Lewis acids nitrile oxide cycloadditions

Nitronates derived from primary nitroalkanes can be regarded as a synthetic equivalent of nitrile oxides since the elimination of an alcohol molecule from nitronates adds one higher oxidation level leading to nitrile oxides. This direct / -elimination of nitronates is known to be facilitated in the presence of a Lewis acid or a base catalyst [66, 72, 73]. On the other hand, cycloaddition reactions of nitronates to alkene dipolarophiles produce N-alkoxy-substituted isoxazolidines as cycloadducts. Under acid-catalyzed conditions, these isoxazolidines can be transformed into 2-isoxazolines through a ready / -elimination, and 2-isoxazolines correspond to the cycloadducts of nitrile oxide cycloadditions to alkenes [74]. 

Primary nitro ketones, ethyl nitroacetate, and (phenylsulfony l)nitromethane react with alkenes in the presence of Lewis acids to give nitrile oxide cycloaddition.61a Similarly, the reaction of a-nitro ketones with TeCl4 generates the corresponding nitrile oxides, as shown in Eq. 6.36.61b... 

It was found that 2-propenyloxymagnesium bromide reacts much more readily with nitrile oxides than other known dipolarophiles of electron-deficient, electron-rich, and strained types, including 3-buten-2-one, ethyl vinyl ether, and norbomene, respectively (147). Therefore, this BrMg-alkoxide is highly effective in various nitrile oxide cycloaddition reactions, including those of nitrile oxide/Lewis acid complexes. 

Control of reaction selectivities with external reagents has been quite difficult. Unsolved problems remaining in the held of nitrile oxide cycloadditions are (a) Nitrile oxide cycloadditions to 1,2-disubstituted alkenes are sluggish, the dipoles undergoing facile dimerization to furoxans in most cases (b) the reactions of nitrile oxides with 1,2-disubstituted alkenes nonregioselective (c) stereo- and regiocontrol of this reaction by use of external reagents are not yet well developed and (d) there are few examples of catalysis by Lewis acids known, as is true for catalyzed enantioselective reactions. 

Yamamoto and co-workers (135,135-137) recently reported a new method for stereocontrol in nitrile oxide cycloadditions. Metal ion-catalyzed diastereoselective asymmetric reactions using chiral electron-deficient dipolarophiles have remained unreported except for reactions using a-methylene-p-hydroxy esters, which were described in Section 11.2.2.6. Although synthetically very useful and, hence, attractive as an entry to the asymmetric synthesis of 2-isoxazohnes, the application of Lewis acid catalysis to nitrile oxide cycloadditions with 4-chiral 3-(2-aIkenoyl)-2-oxazolidinones has been unsuccessful, even when > 1 equiv of Lewis acids are employed. However, as shown in the Scheme 11.37, diastereoselectivities in favor of the ffc-cycloadducts are improved (diastereomer ratio = 96 4) when the reactions are performed in dichloromethane in the presence of 1 equiv of MgBr2 at higher than normal concentrations (0.25 vs 0.083 M) (140). The Lewis acid... 

Many groups have tackled the development of catalytic asymmetric versions of nitrile oxide cycloaddition reactions using chiral Lewis acid catalysts. However, Ukaji is the first and the only chemist who has succeeded in the achievement of such processes involving nitrile oxide cycloaddition reactions. He studied reactions... 

In 2004, an elegant example of nitrile oxide cycloaddition to pyrazolidinone cro-tonates catalyzed by a chiral Lewis acid was described by Sibi and coworkers [17a]. 

Scheme 2,9 Chiral ruthenium Lewis acid-catalyzed nitrile oxide cycloadditions.

Brinkmann, Y, Madhushaw, R. J., Jazzar, R., Bernardinelli, G., Kiindig, E. P. (2007). Chiral ruthenium Lewis acid-catalyzed nitrile oxide cycloadditions. Tetrahedi on, 63, 8413-8419. 

Sibi et al. reported that substoichiometric chiral Mg(II) complexes catalyzed regio- and enantioselective nitrile oxide cycloadditions to electron-deficient alkenes (Scheme 4.8) [6]. For an achiral template, bulky pyrazolidinone (20) was essential for high regio- and enantioselectivity in (22) and (23), while oxazolidinone crotonate and 3,5-dimethylpyrazole gave the adducts, but with poor results. In particular, mesityl nitrile oxide (21), a stable dipole, was chosen as the reagent due to steric interactions of that group with either a bulky achiral template and/or a bulky Lewis acid center. Aliphatic (t-Bu and i-Bu) nitrile oxides also provided cycloaddition... 

