Ketones enones/enoates

The Morita-Baylis-Hillman (MBH) reaction is the formation of a-methylene-/ -hydroxycarbonyl compounds X by addition of aldehydes IX to a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds VIII, for example vinyl ketones, acrylonitriles or acrylic esters (Scheme 6.58) [143-148]. For the reaction to occur the presence of catalytically active nucleophiles ( Nu , Scheme 6.58) is required. It is now commonly accepted that the MBH reaction is initiated by addition of the catalytically active nucleophile to the enone/enoate VIII. The resulting enolate adds to the aldehyde IX, establishing the new stereogenic center at the aldehydic carbonyl carbon atom. Formation of the product X is completed by proton transfer from the a-position of the carbonyl moiety to the alcoholate oxygen atom with concomitant elimination of the nucleophile. Thus Nu is available for the next catalytic cycle. 

Diketene similarly reacts readily with tributyltin oxide in THF at room temperature47 to give the stannyl 3-stannyloxybut-3-enoate which rearranges to the 2-enolate this enolate will then give an ene reaction with an aldehyde,48 or react with an alkyl halide,49 followed by decarboxylation, providing a route to ketones, enones, and ketoaldehydes. Similar reactions with bromomethyl P- or y-lactones result in the formation of P-hydroxy-y-lactones or y-hydroxy-5-lactones. 

Although unhindered enones and enoates work well, attempted 1,4-reduction of acrylonitrile afforded a-silylated product 9 (Scheme 5.4). Presumably this unexpected product results from a 1,4-reduction/a-anion trapping by the PhMe2SiCl present in solution. Curiously, there was no mention of any similar quenching of intermediate enolates on either carbon or oxygen when unsaturated ketones or esters were involved. 

In the metal-free epoxidation of enones and enoates, practically useful yields and enantioselectivity have been achieved by using catalysts based on chiral electrophilic ketones, peptides, and chiral phase-transfer agents. (E)-configured acyclic enones are comparatively easy substrates that can be converted to enantiomeri-cally highly enriched epoxides by all three methods. Currently, chiral ketones/ dioxiranes constitute the only catalyst system that enables asymmetric and metal-free epoxidation of (E)-enoates. There seems to be no metal-free method for efficient asymmetric epoxidation of achiral (Z)-enones. Exocyclic (E)-enones have been epoxidized with excellent ee using either phase-transfer catalysis or polyamino acids. In contrast, generation of enantiopure epoxides from normal endocyclic... 

The reactions in this section cover the conjugate (Michael) addition of various lithiated nucleophiles to activated olefins such as enones and enoates. Lithium enolates are formed as intermediates during the addition process. They can be treated as such and trapped, for instance, by an electrophile to provide ketones or esters substituted both in the a and positions. We will focus only on the most important information relevant to the intermediate enolates, and those are rarely discussed in the literature on the Michael addition. The reader can advantageously consult Chapter 14 of the first part of this volume133, which is entirely dedicated to the organolithium additions to double bonds, for a more extensive coverage of the topic. 

Michael addition of metal enolates to a,/3-unsaturated carbonyls has been intensively studied in recent years and provides an established method in organic synthesis for the preparation of a wide range of 1,5-dicarbonyl compounds (128) under neutral and mild conditions . Metal enolates derived from ketones or esters typically act as Michael donors, and a,-unsaturated carbonyls including enoates, enones and unsaturated amides are used as Michael acceptors. However, reaction between a ketone enolate (125) and an a,/3-unsaturated ester (126) to form an ester enolate (127, equation 37) is not the thermodynamically preferred one, because ester enolates are generally more labile than ketone enolates. Thus, this transformation does not proceed well under thermal or catalytic conditions more than equimolar amounts of additives (mainly Lewis acids, such as TiCU) are generally required to enable satisfactory conversion, as shown in Table 8. Various groups have developed synthons as unsaturated ester equivalents (ortho esters , thioesters ) and /3-lithiated enamines as ketone enolate equivalents to afford a conjugate addition with acceptable yields. 

Nucleophilicity of a-Selenoalkyllithiums Towards Aldehydes and Ketones Stereochemistry of the Addition tf a-Selenoalkyllithiums to Aldehydes and Ketones The Ambident Reactivity of a-SelenoaUylUthiums Control of the Regiochemistry of Addition of ohSelenoalkyl Metals to Enones, Enals and Enoates <3.1 Generalities... 

Michael addition of the reagent to enoates and enones occurs at low temperature (—50 to —78 °C) in the presence of catalytic amounts of various Lewis acids. A catalytic amount of triph-enylmethyl perchlorate (5 mol %) effectively catalyzes the tandem Michael reaction of ethyl acetate-derived silyl ketene acetal to a, -unsaturated ketones and the sequential aldol addition to aldehydes with high stereoselectivity.HgL mediates the Michael addition to chiral enones, followed by Lewis acid-mediated addition to aldehydes. The Michael-aldol protocol has been used for the stereoselective synthesis of key intermediates on the way to prostaglandins, compactin, and ML-236A (eq 19). ... 

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