Isoprene telomerization with amine

Maddock SM, Finn MG (2000) Palladium-catalyzed head-to-head telomerization of isoprene with amines. Organometallics 19 2684—2689... 

Isoprene (2-methyl-1,3-butadiene) can be telomerized in diethylamine with / -butyUithium as the catalyst to a mixture of A/,N-diethylneryl- and geranylamines. Oxidation of the amines with hydrogen peroxide gives the amine oxides, which, by the Meisenheimer rearrangement and subsequent pyrolysis, produce linalool in an overall yield of about 70% (127—129). 

During the 1970 s,the lithium diethylamide catalyzed anionic telomerizations of myrcene 4, Eq. (2) [4] and isoprene, Eq. (3) [5] with secondary aliphatic amines were discovered. These reactions are highly chemo- and regioselective and opened the way for the production of various useful terpenoids. The selective formation of N,N-diethylnerylamine 5 from isoprene is noteworthy, because this reaction is only one example hitherto known that can effect isoprene coupling in the natural fashion. 

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