Ketenes, addition onto

Table 15. Alkyl cyclopropanecarboxylates by cabene addition onto ketene acetals (Ref. [58J)...

In 1983, Webster et al. reported a new living polymerization method, called group transfer polymerization (GTP) [230]. This process consists of a continuously catalysed Michael addition of a silyl ketene acetal onto a,p-unsaturated ester compounds, mainly acrylic... 

Organolithium addition onto a ketene is actually the only method to generate enolates free of salts or other by-products such as diisopropylamine or tetramethylsilane. The adducts can of course be trapped with a variety of electrophiles. 

The synthesis of this ring system was achieved by the reaction of the ketene aminal 79 with 3-morpholino-l-ethyl-l,2,4-triazinium tetrafluoro-borate 78 to give 80 (89IZV494). Cyclization of 78 with the bifunctional nucleophile 81 gave the pyrrolo[3,2-e][l,2,4]triazinones 82 (88TL1431). This reaction represents the first example of orthocyclization onto the 1,2,4-triazine ring by the addition of dienophiles at C-5,6 (Scheme 20). 

This method has successfully been applied for the addition of chloro(l-chloro-2,2-dimethylvinyl)carbene — formed from 1,1,2-trichlo o-3,3-dimethylcyclopro-pane by dehydrochlorination and subsequent ring-opening — onto ketene methyl silyl acetals, the products of which are transformed to interesting allenic esters when treated with tetrabutylammonium fluoride [149]. 

Decomposition of a-diazo ketoamides 208 in the presence of substituted propiolic esters gives spirocyclic oxiranes 209. The reaction involves intramolecular addition of a rhodium carbenoid onto the oxygen atom of the amide group to yield the carbonyl ylide, which, after 1,4-H-migration, produces a cyclic ketene N,0-acetal 210. The latter further reacts with the activated triple bond of the dipolarophile to form a zwitterionic intermediate and, finally, a spirocycloadduct (Scheme 26) (90JA2037). 

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