Kinetic isotope effect lithium enolates

In the aldol-Tishchenko reaction, a lithium enolate reacts with 2 mol of aldehyde, ultimately giving, via an intramolecular hydride transfer, a hydroxy ester (51) with up to three chiral centres (R, derived from rYhIO). The kinetics of the reaction of the lithium enolate of p-(phenylsulfonyl)isobutyrophenone with benzaldehyde have been measured in THF. ° A kinetic isotope effect of fee/ o = 2.0 was found, using benzaldehyde-fil. The results and proposed mechanism, with hydride transfer rate limiting, are supported by ab initio MO calculations. 

In this study, benzaldehyde and benzaldehyde-methyllithium adduct were fully optimized at HF/6-31G and their vibrational frequencies were calculated. The authors used MeLi instead of lithium pinacolone enolate, since it was assumed that the equilibrium IBs are not much different for the MeLi addition and lithium enolate addition. Dehalogena-tion and enone-isomerization probe experiments detected no evidence of a single electron transfer to occur during the course of the reaction. The primary carbonyl carbon kinetic isotope effects and chemical probe experiments led them to conclude that the reaction of lithium pinacolone enolate with benzaldehyde proceeds via a polar mechanism. 

The carbonyl-carbon kinetic isotope effect (KIE) and the substituent effects for the reaction of lithium pinacolone enolate (112) with benzaldehyde (equation 31) were analyzed by Yamataka, Mishima and coworkers ° and the results were compared with those for other lithium reagents such as MeLi, PhLi and AllLi. Ab initio (HF/6-31-I-G ) calculations were carried out to estimate the equilibrium isotope effect (EIE) on the addition to benzaldehyde. In general, a carbonyl addition reaction (equation 32) proceeds by way of either a direct one-step polar nucleophilic attack (PL) or a two-step process involving electron transfer (ET) and a radical ion intermediate. The carbonyl-carbon KIE was of primary nature for the PL or the radical coupling (RC) rate-determining ET mechanism, while it was considered to be less important for the ET rate-determining mechanism. The reaction of 112 with benzaldehyde gave a small positive KIE = 1.019),... 

The counterion was found to be a significant factor in the equilibrium, with the more highly substituted enolate increasingly favored as the cation varied from sodium or potassium to lithium. Beutelman, H. P. Xie, L. Saunders, W. H., Jr. /. Org. Chem. 1989,54,1703 determined that the primary hydrogen kinetic isotope effect for proton removal from alkyl ketones by strong bases such as lithium diisopropylamide in THF or DME was kn/ko = 2.3 to 5.9 at 0°C. The results suggested a very early transition state. The reactions appeared to depend on more than one base reacting with each ketone, however. See also Xie, L. Saunders, W. H., Jr. /. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 3123. 

The mechanism of the aldol-Tishchenko reaction has been probed by determination of kinetics and isotope effects for formation of diol-monoester on reaction between the lithium enolate of p-(phenylsulfonyl)isobutyrophenone (LiSIBP) and two molecules of benzaldehyde. ". The results are consistent with the formation of an initial lithium aldolate (25) followed by reaction with a second aldehyde to form an acetal (26), and finally a rate-limiting intramolecular hydride transfer (Tishchenko... 

In 1998, Hasanayn and Streitwieser reported the kinetics and isotope effects of the Aldol-Tishchenko reaction . They studied the reaction between lithium enolates of isobu-tyrophenone and two molecule of beuzaldehyde, which results iu the formation of a 1,3-diol monoester after protonation (Figure 28). They analyzed several aspects of this mechanism experimentally. Ab initio molecular orbital calculatious ou models are used to study the equilibrium and transition state structures. The spectroscopic properties of the lithium enolate of p-(phenylsulfonyl) isobutyrophenone (LiSIBP) have allowed kinetic study of the reaction. The computed equilibrium and transition state structures for the compounds in the sequence of reactions in Figure 28 are given along with the computed reaction barriers and energy in Figure 29 and Table 6. 

The mechanism of addition of lithium pmacolone enolate, H2C=C(OLi)Bu. to benzaldehyde has been investigated by the determination of kinetic isotope effects69 (phenyl-ds and carbonyl-13C) C—C bond formation occurs in the rate-determining step (a result supported by MO calculations), in contrast to addition of MeLi or PhLi, which proceed via electron transfer. Further carbonyl-13 C isotopic studies on substituted benzaldehydes (including equilibrium effects) by the same authors confirmed these conclusions.70... 

TABLE 13. Computed reaction and activation energies (kcalmoD ) and corresponding kinetic (KIE) and equilibrium (ElE) isotope effects a reaction sequence between lithium acetaldehyde enolate (Lien) and formaldehyde... 

Abu-Hasanayn, F., Streitwieser, A. Kinetics and Isotope Effects of the Aldol-Tishchenko Reaction between Lithium Enolates and Aldehydes. J. Org. Chem. 1998, 63, 2954-2960. 

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