Knorr Pyrrole synthesis Conditions

In analogy to the Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis described by Taddei and coworkers [342] (Scheme 6.181), similar reaction conditions were used by these authors to cyclize 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds to give furans (Scheme 6.190). Thus, heating a solution of a 1,4-dicarbonyl compound in ethanol/water in the presence of a catalytic amount of hydrochloric acid at 140 °C for 3 min provided an excellent yield of the corresponding trisubstituted furan derivative. 

The first step is formation of a pyrrole ring system from two identical aminoketones. It is actually a Knorr pyrrole synthesis, but we do not need to identify it as such, just approach it logically. In fact, if we look back at the Knorr pyrrole synthesis, we shall see that, under chemical conditions, the reagents used here are not sufficiently reactive for the pyrrole synthesis we need a more activated compound, like ethyl acetoacetate. Furthermore, we could not possibly proceed without masking the carboxyls as esters. This underlines how a biosynthetic sequence might differ somewhat from a purely chemical synthesis. 

The anion formed from the acetyl methyl group under reaction conditions then attacks one of the carbethoxy groups to form a cylohexanone to give (74-4) as the isolated product. The free acid obtained on hydrolysis of the ester decarboxylates to give the (3-diketone (74-5). In a classic apphcation of the Knorr pyrrole synthesis, the diketone is then allowed to react with 2-aminopentan-3-one. Since the latter is unstable, it is generated in situ by reduction of the nitrosation product from diethyl ketone. There is thus obtained piquindone (74-6) [76], a compound that displays antipsychotic activity. 

In an application of the Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis, the synthetic equivalents 3 of 1,4-ketoaldehydes were prepared by the radical addition of ketones 4 to vinyl pivalate. Treatment of the intermediates 3 with amines gave pyrroles 5 <03SL75>. Other new extensions of this popular pyrrole synthesis include the preparation of a number of pyrroles from hexane-2,5-dione and amines under solvent-free conditions in the presence of layered zirconium phosphate or phosphonate catalysts <03TL3923>, and the development of a solid-phase variant of this reaction <03SL711>. Likewise, the preparation of iV-acylpyrroles from primary amides and 2,5-dimethoxytetrahydrofuran in the presence of one equivalent of thionyl chloride has also been reported <03S1959>. 

Even though the Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis has been around for 120 years, its precise mechanism was the subject of debate. In 1991, V. Amarnath et al. investigated the intermediates of the reaction and determined the most likely mechanistic pathway. The formation of pyrroles was studied on various racemic and meso-3,4-diethyl-2,5-hexanediones. The authors found that the rate of cyclization was different for the racemic and meso compounds and the racemic isomers reacted considerably faster than the meso isomers. There were two crucial observations 1) the stereoisomers did not interconvert under the reaction conditions and 2) there was no primary kinetic isotope effect for the hydrogen atoms at the C3 and C4 positions. These observations led to the conclusion that the cyclization of the hemiaminal intermediate is the rate-determining (slow) step. 

F.H. Kohnke and co-workers prepared novel heterocyclophanes from cyclic poly-1,4-diketones, which were obtained by the oxidation of calix[6]furan and calix[4]furan. " One of the heterocyclophanes, calix[6]pyrrole, was prepared by the Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis from the corresponding dodecaketone. The substrate was heated with excess ammonium acetate in absolute ethanol. Interestingly, the analogous synthesis of calix[4]pyrrole under identical conditions failed, while calix[5]pyrrole is obtained only in 1% yield. 

The formal total synthesis of roseophilin was accomplished by B.M. Trost et al. who used the Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis to install the trisubstituted pyrrole moiety.The 1,4-diketone substrate was reacted with various primary amines to obtain A/-substituted pyrroles. The best yield was obtained when benzylamine was used as the amine component, but the A/-deprotection of the product proved to be problematic. This forced the researchers to prepare the otherwise unstable A/-unprotected pyrrole under carefully controlled conditions and protect it immediately with SEM-chloride. 

In the laboratory of A. Millar, the convergent enantloselective synthesis of CI-981, a potent and tissue-selective Inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase was achieved. The central tetrasubstituted pyrrole ring was prepared via the Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis. The required 1,4-diketone precursor was efficiently prepared by the Stetter reaction between p-fluorobenzaldehyde and an unsaturated amide. Interestingly, the A/-benzyl thiazolium chloride catalyst afforded only the benzoin condensation product and none of the desired diketone. However, when the A/-ethyl thiazolium bromide catalyst was employed, under anhydrous and concentrated reaction conditions, the 1,4-diketone was formed in good yield. The authors also noted that the simple dilution of the reaction mixture resulted in a dramatic increase in the formation of the undesired benzoin condensation product. 

Song, G., Wang, B., Wang, G., Kang, Y., Yang, T., and Yang, L. (2005). Fe -montmoriUonite as effective, recyclable catalyst for Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis under mild conditions. Syn. Commun., 35,1051-1057. 

