Iminium salts reactions

The previous sections have dealt with stable C=N-I- functionality in aromatic rings as simple salts. Another class of iminium salt reactions can be found where the iminium salt is only an intermediate. The purpose of this section is to point out these reactions even though they do not show any striking differences in their reactivity from stable iminium salts. Such intermediates arise from a-chloroamines (133-135), isomerization of oxazolidines (136), reduction of a-aminoketones by the Clemmensen method (137-139), reductive alkylation by the Leuckart-Wallach (140-141) or Clarke-Eschweiler reaction (142), mercuric acetate oxidation of amines (46,93), and in reactions such as ketene with enamines (143). 

Few reactions of alkynes with C—X bonds are valuable for the preparation of four-membered hetero-cycles. Ynatnines react with aldehydes and ketones in the presence of Lewis acids to give unstable oxetene derivatives which undergo electrocyclic opening (Scheme 43). Open-chain products are also obtained with thiocarbonyl compounds,Schiff bases and iminium salts. Reactions of ynamines with carbon dioxide, ketenes, - ketenimines and isocyanates " often give mixtures of products and are of little preparative value. 

TL2733,82TL2737). The reaction proceeds through an aza-Cope rearrangement of the initially formed iminium salt, followed by intramolecular cyclization. 

The alkylation of imines by an alkyl halide to give an iminium salt will be illustrated by selected reactions over a period of years. A more complete survey is available (88). Decker and Becker (89) prepared a number of iminium salts (91, for example) by mixing methyl iodide and aromatic imines in benzene. 2,5-Dimethyl-2-pyrroline (92) has been alkylated and the... 

The iminium salts are of course especially Subject to attack by nucleophiles, and reactions of this type are discussed in Chapter 5. See also Section V.H. 

The course of the reaction appears to involve dehydrohalogenation of the intermediate iminium salt (30) to the new enamine (31), which then undergoes further alkylation. Evidence that alkylation in this case is directly on... 

In most reviews of enamine chemistry the reactions of iminium salts are scattered throughout the review and are consequently not covered in a comprehensive manner. This chapter will be an attempt to look at reactions that, at one stage or another, proceed by nucleophilic addition to the iminium intermediate. The subject of enamines has been reviewed 1-4) and certain aspects of iminium salt chemistry such as reduction of aromatic quaternary salts have been treated in detail (5). Consequently, the reduction of aromatic quaternary salts with complex hydrides will be presented here only briefly. Although the literature (especially 1950-1967) has been checked with care, the author can make no claim to completeness. The... 

The close agreement of the three methods supports the contention that protonation at low temperatures first occurs at nitrogen and is followed by a proton shift to give the iminium salt (M). The rate of this rearrangement is dependent on temperature, the nature of the amine, and the nature of the carbonyl compound from which the enamine was made. Even with this complication the availability of iminium salts is not impaired since the protonation reaction is usually carried out at higher temperatures than —70°. Structurally complicated enamines such as trichlorovinyl amine can be readily protonated (17,18). 

The initial investigation of the reaction of aldehydes and ketones with complex secondary amine salts was that of Lamchen et al. (11). A few salts had been observed before by Zincke and Wiirker (24), but the reaction was not examined in detail. Lamchen et al. prepared a number of compounds that were presumed to be iminium salts. The amine salts were halostannates, halobismuthates, haloantimonates, and hexahaloplatinates. Among the reported products were N-ethylidenepiperidinium (13) and N-cinnamili-denetetrahydroisoquinolinium (14) salts. 

A recent adaptation of the procedure employing perchlorate and fluoro-borate salts has been reported by Leonard and Paukstelis (J5). This report includes proof of structure by direct comparison to iminium salts prepared by protonation of enamines. The general reaction reported was that of a ketone or aldehyde with a secondary amine perchlorate to give iminium salts. A large structural variety of carbonyl compounds and several amine... 

