Ketene amide intermediate

Indole-3-carboxylic acid amides 23a [21, 22] and esters 23b [23] can be obtained by irradiation in dichloromethane (DCM) of the 3-diazo-4-oxo-3,4-dihydroquino-line 21 in the presence of alkylamines, dialkylamines, arylamines or alcohols (ZH in Scheme 12.7), through a Wolff-type rearrangement involving a carbenoid species leading to the ketene-like intermediate 22 (Scheme 12.7). 

Some reactions of munchnones occur via acylamino ketenes, the covalent valence tautomers of the betaines. The ketenes are intermediates in the thermolysis (see Scheme 22) and in the formation of azetidinones from imines (equation 69) they are thought to be involved in the aminolysis of the mesoionic compounds, which results in amides of a-acylamino acids, and in the formation of the benzodioxin (247) by the combined action of acetic anhydride and tetrachloro-o-benzoquinone on Af-benzoylalanine (equation 70). 

Enolphosphate phosphonates derived from perfluoroalkanoylphosphonates have a number of synthetic uses. Reactions of such compounds with nucleophiles such as amines or alcohols in the presence of catalytic amounts of tetrabutylammonium fluoride (tbaf) gave a,j5-unsaturated perfluorocarboxylic acid derivatives, presumably via a ketene type intermediate (equation 94) When a primary amine was employed as the nucleophile a,j -unsaturated amides were formed, which could be converted into fluorinated pyrimidi-nones by treatment with urea. On the other hand, butylcopper(I) reagent reduces such... 

The Meerwein-Eschenmoser-Claisen rearrangement is one of the most useful pericyclic reactions. In its basic form, it involves the conversion of an allylic alcohol 1 to a ketene N, 0-acetal 2, which undergoes rapid [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement to yield a y,d-unsaturated amide 3 (Scheme 7.1). In accordance with the general electronic effects observed in Claisen rearrangements, the presence of an electron-donating amino substituent on the ketene acetal intermediate substantially increases the rate of the pericydic step. 

Whilst the addition of a chiral NHC to a ketene generates a chiral azolium enolate directly, a number of alternative strategies have been developed that allow asymmetric reactions to proceed via an enol or enolate intermediate. For example, Rovis and co-workers have shown that chiral azolium enolate species 225 can be generated from a,a-dihaloaldehydes 222, with enantioselective protonation and subsequent esterification generating a-chloroesters 224 in excellent ee (84-93% ee). Notably, in this process a bulky acidic phenol 223 is used as a buffer alongside an excess of an altemativephenoliccomponentto minimise productepimerisation (Scheme 12.48). An extension of this approach allows the synthesis of enantiomericaUy emiched a-chloro-amides (80% ee) [87]. 

Scheme 10.14 gives some other examples of Wolff rearrangement reactions. Entries 1 and 2 are reactions carried out under the classical silver ion catalysis conditions. Entry 3 is an example of a thermolysis. Entries 4 to 7 are ring contractions done under photolytic conditions. Entry 8, done using a silver catalyst, was a step in the synthesis of macbecin, an antitumor antibiotic. Entry 9, a step in the synthesis of a drug candidate, illustrates direct formation of an amide by trapping the ketene intermediate with an amine. 

Figure 5.29 pNPDP reacts with amine-containing compounds by its p-nitrophenyl ester group to form amide bonds. After photoactivation of the diazo derivative with UV light, a Wolff rearrangement occurs to a highly reactive ketene intermediate. This group can couple to nucleophiles such as amines. 

Photocyclization of a,/3-unsaturated amides (152) also gives /3-lactams. This proceeds by cleavage of the intermediate biradical (153) to give ketene and imine which recombine. A small amount of amide (154) results from reaction of the ketene with amine that is produced by hydrolysis of the imine. This type of photodealkylation detracts from the generality of the process (79JCS(P1)263, 77T485). 

The key step of the Amdt-Eistert Homologation is the Wolff-Rearrangement of the diazoketones to ketenes, which can be accomplished thermally (over the range between r.t. and 750°C, photochemically or by silver(I) catalysis. The reaction is conducted in the presence of nucleophiles such as water (to yield carboxylic acids), alcohols (to give alcohols) or amines (to give amides), to capture the ketene intermediate and avoid the competing formation of diketenes. 

Since ketene is probably the intermediate of the Wolff rearrangement, the choice of solvents dictates the nature of the product. Indeed, water gave carboxylic acids, whereas alcohols or amines led to esters and amides, respectively. These combinations have been applied to the synthesis of more complex molecules. For example, the total synthesis of carbonolide B, a 16-membered macrolide antibiotic, relied on Amdt-Eistert homologation. In this sequence, a protected furanuronic acid was transformed to the corresponding a-diazoketone, which was then converted to its homologous carboxylic ester. The reaction was achieved using catalytic amounts of silver benzoate and excess of triethylamine in methanol (Scheme 3.4).11... 

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