Iminium salts regioselectivity

With an unsymmetrical ketone as CH-acidic substrate, two regioisomeric products can be formed. A regioselective reaction may in such cases be achieved by employing a preformed iminium salt instead of formaldehyde and ammonia. An iminium salt reagent—the Eschenmoser salt—has also found application in Mannich reactions. ... 

On the other hand, the known facts point to an alternative interpretation. The stereochemical course of the reaction may be explained in terms of a polar [2s + 2s] cycloaddition15 which is observed in reactions between very electron-poor and very electron-rich alkcnes. Namely, polar [2 + 2] cycloadditions usually proceed with high regioselectivity ( head to head ) and stereoselectivity under mild conditions33 35. This mechanism is also supported by the fact that a closely related reaction (between an ynamine and iminium salts) passes through a cyclic 4-membered intermediate36, which is probably the result of a polar [2 + 2] cycloaddition (see refs 10 and 37). 

The usage of a,P-unsaturated iminium salts clearly represents a general and efficient solution leading to 2//-pyranyl products exclusively via the C-1,2-addition pathway. The reaction of the pyrone 22 led to the pyran product 23 in a much-improved yield relative to Moreno-Manas s study, and also gave previously unknown products 30b and 30c under these reaction conditions [Scheme 5]. The significance of using preformed a,P-unsaturated iminium salts to control regioselectivity of this formal cycloaddition reaction was recently validated in an account reported by Cravotto.39... 

Special steric or electronic influences may thwart the expected reaction pathway, as in the regio- and stereo-selective conversion of (86) to the pyrrolizidine (87 Scheme 42). This surprising formation of a five- instead of a six-membered ring is interpreted in terms of an aza-Cope equilibrium between the expected iminium salt (88) and its isomer (89 The latter finally cyclizes regioselectively in an exo-type mode to give (87). Further support for this assumption was obtained from quenching experiments with related compounds. ... 

When preformed iminium salts are utilized in Mannich reactions, the reaction medium no longer needs to be a protic solvent, so the use of aprotic solvents allows the transformation of sensitive intermediates such as metal enolates. L.A. Paquette et al. carried out the highly regioselective introduction of an exo-methylene functionality during the total synthesis of (-)-O-methylshikoccin by reacting a potassium enolate with the Eschenmoser salt. The resulting p-A/,A/-dimethylamino ketone was converted to the corresponding quaternary ammonium salt and elimination afforded the desired a,p-unsaturated ketone (Eschenmoser methenylation). 

Prior to the discoveries that lithium and other less electropositive metal cations were valuable counterions for enolate alkylations, the Stork enamine reaction was introduced to overcome problems such as loss of regioselectivity and polyalkylation that plagued attempts to alkylate sodium or potassium enolates of ketones or aldehydes.Methods of synthesis of enamines by reactions of ketones and aldehydes with secondary amines have been thoroughly reviewed.Enamine alkylations are usually conducted in methanol, dioxane or acetonitrile. Enamines are ambident nucleophiles and C- and V-alkylations are usually competitive. Subsequent hydrolysis of the C-alkylated product (an iminium salt) yields an... 

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-... 

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