Ketones alkyl group addition

When R is a simple alkyl group, addition of the phosphonate carbanion to the carbonyl compound occurs but the intermediate does not undergo elimination. Since the reaction sequence results in the conversion of an aldehyde or ketone to an alkene, as does the Wittig reaction, but works well when electron-withdrawing... 

Addition to Carbonyl Compounds. Unlike Grignard and alkykitliium compounds, trialkylboranes are inert to carbonyl compounds. The air-catalyzed addition to formaldehyde is exceptional (373). Alkylborates are more reactive and can transfer alkyl groups to acyl halides. The reaction provides a highly chemoselective method for the synthesis of ketones (374). 

AH ahphatic aldehydes and most ketones react to form cyanohydrins. The lower reactivity of ketones, relative to aldehydes, is attributed to a combination of electron-donating effects and increased steric hindrance of the second alkyl group in the ketones. The magnitude of the equiUbrium constants for the addition of hydrogen cyanide to a carbonyl group is a measure of the stabiUty of the cyanohydrin relative to the carbonyl compound plus hydrogen cyanide ... 

Nucleophilic addition of an alkyl group R- to the aldehyde or ketone produces a teliahedral magnesium alkoxide intermediate. . . ... 

Conjugate addition of an alkyl group to an c /S-unsaturated ketone (but not aldehyde) is one of the more useful 1,4-addition reactions, just as direct addition of a Grignard reagent is one of the more useful 1,2-additions. 

Reactivity factors in additions to carbon-hetero multiple bonds are similar to those for the tetrahedral mechanism of nucleophilic substitution. If A and/or B are electron-donating groups, rates are decreased. Electron-attracting substituents increase rates. This means that aldehydes are more reactive than ketones. Aryl groups are somewhat deactivating compared to alkyl, because of resonance that stabilizes the substrate molecule but is lost on going to the intermediate ... 

The equilibrium ratios of enolates for several ketone-enolate systems are also shown in Scheme 1.1. Equilibrium among the various enolates of a ketone can be established by the presence of an excess of ketone, which permits reversible proton transfer. Equilibration is also favored by the presence of dissociating additives such as HMPA. The composition of the equilibrium enolate mixture is usually more closely balanced than for kinetically controlled conditions. In general, the more highly substituted enolate is the preferred isomer, but if the alkyl groups are sufficiently branched as to interfere with solvation, there can be exceptions. This factor, along with CH3/CH3 steric repulsion, presumably accounts for the stability of the less-substituted enolate from 3-methyl-2-butanone (Entry 3). 

These facts are perfectly matched with our above-mentioned desired requirements. In addition, alkyl zinc is known to be less basic and deprotonation of ketone-aniline 36 by zinc reagent is highly unlikely. However, one of the issues for this reaction was the requirement for two alkyl groups on the zinc metal since the product ends up as tetramer 61, where the zinc atom still has one alkyl group, recalling that our cyclopropylacetylene (37) is not easy to obtain. 

The organic analogues of the reactions to be discussed here are the borane reductions of aldehydes and ketones and the addition of metal alkyls across ketonic carbonyls, equation 15. In contrast to the ease of these organic reactions, qualitative data which has accumulated in our laboratory over the last decade demonstrates that the carbonyl group in organometallies is fairly resistant to addition across CO. For example, many stable adducts of organometallie carbonyls with aluminum alkyls are known, eq. lc, but under similar conditions a ketone will quickly react by addition of the aluminum alkyl across the CO bond. A similar reactivity pattern is seen with boron halides. 

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