Isocyanides from amines

Scheme 21 Synthesis of isocyanides from amines using PS-reagents...

For example, use of 10 different isocyanides and amines, along with 40 different aldehydes and carboxylic acids has the potential to generate 160,000 different dipeptide analogs.65 This system was explored by synthesizing arbitrarily chosen sets of 20 compounds that were synthesized in parallel. The biological assay data from these 20 combinations were then used to select the next 20 combinations for synthesis. The synthesis-assay-selection process was repeated 20 times. At the end of this process the average inhibitory concentration of the set of 20 products had been decreased from 1 mM to less than 11xM. 

The chemistry of the isocyanides began when, in 1859 Lieke formed allyl isocyanide from allyl iodide and silver cyanide, and when, in 1866 Meyer ° produced in the same way 1-isocyano-l-desoxy-glucose. In 1867, Gautier used this procedure to prepare alkylisocyanides, and Hofmann introduced the formation of isocyanides from primary amines, chloroform, and potassium hydro-xyde. Gautier also tried to prepare an isocyanide by dehydrating an amine formiate via its formylamine using phosphorus pentoxide, but this process produced no isocyanide. Gautier had not yet realized that acidic media destroyed the isocyanides. 

In addition, the six- to eight-membered lactams like 48, 49, and 50 have been formed from amines, carbonyl-carboxylic acids, and isocyanides (Scheme 1.14). 

Loss of Hydrogen Isocyanide from Aromatic Amines... 

Another electrophile that can interact with the isocyanide-derived amide is an aldehyde. However, an additional carbonyl function cannot be introduced as such into one of the components without interfering with the Ugi process. Thus it is better used in masked form as an acetal (Fig. 9). Starting from amine 49 a series of oxopiperazines 51 has been prepared, also on solid phase [66],... 

The synthesis of BENZYL ISOCYANIDE from benzaldehyde via reductive amination with 5-aminotetrazole followed by oxidation of the resultant amine with sodium hypobromite provides a general method for the synthesis of isocyanides. The preparation of BIS(2,2,2-TRICHLOROETHYL) AZODICARBOXYLATE makes available an alternative to dimethyl azodicarboxylate that is not only more reactive in Diels-Alder reactions but whose ester groups can be removed under neutral conditions. 

Finally, other reactions can be performed directly using water as a solvent. Ugi s four components reaction, for example, provides an expedient access to peptidic scaffolds starting from an isocyanide, an amine, an aldehyde and a carboxylic acid. However, in competition to Ugi s reaction, Passerini ester formation often pollutes the reaction mixture and it is of great interest to perform this type of highly complex transformation in supported versions. Indeed, when an ammonium chloride supported aldehyde, similar to those used in Grieco s multicomponent reactions, are dissolved in water in the presence of an amine, the imine formation occurs within 15 min and isocyanide and acid can subsequently be added to the mixture. After 24 h at room temperature, amides were isolated in high yield with no other purification than washing with diethyl ether [135] (Fig. 44). 

Members of the first library were synthesized by using 11 cyclen-containing carboxylic acids, 2 cyclen-containing amines, 9 aldehydes, and 5 isocyanides, from which 990 combinations are possible for the condensation reaction. Members of the second library were generated by using 40 carboxylic acids, 2 cyclen-containing amines, and 10 isocyanides. Thus, 800 combinations are available for the condensation reaction. Each condensation reaction of Schemes... 

This reaction was first reported by Hofmann in 1868. It is the synthesis of isonitriles (also known as isocyanides) from primary amines and chloroform in the presence of alkali and is known as the Hofmann isonitrile synthesis, Hofmann carbylamine reaction, or Hofmann carbylamine synthesis. This reaction has been used to test the presence of primary amines from the order of isocyanides. Alternatively, the isonitriles can be prepared by means of the treatment of formamide of primary amines with toluenesulfonyl chloride" or phosphorus oxychloride (POCls)." Currently, the isonitriles have gained much attention in organic synthesis because of their application as versatile building blocks for heterocycles and in multicomponent reactions to generate combinatorial libraries, such as that in the Passerini reaction and Ugi reaction ... 

