Michael addition Organic catalysis

Ding, R., K. Katebzadeh, L. Roman, K.-E. Bergquist and U.M. Lindstrom, Expanding the Scope of Lewis Add Catalysis in Water Remarkable Ligand Acceleration of Aqueous Ytterbium Triflate Catalyzed Michael Addition Reactions, Journal of Organic Chemistry, 71, 352-355 (2006). 

Reaction of Aniline with Organic Functional Groups. In the absence of catalysis by enzymes or metals, aniline undergoes nucleophilic addition reactions to quinone and other carbonyl groups in humic substances to form both heterocyclic and nonheterocyclic condensation products (9). In aqueous solution, aniline undergoes 1,4-addition (Michael addition) to both 1,2- and 1,4-quinones (10-14). The reaction of aniline with 1,4-benzoquinone, from the oxidation of hydroquinone, and with 4-methyl-1,2-quinone, from the oxidation of 4-methylcatechol, are illustrated here. 

Sinisterra. JV Garcia-Bianco. F Iglesias, M Marinas, JM. Barium hydroxide as catalyst in organic reactions I. Nature of active sites in the Michael addition. Reaction Kinetics and Catalysis Letters. 1985 27, 263-267. 

NHC-catalyzed reactions are unique in organic synthesis, and very useful for the construction of carbon-carbon bonds. Great success has been made for the NHC-catalyzed benzoin condensation, Stetter reactions, and a -d Umpolung reactions in the past decades. NHC catalysis has also hnd application in many other reactions, such as umpolung of Michael acceptors, Morita-Baylis-Hilman reaction, Michael additions, redox reaction, and reactions of ketenes. With the rapid development of NHC catalysis, more reactions will surely be found, and the wide applications in organic synthesis could be expected. 

Under the catalysis of 22c, a structurally similar pro-nucleophile, a-tert-butylthio-substituted furanone, underwent the highly syn- and enantioselective vinylogous Michael addition to nitroalkenes (Scheme 7.38) [62). These methods allowed fadle access to optically active polyfunctionaUzed butenolides, which are versatile chiral synthons in organic synthesis. 

Considering the rapid growth of asymmetric construction of oxindoles, Sun et al. recently reported their assembly of chiral spirooxindoles by combining secondary amine and palladium catalysis in a cascade reaction [55]. The reaction was initiated by the reversible Michael addition of 3-substituted oxindole to enal, which was followed by a metal/organic-cocatalyzed carbocyclization of the aUcyne tether (Scheme 9.60). Similar to the aforementioned dynamic kinetic asymmetric transformations, this chemistry highlighted the cooperative effects of the two catalysts in the same reaction vessel, while either catalyst could not solely promote the overall reaction, and unsatisfactory results were observed when this reaction was conducted in a two-step mode. 

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