The presence of iminium salts can be detected by chemical means or by spectroscopic methods. The chemical means of detecting iminium salts are reactions with nucleophiles and are the subject of this review. The spectroscopic methods are more useful for rapid identification because with the large number of model compounds available now the spectroscopic methods are fast and reliable. The two methods that are used primarily are infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Some attempts have been made to determine the presence of iminium salts by ultraviolet spectroscopy, but these are not definitive as yet (14,25). 

Organometallic reagents react with iminium salts to give C-alkylated products. The reactions can be divided into two categories the reactions of pyridinium, quinolinium, and isoquinolinium salts and the reactions of... 

Reaction of Grignard Reagents with Iminium Salts... 

Reaction of Iminium Salts with Lithium Reagents... 

A representative list of aziridinium salts prepared by reaction of iminium salts with diazomethane is given in Table 9. The reactions of aziridinium salts are many and varied, but will not be given here since their synthetic utility has been explored and reported elsewhere 109,112-114). The products from the reaction of iminium chlorides and diazomethane are reported in Table 10. Many more examples are available in the literature 16). 

The reaction of a large number of other nucleophiles with iminium salts will at least be mentioned in this section. Among the nucleophiles which react with iminium salts are cyanide 48,115-119), mercaptide 48), alkoxide 48), amine 120), azide 44), phosphine 44), and phosphate ester 44). One can say with little reservation that almost all nucleophiles will react... 

The reaction has been examined more recently by several groups with simple iminium salts and the results are analogous. Treatment of J -dehydro-sparteinium perchlorate (79) gave (—)-6-cyanosparteine (80) (46). Other examples of this reaction are listed in Table 11. 

The cyano group can enter into a number of reactions, including elimination to give the iminium salts (10, 48,63). 

Dialkyl phosphites and phosphines have been shown to react with iminium salts. There are only a few examples of such reactions so that the generality has not yet been determined (44). 

Azides have been shown to react with itniniutn salts to give addition products. The same product is obtained if the iminium salt is treated with azide ion or if the enamine is treated with hydrazoic acid 14). The yields of the products were all very high (85-95 %). The interest in this reaction centers on the fact that the azides react with isonitriles to give substituted tetrazoles (83) 44). 

The reaction of other nucleophiles such as amines 123,124), hydroxyl-amines, various carbanions, and hydroxide 120) have been tried but not examined in detail. Hydrolysis of iminium salts is covered elsewhere 123). 

The reaction of iminium salts such as 66 with salts of trichloroacetic acid has been shown to yield amides such as 84 on hydrolysis 126). It was suggested that the reaction proceeds by addition of dichlorocarbene to give an aziridinium intermediate (85), which was opened by trichloroacetate followed by hydrolysis to give the observed products 126). The observed products from the reaction can be accounted for by formation of CCI3,... 

The reactions with nucleophiles include a wide variety such as amines, sulfides (133,135), diazomethane (111), and others. Of particular interest were the reactions of such intermediate iminium salts with 2,3-dimethyl-butadiene to give cyclic products as shown in the reaction of N-bromo-methylpiperidine and N-bromo- and N-chloromethyldiethylamine (134). 

It has been shown (140) that enamines react as well, if not better, under the conditions of the Leuckart-Wallach reaction to give amines than do ketones in the presence of ammonia, primary amines, or secondary amines. This implies that in the Leuckart-Wallach reaction the pathway may be through the enamine and, of course, the iminium salt. The Leuckart-Wallach reaction has been reviewed (141). Examples of enamines reduced under the conditions of the Leuckart-Wallach reaction are listed in Table 12. 

As shown in the preceding pages, the uses that iminium salt chemistry has been put to are highly diversified. This elaboration of reactions should continue for a long time for there are some problems in iminium salt chemistry that are not answered and many questions that have not even been asked. The uses that iminium salts will be put to in the future as reaction intermediates are limited only by the ingenuity of chemists. 

Reactions at the carbon-nitrogen double bond of iminium salts are analogous to nucleophilic reactions at the carbonyl group of aldehydes and ketones. This is why free enamines do not react with nucleophilic reagents, whereas their salts can undergo such reactions. 

---