Metal enolates amides

A direct application of the ring-opening reaction of an epoxide by a metal enolate amide for the synthesis of a complex molecule can be found in the synthesis of the trisubstituted cyclopentane core of brefeldin A (Scheme 8.35) [68a]. For this purpose, treatment of epoxy amide 137 with excess KH in THF gave a smooth cyclization to amide 138, which was subsequently converted into the natural product. No base/solvent combination that would effect cyclization of the corresponding aldehyde or ester could be found. 

Addition Reactions of Metal Enolates of Non-stabilized Esters, Amides, and Ketones to Epoxides... 

In spite of their intrinsic synthetic potential, addition reactions of metal enolates of non-stabilized esters, amides, and ketones to epoxides are not widely used in the synthesis of complex molecules. Following the seminal work of Danishefsky [64], who introduced the use of Et2AlCl as an efficient catalyst for the reaction, Taylor obtained valuable spiro lactones through the addition reaction of the lithium eno-late of tert-butyl acetate to spiro-epoxides, upon treatment of the corresponding y-... 

Sodium borohydride (160) was found to serve as a hydrogen donor in the asymmetric reduction of the presence of an a,pi-unsaturated ester or amide 162 catalyzed by a cobalt-Semicorrin 161 complex, which gave the corresponding saturated carbonyl compound 163 with 94-97% ee [93]. The [i-hydrogen in the products was confirmed to come from sodium borohydride, indicating the formation of a metal enolate intermediate via conjugate addition of cobalt-hydride species (Scheme 2.17). 

The addition of an alkaline earth metal enolate A to a carbonyl compound is always an exer-gonic process irrespective of whether the enolate is derived from a ketone, an ester, or an amide and whether the carbonyl compound is an aldehyde or a ketone (Figure 13.44, top). One of the reasons for this exergonicity hes in the fact that the alkaline earth metal ion is part of a chelate in the alkoxide B of the aldol addition product. The driving forces for the additions of alkaline earth metal enolates of esters and amides to carbonyl compounds are further increased because the aldol adducts B are resonance-stabilized, whereas the enolates are not. 

Several new catalytic asymmetric protonations of metal enolates under basic conditions have been published to date. In those processes, reactive metal enolates such as lithium enolates are usually protonated by a catalytic amount of chiral proton source and a stoichiometric amount of achiral proton source. Vedejs et al. reported a catalytic enantioselective protonation of amide enolates [35]. For example, when lithium enolate 43, generated from racemic amide 42 and s-BuLi, was treated with 0.1 equivalents of chiral aniline 31 followed by slow addition of 2 equivalents of ferf-butyl phenylacetate, (K)-enriched amide 42 was obtained with 94% ee (Scheme 2). In this reaction, various achiral acids were... 

Chiral -hydroxy amides. A metal enolate of (R)-l reacts with aldehydes to form adducts (2) that are desulfurized by Na/Hg to optically active hydroxy amides (3). The extent and the sense of chiral induction depends on the metal enolate. Use of n-butyllithium... 

Michael addition of metal enolates to a,/3-unsaturated carbonyls has been intensively studied in recent years and provides an established method in organic synthesis for the preparation of a wide range of 1,5-dicarbonyl compounds (128) under neutral and mild conditions . Metal enolates derived from ketones or esters typically act as Michael donors, and a,-unsaturated carbonyls including enoates, enones and unsaturated amides are used as Michael acceptors. However, reaction between a ketone enolate (125) and an a,/3-unsaturated ester (126) to form an ester enolate (127, equation 37) is not the thermodynamically preferred one, because ester enolates are generally more labile than ketone enolates. Thus, this transformation does not proceed well under thermal or catalytic conditions more than equimolar amounts of additives (mainly Lewis acids, such as TiCU) are generally required to enable satisfactory conversion, as shown in Table 8. Various groups have developed synthons as unsaturated ester equivalents (ortho esters , thioesters ) and /3-lithiated enamines as ketone enolate equivalents to afford a conjugate addition with acceptable yields. 

Although carboxylic acids and their derivatives are somewhat weaker carbon acids than aldehydes and ketones, it is generally possible to quantitatively convert them to the corresponding metal enolates with dialkylamide bases, the most popular of which is LDA. - - Thus, monoanions of saturated esters, lactones, nitriles, /VA -dialkylamides and V-alkyllactams and dianions of carboxylic acids and V-unsub-stituted amides and lactams are easily prepared in aprotic solvents such as THF and C-alkylated with a variety of simple and functionalized SN2-reactive alkylating agents at room temperature or below. When more-hindered systems are involved, the basicity of the metal dialkylamide and the reactivity of the metal enolate can be enhanced by the addition of HMPA. Of course, many of the indirect methods used for the generation of aldehyde and ketone enolates are also applicable to the preparation of enolates of carboxylic acid derivatives (Section 1.1.2.1). O-Alkylations or dialkylations at carbon generally are of minimal importance with metal enolates of carboxylic acid derivatives. 

