Nitrones, metalation

Scheme 118 shows enantioselective condensation of alkanals and ni-tromethane promoted by a binaphthol-modified rare earth alkoxide in wet THF. Reaction of the initially formed metal /3-nitro alkoxide and acidic nitromethane, leading to the j8-nitro alcohol product and chiral metal nitronate, makes the C—C bond formation catalytic (284). 

Properties and Preparation of Nitronates Nitroalkanes exist in equilibrium with a tautomeric form known as a nitronic acid (Scheme 16.19) [103]. The aci-form is usually present in minor concentration with an equilibrium constant of 10 [104]. Salts of nitronic acids, metal nitronates, are formed upon deprotonation of nitroalkanes and are potent nucleophiles [105]. Alkylation of the nitronate salts leads to both a-substituted nitro compounds and the isomeric nitronate esters. 

Cationic complexes of rran.s-chelating tridentate ligand, (/ ,/ )-4,6-dibenzo-furandiyl-2,2 -bis(4-phenyloxazoline), with transition metal(II) perchlorates as effective catalysts for asymmetric cycloaddition of nitrones 98YGK368. 

Gothelf presents in Chapter 6 a comprehensive review of metal-catalyzed 1,3-di-polar cycloaddition reactions, with the focus on the properties of different chiral Lewis-acid complexes. The general properties of a chiral aqua complex are presented in the next chapter by Kanamasa, who focuses on 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones, nitronates, and diazo compounds. The use of this complex as a highly efficient catalyst for carbo-Diels-Alder reactions and conjugate additions is also described. 

Scheeren et al. reported the first enantioselective metal-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with alkenes in 1994 [26]. Their approach involved C,N-diphenylnitrone la and ketene acetals 2, in the presence of the amino acid-derived oxazaborolidinones 3 as the catalyst (Scheme 6.8). This type of boron catalyst has been used successfully for asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions [27, 28]. In this reaction the nitrone is activated, according to the inverse electron-demand, for a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with the electron-rich alkene. The reaction is thus controlled by the LUMO inone-HOMOaikene interaction. They found that coordination of the nitrone to the boron Lewis acid strongly accelerated the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction with ketene acetals. The reactions of la with 2a,b, catalyzed by 20 mol% of oxazaborolidinones such as 3a,b were carried out at -78 °C. In some reactions fair enantioselectivities were induced by the catalysts, thus, 4a was obtained with an optical purity of 74% ee, however, in a low yield. The reaction involving 2b gave the C-3, C-4-cis isomer 4b as the only diastereomer of the product with 62% ee. 

Several titanium(IV) complexes are efficient and reliable Lewis acid catalysts and they have been applied to numerous reactions, especially in combination with the so-called TADDOL (a, a,a, a -tetraaryl-l,3-dioxolane-4,5-dimethanol) (22) ligands [53-55]. In the first study on normal electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions between nitrones and alkenes, which appeared in 1994, the catalytic reaction of a series of chiral TiCl2-TADDOLates on the reaction of nitrones 1 with al-kenoyloxazolidinones 19 was developed (Scheme 6.18) [56]. These substrates have turned out be the model system of choice for most studies on metal-catalyzed normal electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones as it will appear from this chapter. When 10 mol% of the catalyst 23a was applied in the reaction depicted in Scheme 6.18 the reaction proceeded to give a yield of up to 94% ee after 20 h. The reaction led primarily to exo-21 and in the best case an endo/ exo ratio of 10 90 was obtained. The chiral information of the catalyst was transferred with a fair efficiency to the substrates as up to 60% ee of one of the isomers of exo3 was obtained [56]. 

