Ketenes aldol condensation, stereoselectivity

Largely stimulated by the synthesis of 3-lactam antibiotics, there have been widespread investigations into the stereochemical aspects of imine condensations, mainly involving reactions of enolates of carboxylic acid derivatives or silyl ketene acetals. In analogy to the aldol condensation, stereoselectivity of imine condensations will be discussed in terms of two types in this chapter (i) simple dia-stereoselectivity or syn-anti selectivity, when the two reactants are each prochiral (equation 12) and (ii) diastereofacial selectivity, when a new chiral center is formed in the presence of a pre-existing chiral center in one of the reactants (e.g. equation 13). The term asymmetric induction may be used synonymously with diastereofacial selectivity when one of the chiral reactants is optically active. For a more explicit explanation of these terms, see Heathcock s review on the aldol condensation. ... 

Condensation reactions of simple carboxylic acids with imines are of intense interest because of their applications to 3-lactam synthesis. Activation of the carboxylic acid derivative is accomplished by preforming the enolate in situ or by using a silyl ketene acetal derivative with Lewis acid catalysis. The first example of an enolate-imine condensation of this type can be attributed to Gillman and Speeter, who in 1943 reported the synthesis of 3-lactams from Reformatsky reagents and Schiff bases. Subsequently, other workers have investigated the mechanism and syn-anti selectivity of this reaction. A review of these studies by Evans et al. covering work through 1980 has appeared in their review, Stereoselective Aldol Condensations . ... 

In other studies, analysis of the products of reaction between formaldehyde and guanosine at moderate pH shows a new adduct—formed by condensing two molecules of each reactant—which has implications for the mechanism of DNA cross-linking by formaldehyde,17 while the kinetics of the mutarotation of N-(/ -chlorophcnyl)-//-D-glucopyranosylamine have been measured in methanolic benzoate buffers.18 For a stereoselective aldol reaction of a ketene acetal, see the next section. 

Among alkali metal enolates, those derived from ketones are the most robust one they are stable in etheric solutions at 0 C. The formation of aldehyde enolates by deprotonation is difficult because of the very fast occurring aldol addition. Whereas LDA has been reported to be definitely unsuitable for the generation preformed aldehyde enolates [15], potassium amide in Hquid ammonia, potassium hydride in THE, and super active lithium hydride seem to be appropriate bases forthe metallation of aldehydes [16]. In general, preformed alkali metal enolates of aldehydes did not find wide application in stereoselective synthesis. Ester enolates are very frequently used, although they are more capricious than ketone enolates. They have to be formed fast and quantitatively, because otherwise a Claisen condensation readily occurs between enolate and ester. A complication with ester enolates originates from their inherent tendency to form ketene under elimination... 

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