Ketones, reaction with enolate anions

Inductive and resonance stabilization of carbanions derived by proton abstraction from alkyl substituents a to the ring nitrogen in pyrazines and quinoxalines confers a degree of stability on these species comparable with that observed with enolate anions. The resultant carbanions undergo typical condensation reactions with a variety of electrophilic reagents such as aldehydes, ketones, nitriles, diazonium salts, etc., which makes them of considerable preparative importance. 

An enolate anion generated from a carboxylic acid derivative may be used in the same sorts of nucleophilic reactions that we have seen with aldehyde and ketone systems. It should be noted, however, that the base used to generate the enolate anion must be chosen carefully. If sodium hydroxide were used, then hydrolysis of the carboxylic derivative to the acid (see Section 7.9.2) would compete with enolate anion formation. However, the problem is avoided by using the same base, e.g. ethoxide, as is present in the ester... 

The first reaction involves a ketone reaction with an aldehyde under basic conditions, so enolate anion chemistry is likely. This is a mixed aldol reaction the acetone has acidic a-hydrogens to form an enolate anion, and the aldehyde is the more reactive electrophile. The reaction is then driven by the ability of the intermediate alcohol to dehydrate to a conjugated ketone. 

One of the most important reactions of aldehydes and ketones is the Aldol condensation. In this reaction, an enolate anion is formed from the reaction between an aldehyde or a ketone and an aqueous base, e.g. NaOH. The enolate anion reacts with another molecule of aldehyde or ketone to give (3-hydroxyaldehyde or (3-hydroxyketone, respectively (see Section 5.3.2). 

The alternative situation where k- zero order in [X], and the clear disparitybetween stoichiometric coefficients and reaction orders demands the existence of an intermediate. The situation occurs in acid- and base-catalysed reactions of ketones with reactive electrophiles (e.g. X = CI2, Br2 or I2), which are usually zero order in the electrophilic reagent, unless concentrations of the electrophiles are extremely low [19]. The intermediate reacting with the electrophile may be the enol tautomer of the ketone or its enolate anion, formed catalytically from the ketone. 

Isomeric enolate ions can be formed from unsymmetric dialkyl ketones, and the distribution of the two possible arylation products is mainly determined by the equilibrium concentration of the various possible enolate ions. However, the selectivity also depends on the structure of the attacking radical. Reactions with the enolate ions from 2-butanone afford arylation preferentially at the more substituted a carbon to render about twice as much 3-phenyl-2-butanone as 1-phenyl-2-butanone [68,69] however, in the reaction with the anion derived from /-propyl methyl ketone, the 1-phenyl derivative is predominantly formed [68]. When there is a substituent ortho- to the leaving group, the attack at the primary a carbon is enhanced [69,70]. 

This is an example of a Robinson annulation. The mechanism for the Robinson annulation involves a sequence of conjugate addition reactions and aldol condensations. As illustrated, the first step is deprotonation of cyclohexanedione with sodium hydride. The resulting anion then participates in a 1,4-addition to methyl vinyl ketone. The resulting enolate anion then tautomerizes through... 

Aldehydes may be prepared from the lower homolog or a ketone or ester by reaction with the anion of formaldehyde mono- or dithioacetal. The j6-hydroxythioacetal may be reduced with elimination of a hydroxyl group and phenylthiolate. The resulting enol ether or thioenol ether can be transformed into an aldehyde on acid hydrolysis or reaction with mercuric chloride [82],... 

Treatment of ketone 93 with dimsyl anion generates enolate 94, but this can potentially form a mixture of E)- and (Z)-isomers. Reaction of 94 with various alkyl halides led to the 0-alkylation product (95) and the C-alkylation product (96). In DMSO, the ratio of O- to C-alkylation is relatively insensitive to changes in the gegenion (the metal), suggesting that the enolate is an unencumbered anion in this cation solvating medium. Note that C-alkylation is preferred except when the steric bulk at the nucleophilic carbon becomes too great (R, = Ph, Ph or Et, Et). For PhCOCHPh2 (93, r1 = r2 = Ph), O-alkylation is effectively the only process. 

Homologous acids. One-carbon homologation of aromatic aldehydes and ketones is achieved by reaction with the anion of reagent (1). The enol ether products are easily hydrolyzed. 

This chapter will discuss carbanion-like reactions that utilize enolate anions. The acid-base reactions used to form enolate anions will be discussed. Formation of enolate anions from aldehyde, ketones, and esters will lead to substitution reactions, acyl addition reactions, and acyl substitution reactions. Several classical named reactions that arise from these three fundamental reactions of enolate anions are presented. In addition, phosphonium salts wiU be prepared from alkyl halides and converted to ylids, which react with aldehydes or ketones to form alkenes. These ylids are treated as phosphorus-stabilized car-banions in terms of their reactivity. 

Triphenylmethide (19) is formed by the reaction of triphenylmethane (PhaCH) with sodium metal, as seen in Section 22.1. It is an unusual but effective base in this reaction because it is a relatively non-nucleophilic base (see Section 22.3). To explain the reaction with 60 and formation of product 61, a mechanism requires that the base first remove the acidic a-proton on C2 from the ester to form enolate anion 62. As with enolate anions derived from ketones and aldehydes, there are two resonance forms, and the carbanion form (62A) is the more nucleophilic. Therefore, resonance contribution 62A will lead to the... 

