activated to engage a diene reaction partner. Diels-Alder reaction leads to a new iminium ion, which upon hydrolysis af-... 

There have been extensive investigations on the reaction mechanism. In most cases the reaction proceeds via initial nucleophilic addition of ammonia 2 to formaldehyde 1 to give adduct 5, which is converted into an iminium ion species 6 (note that a resonance structure—an aminocarbenium ion can be formulated) through protonation and subsequent loss of water. The iminium ion species 6 then reacts with the enol 7 of the CH-acidic substrate by overall loss of a proton ... 

Q The nitrogen lone-pair electrons expel water, giving an iminium ion. 

Reaction of an aldehyde or ketone with a secondary amine, R2NH, rather than a primary amine yields an enamine. The process is identical to imine formation up to the iminium ion stage, but at this point there is no proton on nitrogen that can be lost to form a neutral imine product. Instead, a proton is lost from the neighboring carbon (the a carbon), yielding an enamine (Figure 19.10). 

Mechanism of enamine formation by reaction of an aldehyde or ketone with a secondary amine, R2NH. The iminium ion intermediate has no hydrogen attached to N and so must lose H+ from the carbon two atoms away. 

Elimination of water by the lone-pair electrons on nitrogen then yields an intermediate iminium ion. 

Amide reduction occurs by nucleophilic addition of hydride ion to the amicle carbonyl group, followed by expulsion of the oxygen atom as an alumi-nate anion leaving group to give an iminium ion intermediate. The intermediate iminium ion is then further reduced by JL1AIH4 to yield the amine. 

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