Michael electrophile

The Michael addition represents an extremely efficient synthetic method for achieving chain elongation by adding a three (or more) carbon fragment electrophile to a nucleophilic moiety. Notice that the typical Michael electrophiles (e.g. 90) are products of condensation of carbonyl compounds and can be easily formed via the aldol-like condensation, the Wittig reaction (with ylides like 81), the Perkin reaction, or the Mannich reaction (see below). 

Scheme 7.48 Intermolecular sulfa-Michael/electrophilic amination reaction catalyzed by 31c.

Scheme 7.73 Tandem oxa-Michael/electrophilic fluorination reaction for the as5rm-metric synthesis of fluorinated flavanones.

The mechanism for both methods is similar and has been proposed to begin with the conjugate addition of the phosphine to the Michael electrophile (i.e., allenoate or2-aUcynoate). In Scheme 33 the mechanism describing the transformation of 2-aIkynoate is presented. After Michael addition, protons shift of the Michael adduct leads eventually to phosphonium ylide 57 that would react in a Wittig reaction with an aldehyde and displace the previous equilibria. Note that, despite the elevated temperature of the reaction with 2-aIkynoate, no isomerization of the double bond allowing the conjugation of the ester with the double bonds was observed. 

So far in this section we have combined enolate anions with other carbonyl compounds by direct attack at the carbonyl group. We can expand the scope of this reaction by using a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds as the electrophiles. This is the Michael reaction. Remind yourself of tliis by writing out the mechanism of a Michael reaction such as ... 

Analysis The electrophile is an enone since a reyerse Michael reaction cleaves the C-N bond ... 

The synthesis of spiro compounds from ketones and methoxyethynyl propenyl ketone exemplifies some regioselectivities of the Michael addition. The electrophilic triple bond is attacked first, next comes the 1-propenyl group. The conjugated keto group is usually least reactive. The ethynyl starting material has been obtained from the addition of the methoxyethynyl anion to the carbonyl group of crotonaldehyde (G. Stork, 1962 B, 1964A). 

Glycosidic thiol groups can be introduced into glycosyl bromides by successive reactions with thiourea and aqueous sodium disulfite (D. Horton, 1963 M. Cemy, 1961, 1963). Such thiols are excellent nucleophiles in weakly basic media and add to electrophilic double bonds, e.g., of maleic esters, to give Michael adducts in high yields. Several chiral amphiphiles have thus been prepared without any need for chromatography (J.-H. Fuhrhop, 1986 A). 

BMI was also used as a crosslinking agent for poly(iminoethylene). The Michael addition takes place with the nucleophilic nitrogen of the imino group and the double bonds of the electrophilic BMI. The Michael addition of BMI is now adopted as a crosslinking reaction for polymers with amino end groups [2]. 

Another important feature of the Nef reaction is the possible use of a CH-NO2 function as an umpoled carbonyl function. A proton at a carbon a to a nitro group is acidic, and can be abstracted by base. The resulting anionic species has a nucleophilic carbon, and can react at that position with electrophiles. In contrast the carbon center of a carbonyl group is electrophilic, and thus reactive towards nucleophiles. 1,4-Diketones 4 can for example be prepared from a-acidic nitro compounds by a Michael additionfNef reaction sequence " ... 

Nitroalkenes are shown to be effective Michael acceptor B units In three sequential re fA + B + C couplingi in one reaction vessel. The sequence is initialed by enolate nucleophiles fA and is terminated by aldehydes or acrylate electrophiles fC. The utility of this protocol is for rapid assembly of complex stnictures from simple and readily available components. A short total synthesis of a pyrroLmdine alkaloid is presented in Scheme 10.16. ... 

The Michael reaction occurs with a variety of a,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, not just conjugated ketones. Unsaturated aldehydes, esters, thio-esters, nitriles, amides, and nitro compounds can all act as the electrophilic acceptor component in Michael reactions (Table 23.1). Similarly, a variety of different donors can be used, including /3-diketones, /3-keto esters, malonic esters, /3-keto nitriles, and nitro compounds. 

The nucleophile adds to the e,/3-unsaturated ketone electrophile in a Michael reaction to generate a new enolate as product. 

How might the following compounds be prepared using Michael reactions Show the nucleophilic donor and the electrophilic acceptor in each case. 

The intramolecular Michael addition11 of a nucleophilic oxygen to an a,/ -unsaturated ester constitutes an attractive alternative strategy for the synthesis of the pyran nucleus, a strategy that could conceivably be applied to the brevetoxin problem (see Scheme 2). For example, treatment of hydroxy a,/ -unsaturated ester 9 with sodium hydride furnishes an alkoxide ion that induces ring formation by attacking the electrophilic //-carbon of the unsaturated ester moiety. This base-induced intramolecular Michael addition reaction is a reversible process, and it ultimately affords the thermodynamically most stable product 10 (92% yield). 

This section describes Michael-analogous processes in which, mostly under electrophilic conditions, ally - or alkynylsilanes undergo addition to enones or dienones (Sakurai reactions). The intramolecular addition of allylsilanes is an extremely useful reaction especially for the construction of carbocyclic ring systems, which occurs in a diastereoselective manner, in many cases with complete asymmetric induction. 

