Ketones, methyl vinyl phenol synthesis

M. Shi and Y.-L. Shi reported the synthesis and application of new bifunctional axially chiral (thio) urea-phosphine organocatalysts in the asymmetric aza-Morita-Baylis-Hillman (MBH) reaction [176, 177] of N-sulfonated imines with methyl vinyl ketone (MVK), phenyl vinyl ketone (PVK), ethyl vinyl ketone (EVK) or acrolein [316]. The design of the catalyst structure is based on axially chiral BINOL-derived phosphines [317, 318] that have already been successfully utilized as bifunctional catalysts in asymmetric aza-MBH reactions. The formal replacement of the hydrogen-bonding phenol group with a (thio)urea functionality led to catalysts 166-168 (Figure 6.51). 

Phenol annelation.1 This modified methyl vinyl ketone can be used for synthesis of 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-2-naphthol or 5-indanol by reaction with the lithium enolate of cyclohexanone or cyclopentanone, respectively. The former reaction is formulated in equation (I). 

The starting material for the present synthesis was Wieland-Miescher ketone (24), which was converted to the known alcohol (25) by the published procedure [10], Tetrahydropyranylation of alcohol (25) followed by hydroboration-oxidation afforded the alcohol (26), which on oxidation produced ketone (27). Reduction of (27) with metal hydride gave the alcohol (28) (56%). This in cyclohexane solution on irradiation with lead tetraacetate and iodine produced the cyclic ether that was oxidized to obtain the keto-ether (29). Subjection of the keto-ether (29) to three sequential reactions (formylation, Michael addition with methyl vinyl ketone and intramolecular aldol condensation) provided tricyclic ether (30) whose NMR spectrum showed it to be a mixture of C-10 epimers. The completion of the synthesis of pisiferic acid (1) did not require the separation of epimers and thus the tricyclic ether (30) was used for the next step. The conversion of (30) to tricyclic phenol (31) was... 

This domino Wacker-Heck reaction is the key step of this total synthesis. In the presence of catalytic amounts of Pd(OTFA)2, the chiral ligand (S,S)-Bn-BOXAX (5) and j -benzoquinone (13) as reoxidant, phenol 19 first undergoes an intramolecular enantioselective Wacker oxidation and then reacts with methyl vinyl ketone (9) in a Heck reaction to afford chroman 22 with part of the vitamin E side chain in 84 % yield with 97 % ee. 

Singular examples to form aromatic ethers are a base-catalyzed, multistep, one-pot reaction of aryl methyl ketones with the appropriate fluorinated arylidenemalonitriles, the mercury acetate assisted synthesis of pentahalophenylvinyl ethers from vinyl acetate and the corresponding phenol, and the radical displacements in aryloxycyclohexadienones (e.g., 27) by halophenols. 2,3-Dichloro-5,6-dicyanohydroquinone (28) and products such as 29 are readily formed when cyclohexadienone 27 is treated with different phenols. 

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