The enantioselective inverse electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones with alkenes described so far were catalyzed by metal complexes that favor a monodentate coordination of the nitrone, such as boron and aluminum complexes. However, the glyoxylate-derived nitrone 36 favors a bidentate coordination to the catalyst. This nitrone is a very interesting substrate, since the products that are obtained from the reaction with alkenes are masked a-amino acids. One of the characteristics of nitrones such as 36, having an ester moiety in the a position, is the swift E/Z equilibrium at room temperature (Scheme 6.28). In the crystalline form nitrone 36 exists as the pure Z isomer, however, in solution nitrone 36 have been shown to exists as a mixture of the E and Z isomers. This equilibrium could however be shifted to the Z isomer in the presence of a Lewis acid [74]. 

A model for the intermediate consisting of substrates 36 and 8a coordinated to catalyst 37a was proposed as shown in Scheme 6.30 [74]. In the model 39 the two triflate ligands are dissociated from copper. The ligands are arranged around copper as a trigonal bipyramid and it should be noted that in this model the oxygen atom of the vinyl ether 8a also coordinates to the metal center. However, another tetrahedral intermediate consisting of only the catalyst and the nitrone could also account for the absolute selectivity of the reaction. 

The above described approach was extended to include the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with allyl alcohol (Scheme 6.35) [78]. The zinc catalyst which is used in a stoichiometric amount is generated from allyl alcohol 45, Et2Zn, (R,J )-diisopropyltartrate (DIPT) and EtZnCl. Addition of the nitrone 52a leads to primarily tmns-53a which is obtained in a moderate yield, however, with high ee of up to 95%. Application of 52b as the nitrone in the reaction leads to higher yields of 53b (47-68%), high trans selectivities and up to 93% ee. Compared to other metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of... 

The reactions of nitrones constitute the absolute majority of metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions. Boron, aluminum, titanium, copper and palladium catalysts have been tested for the inverse electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with electron-rich alkenes. Fair enantioselectivities of up to 79% ee were obtained with oxazaborolidinone catalysts. However, the AlMe-3,3 -Ar-BINOL complexes proved to be superior for reactions of both acyclic and cyclic nitrones and more than >99% ee was obtained in some reactions. The Cu(OTf)2-BOX catalyst was efficient for reactions of the glyoxylate-derived nitrones with vinyl ethers and enantioselectivities of up to 93% ee were obtained. 

Zinc-tartrate complexes were applied for reactions of both nitrones and nitrile oxides with allyl alcohol and for both reaction types selectivities of more than 90% ee were obtained. Whereas the reactions of nitrones required a stoichiometric amount of the catalyst the nitrile oxide reactions could be performed in the presence of 20 mol% of the catalyst. This is the only example on a metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile oxides. It should however be no-... 

The development of metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions is probably going to continue during the next decade. High level of control of the reactions of nitrones has been obtained, and for these reactions one of the next challenges is to explore new substrates that are designed for application in synthesis. The development of metal-catalyzed asymmetric reactions of the other... 

Among the J ,J -DBFOX/Ph-transition(II) metal complex catalysts examined in nitrone cydoadditions, the anhydrous J ,J -DBFOX/Ph complex catalyst prepared from Ni(C104)2 or Fe(C104)2 provided equally excellent results. For example, in the presence of 10 mol% of the anhydrous nickel(II) complex catalyst R,R-DBFOX/Ph-Ni(C104)2, which was prepared in-situ from J ,J -DBFOX/Ph ligand, NiBr2, and 2 equimolar amounts of AgC104 in dichloromethane, the reaction of 3-crotonoyl-2-oxazolidinone with N-benzylidenemethylamine N-oxide at room temperature produced the 3,4-trans-isoxazolidine (63% yield) in near perfect endo selectivity (endo/exo=99 l) and enantioselectivity in favor for the 3S,4J ,5S enantiomer (>99% ee for the endo isomer. Scheme 7.21). The copper(II) perchlorate complex showed no catalytic activity, however, whereas the ytterbium(III) triflate complex led to the formation of racemic cycloadducts. 

