Lewis acids as additives

4 Adjusting the Nucleophilicity of Oi anoboron Cross-Coupling Partners 

This result demonstrates the immense difference in nucleophihcity between 

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Addition of various organometalic reagents to chiral nitrones, derived from L-erythrulose, proceeds with variable diastereoselectivity, depending on Lewis acids as additives. ZnBr2 facilitates the attack at the Si face of the C=N bond, whereas Et2AlCl makes the attack at the Re face more preferable. The obtained adducts can be transformed into derivatives of /V - h y d r o x y - u. u - d i s u b s t i t u t e d -a-amino acids, with their further conversion into a,a-disubstituted a-amino acids (193, 202). 

Simultaneous control of stereosequence and molecular weight distribution has long been one of the holy grails in the field of radical polymerization. Nitroxide mediated polymerization (NMP), atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and RAFT all offer control over molecular weight distribution. However, polymers produced by these methods show similar tacticity to those obtained by the conventional process. Recently there have been reports of tacticity control of homopolymers " (which enables the synthesis of stereoblock copolymers ) and control of the alternating tendency for copolymerizations in ATRP or RAFT polymerization through the use of Lewis acids as additives. 

Inoue and co-workers were the first to report the use of bulky Lewis acid as additives to aluminum porphyrin initiators to enhance the polymerization rate. This was shown in particular for methacrylic esters and For... 

Simple olefins do not usually add well to ketenes except to ketoketenes and halogenated ketenes. Mild Lewis acids as well as bases often increase the rate of the cyclo addition. The cycloaddition of ketenes to acetylenes yields cyclobutenones. The cycloaddition of ketenes to aldehydes and ketones yields oxetanones. The reaction can also be base-cataly2ed if the reactant contains electron-poor carbonyl bonds. Optically active bases lead to chiral lactones (41—43). The dimerization of the ketene itself is the main competing reaction. This process precludes the parent compound ketene from many [2 + 2] cyclo additions. Intramolecular cycloaddition reactions of ketenes are known and have been reviewed (7). 

The use of various heterocyclic additives in the MTO-catalyzed epoxidation has been demonstrated to be of great importance for substrate conversion, as well as for the product selectivity. With regard to selectivity, the role of the additive is obviously to protect the product epoxides from deleterious, acid-catalyzed (Brons-ted or Lewis acid) ring-opening reactions. This can be achieved by direct coordination of the heterocyclic additive to the rhenium metal, thereby significantly decreasing its Lewis acidity. In addition, the basic nature of the additives will increase the pH of the reaction media. 

The Lewis acid mediated addition of silyl enol ethers or silylketcne acetals to oc-alkoxyaldehydcs is the most versatile and reliable method of providing chelation control in aldol-type additions3. The stereochemical outcome is as predicted by Cram s cyclic model11 ... 

For example, using (/ )-5-trimethylsilyl-2-cyclohexenone as the chiral Michael acceptor, optically active m // .v-3.5-disubstituied cyclohexanones 1 are obtained via a Lewis acid catalyzed addition of silylenol ethers or ketene acetals. 

The Lewis acid mediated addition of allylic tin reagents to nitroalkenes has been reported. The condensation reaction of tributyl[(Z)-2-butenyl]tin(IV) with (E)-(2-nitroethenyl)benzene or (L)-l-nitropropene catalyzed by titanium(IV) chloride proceeded with modest anti diastereoselectivity. Poorer diastereoselection resulted when diethyl ether aluminum trichloride complex was employed as the Lewis acid 18. 

Our group has exploited 4-phenylthio-l,3-dioxanes as convenient precursors to 4-lithio-l,3-dioxanes [45,65-69]. 4-Phenylthio-l,3-dioxanes 184 were originally prepared from -silyloxy aldehydes 183 [65] (Eq. 28). Lewis acid-promoted addition of phenylthiotrimethylsilane gave an unstable thioacetal intermediate, which could be converted in situ to the corresponding 1,3-dioxane. Yields for this process are variable, as the product is unstable under the conditions of its formation. The reaction slowly evolves to a mixture of the desired product, the phenylthio acetal of 183, the phenylthio acetal of acetone, and a variety of other unidentified products. 

The majority of catalytic enantioselective allylation reactions involve the chiral Lewis-acid-catalysed additions of allylsilanes or allylstannanes to carbonyl compounds. Monothiobinaphthol has been used by Woodward et al. as a chiral promoter in the enantioselective catalytic allylation of aryl ketones with impure Sn(allyl)4, prepared from allyl chloride, air-oxidised magnesium and SnCl4. Therefore, the allylation of arylketones in these conditions was achieved very efficiently, since the corresponding allylic alcohols were formed in... 

The stereogenic centers may be integral parts of the reactants, but chiral auxiliaries can also be used to impart facial diastereoselectivity and permit eventual isolation of enantiomerically enriched product. Alternatively, use of chiral Lewis acids as catalysts can also achieve facial selectivity. Although the general principles of control of the stereochemistry of aldol addition reactions have been well developed for simple molecules, the application of the principles to more complex molecules and the... 

