Lithium diisopropylamide esters

J. Rebek, Jr., (1987) first developed a new synthesis of Kemp s acid and then extensively explored its application in model studies. The synthesis involves the straightforward hydrogenation (A. Steitz, 1968), esterification and methylation of inexpensive 1,3,5-benzenetricar-boxylic acid (trimesic acid 30/100 g). The methylation of the trimethyl ester with dimethyl sulfate, mediated by lithium diisopropylamide (V. J. Shiner, 1981), produced mainly the desired aff-cis-1,3,5-trimethyl isomer, which was saponified to give Kemp s acid. 

Lithium diisopropylamide is a strong enough base to abstract a proton from the a carbon atom of an ester but because it is so sterically hindered it does not add readily to the carbonyl group To illustrate... 

Section 21 10 It is possible to generate ester enolates by deprotonation provided that the base used is very strong Lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) is often used for this purpose It also converts ketones quantitatively to their enolates... 

The i -alkoxycarbonyhnethylxanthate esters treated with lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) and an aldehyde or ketone give excellent yields of a,P-unsaturated esters (56) ... 

Good yields are usually obtained with aromatic aldehydes or ketones. Aliphatic aldehydes are poor substrates for the ordinary procedure, but react much better if the halo ester is first deprotonated with lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) in tetrahydrofuran at -78 °C, prior to addition of the aldehyde. 

Alpha hydrogen atoms of carbonyl compounds are weakly acidic and can be removed by strong bases, such as lithium diisopropylamide (LDA), to yield nucleophilic enolate ions. The most important reaction of enolate ions is their Sn2 alkylation with alkyl halides. The malonic ester synthesis converts an alkyl halide into a carboxylic acid with the addition of two carbon atoms. Similarly, the acetoacetic ester synthesis converts an alkyl halide into a methyl ketone. In addition, many carbonyl compounds, including ketones, esters, and nitriles, can be directly alkylated by treatment with LDA and an alkyl halide. 

Eq. (3), with lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) to a lithiospecies and in its subsequent reaction with C02 affording via the corresponding 4-carboxylic acid its ethyl ester 59. In the alternative version perchlorate 48e is electro-chemically reduced in acetonitrile to an anionic species that was converted either to a 3 1 mixture of isomers 56 (R = f-Bu) and 60 or to 4//-thiopyran 56 (R = PhCH2) with f-BuI or PhCH2Br, respectively (90ACS524). The kinetics of the benzylation procedure was followed by cyclic voltammetry [88ACS(B)269]. 

When the enolate of an ,) - or a /j,y-unsatunited amide is used, it can react in an a or in a y fashion with a,/i-unsaturated esters, however, in most cases only a-selectivity is observed. Using l-(l-oxo-2-butenyl)pyrrolidine and lithium diisopropylamide at — 78 °C in a THF/HM-I A mixture (1 1), high. syn-selective formation of 3-alkyl-5-oxo-5-(l-pyrrolidinyl)-4-vinylpen-tanoates is achieved78,381 382. Related syn- or anti-selective additions of a vinylogous urethane also are known79. 

Ethyl (bornylideneamino)acetate (2) and the imines of (-)-(lf ,2, 5 )-2-hydroxy-3-pinanone and glycine, alanine and norvaline methyl esters were particularly successful as Michael donors. The chiral azaallyl anions, derived from these imines by deprotonation with lithium diisopropylamide in THF at — 80 C, add to various a,/i-unsaturated esters with modest to high diastereoselectivity (see Section 1.5.2.4.2.2.5.). Thus, starting with the imine 2, (R1 = CH,) and ethyl ( )-2-butcnoate, the a,/i-dialkylated glutamate derivative 3 is obtained as a single diastercomer in 90% yield91-92. 

Oxo esters are accessible via the diastereoselective 1,4-addition of chiral lithium enamine 11 as Michael donor. The terr-butyl ester of L-valine reacts with a / -oxo ester to form a chiral enamine which on deprotonation with lithium diisopropylamide results in the highly chelated enolate 11. Subsequent 1,4-addition to 2-(arylmethylene) or 2-alkylidene-l,3-propanedioates at — 78 °C, followed by removal of the auxiliary by hydrolysis and decarboxylation of the Michael adducts, affords optically active -substituted <5-oxo esters232 (for a related synthesis of 1,5-diesters, see Section 1.5.2.4.2.2.1.). In the same manner, <5-oxo esters with contiguous quaternary and tertiary carbon centers with virtually complete induced (> 99%) and excellent simple diastereoselectivities (d.r. 93 7 to 99.5 0.5) may be obtained 233 234. 

As first described by Krizan and Martin,6 the in situ trapping protocol, i.e., having the base and electrophile present in solution simultaneously, makes it possible to lithiate substrates that are not applicable in classical ortho-lithiation reactions.7 Later, Caron and Hawkins utilized the compatibility of lithium diisopropylamide and triisopropyl borate to synthesize arylboronic acid derivatives of bulky, electron deficient neopentyl benzoic acid esters.8 As this preparation illustrates, the use of lithium tetramethylpiperidide instead of lithium diisopropylamide broadens the scope of the reaction, and makes it possible to functionalize a simple alkyl benzoate.2... 

