Lewis acids highly selective catalysis

A high degree of syn selectivity can be obtained from the addition of enamines to nitroalkenes. In this case, the syn selectivity is largely independent of the geometry of the acceptor, as well as the donor, double bond. Next in terms of selectivity, are the addition of enolates. However, whether one obtains syn or anti selectivity is dependent on both the geometry of the acceptor and the enolate double bond, whereas anti selectivity of a modest and unreliable level is obtained by reaction of enol silyl ethers with nitroalkenes under Lewis acid catalysis. 

The cycloaddition of chiral, racemic and non-racemic alkoxybutadienes 109 with phenyltriazolinedione led to aza compounds [110] in high yield, with good facial selectivity (diastereomeric excess 87-92%) (Equation 2.31). The cycloadditions of the same dienes with N-phenylmaleimide require Lewis acid catalysis. 

The addition of an enolsilane to an aldehyde, commonly referred to as the Mukaiyama aldol reaction, is readily promoted by Lewis acids and has been the subject of intense interest in the field of chiral Lewis acid catalysis. Copper-based Lewis acids have been applied to this process in an attempt to generate polyacetate and polypropionate synthons for natural product synthesis. Although the considerable Lewis acidity of many of these complexes is more than sufficient to activate a broad range of aldehydes, high selectivities have been observed predominantly with substrates capable of two-point coordination to the metal. Of these, benzy-loxyacetaldehyde and pyruvate esters have been most successful. 

Among the various methods available for the activation of dienes in a Diels-Alder reaction, Lewis acid catalysis is certainly the most important. Our group has reported the first example of a Diels-Alder reaction catalyzed by Bi(0Tf)3xH20 (Scheme 12) [72], which showed high catalytic activity and regioselectivity in comparison to other Sc-, Ti-, Sm-, or Yb-metal-based Lewis acids, well-known for their efficient catalytic activity. Bi(OTf)3 proved to be slightly more endo-selective than Sc(OTf)3. Further, no polymerisation of dienes or dienophiles was observed. Bi(OTf)3 was also found to be superior to SnCI4 and Cu(BF4)2. 

Disubstituted dihydropyrans are produced with high u/iri-selectivity when 2-phenyl-4-(4-tolylsulfonyl)-3,4-dihydro-2H -pyrans ate treated with Al-based Lewis acids <99SL132>. Tetraenes 10, derived from dienes via their epoxides, undergo a double RCM reaction under Ru-catalysis to yield polycyclic ethers 11 in which the dihydropyran units can be joined by a variable number of carbon atoms <99JOC3354>. Continued work on the use of dispiroketals in synthesis has led to an improved route to the enantiomers of bi(dihydropyrans) 12 <99JCS(P1)1639>. 

Diels-Alder cyclization of IfiAO-undecatrienals.5 These unsaturated aldehydes undergo intramolecular Diels-Alder cyclization, particularly under Lewis acid catalysis. The reaction is highly endo-selective. Silyl-protected alcohol groups at C4 and Q can be present, and t-butyldimethylsilyl ethers show a strong axial preference. 

Indole (2) undergoes electrophilic substitution preferentially at the b(C3)-position whereas pyrrole (1) reacts predominantly at the a(C2)-position [15]. The positional selectivity in these five-membered ring systems is well explained by the stability of the Wheland intermediates for electrophilic substitution. The intermediate cations from 3 (for indole, 2) and a (for pyrrole, 1) are the more stabilized. Pyrrole compounds can also participate in cycloaddition (Diels-Alder) reactions under certain conditions, such as Lewis acid catalysis, heating, or high pressure [15]. However, calculations of the frontier electron population for indole and pyrrole show that the HOMO of indole exhibits high electron density at the C3 while the HOMO of pyrrole is high at the C2 position [25-28] (Scheme 3). 

The only paper concerning catalysis by Lewis acids of the Diels-Alder reactions of these simple sulfinyl ethylenes was due to Ronan and Kagan [20], who studied the influence of TMSOTf in the reaction of compound (S)-l with cyclo-pentadiene and furane. In the first case, the reaction occurs at 0°C in 3 h, giving an 89 11 mixture of endo and exo adducts (overall yield 60%) with very high n-facial selectivity (de> 92%). The high efficiency of the catalyst increasing the reactivity of 1 also made possible its reaction with furan, which evolved with low endo/exo selectivity (55 45) and lower 7r-facial selectivity (de 70%) than that observed with cyclopentadiene. These excellent results were nevertheless, eclipsed by those reported in the same paper [20] concerning the activation of... 

The latest paper in this field [83] concerns the synthesis of the (S,S)-l,l-bis-ethoxycarbonyl-2,2-bis-p-tolylsulfinylethene (83) and its dienophilic behavior. Reactions with cyclopentadiene occur neither under thermal conditions nor in the presence of Lewis acids, but required the use of high pressure (13 kbar) to afford an 87 13 mixture of 84a and 84b adducts. With acyclic 1-substituted dienes, the combined use of ZnBr2 catalysis and high pressures was required to achieve high yields of cyclohexadienes 84c, resulting from spontaneous pyrolytic desulfinylation of the adducts (Scheme 44). The optical purity of these cyclohexadienes (ee >97%) revealed that both the regioselectivity and diastereo-selectivity of these reactions are complete. 

Activation of C=N double bonds by copper Lewis acids for nucleophilic addition has also been reported (Sch. 37) [73]. The a-imino ester 157 undergoes alkylation at the imine carbon with a variety of nucleophiles when catalyzed by copper Lewis acids. The presence of the electron-withdrawing ester group increases the reactivity of the imine and also assists in the formation of a stable five-membered chelate with the Lewis acid. Evidence for Cu(I) Lewis-acid catalysis and a tetrahedral chelate was obtained by FTIR spectroscopy, from the crystal structure of the catalyst, and from several control experiments. The authors rule out the intermediacy of a copper enol-ate in these transformations. The asymmetric alkylation of A,0-acetals with enol silanes mediated by a copper Lewis acid proceeding with high selectivity has been reported [74],... 

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