Michael acceptors, nucleophilic addition

In the thiophene and benzothiophene series, nucleophilic substitution of hydrogen (Scheme 79) becomes possible due to the ability of 3d-orbitals of the sulfur atom to stabilize negative charge arising in an anionic -complex. Thiophene 1,1-dioxides are very good Michael acceptors. The addition of MeSNa to 3,4-di-// r/-bu ty 1 thiophene 1,1-dioxide <2000CL744> takes place in a 2,5- and 2,3-fashion to give a 56 44 mixture of adducts in 94% yield. 

Vinyl sulfones, being good Michael acceptors, have been regarded as useful reagents for carbon-carbon bond formation. Nucleophiles used often are organometallic reagents, enamines and enolate anions and the Michael addition products are usually obtained in... 

The electrophilic character of sulfur dioxide does not only enable addition to reactive nucleophiles, but also to electrons forming sulfur dioxide radical anions which possess the requirements of a captodative" stabilization (equation 83). This electron transfer occurs electrochemically or chemically under Leuckart-Wallach conditions (formic acid/tertiary amine - , by reduction of sulfur dioxide with l-benzyl-1,4-dihydronicotinamide or with Rongalite The radical anion behaves as an efficient nucleophile and affords the generation of sulfones with alkyl halides " and Michael-acceptor olefins (equations 84 and 85). 

Hassner and coworkers have developed a one-pot tandem consecutive 1,4-addition intramolecular cycloaddition strategy for the construction of five- and six-membered heterocycles and carbocycles. Because nitroalkenes are good Michael acceptors for carbon, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen nucleophiles (see Section 4.1 on the Michael reaction), subsequent intramolecular silyl nitronate cycloaddition (ISOC) or intramolecular nitrile oxide cycloaddition (INOC) provides one-pot synthesis of fused isoxazolines (Scheme 8.26). The ISOC route is generally better than INOC route regarding stereoselectivity and generality. 

The thiazolium-catalyzed addition of an aldehyde-derived acyl anion with a Michael acceptor (Stetter reaction) is a well-known synthetic tool leading to the synthesis of highly funtionalized products. Recent developments in this area include the direct nucleophilic addition of acyl anions to nitroalkenes using silyl-protected thiazolium carbinols <06JA4932>. In the presence of a fluoride anion, carbinol 186 is not cleaved to an aldehyde... 

Additional evidence for the contention that metathesis carbenes are nucleophilic was offered by Gassman in an interesting series of trapping experiments utilizing Michael acceptors as carbene traps (15, 17). Thus, an ethylidene carbene generated from 2-butene was trapped by ethyl acrylate to yield the expected ethylcyclopropyl ester, although yields were quite low. 

Tandem 1,2- and 1,4-additions to quinones.1 The lithium alkoxide formed by 1,2-addition of an alkyllithium to a p-benzoquinone can react as a Michael acceptor with some nucleophiles in the presence of HMPT or DMPU (13, 122). The process involves lithium-metal exchange followed by intramolecular delivery... 

Rauter s group exploited the synthesis of sugar derived bicyclic butenolides ( e.g. 140, Fig. 44),60 which possess cytotoxic and antitumor activities. The key structural feature of such compounds consists of the presence of the a,(3-unsaturated lactone, which allows them to act as Michael acceptors for the addition of enzymes nucleophiles. 

Due to the strong electron-withdrawing ability of the carbonyl group, a 1,2-allenyl ketone is a very good Michael acceptor. Hence it can undergo 1,4-addition with all kinds of nucleophiles. 

Similar schemes can be developed easily for analogous reactions of acceptor-substituted polyenes. For example, a triene with an acceptor group in 1-position can form six regioi-someric products of Michael addition and electrophilic capture, and each of these exists as E/Z stereoisomers, diastereomers and/or enantiomers. Thus, reactions of this type are only useful if both the regio- and stereoselectivity can be controlled fortunately, only one isomeric Michael adduct is formed in many cases. This is true in particular for polyunsaturated Michael acceptors which bear at least one triple bond besides one or more double bonds. An additional feature of the latter substrate type is that nucleophilic additions can... 

Early investigations of additions of soft carbon nucleophiles to simple Michael acceptors like ethyl sorbate date back to the beginning of the 20th century. Already in 1906, Vorlander and coworkers4-6 described additions of malonate anion whereas ethyl sorbate provided the 1,6-addition product6 (equation 2), the 1,4-adduct was obtained from methyl 5-phenyl-2,4-pentadienoate4 (equation 3). Thus, it seems that the regioselectivity... 

Nucleophilic additions of amines to acceptor-substituted dienes were examined as early as 1950. Frankel and coworkers98 found that the reaction of 2,4-pentadienenitrile with various secondary amines proceeded regioselectively to furnish the 1,6-addition products (equation 29). In some cases, these could converted into the 2,4-diamino-substituted pen-tanenitriles by isomerization and 1,4-addition of a second molecule of amine. Analogous results were reported by other groups17,99 100 and extended to hydrazine as nucleophile101 and to vinylcyclobutenones48 and dienoates102-104 as Michael acceptors. 

