Lewis acids with nitriles

Under acidic reaction conditions the formation of isonitriles can compete efficiently with nitrile formation (Scheme 4.87) [377]. Particularly effective reagents for the formation of isonitriles are mixtures of Me3SiCN with Lewis acids such as Zn(II), Pd(II), or Sn(II) salts. Aluminum-derived Lewis acids with Me3SiCN, on the other hand, mediate the conversion of epoxides into nitriles [378, 379]. 

Figure 7.13 First stage of hydrocyanation. Conversion of butadiene to 3PN. Under the reaction conditions 2M3BN is isomerized to 3PN. Interaction of Lewis acid with coordinated nitrile is not shown for clarity. The left and right side involve CN addition in an anti-Markovnikov and Markovnikov manner. L = P(OEt)3 or P(0-o-tolyl)3.

Signiflcantly, the authors speculated that the conversion was activated by the interaction of the Lewis acid with the nitrile nitrogen atom, a process apparently requiring an orbital flexibility (capacity to hybridize) or other electronic character inconsistent with properties found in lanthanide species. 

Thus a second method was envisaged, the reaction of a nitrile, hydrogen selenide, and an a-halogenated ketone in the presence of a condensation catalyst, which can be POCl, or POCI3 with a Lewis acid such as PCI3 or anhydrous ZnCl. The use of fresh AICI3 leads to the formation of tarry side-products. 

Phosphoms pentafluoride behaves as a Lewis acid showing electron-accepting properties. It forms complexes, generally in a ratio of 1 1 with Lewis bases, with amines, ethers, nitriles, sulfoxides, and other bases. These complexes are frequently less stable than the similar BF complexes, probably owing to stearic factors. Because it is a strong acceptor, PF is an excellent catalyst especially in ionic polymeri2ations. Phosphoms pentafluoride is also used as a source of phosphoms for ion implantation (qv) in semiconductors (qv) (26). 

Reduction Conversion of Nitriles into Amines Reduction of a nitrile with LiAIH4 gives a primary amine, RNH . The reaction occurs by nucleophilic addition of hydride ion to the polar C=N bond, yielding an imine anion, which still contains a C=N bond and therefore undergoes a second nucleophilic addition of hydride to give a dianion. Both monoanion and dianion intermediates are undoubtedly stabilized by Lewis acid-base complexafion to an aluminum species, facilitating the second addition that would otherwise be difficult Protonation of the dianion by addition of water in a subsequent step gives the amine. 

The asymmetric Strecker synthesis of a-amino nitriles from Schiff bases of a-methylbenzyl-aminc is improved by the use of trimethylsilyl cyanide, instead of hydrogen cyanide and by promotion of the transformation with a Lewis acid, preferably zinc chloride43. Thus, from the butyraldimine 2, the amino nitrile is synthesized with a yield of 98.5% and an ee of 68.5%. 

Hoesch reaction. In most cases, a Lewis acid is necessary zinc chloride is the most common. The reaction is generally useful only with phenols, phenolic ethers, and some reactive heterocyclic compounds (e.g., pyrrole), but it can be extended to aromatic amines by the use of BCls. Acylation in the case of amines is regioselectively ortho. Monohydric phenols, however, generally do not give ketones " but are attacked at the oxygen to produce imino esters. Many nitriles... 

Kitatani et al. found that tungsten(VI) chloride would catalyse the formation of a range of oxazoles from benzoyl(phenyl)diazomethane and nitriles (Scheme 17).<74TL1531, 77BCJ1647> The reaction with acetonitrile was studied with a range of other metal chlorides, but all proved less satisfactory than WCle. They attributed the catalytic nature of tungsten(Vl) chloride to both its Lewis acidity and the affinity of tungsten for carbenes. 

The role of the rhodium is probably two-fold. Initially due to its Lewis acidity it reversibly forms a complex with the nitrile nitriles are known to complex to the free axial coordination sites in rhodium(II) carboxylates as evidenced by the change of colour upon addition of a nitrile to a solution of rhodium(II) acetate, and by X-ray crystallography. Secondly the metal catalyses the decomposition of the diazocarbonyl compound to give a transient metallocarbene which reacts with the nitrile to give a nitrile ylide intermediate. Whether the nitrile ylide is metal bound or not is unclear. 

In 1978, Sugasawa et al., at Shionogi Pharmaceutical Co. reported ortho-selective Friedel-Craft acylation with free anilines with nitrile derivatives [4]. Sugasawa reported that the reaction requires two different Lewis acids (BC13 and A1C13) and does not proceed when N,N-dialkyl anilines are used. He proposed that boron bridging between nitriles and anilines led to exclusive ortho-acylation but a conclusive mechanism was not elucidated. The report did not offer any reason why two different Lewis acids were required and why the reaction did not progress with N,N-dialkyl anilines. Therefore, we initiated mechanistic studies. 

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... 

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. 

Di- and trisubstituted nitroalkenes tethered to dipolarophiles (unsaturated esters, nitriles) undergo tandem [4+2]/[3+2] cycloadditions with 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene or butyl vinyl ether in the presence of Lewis acids (Eq. 8.112). For the dimethylene tether, the E-configuration of the dipolarophile is preferred, and the products arise selectively from a syn-endo pathway.177... 

Additions to quinoline derivatives also continued to be reported last year. Chiral dihydroquinoline-2-nitriles 55 were prepared in up to 91% ee via a catalytic, asymmetric Reissert-type reaction promoted by a Lewis acid-Lewis base bifunctional catalyst. The dihydroquinoline-2-nitrile derivatives can be converted to tetrahydroquinoline-2-carboxylates without any loss of enantiomeric purity <00JA6327>. In addition the cyanomethyl group was introduced selectively at the C2-position of quinoline derivatives by reaction of trimethylsilylacetonitrile with quinolinium methiodides in the presence of CsF <00JOC907>. The reaction of quinolylmethyl and l-(quinolyl)ethylacetates with dimethylmalonate anion in the presence of Pd(0) was reported. Products of nucleophilic substitution and elimination and reduction products were obtained . Pyridoquinolines were prepared in one step from quinolines and 6-substituted quinolines under Friedel-Crafts conditions <00JCS(P1)2898>. 

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. 

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. 

The probable pathway resulting in the stereoselective formation of silylated ene nitrile (586) from enoxime (584) is presented on the right of Scheme 3.282. At higher temperature, the latter eliminates trimethylsilanol to give ene-nitrile (586) under the action of silyl Lewis acid (TfOSiMe3). Evidently, the reaction of compound (585) with TfOSiMe3 at room temperature involves initial silylation of the nitrogen atom to form the cationic intermediate B, which is deprotonated with triethylamine, followed by the thermodynamically favorable l,3-N,C-shift... 

---