Indium enolates

Indium enolates, prepared conveniently via transmetallation of lithium enolates with InCl3, react with aldehydes to give the corresponding /3-hydroxy esters (Table 20).325... 

Table 20 Reaction of indium enolates with aldehydes. Reproduced with permission ...

TABLE 13. Diastereoselective lacton syntheses using indium enolates... 

Hirashita, T., Kinoshita, K., Yamamura, H., Kawai, M., Araki, S. Afacile preparation of indium enolates and their Reformatskii- and Darzens-type reactions. Perkin 1 2000, 825-828. 

Indium enolates, prepared conveniently by transmetalation of hfhium enolates with IriCl j, react wifh aldehydes to give fhe corresponding -hydroxy esters [80]. Ultrasound irradiation promotes fhe Reformatsky reaction of aldehydes and ethyl bromoacetate wifh indium [81]. Indium-mediated Reformatsky reaction of phenyl a-bromoalkanoates wifh ketones or aldehydes gives di-, tri-, and tetrasubstituted -lactones (Scheme 8.57) [82]. Indium-mediated reaction of imines with ethyl bromoacetate gives 3-unsubstituted -lactams (Scheme 8.58) [83]. An indium-Refor-matsky reagent prepared from 2-(chlorodifluoroacetyl)furan couples with aldehydes (Scheme 8.59) [84]. 

Figure 8.112). The initial step for such a reaction was proposed to be the formation of indium enolate through 1,4-reduction of the a,P-unsaturated ketones... 

In a separate report, preparation of the lithium enolate of 31 in the presence of indium trichloride and benzaldehyde provided a 77% yield of 32 with complete trans selectivity however, sequential addition of indium trichloride and benzaldehyde provided Barbier-type products. Organotin enolates have also been used in a Darzens-type... 

Certain other metal ions also exhibit catalysis in aqueous solution. Two important criteria are rate of ligand exchange and the acidity of the metal hydrate. Metal hydrates that are too acidic lead to hydrolysis of the silyl enol ether, whereas slow exchange limits the ability of catalysis to compete with other processes. Indium(III) chloride is a borderline catalysts by these criteria, but nevertheless is effective. The optimum solvent is 95 5 isopropanol-water. Under these conditions, the reaction is syn selective, suggesting a cyclic TS.63... 

A tandem enolate-arylation-allylic cyclisation, in which an essential z-butyldimethylsilyl ether protecting group delays the cyclisation step until the Pd-catalysed arylation is complete, enables 1-vinyl-l//-[2]benzopyrans 54 to be prepared from 2-bromobenzaldehyde (Scheme 32) <00CC1675>. 4-Substituted isochromans 55 are formed from aldehydes by a Pd-catalysed termolecular queuing cascade. The sequence involves cyclisation of an aryl iodide onto a proximate alkyne followed by an allene insertion. Transmetallation with indium then allows addition to the aldehyde (Scheme 33) . 

Silyl enol ether (38), derived from D-glucose, undergoes a useful one-carbon extension by way of an asymmetric aldol reaction the conditions of the indium(ni) catalysis in water are very convenient. 

An interesting bifunctional system with a combination of In(OTf)3 and benzoyl-quinine 65 was developed in p-lactam formation reaction from ketenes and an imino ester by Lectka [Eq. (13.40)]. High diastrereo- and enantioselectivity as well as high chemical yield were produced with the bifunctional catalysis. In the absence of the Lewis acid, polymerization of the acid chloride and imino ester occurred, and product yield was moderate. It was proposed that quinine activates ketenes (generated from acyl chloride in the presence of proton sponge) as a nucleophile to generate an enolate, while indium activates the imino ester, which favors the desired addition reaction (66) ... 

Effective catalysts include TiCL,57 SnCl4,58 (CH3)3Si03SCF3,59 and Bu2Sn03SCF3.60 61 Indium trichloride catalyzes Mukaiyama additions in aqueous solution. The reaction is best conducted by preforming the aldehyde-InCl3 complex and then adding the silyl enol ether and water. 

