Lithium ketones

Z)-Lithium ketone enolates predominantly furnish. yyn-aldols, provided that the substituent R at the carbonyl group is bulky23. 

Kinetic Aldol Condensations of Acyclic Lithium Ketone Enolates with Benzaldehyde (eq. [17]) (2,26)... 

Enolate acylation and alkylation.1 The yield from acylation and alkylation of lithium ketone enolates is markedly improved by addition of dimethylzinc, which... 

Chelated structures analogous to (19) and (20) were first proposed by House and coworkers to explain the increased anti selectivity observed for lithium ketone enolates following addition of ZnCh (equation 30). Heathcock and coworkers determined the rate of equilibration as well as the equilibrium composition for a number of aldolates derived from benzaldehyde and zinc ketone enolates (equation 31). Again, the preference for anti aldolates is in accord with zinc-chelated structures. 

Monoalkylation of ketones. Polyalkylated products are usually obtained as by-products of attempted monoalkylation of lithium ketone enolates. Polyalkylation can be suppressed by addition of triethylboron, but this substance is spontaneously flammable. The safer boron derivative 1 is also effective, but since it is sparingly soluble in THF, DMSO is also added to the reaction. The position of alkylation can be controlled also by use of the kinetically generated enolate or the more stable equilibrium enolate. ... 

Efficient stereochemical control is also provided by the chiral lithium ketone enolate 64, addition of vhich to a variety of aldehydes leads to the formation of the corresponding j5-hydroxy ketones 65, usually as single products (Eq. (29)) [111]. 

Potassium and sodium borohydride show greater selectivity in action than lithium aluminium hydride thus ketones or aldehydes may be reduced to alcohols whilst the cyano, nitro, amido and carbalkoxy groups remain unaffected. Furthermore, the reagent may be used in aqueous or aqueous-alcoholic solution. One simple application of its use will be described, viz., the reduction of m-nitrobenzaldehyde to m-nitrobenzyl alcohol ... 

Some di-p-tolyl ketone is produced as a by-product, presumably by Interaction of the lithium salt of the carboxylic acid with the aryl lithium ... 

The reaction product is cooled to room temperature, is washed with 10 ml of H2O to the purpose of removing lithium iodide and is then dehydrated over NaiS04. 3.57 g is obtained of dimethoxy-phenylacetone (III), as determined by gas-chromatographic analysis with an inner standard of 4,4 -dimethoxybeniophenone. The yield of ketone (III) relative to the olefin ( ) used as the starting material is of 87.1%. 

The ketone is added to a large excess of a strong base at low temperature, usually LDA in THF at -78 °C. The more acidic and less sterically hindered proton is removed in a kineti-cally controlled reaction. The equilibrium with a thermodynamically more stable enolate (generally the one which is more stabilized by substituents) is only reached very slowly (H.O. House, 1977), and the kinetic enolates may be trapped and isolated as silyl enol ethers (J.K. Rasmussen, 1977 H.O. House, 1969). If, on the other hand, a weak acid is added to the solution, e.g. an excess of the non-ionized ketone or a non-nucleophilic alcohol such as cert-butanol, then the tautomeric enolate is preferentially formed (stabilized mostly by hyperconjugation effects). The rate of approach to equilibrium is particularly slow with lithium as the counterion and much faster with potassium or sodium. 

Lithium l,3-dithian-2-ides (p. 6, 8) may be alkylated with alkyl bromides or iodides. Steric hindrance is usually of little importance and the resulting ketone can be easily liberated by hydrolysis (D. Seebach, 1969). 

The most general synthetic route to ketones uses the reaction of carboxylic acids (or their derivatives) or nitriles with organometallic compounds (M.J. Jorgenson, 1970). Lithium car-boxylates react with organolithium compounds to give stable gem-diolates, which are decom-... 

After the umpolung of an aldehyde group by conversion to a l,3 dithian-2-ide anion (p. 17) it can be combined with a carbonyl group (D. Seebach, 1969, 1979 B.-T. GrO-bel, 1977 B). Analogous reagents are tosylmethyl isocyanide (TosMIC), which can be applied in the nucleophilic formylation of ketones (O.H. Oldenziel, 1974), and dichloromethyl lithium (G. KObrich, 1969 P. Blumbergs, 1972 H. Taguchi, 1973),... 

Low molecular mass enol esters (e.g. acetates H.O. House, 1965) or enol ethers (e.g. silyl ethers H.O. House, 1969) of ketones can be synthesized regioselectively and/or separated by distillation. Treatment with lithium alkyls converts them into the corresponding lithi-... 

Stereoselectivities of 99% are also obtained by Mukaiyama type aldol reactions (cf. p. 58) of the titanium enolate of Masamune s chired a-silyloxy ketone with aldehydes. An excess of titanium reagent (s 2 mol) must be used to prevent interference by the lithium salt formed, when the titanium enolate is generated via the lithium enolate (C. Siegel, 1989). The mechanism and the stereochemistry are the same as with the boron enolate. 

Propargylic alcohol, after lithiation, reacts with CO2 to generate the lithium carbonate 243, which undergoes oxypalladation. The reaction of allyl chloride yields the cyclic carbonate 244 and PdC. By this reaction hydroxy and allyl groups are introduced into the triple bond to give the o-allyl ketone 245[129]. Also the formation of 248 from the keto alkyne 246 with CO2 via in situ formation of the carbonate 247 is catalyzed by Pd(0)[130]. 

For most laboratory scale reductions of aldehydes and ketones catalytic hydro genation has been replaced by methods based on metal hydride reducing agents The two most common reagents are sodium borohydride and lithium aluminum hydride... 

Sodium borohydride and lithium aluminum hydride react with carbonyl compounds in much the same way that Grignard reagents do except that they function as hydride donors rather than as carbanion sources Figure 15 2 outlines the general mechanism for the sodium borohydride reduction of an aldehyde or ketone (R2C=0) Two points are especially important about this process... 

The mechanism of lithium aluminum hydride reduction of aldehydes and ketones IS analogous to that of sodium borohydride except that the reduction and hydrolysis... 

Reduction to alcohols (Section 15 2) Aide hydes are reduced to primary alcohols and ketones are reduced to secondary alcohols by a variety of reducing agents Catalytic hydrogenation over a metal catalyst and reduction with sodium borohydride or lithium aluminum hydride are general methods... 

The preparation and some synthetic applications of lithium dialkylcuprates were described earlier (Section 14 11) The most prominent feature of these reagents is then-capacity to undergo conjugate addition to a p unsaturated aldehydes and ketones... 

Lithium dialkylamides are excellent bases for making ketone enolates as well Ketone enolates generated m this way can be alkylated with alkyl halides or as illus trated m the following equation treated with an aldehyde or a ketone... 

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... 

---