Methyl acrylate azomethine ylides

Dodd and co-workers (5) reported the first known synthesis of 11//-indolizino[8,7-h]indoles by the cycloaddition reaction of a nonstabilized ylide 21 and diethylacetylene dicarboxylate (DEAD). The azomethine ylide, formed by the alkylation of the 3,4-dihydro-p-carboline (22) with trimethylsilyl methyl triflate to the triflate salt, followed by in situ desilyation with cesium fluoride, underwent cycloaddition with DEAD at low temperature. The expected major cycloadduct 23 was isolated, along with quantities of a minor product 24, presumed to have been formed by initial reaction of the ylide with 1 equiv of DEAD and the intermediate undergoing reaction with a further equivalent of DEAD before cyclization. Dodd offers no explanation for the unexpected position of the double bond in the newly generated five-membered ring, although it is most likely due to post-reaction isomerization to the thermodynamically more stable p-amino acrylate system (Scheme 3.5). 

Planar chiral arene Cr(CO)3 complexes have been shown to undergo highly diastereoselective cycloadditions and Kiindig has extended this protocol to the [3+2] cycloadditions of azomethine ylides (96). Enantiopure ortho- substituted p -benzaldehyde complex 337 underwent condensation with an ot-amino ester to afford imine 338 in the presence of EtaN. Subsequent treatment with methyl acrylate at ambient temperamre in the presence of LiBr and EtaN delivered cycloadduct 339, with excellent stereoinduction and high material yield. Photoinduced oxidative decomplexation in air furnished the final arylpyrrolidines (Scheme 3.114). 

The above azomethine ylide cycloadditions have been extended to an enantioselective version involving amino alcohols both as chiral ligands and amine bases. Thus, reactions of the N-metalated azomethine yhdes derived from achiral methyl 2-(arylmethyleneamino)acetates, cobalt(II) chloride [or manganese(II) bromide], and chiral amino alcohols, 1 and 2 equiv each, with methyl acrylate as solvent have been performed to provide the enantiomer-enriched pyrrolidine-2,4-dicarboxylates with the enantioselectivities of up to 96% enantiomeric excess (ee) (128,129). However, a large excess of the metal ions and the chiral source (ligand and base) have to be employed. 

Chiral aziridines having the chiral moiety attached to the nitrogen atom have also been applied for diastereoselective formation of optically active pyrrolidine derivatives. In the first example, aziridines were used as precursors for azomethine ylides (90-95). Photolysis of the aziridine 57 produced the azomethine ylide 58, which was found to add smoothly to methyl acrylate (Scheme 12.20) (91,93-95). The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition proceeded with little or no de, but this was not surprising, as the chiral center in 58 is somewhat remote from the reacting centers... 

Garner et al. (90,320) used aziridines substituted with Oppolzer s sultam as azomethine ylide precursors. The azomethine ylide generated from 206 added to various electron-dehcient alkenes, such as dimethyl maleate, A-phenylmalei-mide, and methyl acrylate, giving the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition product in good yields and up to 82% de (for A-phenylmaleimide). They also used familiar azomethine ylides formed by imine tautomerization (320). Aziridines such as 207 have also been used as precursors for the chiral azomethine ylides, but in reactions with vinylene carbonates, relatively low de values were obtained (Scheme 12.59) (92). 

Grigg and co-workers (383) found that chiral cobalt and manganese complexes are capable of inducing enantioselectivity in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of azomethine ylides derived from arylidene imines of glycine (Scheme 12.91). This work was published in 1991 and is the first example of a metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. The reaction of the azomethine yhde 284a with methyl acrylate 285 required a stoichiometric amount of cobalt and 2 equiv of the chiral ephedrine ligand. Up to 96% ee was obtained for the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition product 286a. 

Imidate-derived dipoles have played a prominent role in the synthesis of the pyrrolizidine alkaloid retronecine (121).119 The imidate salt derived from lactam (118) was found to undergo a smooth desilylation reaction to produce azomethine ylide (119). Trapping of this dipole with methyl acrylate affords... 

The N-metallated azomethine ylides having a wider synthetic potential are N-lithiated ylides 141, derived from the imines of a-amino esters, lithium bromide, and triethylamine, and 144 from the imines of a-aminonitriles and LDA (Section II,G). Ester-stabilized ylides 144 undergo regio- and endo-selective cycloadditions, at room temperature, to a wide variety of unsym-metrically substituted olefins bearing a carbonyl-activating substituent, such as methyl acrylate, crotonate, cinnamate, methacrylate, 3-buten-2-one, ( )-3-penten-2-one, ( )-4-phenyl-3-buten-2-one, and ( )-l-(p-tolyl)-3-phenyl-propenone, to give excellent yields of cycloadducts 142 (88JOC1384). 

The influence of water as a solvent on the rate of dipolar cycloadditions has been reported [76]. Thus the rate of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of 2,6-dichloroben-zonitrile N-oxide with 2,5-dimethyl-p-benzoquinone in an ethanol/water mixture (60 40) is 14-fold that in chloroform [76b]. Furthermore the use of aqueous solvent facilitates the workup procedure owing to the low solubility of the cycloadduct [76b]. In water-rich solutions, acceleration should be even more important. Thus in water containing 1 mol% of l-cyclohexyl-2-pyrrolidinone an unprecedented increase in the rate of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of phenyl azide to norbornene by a factor of 53 (relative to hexane) is observed [77]. Likewise, the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of C,Ar-diphenylnitrone with methyl acrylate is considerably faster in water than in benzene [78]. Similarly, azomethine ylides generated from sarcosine and aqueous formaldehyde can be trapped by dipola-rophiles such as N-ethylmaleimide to provide pyrrolidines in excellent yields... 

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