Metal mediated, acylation carbonylation

Reaction of Ruthenium Carbonyls with Alkyl Radicals Boese and Goldman reported that in the presence of aryl ketones, d8 metal carbonyls such as Ru(CO)3(dmpe) mediate photocatalytic carbonylation of alkanes via a free radical mechanism.161 The activity was proposed to be initiated by the addition of an alkyl radical to the metal carbonyl and the formation of a metal-acyl radical intermediate. The transition states and the products of the reaction between alkyl radicals and ruthenium carbonyls were studied utilizing the B3LYP level of theory.162 The methyl addition to a carbonyl of Ru(CO)5 or Ru(CO)3(dmpe) was computed to be about 6 kcal/mol more exothermic than addition to free CO. 

The organoindium reagent, prepared from indium metal and bromoacetonitrile, reacts with carbonyl compounds in the presence of chlorotrimethylsilane to give /3-hydroxy nitriles (Scheme 93),336 337 Similarly, indium-mediated coupling of bromoacetonitrile or 2-bromopropionitrile with a variety of aromatic acyl cyanides affords the corresponding aromatic a-cyanoketones in moderate to good yields under mild and neutral conditions (Equation (86)).338 Carbonyl compounds are efficiently transformed into 2,2-dichloro-3-hydroxynitriles by the action of trichloroaceto-nitrile and indium(i) bromide (Scheme 94).339 Bromocyanomethylation of carbonyl compounds is also achieved by the reaction of dibromoacetonitrile and indium(i) bromide.340... 

On the synthetic side, single diastereomers of P-keto phosphine oxides have been generated from intermolecular acylation of phosphine oxides using either chiral esters or chiral phosphine oxides. In most cases, reduction of the ketone products was not affected by the presence of extra chiral centres. Addition of metallated phosphine oxides to proline-derived ketoaminals provides a new route to optically active P-hydroxy phosphine oxides. The P-hydroxy phosphine oxide 97 has been prepared by the caesium fluoride mediated reaction of silyl-substituted phosphine oxide 98 and benzaldehyde." The synthesis of two (E)-(6-hydroxy-2-hexen-l-yl)diphenylphosphine oxides (99) has been reported. The Horner-Wittig reactions of these compounds with various carbonyl compounds... 

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