Fluoral hydrate and hemiacetals are industrial products. They are stable liquids that are easy to handle, and they react as fluoral itself in many reactions. Thus, in the presence of Lewis acids, they react in Friedel-Crafts reactions. They also react very well with organometallics (indium and zinc derivatives) and with silyl enol ethers.Proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric aldol reaction of fluoral ethyl hemiac-etal with ketones produced jS-hydroxy-jS-trifluoromethylated ketones with good to excellent diastereo- (up to 96% de) and enantioselectivities. With imine reagents, the reaction proceeds without Lewis acid activation. The use of chiral imines affords the corresponding 8-hydroxy ketones with a 60-80% de (Figure 2.49). ° ... 

Keywords ketene silyl enol edier, ,/(-unsaturated ketone, Michael addition, indium trichloride, 1,5-dicarbonyl compound... 

Benzyl methyl ether or allyl methyl ethers can be selectively metalated at the benzylic/allylic position by treatment with BuLi or sBuLi in THF at -40 °C to -80 C, and the resulting organolithium compounds react with primary and secondary alkyl halides, epoxides, aldehydes, or other electrophiles to yield the expected products [187, 252, 253]. With allyl ethers mixtures of a- and y-alkylated products can result [254], but transmetalation of the lithiated allyl ethers with indium yields y-metalated enol ethers, which are attacked by electrophiles at the a position (Scheme 5.29). Ethers with ft hydrogen usually undergo rapid elimination when treated with strong bases, and cannot be readily C-alkylated (last reaction, Scheme 5.29). Metalation of benzyl ethers at room temperature can also lead to metalation of the arene [255] (Section 5.3.11) or to Wittig rearrangement [256]. Epoxides have been lithiated and silylated by treatment with sBuLi at -90 °C in the presence of a diamine and a silyl chloride [257]. 

The one-pot condensation of an ester enolate with an imine is a very powerful synthetic procedure toward azetidin-2-ones (Equation 183). Various types of esters and imines can be utilized. Although in the vast majority the reactions have been mediated by lithium, various other metals mediate the reaction as well. Some examples include zinc, aluminium, tin, boron, indium, and titanium <1996MI119>. Theoretical studies on these reactions have been reviewed <1998JCC1826>. 

Indium-mediated allylation of trialkyl(difluoroacetyl)silane 70 in aqueous media gives homoallylic alcohol 71 exclusively (Scheme 60). Both water and THF are essential for the allylation reaction. It is worth noting that homoallylic alcohol 71 is formed exclusively under these reaction conditions. On the contrary, enol silyl ether 72 is a major product of the fluorinated acylsilanes reaction with other organometallic compounds than indium via a Brook rearrangement and defluorination. Indium-mediated allylsilylation of carbonyl compounds provides a facile route to 2-(hydroxyethyl)allylsilanes. The allene homologs are similarly prepared (Scheme 61).244,244a... 

As a logical extension of the discrete bifunctional catalytic systems described above, Lectka et al. developed the homogeneous salicylate indium complex 22, containing the chiral nucleophile (alkaloid) and the Lewis acid (In(OTf)3) in a single unit, which exhibited excellent catalytic activity and stereoselectivity (90% yield, 99% ee, and 10 1 diastereomeric ratio (dr)) (Scheme 4.20) [47, 48]. Mechanistic studies revealed that the chiral nucleophiles form zwitterionic enolates that react with the metal-coordinated imines to form a ternary complex 23 in which C—C bond formation occurs. 

Taking into account the competitive hydrolysis of the silyl enol ether, this reaction is remarkable. The method was shown to be general and was extended to a variety of aldehydes and several a,j9-unsaturated carbonyl compounds giving uniformly 1,4-addition with aldehydes and a mixture of 1,4- and 1,2-adducts in the case of ketones [187]. Later, this aqueous version of the Mukaiya-ma reaction was shown to give near quantitative yields in the presence of a water-tolerant Lewis acid such as ytterbium triflate [188]. Keeping with the same concept,copper(II) triflate [189],indium(III) trichloride [190],tris(pentafluoro-phenyl)boron [191] and scandium(III) triflate in the presence of a surfactant [192] have proved to be active catalysts. 

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