The next important class comprises non-isocyanide-based MCRs. In contrast to IMCRs, non-isocyanide-based MCRs do not rely on the unique properties of isocyanides, but rather rely in most cases on the reactivity of imines generated in situ from amines and aldehydes. This class includes the Gewald reaction [4], the Hantzsch reaction [6], the Biginelli reaction [3], the Petasis reaction [47 9], the Kabachnik-Fields reaction [8, 9], the Povarov reaction [50], and the Doebner reaction [51]. 

The common impurities found in amines are nitro compounds (if prepared by reduction), the corresponding halides (if prepared from them) and the corresponding carbamate salts. Amines are dissolved in aqueous acid, the pH of the solution being at least three units below the pKg value of the base to ensure almost complete formation of the cation. They are extracted with diethyl ether to remove neutral impurities and to decompose the carbamate salts. The solution is then made strongly alkaline and the amines that separate are extracted into a suitable solvent (ether or toluene) or steam distilled. The latter process removes coloured impurities. Note that chloroform cannot be used as a solvent for primary amines because, in the presence of alkali, poisonous carbylamines (isocyanides) are formed. However, chloroform is a useful solvent for the extraction of heterocyclic bases. In this case it has the added advantage that while the extract is being freed from the chloroform most of the moisture is removed with the solvent. 

The present method utilizes dichlorocarbene generated by the phase-transfer method of Makosza4 and Starks.5 The submitters have routinely realized yields of pure distilled isocyanides in excess of 40%.6 With less sterically hindered primary amines a 1 1 ratio of amine to chloroform gives satisfactory results. Furthermore, by modifying the procedure, methyl and ethyl isocyanides may be prepared directly from the corresponding aqueous amine solutions and bromoform.7 These results are summarized in Table I. 

Isocyanides can be reduced to the corresponding hydrocarbons by (TMS)3SiH. The reaction can be considered as a smooth route for the deamination of primary amines. An example is given in Reaction (20). The key step for these chain reactions is expected to be the fragmentation of the intermediate radical derived from the fast addition of (TMSlsSi radical to the terminal carbon atom. 

Isocyanides can be prepared by elimination of water from N-alkylformamides with phosgene and a tertiary amine. Other reagents, among them TsCl in quino-... 

Another kind of combinatorial synthesis can be applied to reactions that assemble the product from several components in a single step, a multicomponent reaction. A particularly interesting four-component reaction is the Ugi reaction, which generates dipeptides from an isocyanide, an aldehyde, an amine, and a carboxylic acid. 

The diversity of the Ugi-MCR mainly arises from the large number of available acids and amines, which can be used in this transformation. A special case is the reaction of an aldehyde 9-26 and an isocyanide 9-28 with an a-amino acid 9-25 in a nucleophilic solvent HX 9-30 (Scheme 9.5). Again, initially an iminium ion 9-27 is formed, which leads to the a-adduct 9-29. This does not undergo a rearrangement as usual, but the solvent HX 9-30 attacks the lactone moiety. Such a process can be used for the synthesis of aminodicarboxylic acid derivatives such as 9-31 [3, 30],... 

The whole process, formation of the iminium ion by condensation of the aldehyde with an amine (1 min at 900 W in a domestic oven) then nucleophilic attack of the isocyanide (1 min at 450 W and 1 min cooling) takes 3 min to give yields ranging from 56 to 88% of the pure product. 

Nolte and coworkers reported on the formation of micelles with a helical superstructure from AB amphiphilic diblock copolymers prepared from an amine-end-capped polystyrene that was used as the initiator for the polymerization of various dipeptide-derived isocyanides (Fig. 16). 

Di-2-pyridyl sulphite (343) (from 2-pyridone and thionyl chloride in the presence of triethylamine) transforms primary aliphatic and aromatic amines RNH2 into N-sulphinylamines RN=S=0 and it dehydrates amides ArCONH2 to aryl cyanides, aldehyde oximes RCH=NOH (R = Cxlf 7. 4-MeOCgH4 or PhCH=CH) to the cyanides RCN and A-alkyl- and TV-ary Iformamides RNHCHO to isocyanides RNC. Aliphatic and aromatic... 

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