Mechanisms aldol addition

These examples indicate that the (Z)-syn,(E)-antt correlation should be considered to be a rule with many exceptions. Two explanations may be given in order to rationalize the manifold stereochemical results in aldol additions. Firstly, it seems plausible that the many different reaction conditions and starting materials (e.g., various types of enolates, counterions, etc.) may cause the aldol addition to follow different reaction mechanisms, so that different types of transition states are involved. Secondly, in a single type of transition state model, the reactants may have different orientations to each other, so that the formation of different stereoisomers may result even for one and the same transition state model. 

Studies aimed at elucidating the mechanism of this enantioselective, catalyzed aldol addition are known27. 

Efforts were made by Garcia Gonzalez and his coworkers to elucidate the mechanism of this reaction. In one of the working hypotheses, it was considered that the aldehydo form of the sugar and the 1,3-dicarbonyl compound undergo an aldol reaction to yield a 2-C-(alditol-l-yl)-l,3-dicar-bonyl compound, which is then dehydrated to form the furan. This hypothesis was supported by the isolation of the aldol-addition product of... 

The general mechanistic features of the aldol addition and condensation reactions of aldehydes and ketones were discussed in Section 7.7 of Part A, where these general mechanisms can be reviewed. That mechanistic discussion pertains to reactions occurring in hydroxylic solvents and under thermodynamic control. These conditions are useful for the preparation of aldehyde dimers (aldols) and certain a,(3-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones. For example, the mixed condensation of aromatic aldehydes with aliphatic aldehydes and ketones is often done under these conditions. The conjugation in the (3-aryl enones provides a driving force for the elimination step. 

Note also the stereochemistry. In some cases, two new stereogenic centers are formed. The hydroxyl group and any C(2) substituent on the enolate can be in a syn or anti relationship. For many aldol addition reactions, the stereochemical outcome of the reaction can be predicted and analyzed on the basis of the detailed mechanism of the reaction. Entry 1 is a mixed ketone-aldehyde aldol addition carried out by kinetic formation of the less-substituted ketone enolate. Entries 2 to 4 are similar reactions but with more highly substituted reactants. Entries 5 and 6 involve boron enolates, which are discussed in Section 2.1.2.2. Entry 7 shows the formation of a boron enolate of an amide reactions of this type are considered in Section 2.1.3. Entries 8 to 10 show titanium, tin, and zirconium enolates and are discussed in Section 2.1.2.3. 

Lithium Enolates. The control of mixed aldol additions between aldehydes and ketones that present several possible sites for enolization is a challenging problem. Such reactions are normally carried out by complete conversion of the carbonyl compound that is to serve as the nucleophile to an enolate, silyl enol ether, or imine anion. The reactive nucleophile is then allowed to react with the second reaction component. As long as the addition step is faster than proton transfer, or other mechanisms of interconversion of the nucleophilic and electrophilic components, the adduct will have the desired... 

Cleavage of a sugar at the C-2-C-3 bond by the reverse-aldol mechanism results in the glycolaldehyde ion (79). As glycolaldehyde cannot react by a /3-elimination mechanism similar to that of glyc-eraldehyde, it undergoes aldol addition with itself, or with other... 

Exercise 17-23 Aldol additions also occur in the presence of acidic catalysts. For example, 2-propanone with dry hydrogen chloride slowly yields (CH3)2C=CHCOCH3 (mesityl oxide) and (CH3)2C=CHCOCH=C(CH3)2 (phorone). Write mechanisms for the formation of these products, giving particular attention to the way in which the new carbon-carbon bonds are formed. 

List gave the first examples of the proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric three-component Mannich reactions of ketones, aldehydes, and amines (Scheme 14) [35], This was the first organocatalytic asymmetric Mannich reaction. These reactions do not require enolate equivalents or preformed imine equivalent. Both a-substituted and a-unsubstituted aldehydes gave the corresponding p-amino ketones 40 in good to excellent yield and with enantiomeric excesses up to 91%. The aldol addition and condensation products were observed as side products in this reaction. The application of their reaction to the highly enantioselective synthesis of 1,2-amino alcohols was also presented [36]. A plausible mechanism of the proline-catalyzed three-component Mannich reaction is shown in Fig. 2. The ketone reacts with proline to give an enamine 41. In a second pre-equilib-... 

Antibody Catalysis. Recent advances in biocatalysis have led to the generation of catalytic antibodies exhibiting aldolase activity by Lemer and Barbas. The antibody-catalyzed aldol addition reactions display remarkable enantioselectivity and substrate scope [18]. The requisite antibodies were produced through the process of reactive immunization wherein antibodies were raised against a [Tdiketone hapten. During the selection process, the presence of a suitably oriented lysine leads to the condensation of the -amine with the hapten. The formation of enaminone at the active site results in a molecular imprint that leads to the production of antibodies that function as aldol catalysts via a lysine-dependent class I aldolase mechanism (Eq. 8B2.12). 

Mikami has carried out a number of investigations aimed at elucidating mechanistic aspects of this Si-atom transfer process. In particular, when the aldol addition reaction was conducted with a 1 1 mixture of enoxysilanes 60 and 62, differentiated by the nature of the 0-alkyl and 0-silyl moieties, only the adducts of intramolecular silyl-group transfer 63 and 64 are obtained (Scheme 8B2.6). This observation in addition to results obtained with substituted enol silanes have led Mikami to postulate a silatropic ene-like mechanism involving a cyclic, closed transition-state structure organized around the silyl group (Scheme 8B2.6). 

