Ketones, reductive coupling

For the one-step conversion of oxiranes to alkenes a variety of reducing metals have been used, including Li, Ti°, low-valent Nb, Cr , and Sm . ° In the latter case, HMPA and N,N-dimethylami-noethanol facilitate the reaction. Reaction of 2 equiv. of Bu"Li with WCle produces a reagent which effects efficient deoxygenation of oxiranes, as exemplified in equation (8). This reagent is particularly valuable for the deoxygenation of tri- and tetra-substituted oxiranes and is compatible with ethers and esters, although aldehydes and ketones reductively couple with it. 

The reductive coupling of aldehydes or ketones with 01, -unsaturated carboxylic esters by > 2 mol samarium(II) iodide (J.A. Soderquist, 1991) provides a convenient route to y-lactones (K. Otsubo, 1986). Intramolecular coupling of this type may produce trans-2-hy-droxycycloalkaneacetic esters with high stereoselectivity, if the educt is an ( )-isomer (E.J. Enholm, 1989 A, B). 

The reductive coupling of the 7r-allylpalladium enolates 679 gives the allylated ketones. This reaction is also possible thermally, as the Carroll reaction, which... 

The McMurry reagent reductively couples trifluoroacetophenones to the eorresponding stilbenes [67] (equation 55), and cross-coupling of ketones is also reported [68] (equation 56). 

The Grignard reagents prepared from the activated magnesium appear to react normally with electrophiles. Thus reactions with proton donors, ketones, and carbon dioxide afford hydrocarbons, alcohols, and carboxylic acids, respectively. The reductive coupling of ketones to pinacols had also been accomplished with the activated magnesium. ... 

Recently, it has been demonstrated that coordination vacancies on the surface metal cations are relevant to the unique redox reactivity of oxide surfaces]2]. Oxidation of fonnaldehyde and methyl formate to adsorbed formate intermediates on ZnO(OOOl) and reductive C-C coupling of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes and cyclic ketones on 1102(001) surfaces reduced by Ar bombardment are observed in temperature-prognunmed desorption(TPD). The thermally reduced 1102(110) surface which is a less heavily damaged surface than that obtained by bombardment and contains Ti cations in the -t-3 and +4 states, still shows activity for the reductive coupling of formaldehyde to form ethene]13]. Interestingly, the catalytic cyclotrimerization of alkynes on TiO2(100) is also traced in UHV conditions, where cation coordination and oxidation states appear to be closely linked to activity and selectivity. The nonpolar Cu20( 111) surface shows a... 

Acroleins and u,(i-unsaturated ketones are coupled with aliphatic aldehydes in the Cr-catalyzed diastereoselective coupling in the presence of Mn and MesSiCl [60]. As shown in Scheme 24, the generated radical species undergoes the further one-electron reduction to afford the corresponding al-lylchromium 41, which reacts with the aldehyde to give the corresponding... 

Scheme 8 displays reactions where 43 behaves as a source of a Zr(II) derivative.30 They can be formally viewed as oxidative additions to the [p-Bu -calix[4]-(0Me)2(0)2Zr] fragment. The main driving force in the case of ketones is the high oxophilicity of the metal, which induces the reductive coupling of benzophenone leading to 45, or the addition of dibenzoyl causing the formation of the dioxo-metallacycle in 46, which contain a C-C double bond. It has to be mentioned that... 

The synthetic method leading to Nb-alkylidenes and Nb-alkylidynes was particularly successful, due to a quite remarkable difference in the reaction rate of 29 with ketones or aldehydes, vs the subsequent reaction of the alkylidene with ketones and aldehydes (see Scheme 37). The former reaction takes a few minutes at -40°C, while the latter one occurs in hours at room temperature.88 The reaction between 178 and benzaldehyde led to triphenylethylene and the niobyl derivative 184. Due to the difference in reaction rates between a and b in Scheme 37, it was found that the sequential addition of two different ketones or aldehydes to a THF solution of 29 produced a nonsymmetric olefin in a stepwise McMurry-type reaction.84 This is exemplified in the coupling shown in reaction c (Scheme 37). The proposed reaction pathway does not involve the intermediacy of a pinacolato ligand and therefore differs from the mechanism of the McMurry reaction and related reductive couplings at activated metal sites.89... 

