Lewis acid catalysts intermolecular aldehyde reaction

Et2AlCl has been extensively used as a Lewis acid catalyst for intermolecular and intramolecular Diels-Alder reactions with a,3-unsaturated ketones and esters as dienophiles. It also catalyzes inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reactions of alkenes with quinone methides and Diels-Alder reactions of aldehydes as enophiles. ... 

S.C. PanandB. List s paper spans the whole field of current organocat-alysts discussing Lewis and Brpnsted basic and acidic catalysts. Starting from the development of proline-mediated enamine catalysis— the Hajos-Parrish-Eder-Sauer-Wiechert reaction is an intramolecular transformation involving enamine catalysis—into an intermolecular process with various electrophilic reaction partners as a means to access cY-functionalized aldehydes, they discuss a straightforward classification of organocatalysts and expands on Brpnsted acid-mediated transformations, and describe the development of asymmetric counteranion-directed catalysis (ACDC). 

Mechanistically related to the Mukaiyama aldol reaction, the carbonyl ene reaction is the reaction between an alkene bearing an allylic hydrogen and a carbonyl compound, to afford homoallylic alcohols. This reaction is potentially 100% atom efficient, and should be a valuable alternative to the addition of organometallic species to carbonyl substrates. However, the carbonyl ene reaction is of limited substrate scope and works generally well in an intermolecular manner only with activated substrates, typically 1,1-disubstituted alkenes and electron-deficient aldehydes (glyoxylate esters, fluoral, a,p-unsaturated aldehydes, etc.), in the presence of Lewis acids. The first use of chiral catalyst for asymmetric carbonyl ene was presented by Mikami et al. in 1989. ° By using a catalytic amount of titanium complexes prepared in situ from a 1 1 ratio of (rPrO)2titaniumX2 (X = Cl or Br) and optically pure BINOL, the homoallylic alcohols 70a,b were obtained in... 

Numerous in-depth mechanistic studies have been performed on the Mukaiyama aldol reaction. " Although various mechanisms exist in the literature that take into account the various roles of the numerous catalysts used for the enantio- and diastereoselective Mukaiyama aldol reaction, the commonly accepted mechanism accounting for bond formation is shown below.The reaction begins with the coordination of a Lewis acid with aldehyde 4 to form complex 5. Due to its enhanced electrophilicity, complex 5 is attacked by the 7t-bond of the enol silane 6, giving rise to resonance stabilized cation 7. At this point, either intermolecular silyl cleavage upon hydrolysis or intramolecular silyl transfer to the product hydroxyl group occurs to give products such as 8 or 9. 

Class II aldolase mimics (Scheme 10.4) were the first small-molecule catalysts that were reported for the direct intermolecular aldol reaction. These catalysts are characterized as bimetallic complexes that contain both Lewis acidic and Brpnsted basic sites. Shibasaki et al. first reported on the use of such a catalyst in the aldol reaction in 1997, demonstrating its potential with the reaction of various acetophenones 52 and aldehydes 53 (Scheme 10.13). Aldols 55 were obtained in good yields and enantioselectivities. A similar approach was used in the direct catalytic asymmetric aldol-Tishchenko reaction.Nevertheless, for the moment, this method does not provide access to true polypropionate fragments. ... 

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