Intramolecular cycloadditions azide dipoles

An in depth account of intramolecular 1,3-dipoIar cycloadditions involving dipoles such as nitrUe oxides, sUyl nitronates, H-nitrones, azides, and nitrUimines is presented with particular emphasis on the stereochemistry during the cycloaddition. Various methods employed for the generation of the dipoles and their applications to stereoselective synthesis are also discussed. 

Azide cycloaddition to electron-deficient dipolarophiles is normally HOMO-dipole LUMO-dipolaro-phile controlled, whereas the reverse is true for electron-rich dipolarophiles. Products with an electron-deficient group at the 5-position or an election-rich group at the 4-position are favored electronically in intramolecular cycloadditions, steric constraints can be expected to outweigh these considerations. 

It is well known that alkyl azides also behave as 1,3-dipoles in intramolecular thermal cycloaddition reactions. The formation of two carbon-nitrogen bonds leads to triazolines, which are usually not stable. They decompose after the loss of nitrogen to aziridines, diazo compounds, and heterocyclic imines. There are a limited number of examples reported in which the triazoline was isolated [15]. The dipolar cycloaddition methodology has been extremely useful for the synthesis of many natural products with interesting biological activities [16], In recent years, the cycloaddition approach has allowed many successful syntheses of complex molecules which would be difficult to obtain by different routes. For instance, Cha and co-workers developed a general approach to functionalized indolizidine and pyrrolizidine alkaloids such as (-i-)-crotanecine [17] and (-)-slaframine [18]. The key step of the enantioselective synthesis of (-)-swainsonine (41), starting from 36, involves the construction of the bicyclic imine 38 by an intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of an azide derived from tosylate 36, as shown in Scheme 6 [ 19). 

Ciufolini and co-workers demonstrated the use of 1,3-dipolar azide-olefin cycloaddition reactions in the total synthesis of ( )-FR66979 (52) [25], an antitiunor agent which is structurally related to the mitomycins [26]. Thus, the triazoline 50 was obtained as a single diastereomer by smooth cycloaddition of the activated double bond and the dipole in 49 by heating in toluene. Brief photolysis of 50 provided aziridine 51, which fragmented to 52 (Scheme 8B). Other intramolecular azide-alkene cycloaddition in natural product synthesis is illustrated by a munber of examples [27-32]. 

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