By far most of the reports on addition reactions of hetero-nucleophiles to activated dienes deal with sulfur-nucleophiles17,48,80,120-137, in particular in the synthesis of 7/3-sulfur-substituted steroids which, like their carbon-substituted counterparts (Section n.A), are of interest because of their ability to inhibit the biosynthesis of estrogens80,129-137. Early investigations17,120-122 concentrated on simple acyclic Michael acceptors like methyl sorbate and 2,4-pentadienenitrile. Bravo and coworkers120 observed the formation of a 3 1 mixture of the 1,6- and 1,4-adduct in the reaction of methyl sorbate with methanethiol in basic medium (equation 39). In contrast to this, 2,4-pentadienenitrile adds various thiols regioselectively at C-5, i.e. in a 1,6-fashion (equation 40)17,121,122, and the same is true for reactions of this substrate with hydrogen sulfide (equation 41), sodium bisulfite and ethyl thioglycolate17. 

Silylcuprates have been reported to undergo reactions with a number of miscellaneous Michael acceptors [65]. Conjugate addition to 3-carbomethoxy acyl pyri-dinium salts [65a] affords 4-silyl-l,4-dihydropyridines. Oxidation with p-chlorand generates a 4-acyl pyridinium salt that gives the 4-silylnicotinate upon quenching with water, and methyl 4-silyl-2-substituted dihydronicotinates upon quenching with nucleophiles (nucleophilic addition at the 6-position). The stabilized anion formed by conjugate addition to an a, j8-unsaturated sulfone could be trapped intramolecularly by an alkyl chloride [65b]. 

During the coverage period of this chapter, reviews have appeared on the following topics reactions of electrophiles with polyfluorinated alkenes, the mechanisms of intramolecular hydroacylation and hydrosilylation, Prins reaction (reviewed and redefined), synthesis of esters of /3-amino acids by Michael addition of amines and metal amides to esters of a,/3-unsaturated carboxylic acids," the 1,4-addition of benzotriazole-stabilized carbanions to Michael acceptors, control of asymmetry in Michael additions via the use of nucleophiles bearing chiral centres, a-unsaturated systems with the chirality at the y-position, and the presence of chiral ligands or other chiral mediators, syntheses of carbo- and hetero-cyclic compounds via Michael addition of enolates and activated phenols, respectively, to o ,jS-unsaturated nitriles, and transition metal catalysis of the Michael addition of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds. ... 

The 2-chloro-2-cyclopropylideneacetates 1, 2 are ultimately better Michael acceptors than any other 3,3-disubstituted acrylate. The addition of most nucleophiles occurs smoothly, and it is accelerated by the high strain in the starting material which is released upon conversion of the sp- to 5p -hybridized carbon... 

The high Michael acceptor reactivity of chloro esters 1,2 opens wide possibilities for the preparation of various carbo- and heterocycles with different ring sizes and substituents. This maybe achieved either by chemical transformations of primary Michael adducts or by addition of a bidentate nucleophile onto 1 or... 

In the presence of thiourea catalyst 122, the authors converted various (hetero) aromatic and aliphatic trons-P-nitroalkenes with dimethyl malonate to the desired (S)-configured Michael adducts 1-8. The reaction occurred at low 122-loading (2-5 mol%) in toluene at -20 to 20 °C and furnished very good yields (88-95%) and ee values (75-99%) for the respective products (Scheme 6.120). The dependency of the catalytic efficiency and selectivity on both the presence of the (thio) urea functionality and the relative stereochemistry at the key stereogenic centers C8/C9 suggested bifunctional catalysis, that is, a quinuclidine-moiety-assisted generation of the deprotonated malonate nucleophile and its asymmetric addition to the (thio)urea-bound nitroalkene Michael acceptor [279]. 

Alternatively, 3-substituted 2-carbomethoxycyclopentanones have been prepared by Michael addition to 2-carbomethoxycyclopentenone. " However, this Michael acceptor is unstable, difficult to prepare, and polymerizes in the presence of many nucleophiles. A longer synthesis of 2-carbomethoxy-3-vinylcyclopentanone has been reported. The general route to 2-carbomethoxy-3-vinylcyclopentanones developed by Trost has the advantage of producing these compounds in optically active form. 

These transformations are efficient under biological conditions only if another activating group is present (carbonyl, aryl, etc.) [77]. Such an activating group is important to render the elimination product (resulting from the loss of a fluoride ion) a better Michael acceptor. Moreover, if one or several fluorine atoms are present on the double bond, the latter is also more reactive (Fig. 22). Thus, the elimination, promoted by the enzyme, of a fluoride ion from a jS-fluoro amino acid leads to a very reactive Michael acceptor. The latter can undergo an irreversible addition of a nucleophile residue of the active site of the enzyme, which is thus inhibited (Fig. 23) [78,79]. 

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