Samarium(II) iodide also allows the reductive coupling of sulfur-substituted aromatic lactams such as 7-166 with carbonyl compounds to afford a-hydroxyalkylated lactams 7-167 with a high anti-selectivity [74]. The substituted lactams can easily be prepared from imides 7-165. The reaction is initiated by a reductive desulfuration with samarium(ll) iodide to give a radical, which can be intercepted by the added aldehyde to give the desired products 7-167. Ketones can be used as the carbonyl moiety instead of aldehydes, with good - albeit slightly lower - yields. 

In addition to the reductive coupling reaction of ketones, certain alcohols can also be reductively coupled using active uranium. Benzhydrol is coupled by active uranium to give TPA as the only coupled product. No TPE is seen. Under similar conditions, no coupling of benzyl alcohol is seen. The chemistry of the active uranium is under continued investigation. 

Reductive Cross-Coupling of Nitrones Recently, reductive coupling of nitrones with various cyclic and acyclic ketones has been carried out electrochem-ically with a tin electrode in 2-propanol (527-529). The reaction mechanism is supposed to include the initial formation of a ketyl radical anion (294), resulting from a single electron transfer (SET) process, with its successive addition to the C=N nitrone bond (Scheme 2.112) (Table 2.9). 

Moreover, propargyl oxiranes 202 were found to react with samarium diiodide and ketones to form a,a -dihydroxyallenes 203 with moderate to high anti-diastereo-selectivities (Scheme 2.62). Aurrecoechea and co-workers [99] reported this reductive coupling to proceed smoothly in the absence of a palladium catalyst, i.e. a direct electron transfer from the samarium(II) to the substrate has to take place in order to generate an allenyl/propargyl samarium intermediate of type 184/185, which is then regioselectively trapped by the electrophile. 

Scheme 2.62 Samarium-mediated reductive coupling of propargyl oxiranes with ketones.

The electroreductive coupling of the hindered aromatic ketones (367) has been achieved in a DMF-BU4NBr-(Hg) system by the aid of CrCh or MnCl2 as the electrocatalyst (Scheme 134) [484, 485]. The reductive coupling proceeds at a less negative potential [ 1/2 —1.44 —1.53 V (SCE)] than the reduction of the ketone (—1.63 —2.01 V). In some cases, Mn electrocatalysts favor the reduction to the carbinol (369), whereas a Cr catalyst promotes the formation of the pinacol (368). 

The Barhier-type reaction of aldehydes and ketones with allyl halides (485) in the presence of Sml2, leading to homoallyl alcohols (486), has received recent interest as a one-step alternative to the Grignard reaction. However, the reactions require the use of stoichiometric amounts of the reducing Sm(III) species. Recently, the electroreductive Barhier-type allylation of carbonyl compounds in an SmH-mediated reaction has been developed [569]. The electrolysis of (485) is carried out in a DMF-SmCl3-(Mg/Ni) system in an undivided cell to give the adduct (486) in 50 85% yields (Scheme 168) [569]. Electrosynthesis of y-butyrolactones has been achieved by the reductive coupling of ethyl 3-chloropropionate with carbonyl compounds in the presence of a catalytic amount of SmCfi [570]. 

The coupled substrate method is perhaps the simplest approach to asymmetric ketone reduction, using a single recombinant ADH to perform the oxidation of a cheap auxiliary... 

A modified procedure suitable for intramolecular reductive coupling is achieved using low-valence titanium prepared by reduction of titanium trichloride with a zinc-copper couple followed by the extremely slow addition of ketone to the refluxing reaction mixture (0.0003 mol over a 9-hour period by use of a motor-driven syringe pump) [S60. ... 

---