One of the most common approaches to pyrrole synthesis is the Paal-Knorr reaction, in which 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds are converted to pyrroles by acid-mediated dehydrative cyclization in the presence of a primary amine. The group of Taddei has reported a microwave-assisted variation of the Paal-Knorr procedure, whereby a small array of tetrasubstituted pyrroles was obtained (Scheme 6.181) [342], The pyrroles were effectively synthesized by heating a solution of the appropriate 1,4-dicarbonyl compound in the presence of 5 equivalents of the primary amine in acetic acid at 180 °C for 3 min. The same result was obtained by heating an identical mixture under open-vessel microwave conditions (reflux) for 5 min. Interestingly, the authors were unable to achieve meaningful product yields when attempting to carry out the same transformation by oil-bath heating. 

The problems involved are exemplified here by Knorr s pyrrole synthesis (A. Gossauer, 1974). It has been known for almost a century that a-aminoketones (C2N components) react with 1,3-dioxo compounds (C2 components) to form pyrroles (C4N-heterocycles). A side-reaction is the cyclodimerization of the a-aminoketones to yield dihydropyrazines (C4Nj), but this can be minimized by keeping the concentration of the ar-aminoketone low relative to the 1,3-dioxo compound. The first step in Knorr s pyrrole synthesis is the formation of an imine. This depends critically on the pH of the solution. The nucleophilicity of the amine is lost on protonation, whereas the carbonyl groups are activated by protons. An optimum is found around pH 5, where yields of about 60% can be reached. At pH 4 or 6 the yield of the pyrrole may approach zero. The ester groups of /7-keto esters do not react with the amine under these conditions. If a more reactive 1,3-diketone is used, it has to be symmetrical, otherwise mixtures of two different imines are obtained. The imine formed rearranges to an enamine, which cyclizes and dehydrates to yield a 3-acylpyrrole as the normal Knorr product (A. Gossauer, 1974 G.W. Kenner, 1973 B). 

Furans can be hydrolyzed under mild conditions to y-dicarbonyl compounds. The reaction may be viewed as the reverse of the Paal-Knorr-type synthesis of furans. Pyrrole polymerizes under these reaction conditions, whereas thiophene is stable. 

N-Alkylpyrroles may be obtained by the Knorr synthesis or by the reaction of the pyrrolyl metallates, ie, Na, K, and Tl, with alkyl haUdes such as iodomethane, eg, 1-methylpyrrole [96-54-8]. Alkylation of pyrroles at the other ring positions can be carried out under mild conditions with allyhc or hensylic hahdes or under more stringent conditions (100—150°C) with CH I. However, unless most of the other ring positions are blocked, poly alkylation and polymerisation tend to occur. N-Alkylation of pyrroles is favored by polar solvents and weakly coordinating cations (Na", K" ). More strongly coordinating cations (Li", Mg " ) lead to more C-alkylation. 

A different approach toward highly substituted pyrroles involving a one-pot sila-Stetter/Paal-Knorr strategy was realized by Bharadwaj and Scheidt (Scheme 6.182) [343]. In this multicomponent synthesis, catalyzed by a thiazolium salt, an acyl anion conjugate addition reaction of an acylsilane (sila-Stetter) was coupled in situ with the conventional Paal-Knorr approach. Employing microwave conditions at 160 °C for 15 min, the acylsilane was combined with the cx/l-unsaturated ketone in... 

Similar reaction conditions as those by Bose were used for a range of other applications, for example, the synthesis of heterocycles. A combination of a microwave-assisted Paal-Knorr reaction15 with a transfer hydrogenation takes place in the preparation of 2,5-di- and 1,2,5-trisubstituted pyrroles from -l,4-diaryl-2-butene-l,4-diones in a one-pot operation. Hydrogenation was achieved with ammonium formates and 10% Pd/C as catalyst in PEG-200. Yields of up to 92% were obtained within 0.5-2 min (Scheme 4.2)16. 

Another example of reaction-rate enhancement was reported for the microwave-assisted Paal-Knorr synthesis of a series of tetrasubstituted pyrroles [18]. Following the standard procedure, 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds were converted to pyrrole rings via acid-mediated dehydrative cyclization in presence of primary amines. The main limitation of the standard protocol is the harsh reaction conditions (reflux in acetic acid for extended times). The use of microwaves slashes the reaction times to few minutes, giving good isolated yields of the desired products (Scheme 15.5). 

The compounds core comprises a pentasubstituted pyrrole, which results from a convergent synthesis with a Paal-Knorr reaction as its crucial step. This succeeds only under specially designed conditions the reaction faced initially a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, and therefore a range of linear syntheses had been developed as weU. Although they are scientifically very interesting, they will not be discussed here in any greater detail. [395,396]... 

Crabtree and co-workers discovered the dehydrogenative Paal-Knorr synthesis the reaction of 1,4-diols with primary amines in the presence of a Ru diphosphine diamine complex at 125 °C to afford 2,5-disubstituted pyrroles (Scheme 12.37)." Kempe and Milstein developed dehydrogenative conditions for the synthesis of pyrroles via C-N and C-C coupling of alcohols with vicinal amino alcohols (Scheme 12.37). These reactions require the use of KOfBu, which may facilitate a-deprotonation of the intermediate imine. 

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