Intramolecular carbolithiation reactions stereoselectivity

Control of absolute stereoselectivity in the intramolecular carbolithiation reactions is not a completely solved subject and several approaches have been used ... 

Krief and coworkers have also shown that vinyl sulphides are useful traps for the intramolecular carbolithiation reactions. Interestingly, as the sulphide substituent can be reductively removed, the cyclization reactions of benzyllithiums derived from 73 and 75 are synthetically equivalents to cyclizations onto disubstituted double bonds, giving rise by complementary routes to compound 74 (Scheme 20)46. Like the corresponding carbolithiation reactions onto monosubstituted alkenes they are highly stereoselective but dependent on the solvent used, i.e. the derivatives in which the methyl- and the phenylthio groups are cis (THF) or trans (pentane) one to the other are selectively formed. 

This methodology has been applied to the synthesis of an advanced intermediate 211 related to the natural product (—)-a-kainic acid. The required stannane 210 was prepared in several steps from /3-lactam 209. Disappointingly, the major diastereoisomer (with respect to the new stereogenic centre) of the desired pyrrolidine 211 was not the expected one for similar cyclizations and has not the required stereochemistry across C-3 and C-4 for the synthesis of kainic acid (Scheme 56)95. Attempts to alter the stereoselectivity by changing the solvent were unsuccessful. The authors reasoned that if the intramolecular carbolithiation reaction takes place through a six-membered chair-shaped transition state, then different conformations must be preferred for the two different cyclizations leading to the cis-and frans-diastereoisomers of 211. 

The addition of organolithiums to polarised C=X bonds is one of the most widely used ways of making C-C bonds, and (excepting some unusual intramolecular cases) will not be discussed in this book other than to say it is a reliable and successful reaction. With a few exceptions,1 3 stereoselectivity is not a general feature of organolithium addition reactions to C=0 n bonds. Much of this chapter will concern controlled addition of organolithiums to C=C 7i bonds after an overview of carbolithiation, we shall review the development of intramolecular carbolithiation, or anionic cyclisation. 

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