Once an ester enolate is generated, it can react with another ester in a Claisen condensation however, it may also react with the carbonyl of an aldehyde or ketone. The ester enolate anion is a nucleophile and it reacts with an aldehyde or ketone via acyl addition. Kinetic control conditions are the most suitable for this reaction in order to minimize Claisen condensation of the ester with itself (self-condensation). If ester 74 (ethyl propanoate, in green in the illustration) is treated first with LDA and then with butanal (21, in violet), for example, the initial acyl addition product is 78. The new carbon-carbon bond is marked in blue and treatment with dilute aqueous acid converts the alkoxide to an alcohol in the final product of this sequence, 79. Compound 79 is a P-hydroxy ester, which is the usual product when an ester enolate reacts with an aldehyde or a ketone. Ester enolate anions react with ketones in the same way that they react with aldehydes. 

Eor instance, the photostimulated reaction of o-iodoaniline 35 with methyl ketone anions ( CH COR) affords intermediate 36, which by spontaneous dehydration gives 2-aryl/alkyl indoles 37 in 64-93% (Eq. 10.15) [33-36]. The reactions of 35 with enolate anions of cyclic ketones produced the fused indoles 38 and 39 in good yields [35b] ... 

Ketone or ester enolate anions react with selenium metal, followed by methyl iodide, to give the corresponding a-methylselenenyl derivatives in high yield. This relatively cheap procedure is useful for moderate- or large-scale reactions. 

Silyl enol ethers are other ketone or aldehyde enolate equivalents and react with allyl carbonate to give allyl ketones or aldehydes 13,300. The transme-tallation of the 7r-allylpalladium methoxide, formed from allyl alkyl carbonate, with the silyl enol ether 464 forms the palladium enolate 465, which undergoes reductive elimination to afford the allyl ketone or aldehyde 466. For this reaction, neither fluoride anion nor a Lewis acid is necessary for the activation of silyl enol ethers. The reaction also proceed.s with metallic Pd supported on silica by a special method[301j. The ketene silyl acetal 467 derived from esters or lactones also reacts with allyl carbonates, affording allylated esters or lactones by using dppe as a ligand[302]... 

Because enolate anions ffle sources of nucleophilic car bon, one potential use in organic synthesis is their- reaction with alkyl halides to give a-alkyl derivatives of aldehydes and ketones ... 

Anotheranalogy between the enolate anions derived from a,)3-unsatura ted ketones and the corresponding enamines is encountered in their alkylation reactions (57), which proceed by the kinetically controlled attack at the a-carbon atom. For instance, Stork and Birnbaum (51) found that the alkylation of the morpholine enamine of /J -octalone-2 (117) with methyl iodide gave the C-1 methylated derivative (118). 

Thus the reactions of cyclic or acyclic enamines with acrylic esters or acrylonitrile can be directed to the exclusive formation of monoalkylated ketones (3,294-301). The corresponding enolate anion alkylations lead preferentially to di- or higher-alkylation products. However, by proper choice of reaction conditions, enamines can also be used for the preferential formation of higher alkylation products, if these are desired. Such reactions are valuable in the a substitution of aldehydes, which undergo self-condensation in base-catalyzed reactions (117,118). Monoalkylation products are favored in nonhydroxylic solvents such as benzene or dioxane, whereas dialkylation products can be obtained in hydroxylic solvents such as methanol. The difference in products can be ascribed to the differing fates of an initially formed zwitterionic intermediate. Collapse to a cyclobutane takes place in a nonprotonic solvent, whereas protonation on the newly introduced substitutent and deprotonation of the imonium salt, in alcohol, leads to a new enamine available for further substitution. 

The methyl group of a methyl ketone is converted into an a ,a ,a -trihalomethyl group by three subsequent analogous halogenation steps, that involve formation of an intermediate enolate anion (4-6) by deprotonation in alkaline solution, and introduction of one halogen atom in each step by reaction with the halogen. A... 

Many types of carbonyl compounds, including aldehydes, ketones, esters, thioesters, acids, and amides, can be converted into enolate ions by reaction with LDA. Table 22.1 lists the approximate pKa values of different types of carbonyl compounds and shows how these values compare to other acidic substances we ve seen. Note that nitriles, too, are acidic and can be converted into enolate-like anions. 

The mixed Claisen condensation of two different esters is similar to the mixed aldol condensation of two different aldehydes or ketones (Section 23.5). Mixed Claisen reactions are successful only when one of the two ester components has no a hydrogens and thus can t form an enolate ion. For example, ethyl benzoate and ethyl formate can t form enolate ions and thus can t serve as donors. They can, however, act as the electrophilic acceptor components in reactions with other ester anions to give mixed /3-keto ester products. 

The stereochemical outcome of the addition of lithium enolates of aldehydes and ketones to nitroalkenes is dependent upon the geometry of the nitroalkene and the enolate anion. The synjanti selectivity in the reaction of the lithium enolates of propanal, eyelopentanone and cyclohexanone with ( )- and (Z)-l-nitropropene has been reported1. 

As an extension of the reaction of sulphinates with organometallic compounds, the Claisen-type condensation between ketone enolate anions 101 and arenesulphinates may be considered. It was found161,162 that this reaction provides an interesting synthetic approach to a-ketosulphoxides 102 (equation 54 Table 9). 

---