Methyllithium, with enol

The Petasis reagent, dimethyl titanocene (4.93) can also be used for the methylenation of carbonyl compounds. The Petasis reagent (4.93) is prepared by the reaction of methyl magnesium chloride or methyllithium with titanocene dichloride (Cp2TiCl2). Carbonyl compounds on heating with 4.93 at 60-65° C in a toluene solution give the corresponding alkenes or enol ethers. 

The reaction of enolates, prepared from silyl enol ethers and methyllithium, with Tf20 affords vinyl triflates (eq 40). ... 

Although ethereal solutions of methyl lithium may be prepared by the reaction of lithium wire with either methyl iodide or methyl bromide in ether solution, the molar equivalent of lithium iodide or lithium bromide formed in these reactions remains in solution and forms, in part, a complex with the methyllithium. Certain of the ethereal solutions of methyl 1ithium currently marketed by several suppliers including Alfa Products, Morton/Thiokol, Inc., Aldrich Chemical Company, and Lithium Corporation of America, Inc., have been prepared from methyl bromide and contain a full molar equivalent of lithium bromide. In several applications such as the use of methyllithium to prepare lithium dimethyl cuprate or the use of methyllithium in 1,2-dimethyoxyethane to prepare lithium enolates from enol acetates or triraethyl silyl enol ethers, the presence of this lithium salt interferes with the titration and use of methyllithium. There is also evidence which indicates that the stereochemistry observed during addition of methyllithium to carbonyl compounds may be influenced significantly by the presence of a lithium salt in the reaction solution. For these reasons it is often desirable to have ethereal solutions... 

It was predicted, a priori, that isocomene could be formed simply by treating 4 with methyllithium, followed by exposure of the resultant tertiary carbinol to acid.2b However, many attempts to effect the addition of a variety of nucleophilic methyl derivatives to ketone 4 were unsuccessful. It was revealed by deuterium quenching experiments that ketone 4 undergoes ready enolization in the presence of nucleophilic methyl derivatives. Despite its hindered nature, however, the ketone carbonyl in 4 reacts with methylenetri-... 

Palladium-catalyzed bis-silylation of methyl vinyl ketone proceeds in a 1,4-fashion, leading to the formation of a silyl enol ether (Equation (47)).121 1,4-Bis-silylation of a wide variety of enones bearing /3-substituents has become possible by the use of unsymmetrical disilanes, such as 1,1-dichloro-l-phenyltrimethyldisilane and 1,1,1-trichloro-trimethyldisilane (Scheme 28).129 The trimethylsilyl enol ethers obtained by the 1,4-bis-silylation are treated with methyllithium, generating lithium enolates, which in turn are reacted with electrophiles. The a-substituted-/3-silyl ketones, thus obtained, are subjected to Tamao oxidation conditions, leading to the formation of /3-hydroxy ketones. This 1,4-bis-silylation reaction has been extended to the asymmetric synthesis of optically active /3-hydroxy ketones (Scheme 29).130 The key to the success of the asymmetric bis-silylation is to use BINAP as the chiral ligand on palladium. Enantiomeric excesses ranging from 74% to 92% have been attained in the 1,4-bis-silylation. 

A route involving trapping the enolate as a silyl enol ether, subsequent transme-tallation to the corresponding lithium enolate and alkylation turned out to be more efficient (Scheme 18.41) [123]. Thus, treatment of 120 with the cuprate 124 and chlorotrimethylsilane furnished the silyl enol ether 125, which was then converted into the desired enprostil derivative 127 with 68% yield over both steps by reaction with methyllithium and the allenic triflate 126. 

Treatment of the acetylenic ketones 186 with lithium dialkylcuprates and trapping the resultant enolates with acetic anhydride produced the enyne-allene 187 (Scheme 20.39) [72], Regeneration of the oxyanion-substituted enyne-allene system using methyllithium at -20 °C led to the formation of either the indanones 188 or the ben-zofluorenones 189 through a Schmittel cyclization reaction. 

Methyllithium (4.0 mmol, 1.0 M in diethyl ether, 4.0 mL) was added to a suspension of CuCN (2.0 mmol, 0.18 g) in THF (10 mL) at -75°C. The reaction mixture was then stirred until a clear solution was obtained and allowed to warm to room temperature. The appropriate (Z)-vinylic telluride A (2.0 mmol) or B (1.0 mmol) was added and stirred for 45 min. The solution was cooled back to -75°C and the corresponding enone (2.2 mmol) was added. After 20 min, chlorotrimethylsilane (2.6 mmol, 0.60 g) diluted in THF (5 mL) was added. The reaction mixture was stirred for 1 h, allowed to warm to room temperature and then treated with 1 1 solution of saturated aqueous NH4CI and NH4OH (20 mL), extracted with ethyl acetate (3x20 mL), dried, evaporated and the residue was purified by Kiigelrohr distillation affording the silyl enol ethers. 

In this study, benzaldehyde and benzaldehyde-methyllithium adduct were fully optimized at HF/6-31G and their vibrational frequencies were calculated. The authors used MeLi instead of lithium pinacolone enolate, since it was assumed that the equilibrium IBs are not much different for the MeLi addition and lithium enolate addition. Dehalogena-tion and enone-isomerization probe experiments detected no evidence of a single electron transfer to occur during the course of the reaction. The primary carbonyl carbon kinetic isotope effects and chemical probe experiments led them to conclude that the reaction of lithium pinacolone enolate with benzaldehyde proceeds via a polar mechanism. 

According to results published by Fer6zou and coworkers, the iV,iV-diisopropylcarba-moyl group of homoaldol adducts can be directly attacked by slim nucleophiles such as lithium ethynylide or excess methyllithium (equation 98) . The TIPS ether 359 was treated with three equivalents of methyllithium to yield [via the (Z)-enolate 360] the aldehyde 361. Trapping of 360 by TBSCl gives rise to the synthetically valuable (Z)-silyl enol ether 362. 

Related, achiral cc,/ -unsaturated molybdenum-( 2-acyl) complexes, such as 8, have been shown to undergo nucleophilic 1,4-conjugatc addition upon treatment with sodium borohy-dride or methyllithium to generate enolate species, such as 9 (produced by addition of hydride). Subsequent alkylation by iodomethane provides the a-alkylated product 1088. Extension of this tandem Michael addition-alkylation sequence to nonracemic molybdenum species has not yet been reported. 

For example, as shown in equation 43, Taguchi, Nozaki and coworkers reported in 1974 a one-carbon ring enlargement of cyclododecanone (187) to cyclotridecanone (190) with dibromomethyllithium through / -oxido carbenoid (188) . This reaction was expected to proceed via a one-carbon expanded enolate (189). Cohen and coworkers used the bis(phenylthio)methyllithium whereas Satoh and coworkers used a-sulfinyl lithium car-banion of 1-chloroalkyl aryl sulfoxides as the source of S-oxido carbenoids (equation 44) °. 

Ss2 reaction with a,fi-epoxy ketones.6 The enolate 1 of 2,3-epoxycyclohexanone reacts with methyllithium to give, after acidic work-up, 2-methy -2-cyclohexenone (3), the product of SN2 addition. Reaction of 1 with lithium dimethyl cuprate on the other hand results in 6-methyl-2-cyclohexcnonc (2), the product of Sv2 addition. 

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