Hindered ketones

Aldehydes are generally more reactive than ketones in nucleophiUc addition reactions due to steric and electronic reasons. Sterically, the presence of two relatively large substituents in ketones hinders the approach of nucleophile to carbonyl carbon than in aldehydes having only one such substituent. Electronically, aldehydes are more reactive than ketones because two alkyl groups reduce the electrophUicity of the carbonyl carbon more effectively than in former. 

Isopropylidenation of ketones, >C=0>C=C(CH3)2. Posner et al. have developed an efficient two-step method for effecting isopropylidenation of ketones. The ketone is treated with dibromomethylenetriphenylphosphorane, generated in situ from triphenylphosphine and carbon tetrabromide (4, 550-551). This reaction proceeds in good yield (80-85%) in the case of unhindered ketones hindered ketones such as 2-methylcyclohexanone and 5-non-anone do not undergo dibromomethylenation. The second step involves reaction... 

The ketone is added to a large excess of a strong base at low temperature, usually LDA in THF at -78 °C. The more acidic and less sterically hindered proton is removed in a kineti-cally controlled reaction. The equilibrium with a thermodynamically more stable enolate (generally the one which is more stabilized by substituents) is only reached very slowly (H.O. House, 1977), and the kinetic enolates may be trapped and isolated as silyl enol ethers (J.K. Rasmussen, 1977 H.O. House, 1969). If, on the other hand, a weak acid is added to the solution, e.g. an excess of the non-ionized ketone or a non-nucleophilic alcohol such as cert-butanol, then the tautomeric enolate is preferentially formed (stabilized mostly by hyperconjugation effects). The rate of approach to equilibrium is particularly slow with lithium as the counterion and much faster with potassium or sodium. 

The Peterson reaction has two more advantages over the Wittig reaction 1. it is sometimes less vulnerable to sterical hindrance, and 2. groups, which are susceptible to nucleophilic substitution, are not attacked by silylated carbanions. The introduction of a methylene group into a sterically hindered ketone (R.K. Boeckman, Jr., 1973) and the syntheses of olefins with sulfur, selenium, silicon, or tin substituents (D. Seebach, 1973 B.T. Grdbel, 1974, 1977) illustrate useful applications. The reaction is, however, more limited and time consuming than the Wittig reaction, since metallated silicon derivatives are difficult to synthesize and their reactions are rarely stereoselective (T.H. Chan, 1974 ... 

Moderate yields of acids and ketones can be obtained by paHadium-cataly2ed carbonylation of boronic acids and by carbonylation cross-coupling reactions (272,320,321). In an alternative procedure for the carbonylation reaction, potassium trialkylborohydride ia the presence of a catalytic amount of the free borane is utilized (322). FiaaHy, various tertiary alcohols including hindered and polycycHc stmctures become readily available by oxidation of the organoborane iatermediate produced after migration of three alkyl groups (312,313,323). 

Oxidation of LLDPE starts at temperatures above 150°C. This reaction produces hydroxyl and carboxyl groups in polymer molecules as well as low molecular weight compounds such as water, aldehydes, ketones, and alcohols. Oxidation reactions can occur during LLDPE pelletization and processing to protect molten resins from oxygen attack during these operations, antioxidants (radical inhibitors) must be used. These antioxidants (qv) are added to LLDPE resins in concentrations of 0.1—0.5 wt %, and maybe naphthyl amines or phenylenediamines, substituted phenols, quinones, and alkyl phosphites (4), although inhibitors based on hindered phenols are preferred. 

RSSiMe3 [R = Me, Et, (-CH2-)3], Zn, Et20, 0-25°, 70-95% yield. This method is satisfactory for a variety of aldehydes and ketones and is also suitable for the preparation of 1,3-dithianes. Methacrolein gives the product of Michael addition rather than the thioacetal. The less hindered of two ketones is readily protected using this methodology. ... 

Me3SiSCH2CH2SSiMe3, Znl2, Et20, 0-25°, 12-24 h, high yields. Less hindered ketones can be selectively protected in the presence of more hin-i dered ketones. o , 3-Unsaturated ketones are selectively protected (94 1, 94 4) in the presence of saturated ketones by this reagent. ... 

Titanium tetrakis(diethylamide) selectively adds to aldehydes in the presence of ketones and to the least hindered ketone in compounds containing more than one ketone. The protection is in situ, which thus avoids the usual protection-deprotec-tion sequence. Selective aldol and Grignard additions are readily performed employing this protection methodology. ... 

Trimethylsilyl enol ethers can be used to protect ketones, but in general are not used for this purpose because they are reactive under both acidic and basic conditions. More highly hindered silyl enol ethers are much less susceptible to acid and base. A less hindered silyl enol can be hydrolyzed in the presence of a more hindered one. ... 

The 1,3-dioxolane group is probably the most widely used carbonyl protective group. For the protection of carbonyls containing other acid-sensitive functionality, one should use acids of low acidity or pyridinium salts. In general, a molecule containing two similar ketones can be selectively protected at the less hindered carbonyl, assuming that neither or both of the carbonyls are conjugated to an al-kene. ... 

The procedure described is an example of a more general synthetic method for the direct conversion of ketones into cyanides. " The reaction has been carried out successfully with acyclic and cyclic aliphatic ketones, including numerous steroidal ketones and aryl-alkyl ketones. The conversion of diaryl or highly hindered ketones such as camphor and )3,j8-dimethyl-a-tetralone requires the use of a more polar solvent. The dimethoxyethane used in the present procedure should be replaced by dimethyl sulfoxide. ... 

Alkylations of enamines of a,)9-unsaturated ketones with alkyl halides often give very poor yields of C-alkylated products because of competing. -alkylation.In the type of transformation illustrated here, direct alkylations of enamines are completely unsuccessful, even in cases where hindered enamines are used. On the other hand, the metaUoenamine method can be applied generally with good success in the problem of monoalkylation of ,)3-unsaturated ketones. ... 

The idea of kinetic versus thermodynamic control can be illustrated by discussing briefly the case of formation of enolate anions from unsymmetrical ketones. This is a very important matter for synthesis and will be discussed more fully in Chapter 1 of Part B. Most ketones, highly symmetric ones being the exception, can give rise to more than one enolate. Many studies have shown tiiat the ratio among the possible enolates that are formed depends on the reaction conditions. This can be illustrated for the case of 3-methyl-2-butanone. If the base chosen is a strong, sterically hindered one and the solvent is aptotic, the major enolate formed is 3. If a protic solvent is used or if a weaker base (one comparable in basicity to the ketone enolate) is used, the dominant enolate is 2. Enolate 3 is the kinetic enolate whereas 2 is the thermodynamically favored enolate. 

Structural effects on the rates of deprotonation of ketones have also been studied using veiy strong bases under conditions where complete conversion to the enolate occurs. In solvents such as THF or DME, bases such as lithium di-/-propylamide (LDA) and potassium hexamethyldisilylamide (KHMDS) give solutions of the enolates in relative proportions that reflect the relative rates of removal of the different protons in the carbonyl compound (kinetic control). The least hindered proton is removed most rapidly under these... 

Steric and stereoelectronic effects control the direction of approach of an electrophile to the enolate. Electrophiles approach from the least hindered side of the enolate. Numerous examples of such effects have been observed. In ketone and ester enolates that are exocyclic to a conformationally biased cyclohexane ring there is a slight... 

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