Nitro compounds have been converted into various cyclic compounds via cycloaddition reactions. In particular, nitroalkenes have proved to be useful in Diels-Alder reactions. Under thermal conditions, they behave as electron-deficient alkenes and react with dienes to yield 3-nitrocy-clohexenes. Nitroalkenes can also act as heterodienes and react with olefins in the presence of Lewis acids to yield cyclic alkyl nitronates, which undergo [3+2] cycloaddition. Nitro compounds are precursors for nitrile oxides, alkyl nitronates, and trialkylsilyl nitronates, which undergo [3+2]cycloaddition reactions. Thus, nitro compounds play important roles in the chemistry of cycloaddition reactions. In this chapter, recent developments of cycloaddition chemistry of nitro compounds and their derivatives are summarized. 

However, most asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrile oxides with alkenes are carried out without Lewis acids as catalysts using either chiral alkenes or chiral auxiliary compounds (with achiral alkenes). Diverse chiral alkenes are in use, such as camphor-derived chiral N-acryloylhydrazide (195), C2-symmetric l,3-diacryloyl-2,2-dimethyl-4,5-diphenylimidazolidine, chiral 3-acryloyl-2,2-dimethyl-4-phenyloxazolidine (196, 197), sugar-based ethenyl ethers (198), acrylic esters (199, 200), C-bonded vinyl-substituted sugar (201), chirally modified vinylboronic ester derived from D-( + )-mannitol (202), (l/ )-menthyl vinyl ether (203), chiral derivatives of vinylacetic acid (204), ( )-l-ethoxy-3-fluoroalkyl-3-hydroxy-4-(4-methylphenylsulfinyl)but-1 -enes (205), enantiopure Y-oxygenated-a,P-unsaturated phenyl sulfones (206), chiral (a-oxyallyl)silanes (207), and (S )-but-3-ene-1,2-diol derivatives (208). As a chiral auxiliary, diisopropyl (i ,i )-tartrate (209, 210) has been very popular. 

Nitrile oxides are widely used as dipoles in cycloaddition reactions for the synthesis of various heterocyclic rings. In order to promote reactions between nitrile oxides and less reactive carbon nucleophiles, Auricchio and coworkers studied the reactivity of nitrile oxides towards Lewis acids. They observed that, in the presence of gaseous BF3, nitrile oxides gave complexes in which the electrophilicity of the carbon atom was so enhanced that it could react with aromatic systems, stereoselectively yielding aryl oximes 65 and 66 (Scheme 35). ... 

This chapter deals mainly with the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of three 1,3-dipoles azomethine ylides, nitrile oxides, and nitrones. These three have been relatively well investigated, and examples of external reagent-mediated stereocontrolled cycloadditions of other 1,3-dipoles are quite limited. Both nitrile oxides and nitrones are 1,3-dipoles whose cycloaddition reactions with alkene dipolarophiles produce 2-isoxazolines and isoxazolidines, their dihydro derivatives. These two heterocycles have long been used as intermediates in a variety of synthetic applications because their rich functionality. When subjected to reductive cleavage of the N—O bonds of these heterocycles, for example, important building blocks such as p-hydroxy ketones (aldols), a,p-unsaturated ketones, y-amino alcohols, and so on are produced (7-12). Stereocontrolled and/or enantiocontrolled cycloadditions of nitrones are the most widely developed (6,13). Examples of enantioselective Lewis acid catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions are summarized by J0rgensen in Chapter 12 of this book, and will not be discussed further here. 

The 3 + 2-cycloaddition of nitrile oxides to 2-crotyl-l,3-dithiane 1-oxides produces exclusively 5-acyldihydroisoxazoles.92 Lewis acid addition to 1,3-dipole cycloaddition reactions of mesityl nitrile oxide with a, /i-unsaturated 2-acyl-1,3-dithiane 1-oxides can reverse the sense of induced stereoselectivity.93 The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of 4-t-butylbenzonitrile oxide with 6A-acrylainido-6A-deoxy-/i-cyclodextrin (68) in aqueous solution favours the formation of the 4-substituted isoxazoline (69) rather than the 5-substituted regioisomer (Scheme 24).94 Tandem intramolecular cycloadditions of silyl nitronate, synthons of nitrile oxides, yield functionalized hydrofurans.95... 

The importance of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions (1,3-DC) in the realm of heterocyclic synthesis is widely documented and recent results concerning the intramolecular version of this methodology, including reactions with nitrile oxides and nitrones for access to isoxazole derivatives, have been reviewed <07T12247>. A quantum chemical study of the Lewis acid effect on the cycloaddition of benzonitrile oxide to propyne has been reported evidencing a small influence on the outcome of the reaction <07T5251>. 

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