Malonic acid enolization

Fig. 12.6. Bromination of malonic acids or alkylated mal-onic acids. The figure shows the mechanisms of the acid-catalyzed enolization (alkyl) malonic acid enol of (alkyl) malonic acid (E) and the actual bromination (E —> B).

It can be assumed that the small amount of piperidine in the reaction mixture is completely protonated by malonic acid because piperidine is more basic than pyridine. Hence, only the less basic pyridine is available for the formation of the malonic acid enolate D from free malonic acid and for the formation of the malonic acid dianion from the malonic acid mono-carboxylate C. The pKa value of malonic acid with regard to its C,H acidity should be close to the pKa value of malonic acid diethyl ester (p= 13.3). The pKa value of malonic acid monocarboxylate C with regard to its C,H acidity should be larger by at least a factor 10. Hence, the concentration of the malonic acid enolate D in the reaction mixture must be by many orders of magnitude higher than that of any malonic acid dianion. Due to the advantages associated with this enormous concentration D could be the actual nucleophile in Knoevenagel condensations. 

Fig. 13.56. Mechanism of the Knoevenagel condensations in Figure 13.55. The C,H( )-acidic reaction partneris malonicacidin the form of the malonic acid enolate D (malonic acid "monoanion"). The decarboxylation proceeds as a fragmentation of the pyridinium-substituted malonic acid carboxylate F to furnish the ,/Tunsaturated ester (G) and pyridine. This fragmentation resembles the decomposition of the sodium salts H of ,/Tdibrominated carboxylic acids to yield the a,/Tunsaturated bromides I and sodium bromide.

A classical way to achieve regioselectivity in an (a -i- d -reaction is to start with a-carbanions of carboxylic acid derivatives and electrophilic ketones. Most successful are condensations with 1,3-dicarbonyl carbanions, e.g. with malonic acid derivatives, since they can be produced at low pH, where ketones do not enolize. Succinic acid derivatives can also be de-protonated and added to ketones (Stobbe condensation). In the first example given below a Dieckmann condensation on a nitrile follows a Stobbe condensation, and selectivity is dictated by the tricyclic educt neither the nitrile group nor the ketone is enolizable (W.S. Johnson, 1945, 1947). 

Comprehensive work in this field has been done by Slovak authors (98MI1, 95M1359, 96CCC269, 96CCC371, 97CCC99). They prepared 2-substituted (H, Me, Ph) 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-nitrobenzoxazoles, which were then reduced to amines (not isolated) and subjected to subsequent nucleophilic substitution with activated enol ethers such as alkoxymethylene derivatives of malonic acid esters and nitrile, 3-oxobutanoic acid esters, pentanedione, or cyanoacetic acid esters to yield aminoethylenes 8. 

Decarboxylation is not a general reaction of carboxylic acids. Rather, it is unique to compounds that have a second carbonyl group two atoms away from the —COoH. That is, only substituted malonic acids and /3-keto acids undergo loss of CC>2 on heating. The decarboxylation reaction occurs by a cyclic mechanism and involves initial formation of an enol, thereby accounting for the need to have a second carbonyl group appropriately positioned. 

Here too there is an enol that tautomerizes to the product. The mechanism is illustrated for the case of P-keto acids, ° but it is likely that malonic acids, a-cyano acids, a-nitro acids, and P,y-unsaturated acids behave similarly, since similar six-membered transition states can be written for them. Some a,P-unsaturated acids are also decarboxylated by this mechanism by isomerizing to the p,y-isomers before... 

Thus, decarboxylase of disubstituted malonic acid could be easily converted to racemase of the corresponding monobasic acid, in spite of the fact that decarboxylation and racemization are quite different from each other. The key for the success is the mechanistic consideration focusing on the fact that the intermediate of both reactions is the same type of enolate of monobasic carboxylic acid. 