Entry 2 was reported as part of a study of the stereochemistry of addition of allyltrimethylsilane to protected carbohydrates. Use of BF3 as the Lewis acid, as shown, gave the product from an open TS, whereas TiCl4 led to the formation of the alternate stereoisomer through chelation control. Similar results were reported for a protected galactose. 

As with the silanes, the most useful synthetic procedures involve electrophilic attack on alkenyl and allylic stannanes. The stannanes are considerably more reactive than the corresponding silanes because there is more anionic character on carbon in the C-Sn bond and it is a weaker bond.156 The most useful reactions in terms of syntheses involve the Lewis acid-catalyzed addition of allylic stannanes to aldehydes.157 The reaction occurs with allylic transposition. 

In addition to the data already discussed on acids or Lewis acids as solvents, some data are available for solvents in which the interpretation in terms of molecular complexing is less obvious. For example, the ionization of trityl chloride has been compared spectroscopically in nitromethane, nitroethane, and 2-nitropropane.198 Unfortunately the absorption band broadens as the solvent is changed, rendering a quantitative interpretation difficult. In the author s laboratory two... 

A very elegant expansion of the synthetic utility of this intramolecular amination was the insertion reactions into ethereal G-H bonds. Du Bois and co-workers have exploited this reactivity to prepare cyclic sulfamates that are then used as iminium ion equivalents. Upon treatment with a suitable Lewis acid, nucleophilic addition reactions... 

Carbon monoxide rapidly inserts into the carbon—zirconium bond of alkyl- and alkenyl-zirconocene chlorides at low temperature with retention of configuration at carbon to give acylzirconocene chlorides 17 (Scheme 3.5). Acylzirconocene chlorides have found utility in synthesis, as described elsewhere in this volume [17]. Lewis acid catalyzed additions to enones, aldehydes, and imines, yielding a-keto allylic alcohols, a-hydroxy ketones, and a-amino ketones, respectively [18], and palladium-catalyzed addition to alkyl/aryl halides and a,[5-ynones [19] are examples. The acyl complex 18 formed by the insertion of carbon monoxide into dialkyl, alkylaryl, or diaryl zirconocenes may rearrange to a r 2-ketone complex 19 either thermally (particularly when R1 = R2 = Ph) or on addition of a Lewis acid [5,20,21]. The rearrangement proceeds through the less stable... 

A variety of other powerful electrophiles add to the allylzirconium species 91, as shown in Scheme 3.26. Such reactions include the Lewis acid catalyzed addition of aryl, alkyl, or alkenyl acetals, derived from aldehydes, but not from ketones, and the addition of imi-nium species that lack p-hydrogens [56,58]. 

Lewis acids as water-stable catalysts have been developed. Metal salts, such as rare earth metal triflates, can be used in aldol reactions of aldehydes with silyl enolates in aqueous media. These salts can be recovered after the reactions and reused. Furthermore, surfactant-aided Lewis acid catalysis, which can be used for aldol reactions in water without using any organic solvents, has been also developed. These reaction systems have been applied successfully to catalytic asymmetric aldol reactions in aqueous media. In addition, the surfactant-aided Lewis acid catalysis for Mannich-type reactions in water has been disclosed. These investigations are expected to contribute to the decrease of the use of harmful organic solvents in chemical processes, leading to environmentally friendly green chemistry. 

A more recent report by Sibi and co-workers displayed the utility of chiral lanthanide Lewis acids for addition-trapping reactions [150]. An exhaustive screening of lanthanide Lewis acids and several chiral ligands revealed that Y(OTf)3 and proline derived ligand 138 was optimal (data not shown). Upon further optimization it was discovered that achiral additives 139 and 212 increased ee s (Scheme 56, entries 2 and 3). Bulkier radicals were found to decrease the enantioselectivity (entries 4 and 5). Also, larger aryl substituents on the ligand gave similar ee s as observed for 138 (compare entries 1, 6, and 7). 

Preparation of (R)-(+)-3-hydroxy-4-methylpentanoic acid has been reported previously by the submitters.5 Alternative syntheses of (R)-(+)- or (S)-(-)-3-hydroxy-4-methylpentanoic acid rely on aidoi reactions of chiral ketone, ester, or amide enolates,2 8 10 and Lewis-acid mediated additions of chiral silyl ketene acetals to Isobutyraldehyde.3 11 Since both enantiomers of HYTRA are readily available this method enables one to prepare (S)-3-hydroxy-4-methylpentanoic acid as well. 

Deactivation can take place if the intermediate hydride or alkyl species react with HCN. The result is the formation of nickel dicyanides, which cannot be reconverted to active species. We think that Lewis acids, in addition to promoting reductive elimination, may also have a retarding effect on this reaction, see Figure 11.4, as a more positively charged nickel species will react more slowly with protons. On the other hand, though, stronger acids are formed as a result of the interaction of HCN with the Lewis acids. 

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