Iminium salts, addition from aldehydes

The first reaction is a Lewis-acid-catalysed reaction between the amine and the aldehyde ar.i addition of the allyl silane to the resulting iminium salt. Addition occurs at the other end of th allylic system and on the opposite face to the silicon. The most obvious way to put the reagent, together looks excellent until we realize, from the Newman projection, that the two Hs in tht product would then be anti whereas they are actually syn. 

Preformed iminium salts have been used extensively in organic synthesis. The facility of the condensation is a function of iminium salt substitution. Treatment of formaldehyde-derived methyl(methylene)ammonium halides (or trifluoroacetates) (46) with Grignard and lithium reagents results in the high yield formation of dimethylaminomethyl-containing compounds (47). Subsequent oxidation or alkylation of these products has been employed to generate terminal alkenes (48 Scheme 7). As expected, addition yields are modest for the more-hindered iminium salts derived from other aldehydes and are somewhat lower for those derived from cyclic ketones. ... 

Addition of Vinyl and Aryl Groups. The reaction of aromatic radicals, generated by decomposition of diazonium salts, with iminium salts in the presence of TiCE in aqueous media produces secondary amines (Eq. 11.53).91 The iminium salts are formed in situ from aromatic amines and aldehydes. 

V,/V-Dialkyl-RSMAs have been prepared by addition of silyllithium reagents to iminium salts formed in situ by reacting aldehydes with silylamines in the presence of lithium perchlorate. Although excellent yields have been obtained, except when starting from enolizable aldehydes, the use of the dangerous reagent lithium perchlorate makes this procedure less attractive.197... 

In analogy to the synthesis of iminium salts (Section 4.2.2.1.), acyiiminium ions (60) can be obtained from carbonyl precursors (1), such as ketones or aldehydes, and carboxylic acid amides (62 Scheme 30). In addition, other amides can be used, such as p-toluenesulfonamides, which lead to the corresponding N-tosylated iminium salts. ... 

The original Mannich reaction is the acid-catalyzed aminomethylation of enohz-able ketones with non-enolizable aldehydes and ammonia, primary amines, or secondary amines, which involves nucleophilic addition of ketone enols to iminium salts generated in situ from the aldehydes and the nitrogen compounds [183]. This three-component coupling reaction provides a powerful tool for carbon-carbon bond formation and introduction of nitrogen functionality. The classical Mannich reaction has some drawbacks in reaction efficiency, regioselectivity, and appli-... 

The corresponding reaction with (VAl-dimethylthioamides gives the enethiol tautomer of a thioacylsilane.4 a-Silylamines can also be made by addition of PhMe2SiLi to pyrazolium salts,4 and to iminium ions, created in situ from aldehydes and A-trimethylsilylamines. ... 

The first highly regio-, chemo-, diastereo-, and enantio-selective vinylogous Michael addition of oqa-dicyanoalkenes to oq/S-unsaturated aldehydes employs salts of a,a-diarylprolinol (103) (20 mol%) as organocatalysts. The reaction presumably involves the formation of an iminium species from the aldehyde as the first step of the cascade.153... 

There are, however, numerous organic precendents. The Cannizzaro reaction, in which two equivalents of a nonenolizable aldehyde such as bezaldehyde are reacted with hydroxide to form a primary alcohol and the salt of a carboxylic acid, is thought to involve hydride transfer to one aldehyde carbonyl from the carbonyl-addition product of the other aldehyde and hydroxide. The Leuckart reaction, formation of a tertiary amine from formic acid, a primary amine and either a ketone or an aldehyde, seems to procede via hydride transfer from formate to an iminium ion. And the Meervein-Ponndorf-Verley-Oppenauer reaction, the reversible transfer of hydrogen between ketones and secondary alcohols in the presence of excess aluminum isopropoxide, is almost certainly a hydride-transfer reaction. This latter process is of particular interest to us because it requires a metal, just as GI does. The aluminum acts as a Lewis acid, coordinating the carbonyl oxygen and... 

---