A route for the asymmetric synthesis of benzo[3]quinolizidine derivative 273 was planned, having as the key step a Dieckman cyclization of a tetrahydroisoquinoline bis-methyl ester derivative 272, prepared from (.S )-phcnylalaninc in a multistep sequence. This cyclization was achieved by treatment of 272 with lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) as a base, and was followed by hydrolysis and decarboxylation to 273 (Scheme 58). Racemization could not be completely suppressed, even though many different reaction conditions were explored <1999JPI3623>. 

Further variations of the Claisen rearrangement protocol were also utilized for the synthesis of allenic amino acid derivatives. Whereas the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement led to unsatisfactory results [133b], a number of variously substituted a-allenic a-amino acids were prepared by Kazmaier [135] by chelate-controlled Claisen rearrangement of ester enolates (Scheme 18.47). For example, deprotonation of the propargylic ester 147 with 2 equiv. of lithium diisopropylamide and transmetallation with zinc chloride furnished the chelate complex 148, which underwent a highly syn-stereoselective rearrangement to the amino acid derivative 149. 

Ethyl 3-oxoalkanoates when not commercially available can be prepared by the acylation of tert-butyl ethyl malonate with an appropriate acid chloride by way of the magnesium enolate derivative. Hydrolysis and decarboxylation in acid solution yields the desired 3-oxo esters [59]. 3-Keto esters can also be prepared in excellent yields either from 2-alkanone by condensation with ethyl chloroformate by means of lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) [60] or from ethyl hydrogen malonate and alkanoyl chloride usingbutyllithium [61]. Alternatively P-keto esters have also been prepared by the alcoholysis of 5-acylated Mel-drum s acid (2,2-dimethyl-l,3-dioxane-4,6-dione). The latter are prepared in almost quantitative yield by the condensation of Meldrum s acid either with an appropriate fatty acid in the presence of DCCI and DMAP [62] or with an acid chloride in the presence of pyridine [62] (Scheme 7). 

The kinetic enolization of esters with amide bases such as lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) and the resultant aldol condensations with representative aldehydes have been investigated by several groups (2,32,33). The enolate stereochemical assignments were determined by silylation in direct analogy to studies reported by Ireland (34). The preponderance of (E )-enolate observed with LDA (THF) in these... 

Darzens reaction of (-)-8-phenylmethyl a-chloroacetate (and a-bromoacetate) with various ketones (Scheme 2) yields ctT-glycidic esters (28) with high geometric and diastereofacial selectivity which can be explained in terms of both open-chain or non-chelated antiperiplanar transition state models for the initial aldol-type reaction the ketone approaches the Si-f ce of the Z-enolate such that the phenyl ring of the chiral auxiliary and the enolate portion are face-to-face. Aza-Darzens condensation reaction of iV-benzylideneaniline has also been studied. Kinetically controlled base-promoted lithiation of 3,3-diphenylpropiomesitylene results in Z enolate ratios in the range 94 6 (lithium diisopropylamide) to 50 50 (BuLi), depending on the choice of solvent and temperature. ... 

Butyrolactones were also prepared from esters of N-protected AAs after being treated with lithium diisopropylamide (LD A) at -78°C and thereafter with ethylene oxide (93JOC6966), or by chlorination of an AA having at least two carbon atoms in a side chain and subsequent hydrolysis (73LA560). In the latter case products are formed as a mixture of diastereoi-somers in moderate yield. 

The reason why the carbonyl group in -santonin remained intact may be that, after the reduction of the less hindered double bond, the ketone was enolized by lithium amide and was thus protected from further reduction. Indeed, treatment of ethyl l-methyl-2-cyclopentanone-l-carboxylate with lithium diisopropylamide in tetrahydrofuran at — 78° enolized the ketone and prevented its reduction with lithium aluminum hydride and with diisobutyl-alane (DIBAL ). Reduction by these two reagents in tetrahydrofuran at — 78° to —40° or —78° to —20°, respectively, afforded keto alcohols from several keto esters in 46-95% yields. Ketones whose enols are unstable failed to give keto alcohols [1092]. 

The key reagents for the deprotonation of esters, acids and carbonyl compounds in general are the hindered metal amides, such as lithium diisopropylamide (1), lithium cyclohexyliso-propylamide (2) and lithium, sodium and potassium hexamethyldisilazanides (3). 

Chiral cyclic boronic esters with (dichloroniethyl)lithium at —100 C form borate complexes4. Borate complexes cart also be formed by generation of (dichloromethyl)lithium from dichloro-methane and lithium diisopropylamide in the presence of a boronic ester at —78 C to — 5 C (Section 1.1.2.1.2.2,)28,19. In situ generation of (dibromomethyl)lilhium is required for preparing a-bromo boronic esters (see Sections 1.1.2.1.1.2. and 1.1.2.1.3.2.). 

Ester enolates replace bromide from a-bromo boronic esters with remarkable diastereoselcctiv-ity. (Dibromomethyl)lithium is generated by addition of lithium diisopropylamide to dibro-momethane in the presence of a boronic ester at — 78 "C to produce an a-bromo boronic ester. Reaction of the a-bromo boronic ester with lithium 1-tert-butoxy-Tpropen-l-olate yields a product that is almost exclusively the threo-isomer (d.r. = 15 1 to 60 1), as shown by conversion to the / -hydroxy carboxylic ester24. It is worth noting the facility with which a-bromo boronic esters racemize in the presence of halide ions72. 

---