Aldol reactions have continued to attract attention.28-39 hi order to determine the mechanism of addition of lithium pinacolone enolate [CH2=C(OLi)C(Me)3] to benzaldehyde the carbonyl-carbon KIE (xlk/nk = 1.019) and the substituent effects (p = 1.16 0.31) have been compared with those for other lithium reagents.28,29 The small positive KIE, which is larger than the equilibrium IE (nK/nK = 1.006) determined by ab initio MO calculations (HF/6—31 + G ), is in contrast with nk/l4k = 1.000 for MeLi addition which proceeds by the rate-determining ET mechanism, characterized by a much smaller p value. Since probe experiments showed no evidence of single electron transfer, it has been concluded that the significant isotope effect for reaction of lithium pinacolone enolate is indicative of rate-determining polar attack (PL) rather than radical coupling (RC) (Scheme 2). 

A-7. Write out the mechanism, using curved arrows to show electron movement, of the following aldol addition reaction. 

The mechanisms for metal-catalyzed and organocatalyzed direct aldol addition reactions differ one from another, and resemble the mode of action of the type 11 and type I aldolases, respectively. Some metal-ligand complexes, for example, 1-4 and 9 are considered to have a bifunctional character [22], embodying within the same molecular frame a Lewis acidic site and a Bronsted basic site. Whereas base would be required to form the transient enolate species as an active form of the carbonyl donor, the Lewis acid site would coordinate the acceptor aldehyde carbonyl, increasing its electrophilicity. By this means, both transition state stabilization and substrates preorganization would be provided (see Scheme 5 for a proposal). 

Scheme 7. Proposed enamine mechanism of the proline-catalyzed direct aldol addition reaction of acetone [25].

Figure 9.32 adds the information of how enol ethers are normally produced, i.e., enol ethers with no conjugation between the C=C- and the neighboring C=0 double bond 0,0-Acetals are subjected to an acid-catalyzed elimination of one equivalent of alcohol, via an El mechanism, that is, via an oxocarbenium ion intermediate that is deprotonated to give the respective enol ether (i.e., the product presented in the first line of Figure 9.32) or dienol ether (the product shown in the second line of Figure 9.32). Among other things, enol ethers are required for the Mukaiyama aldol addition (example Figure 12.23).

Following the mechanism given in Figure 12.23, the addition of an acetal to a simple enol ether (in contrast to the dienol ether B shown above) leads to a /3-alkoxy acetal. This reaction is known as the Mukaiyama aldol addition. If this is followed by a hydrolysis (of the... 

Fig. 12.23. A Mukaiyama aldol addition (-> C) and its reaction mechanism (bottom row). As shown here, this method can be exploited to obtain the poly-unsaturated aldehyde D. Under the conditions of the first reaction step the primary product C—which, like the substrate A, is an acetal—does not compete with A for still unconsumed enol ether B. This is due to the fact that the methoxy substituent in the oxocarbenium ion G, which would have to be regenerated from Cin order to undergo further reaction with B, destabilizes G because of its electron-withdrawing inductive (-1) effect.

Aldol reactions often proceed as aldol condensations if the participating aldehyde or ketone enolates C are formed only in equilibrium reactions, i.e., incompletely (Figure 13.49). Under these reaction conditions an aldol addition occurs first it leads to the formation of D proceeding by way of the mechanism shown in Figure 13.44 (bottom). Then an Elcb elimination takes place in an equilibrium reaction, aldol D forms a small amount of enolate E, which eliminates NaOH or KOH. 

Fig. 13.49. Mechanisms of base-catalyzed aldol reactions aldol addition (steps 1 and 2) and aldol condensation (up to and including step 4).

A kinetic study of the Ph2BOH-catalysed reactions of several aldehydes with 2 revealed that the rate of the disappearance of 2 followed first-order kinetics and was independent from the reactivity of the aldehydes used. Taking into account this result, we have proposed the reaction mechanism in which a silyl enol ether is transformed to the corresponding diphenylboryl enolate before the aldol addition step takes place (Scheme 13.1). The high diastereoselectivity is consistent with the mechanism, in which the aldol step proceeds via a chair-like six-membered transition state. The opposite diastereoselectivity in the reaction with the geometrical isomers of the thioketene silyl acetal shown in Table 13.3 also supports the mechanism via the boron enolate, because this trend was also observed in the classical boron enolate-mediated reactions in dry organic solvents. Although we have not yet observed the boron enolates directly under the reaction conditions, this mechanism can explain all of the experimental data obtained and is considered as the most reasonable one. As far as we know, this is the first example of... 

Lam, Y.-h. Honk, K. N. Scheffler, U. Mahrwald, R. Stereoselectivities of histidine-catalyzed asymmetric aldol additions and contrasts with proline catalysis A quantum mechanical analysis, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012,134, 6286-6295. 

Figure 6.8 Proposed mechanism for lactone ring formation. Cardenolides an intermediate malonate ester is involved, and ring formation probably occurs via an aldol addition process giving the cardenolide digitoxigenin, the carboxyl carbon of the malonate ester being lost by decarboxylation. Bufadienolides three carbons from oxaloacetate can be incorporated by a similar esterification/aldol reaction sequence to yield the cumaline ring system. (From Dewick, 2002.)...

---