Some kinds of metal enolate also give highly stereoselective reactions in the same sense whatever the geometry of the enolate. At first sight the reactions of zirconium enolates seem like lithium enolates. Using the pyrrolidine amide 38 as an example, we get the Z-enolate 39 only and this gives syn aldol products 40 with aldehydes.13... 

Most metal enolates are generated by transmetalation from Li enoiates. However, Ti-enolates can be formed by action of TiCiyz -PrjNEt on carbonyl confounds [404,1042] and Zr-enolates can be generated by similar reactions with Zr(0-/ert-Bu)4 [1245], Lithium E-endates are obtained by deprotonation of ketones or esters with a branched Li-amide (LDA, LICA, LOB A, LTMP) in a weakly polar medium (THF or THF-hexane), while Z-enolates are formed by using LDA or LHMDS in the presence of HMPA or DPMU [1016], Tertiary amides always give Z-endates, and difunctionalized derivatives such as Evans s oxazolidinones 5.30 and 5.31 are chelated to the metal prior to enolization. 

The infrared experiments revealed to ns the formation of a new species, which was apparently an amide zincate enolate, the first observation of its kind. The strnctnre of this enolate was not clear from the data, however. The absorbances at 1536 cm and 1559 cm appeared too low to assign to either an oxygen-metallated enolate carbon-carbon donble bond strnctnre as in 9, or to a carbon-metallated enolate with a free amide carbon-oxygen donble-bond stretch as in 10 (Figure... 

Thermodynamic control. Note that it is also possible for the aldolate adduct to revert to aldehyde and enolate, and equilibration to the thermodynamic product may afford a different diastereomer (the anti aldolate is often the more stable). The tendency for aldolates to undergo the retro aldol addition increases with the acidity of the enolate amides < esters < ketones (the more stable enolates are more likely to fragment), and with the steric bulk of the substituents (bulky substituents tend to destabilize the aldolate and promote fragmentation). On the other hand, a highly chelating metal stabilizes the aldolate and retards fragmentation. The slowest equilibration is with boron aldolates, and increases in the series lithium < sodium < potassium, and (with alkali metal enolates) also increases in the presence of crown ethers. ... 

The aldol reaction is not restricted to the use of ketone enolates and indeed some of the most important examples in this area use carboxylic esters or amides. Proton abstraction with EDA (or other strong base) at low temperature to give the enolate and addition of the aldehyde or ketone gives a -hydroxyester or p-hydroxyamide product. Likewise the boron or other metal enolates of esters provide alternative methods to effect the aldol reaction. 

Preformed enolates can be obtained not only from aldehydes and ketones, but also from carboxylic esters, amides, and the acids themselves. The corresponding carbonyl compound aWays acts irreversibly as the CH-acidic component. Thus, the term aldol reaction is no longer restricted to aldehydes and ketones but extended to all additions of preformed enolates to an aldehyde or a ketone. In contrast vith the traditional aldol reaction, this novel approach is based on a three-step procedure (usually, ho vever, performed as a one-pot reaction). First, the metal enolate 25 is generated irreversibly, vith proton sources excluded, and, second, the compound serving as the carbonyl active, electrophilic component is added. The metal aldolate 26 thus formed is finally protonated, usually by addition of vater or dilute acidic solutions, to give the aldol 27 (Scheme 1.4) [45, 46]. 

Combination of achiral enolates vith achiral aldehydes mediated by chiral ligands at the enolate counter-ion opens another route to non-racemic aldol adducts. Again, this concept has been extremely fruitful for boron, tin, titanium, zirconium and other metal enolates. It has, ho vever not been applied very frequently to alkaline and earth alkaline metals. The main, inherent, dra vback in the use of these metals is that the reaction of the corresponding enolate, vhich is not complexed by the chiral ligand, competes vith that of the complexed enolate. Because the former reaction path vay inevitably leads to formation of the racemic product, the chiral ligand must be applied in at least stoichiometric amounts. Thus, any catalytic variant is excluded per se. Among the few approaches based on lithium enolates, early vork revealed that the aldol addition of a variety of lithium enolates in the presence of (S,S)-l,4-(bisdimethylamino)-2,3-dimethoxy butane or (S,S)-1,2,3,4-tetramethoxybutane provides only moderate induced stereoselectivity, typical ee values being 20% [177]. Chelation of the ketone enolate 104 by the chiral lithium amide 103 is more efficient - the j5-hydroxyl ketone syn-105 is obtained in 68% ee and no anti adduct is formed (Eq. (47)) [178]. 

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