In the nitrone cycloaddition reactions catalyzed by the l ,J -DBFOX/Ph transition metal complexes also, the diastereo- and enantioselectivities were found to depend upon the presence of MS 4 A [71]. Thus, both the selectivities were much lowered in the iron(II) or nickel(II) complex-catalyzed reactions without MS 4 A,... 

Monodentate dipolarophiles such as acrolein, methacrolein, and a-bromoacrolein could be successfully utilized in the l ,J -DBFOX/Ph-transition metal complex-catalyzed asymmetric nitrone cycloadditions [76]. The reactions of N-benzylideneani-line N-oxide with acrolein in the presence of the nickel(II) aqua complex R,R-DBF0X/Ph-Ni(C104)2 3H20 (10mol%) and MS 4 A produced a mixture of two regioisomers (5-formyl/4-formyl regioisomers ca 3 1). However, enantio-... 

Nitronates show a similar reacdvity to that of nitrones, and nitrones are one of 1,3-thpoles that have been successfully developed to catalyzed asymmetric versions, as discussed in the secdon on nitrones fSecdon 8 3 1 However, asymmetric nitronate cycloadthdons catalyzed chiral metal catalysts have not been reported Kanemasa and coworkers have demonstrated that nitronate cycloadthdon is catalyzed by Lev/is acids fEq 8 93 This may open a new way to asymmetric nitronate cycloadthdon catalyzed by chiral catalysts... 

Nitron fonns v si sol compds with metallic nitrates, perchlorates, picrates, trinitrocresylates, as well as with organic nitrates such as NG,... 

Wagner and co-workers explored the different selectivity of 1,3-dipolar cyclo additions of nitrones 140 and cinnamonitrile 139 leading to oxadia-zolines 141 derived from an exclusive CN attack instead of a C = C attack (Scheme 50). This behavior was observed when cinnamonitrile was coordinated to a transition metal like Ft or Pd [89]. A similar approach to platimun-promoted nitrile-nitrone cyclo additions was reported using cychc nitrones. In this case, the authors reported a higher stereoselectivity of cychc nitrones with respect to the acyclic nitrones, due to a rigid E conformation adopted by cyclic nitrones [90]. 

Continuing his studies on the metallation of tetrahydro-2-benzazepine formamidines, Meyers has now shown that the previously unsuccessful deprotonation of 1-alkyl derivatives can be achieved with sec-butyllithium at -40 °C <96H(42)475>. In this way 1,1-dialkylated derivatives are now accessible. The preparation of 3//-benzazepines by chemical oxidation of 2,5- and 2,3-dihydro-l/f-l-benzazepines has been reported <96T4423>. 3Af-Diazepines are also formed by rearrangement of the 5//-tautomers which had been previously reported to be the products of electrochemical oxidation of 2,5-dihydro-lAf-l-benzazepine <95T9611>. The synthesis and radical trapping activities of a number of benzazepine derived nitrones have been reported <96T6519, 96JBC3097>. 

The presence of /3-hydrogen in the nitroxide radical may lead to disproportionation reactions. In spin-trapping experiments, N-t-butyl-a-phenyl nitrone yields rather unstable spin adducts. This type of radical can be stabilized by coordination to Nin. The Ni11 complex with N-oxy-A-r-butyl-(2-pyridyl)phenylmethanamine (923) reveals a distorted octahedral geometry with antiferromagnetic interactions between the unpaired electrons of the metal ion and the radical spins.00... 

Nitro groups attached to a primary and secondary alkyl group in a highly basic (pH > 13) medium exist as the nitronate (enolate) anions. These anions must be very difficult to reduce by electron transfer and are surely much more difficult to reduce than water. Since the electrohydrogenation of such nitro compounds to the corresponding amines is veiy efficient at Raney metal cathodes in 0.1 to 0.15 M KOH (or NaOH) aqueous alcohol (pH > 13) (12), as... 

Compared with the related reactions of nitrones, there have only appeared a few publications of metal-assisted or metal-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of nitrile oxides. This is due to... 

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