The enolate of the 1,4-adduct, obtained after the stereoselective Michael addition step, as discussed in the previous sections, may be quenched in situ with various electrophiles. The fact that additional stereogenic centers may be formed via such tandem Michael addition/quench-ing procedures, giving products with high diastereoselectivity in many cases, extends the scope of these methods substantially. Furthermore these procedures occasionally offer the possibility of reversing the syn/anti diastereoselection. In the next sections pertinent examples of diastereoselective inter- and intramolecular quenching reactions will be discussed. 

When the cyclic enone is unsubstituted, but the resulting enolate is quenched with an electrophile under conditions of kinetic control the irons adduct is formed exclusively303. Particularly successful is the sequential Michael addition/enolate alkylation in diastereoselective routes to frans-a,/j-difunctionalized cycloalkanones and lactones304-308. The key steps in the synthesis of methyl ( + )-jasmonate (3)309-310 (syn/anti diastereoselection) and (-)-khushimone (4) (syn/anti and induced diastereoselection) illustrate this sequence311 (see also Section D. 1.1.1.3.). 

The use of enantiomerically pure (R)-5-menthyloxy-2(5.//)-furanone results in lactone enolates, after the initial Michael addition, which can be quenched diastereoselectively trans with respect to the /J-substituent. With aldehydes as electrophiles adducts with four new stereogenic centers arc formed with full stereocontrol and the products are enantiomerically pure. Various optically active lactones, and after hydrolysis, amino acids and hydroxy acids can be synthesized in this way317. 

A common reaction sequence is shown in the schemes printed above. The sulfosuccinate monoesters are produced by a two-step reaction. In the first step 1 mol of maleic anhydride is reacted with a hydroxyl group-bearing component. In the second step the monoester is reacted with sodium sulfite (or sodium bisulfite) to form the disodium alkyl sulfosuccinate. At the so-called halfester stage, there are two possibilities for an electrophilic attack [61] (Michael-type reaction) at the double bond (Scheme 6). Reactivity differences between the two vinylic carbons should be very small, so that probably an exclusive formation of one single regioisomer can be excluded. 

In principle, numerous reports have detailed the possibility to modify an enzyme to carry out a different type of reaction than that of its attributed function, and the possibility to modify the cofactor of the enzyme has been well explored [8,10]. Recently, the possibility to directly observe reactions, normally not catalyzed by an enzyme when choosing a modified substrate, has been reported under the concept of catalytic promiscuity [9], a phenomenon that is believed to be involved in the appearance of new enzyme functions during the course of evolution [23]. A recent example of catalytic promiscuity of possible interest for novel biotransformations concerns the discovery that mutation of the nucleophilic serine residue in the active site of Candida antarctica lipase B produces a mutant (SerlOSAla) capable of efficiently catalyzing the Michael addition of acetyl acetone to methyl vinyl ketone [24]. The oxyanion hole is believed to be complex and activate the carbonyl group of the electrophile, while the histidine nucleophile takes care of generating the acetyl acetonate anion by deprotonation of the carbon (Figure 3.5). 

If the carbanion has even a short lifetime, 6 and 7 will assume the most favorable conformation before the attack of W. This is of course the same for both, and when W attacks, the same product will result from each. This will be one of two possible diastereomers, so the reaction will be stereoselective but since the cis and trans isomers do not give rise to different isomers, it will not be stereospecific. Unfortunately, this prediction has not been tested on open-chain alkenes. Except for Michael-type substrates, the stereochemistry of nucleophilic addition to double bonds has been studied only in cyclic systems, where only the cis isomer exists. In these cases, the reaction has been shown to be stereoselective with syn addition reported in some cases and anti addition in others." When the reaction is performed on a Michael-type substrate, C=C—Z, the hydrogen does not arrive at the carbon directly but only through a tautomeric equilibrium. The product naturally assumes the most thermodynamically stable configuration, without relation to the direction of original attack of Y. In one such case (the addition of EtOD and of Me3CSD to tra -MeCH=CHCOOEt) predominant anti addition was found there is evidence that the stereoselectivity here results from the final protonation of the enolate, and not from the initial attack. For obvious reasons, additions to triple bonds cannot be stereospecific. As with electrophilic additions, nucleophilic additions to triple bonds are usually stereoselective and anti, though syn addition and nonstereoselective addition have also been reported. 

The HX compounds are electrophilic reagents, and many polyhalo and polycyano alkenes, (e.g., Cl2C=CHCl) do not react with them at all in the absence of free-radical conditions. When such reactions do occur, however, they take place by a nucleophilic addition mechanism, (i.e., initial attack is by X ). This type of mechanism also occurs with Michael-type substrates C=C—Z, where the orientation is always such that the halogen goes to the carbon that does not bear the Z, so the product is of the form X—C—CH—Z, even in the presence of free-radical initiators. Hydrogen iodide adds 1,4 to conjugated dienes in the gas phase by a pericyclic mechanism ... 

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