Isolable 2/7-azirine

The Neber rearrangement involves the base-catalyzed conversion of oxime tosylates, quaternary salts of hydrazones or /V-chloroimines to a-amino ketones via isolable azirine intermediates (equation... 

Photolysis and thermolysis of isoxazoles and oxazoles causes ring-contraction to 2-acyl-2H-azirines, as shown in Scheme 92 . The azirines may be observed in some cases, or may be transformed without observation to other heterocycles. Equation (74) shows an example where the azirine was isolated in good yield <88TL6067>. An isolable azirine was also formed in the photolysis of a 4-acylisoxazole <90JOC40ll>. 

In 1980 Dunkin and Thomson [84] studied the photochemistry of these azides by infrared spectroscopy. These workers photolyzed 1- and 2-naphthyl azides in argon at 10 K and observed the formation of several new IR bands between 1708 and 1736 cm 1 attributed to azirine type of species. Prolonged photolysis of the matrix isolated azirines isomerized these primary photoproducts to dehydroazepines which were observed by IR spectroscopy between 1911 and 1926 cm 1. 

Arenecarbonitrile oxides, generated by the joint action of acetyl chloride and sodium methox-ide on arylnitromethanes,7 react with symmetrical diaroylmethanes to yield transient 2/7-aziri-nes, which add a second molecule of the nitrile oxide to form 5-aroyl-3,6-diaryl-4//-1,2,4-oxa-diazines 1. The suggested course of the reaction is supported by the observation that 1,2,4-oxadiazines are formed from nitrile oxides and isolated azirines.8... 

Hafner and Bauer were able to isolate azirine 254 in high yield from a low-temperature photolysis of the corresponding vinyl azide. Thermolysis of 254 gave imine 285 and fluorenone 286. The thermal reaction was proposed to proceed via the 9-fluorenylidene carbene, produced by elimination of HCN from 254 followed by a subsequent reaction with starting material or with oxygen. 

The main example of a category I indole synthesis is the Hemetsberger procedure for preparation of indole-2-carboxylate esters from ot-azidocinna-mates[l]. The procedure involves condensation of an aromatic aldehyde with an azidoacetate ester, followed by thermolysis of the resulting a-azidocinna-mate. The conditions used for the base-catalysed condensation are critical since the azidoacetate enolate can decompose by elimination of nitrogen. Conditions developed by Moody usually give good yields[2]. This involves slow addition of the aldehyde and 3-5 equiv. of the azide to a cold solution of sodium ethoxide. While the thermolysis might be viewed as a nitrene insertion reaction, it has been demonstrated that azirine intermediates can be isolated at intermediate temperatures[3]. 

The photolysis of azirines has been shown to result in dimerization to pyrazines (72JA1395) and although this formally corresponds to a type B synthesis it involves an isolable intermediate (105) and does not proceed by simple dimerization (Scheme 70). 

For isoxazoles the first step is the fission of the weak N—O bond to give the diradical (51) which is in equilibrium with the vinylnitrene (52). Recyclization now gives the substituted 2//-azirine (53) which via the carbonyl-stabilized nitrile ylide (54) can give the oxazole (55). In some cases the 2H-azirine, which is formed both photochemically and thermally, has been isolated in other cases it is transformed quickly into the oxazole (79AHC(2.5)U7). 

The 1,2-bond is homolytically cleaved by both thermolytic and photolytic means to generate a biradical (17) which in the absence of reactive groups generally forms a 2//-azirine (79AHC(25)147). No direct evidence for the biradical has been presented, but indirect evidence points to such a species. Acylpyrazines have in some instances been isolated, and these would arise by dimerization of the biradical (70JCS(C)1825, 7UCS(C)2644). 

Addition of trichloromethide ion to azirine (210) generates aziridine (230). When this aziridine was treated with base, cyclization and rearrangement occurred and the azetidine (233) was isolated (73JA2982). 

Azirines react with alcohols in the presence of alkoxides to give alkoxyaziridines (67JA4456). Further treatment with alcohol and alkoxide results in the formation of amino ketone acetals. Alkoxyaziridines are not isolated in general from the acid-catalyzed addition of methanol to azirines. Azirines are also known to react with amines (66JOC1423). Frequently the initially produced adducts undergo subsequent transformations. 

A variety of 1-azirines are available (40-90%) from the thermally induced extrusion (>100 °C) of triphenylphosphine oxide from oxazaphospholines (388) (or their acyclic betaine equivalents), which are accessible through 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile oxides (389) to alkylidenephosphoranes (390) (66AG(E)1039). Frequently, the isomeric ketenimines (391) are isolated as by-products. The presence of electron withdrawing functionality in either or both of the addition components can influence the course of the reaction. For example, addition of benzonitrile oxide to the phosphorane ester (390 = C02Et) at... 