The decarboxylation reaction usually proceeds from the dissociated form of a carboxyl group. As a result, the primary reaction intermediate is more or less a carbanion-like species. In one case, the carbanion is stabilized by the adjacent carbonyl group to form an enolate intermediate as seen in the case of decarboxylation of malonic acid and tropic acid derivatives. In the other case, the anion is stabilized by the aid of the thiazolium ring of TPP. This is the case of transketolases. The formation of carbanion equivalents is essentially important in the synthetic chemistry no matter what methods one takes, i.e., enzymatic or ordinary chemical. They undergo C—C bond-forming reactions with carbonyl compounds as well as a number of reactions with electrophiles, such as protonation, Michael-type addition, substitution with pyrophosphate and halides and so on. In this context,... 

Monoalkyl esters of malonic acid react with Grignard reagents to give a chelated enolate of the malonate monoanion. 

The magnesium enolates are prepared by treatment of malonic acid half ester either with magnesium ethylate[24],[32] or with isopropylmagnesium bromide[24] or chloride.t26] Ref. [23] describes the synthesis of a 13C-labelled ethyl acetoacetate. Concerning the synthesis of porphyrin / -ketoesters,[3 1 it was noticed that the method via imidazolides is more efficient than the other approach via acid chlorides and sodiomalonic esters. 

Both CO2 activation and enolate formation are combined in the preparation of malonic acid derivatives. The reaction of CO2 with methacrylic esters or methacry-lonitrile and under visible light irradiation produced the corresponding aluminum porphyrin malonate complex. When diethylzinc was added to this system, Al(TPP)Et could be regenerated by axial ligand exchange reactions, and the malonic acid derivatives were formed catalytically with respect to the aluminum porphyrins in a one-pot photosynthetic route (Scheme 1). The first step in this... 

Dicarbonyl donors bearing a thioester has been applied in the Mannich reaction to A -tosyl imines. Ricci presented an enantioselective decarboxylative addition of malonic half thioester 37 to imine 38. In the Mannich-type addition, catalyst 36 deprotonates the malonic acid thioester followed by decarboxylation to generate a stabilized thioacetate enolate. This stabilized anion reacts with facial selectivity to the imine due to steric-tuning from 36 [47] (Scheme 8). 

Alkylation of enolate is an important synthetic method.27 The alkylation of relatively acidic compounds such as /i-dikctoncs, /i-ketoesters, and esters of malonic acid can be carried out in alcohols as solvents using metal alkoxides as bases. The presence of two electron-withdrawing substituents facilitates formation of the enolate resulting from removal of a proton from the carbon situated between them. Alkylation then occurs by an Sn2 process. Some examples of alkylation reactions involving relatively acidic carbon acids are shown in Scheme 1.5. These reactions are all mechanistically similar in that a... 

Magnesium enolates play an important role in C-acylation reactions. The magnesium enolate of diethyl malonate, for example, can be prepared by reaction with magnesium metal in ethanol. It is soluble in ether and undergoes C-acylation by acid anhydrides and acyl chlorides (entries 1 and 3 in Scheme 2.14). Monoalkyl esters of malonic acid react with Grignard reagents to give a chelated enolate of the malonate monoanion. 

There are also reactions in which electrophilic radicals react with relatively nucleophilic alkenes. These reactions are represented by a group of procedures in which a radical intermediate is formed by oxidation of the enol of a readily enolized compound. This reaction was initially developed for /i-kctoacids.227 The method has been extended to /1-diketones, malonic acids, and cyanoacetic acid.228... 

With diketene, intermediates of type (III) were isolated and subsequently cyclized under basic conditions following step (b). In the case of 3-oxo-carboxylic acid esters or 3-acyl Meldrum s acids, cyclization step (b) immediately follows reaction step (a), if a slight excess of amine is employed (85TH1 87TH1). Note that conversion of (III) to (V) involves the (IH)-enol (Table I cf. 75BSF2731). The relatively low yield in the case of malonic acid ester, as well as the failure of the reaction with the non-enolizable diphenyl phosphinylacetic ester and cyanoacetate, points to the participation of an enol structure of (III). 

From retrosynthetic Scheme 1 follows a synthesis of4-amino-3-carboxy-1,5-dihydro-2-pyrrolones (type Y R4 = OH or OR) that needs malonic acid or malonate as starting material. Such reaction is expected to give low yields due to the limited tendency of malonate to undergo enolization (see Table I) yet it is frequently the only solution at hand. 

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