Some data were obtained from the photochemical isomerization of amino-isoxazoles. 5-Aminoisoxazoles gave the corresponding azirine (Scheme 21) [70JCS(C)1825] when a4-carboethoxy-substituted derivative was used, no azirine was isolated and the oxazole was the only product obtained (Scheme 21) (72CB748). The azirine intermediate was not observed upon irradiating 3-amino derivatives [91H(32)1765]. 

The photoisomerization of 3-hydroxyisoxazoles gave the corresponding 2-ox-azolones without the isolation of the azirine (Scheme 21) (67HCA137). Also in this case calculations are in agreement with the experimental results [99H(50)1115]. 

The irradiation of 3-carbomethoxyisoxazole (47) gave the corresponding oxazole (48) in very low yields (5-8%) without the isolation of the corresponding azirine (Scheme 22) [71JCS(C)1196]. Also in this case calculations show that the energy of the triplet state allows the formation of the biradical intermediate and then of the azirine. However, the low yields of the conversion can be explained considering that the transformation of the biradical intermediate into the azirine is an endothermic reaction (Fig. 10) [99H(50)1115]. 

The following mechanism is generally accepted, since azirine 3, that has been identified as intermediate, can be isolated " ... 

The first compound is an antibiotic isolated from Streptomyces aureus [20], while the second compound is a cytotoxic antibiotic isolated from Dysidea fragilis, a marine sponge [21]. A logical approach to the synthesis of azirines would be an elimination reaction of a suitably M-substituted aziridine. Thus, AT-chlorination of aziridine-2-carboxylic esters was carried out using ferf-butyl hypochlorite (Scheme 8). 

Interestingly, both invertomers of the obtained M-chloroaziridines 16 were clearly observable in the H-NMR spectrum and they could even be separated by chromatography. The dehydrochlorination was investigated with a variety of bases however, the resulting yields were disappointingly low. Only for R = Ph, a yield of 39% of azirine 17 was obtained using DBU as the base, in all other cases the yields were lower [22]. Davis et al. [23] successfully applied the -elimination of the sulfinyl group in chiral non-racemic N-sulfinylaziridines (Scheme 9), whereby the eliminated sulfenate was trapped by an excess of methyl iodide, which facilitated the isolation of the desired product (18). 

The formation of 2H-pyrroles (21) and a pyrrole derivative (22) from the reaction of 3-phenyl-2//-azirines and acetylenic esters in the presence of molybdenum hexacarbonyl is intriguing mechanistically (Schemes 24, 25).53 Carbon-nitrogen bond cleavage must occur perhaps via a molybdenum complex (cf. 23 in Scheme 26) but intermediate organometallic species have not yet been isolated.53 Despite the relatively poor yields of 2H-pyrrole products, the process is synthetically valuable since the equivalent uncatalyzed photochemical process produces isomeric 2H-pyrroles from a primary reaction of azirine C—C cleavage54 (Scheme 24). 

Earlier, Dunkin and Thomson had observed that matrix-isolated triplet 10a did not undergo photochemical ring expansion.83 However, Morawietz and Sander have recently provided evidence for photochemical conversion of 310a and 310b to the corresponding fluorinated azirines (Scheme 19).48d This represents a rare instance where an azabicyclo[4.1.0]heptatriene, the putative intermediate in the ring expansion of a phenylnitrene, has actually been observed. 

Although the yields are quite variable (6-100%), phenyl- 1-azirines and allyl-l-azirines can be ring-enlarged to indoles under the action of Pd [486, 487]. In the example shown, 385 to 386, the intermediate Pd-complex 387 was isolated [486]. The reaction of 2-phenylazirine with Pd(PhjP)4 (CO/BnNEt3Cl/NaOH) gives 2-styrylindole in 29% yield [487]. Interestingly, an atmosphere of N2 is detrimental to the success of this reaction and CO is normally used. 

Generally, the Neber rearrangement is a base-catalysed conversion of 0-acylated ketoximes 523 (but not aldoximes) to a-amino ketones 525 via an isolable 2//-azirine intermediate 524 (equation 232). The azirine itself may be used as a valuable synthetic tooP and the Neber rearrangement is commonly used to produce it. 

A Neber route to substituted indoles 532, complementary to the Fischer indole synthesis, was recently developed (equation 235). Formation of azirine 531 from the oxime was smoothly induced, for example using MsCl/DBU or DIAD/BU3P or PhsP, and the intermediate was isolated. Thermal rearrangement of the azirine (40 to 170 °C, depending on the azirine structure) produced the indoles 532 directly in usually good yields (84-88% from the azirine). 

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