Michael pyrrolidine thioureas

The Michael reactions [149-152] between cyclohexanone and trons-nitroalkenes were also explored by Xiao and co-workers utilizing bifunctional pyrrolidine-thiourea 213 and the pyrrolidine-thioureas 214-217 (Figure 6.61) [344]. The model Michael reaction between cyclohexanone and trons-nitrostyrene identified water as the best solvent and 217 to be the most efficient catalysts concerning the activity and asymmetric induction (90% yield 96% ee dr 98 2 in 12 h at 35 °C) in the presence of benzoic acid (10mol%) as additive. The optimized catalytic system allowed the formation of a broad spectrum of Michael adducts such as 1-6 resulting from... 

A pyrrolidine-thiourea organocatalyst (69) facilitates Michael addition of cyclohexanone to both aryl and alkyl nitroalkenes with up to 98% de and ee 202 The bifunctional catalyst (69) can doubly hydrogen bond to the nitro group, leaving the chiral heterocycles positioned for cyclohexyl enamine formation over one face of the alkene. 

Tang and coworkers" used bifunctional urea and thiourea-derived orga-nocatalysts (4a,b) for the Michael addition of cyclohexanone to nitro-olefins (Scheme 9.29). Using pyrrolidine-thiourea 4b afforded the desired y-nitroalkanes with high diastereo- and enantioselectivity under solvent-free conditions (up to 99 1 dr, 88-98% ee). Subsequently, Xiao and coworkers screened various bifunctional pyrrolidine-thiourea organocatalysts and identified 4c to be efficient at catalysing the Michael addition of various ketones to nitrostyrenes. Comparable results were observed (up to 99 1 dr and 99% ee) when the reactions were performed in both aqueous media and organic solvents. 

Scheme 9.31 Pyrrolidine-thiourea organocatalyst (4i) for Michael additions.

Li and coworkers have studied the reaction between cyclic ketones 133 and nitroolefins 134 in the presence of the chiral pyrrolidine-thiourea bifunctional catalyst 135 (Scheme 3.41), finding that it allows an enantioselective synthesis of 3-oxa- and 3-azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-9-one derivatives 136, probably via a domino process comprising allylic displacement and Michael reactions as the key steps [90],... 

In this sequence, substitution by 1 mol of dimethylamine first replaces the benzylmercaptan leading to 5-acetyl-2-dimethylamino-6//-l,3-thiazine (197). The thiazine then undergoes attack by dimethylamine excess at C-6, leading to the thiourea (198). The benzylmercaptan liberated in the first reaction may act as a nucleophile (BzS",H2NMe2+), and a different thiourea substituted by dimethylamino and benzylthio groups is obtained. The action of pyrrolidine on 1,3-thiazine-4-ones (194) can be seen as a Michael addition followed by elimination of H2S. In acidic media, the linear compound obtained is cyclized to the pyrimidone (200) (Scheme 80)... 

The thiourea functionality, inserted on the most frequently used chiral pyrrolidine scalTold, works excellently as reactivity and enantioselectivity control co-factor by chelating the nitro group of the acceptor. This solution, adopted in 25, provides a family of robust catalysts that afford high yields (up to 98%) and great stereoselectivities (up to 99 1 dr and 99% ee) in direct Michael additions of ketones to various nitroolefins in water. ... 

A domino Mannich/aza-Michael reaction was applied to the synthesis of 2,5-cis-configured polysubstituted pyrrolidines from y-malonate-substituted a,P-unsaturated esters with N-protected arylaldimines [117]. In this report, bifunctional thioureas were trialed with the Takemoto catalyst, being the most efficient with respect to yield as well as enantiomeric and diastereomeric excess. In a separate approach, the Garcia-Tellado group approached the pyrrole ring system 234, beginning with a tertiary skipped diyne 233 and a primary amine (Scheme 7.50). 

Scheme 19.75 Michael-elimination-Michael reaction catalysed by a pyrrolidine-based thiourea catalyst.

The addition of nitroalkanes to chalcones is more attractive since the Michael adducts are useful intermediates for a variety of further elaborated stmctures such as chiral aminocarbonyls, pyrrolidines, y-lactams, and y-amino acids. Thus, many elegant organocatalysts such as cinchona alkaloid-derived chiral tertiary amine thiourea 69 [67] or suqaramide 70 [68] and bisquaternary ammonium salts [69] 71a or 71b have been developed for such a reaction in recent years (Scheme 5.33). In addition, a,(3-unsaturated A -acylpyrroles [70] and 4-oxo-enoates [71] were also applicable in the highly enantioselective conjugated addition with nitroalkanes (Scheme 5.34). 

A strategy for the desymmetrization of cyclohexadienones via asymmetric aza-Michael reaction using cinchonine-derived thiourea 52 was developed by You s group (Scheme 11.33) [113]. A series of highly enantioenriched bicyclic pyrrolidine and morpholine derivatives were obtained in excellent yields and enantioselectivities. 

The stereoselective vinylogous Michael addition-cyclization cascade of alkylidene malononitriles and 3-alkylideneoxindoles was effectively catalyzed by rosin-derived thiourea 36 to give spirocyclic oxindoles with excellent stereoselectivity (Scheme 35) [61]. Although simple thiourea 20 (see Scheme 16) provided low stereoselectivity (dr = 3 1, 29% ee), introduction of the rosin unit into the thiourea core significantly improved the diastereoselectivity to >20 1 the pyrrolidine structure was essential for high enantioselectivity. The effect of the chirality of the rosin component on the absolute stereocontrol was negligible and, thus, the major proposed role of this structural unit was to increase the steric hindrance of the catalyst. One of the salient features of this protocol is the... 

Enders et al. developed an asymmetric synthesis of polyfiinctionalized pyrrolidines based on Mannich-Michael cascade strategy (Scheme 2.42). Under the promotion of 10mol% thiourea catalyst 140b, y-malonate-substituted a,P-unsaturated esters 149 and N-protected aryl aldimines 148 underwent Mannich reaction to afford chiral amine intermediates, which then underwent an intramolecular aza-Michael reaction to yield pyrrolidine derivatives 150 with moderate to good enantioselectivities [60]. 

MichaeU-Henry Reaction Liu et al. and Xie et al. independently found that tertiary amine-thioureas could stereoselectively promote the addition of diethyl a-aminomalonate-derived azomethine ylides to nitroolefms, affording Michael adducts other than dipolar cycloaddition adducts as the major products. Using monofunctional chiral thioureas 140d instead of tertiary amine-thiourea catalysts, Liu et al. successfully developed a three-component [3-1-2] dipolar cycloaddition of benzaldehydes 3, diethyl a-aminomalonates 45a, and nitrostyrenes 165, resulting directly in the enantioenriched pyrrolidines 208 as the only products (Scheme 2.56) [81a] while Xie et al. efficiently converted the Michael adducts 210 to pyrrolidines 208 in high yield and maintained ee by the use of 30 equiv of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol as the additive (Scheme 2.56) [81b]. 

SCHEME 2.56 Chiral thioureas-catalyzed Michael-Henry reaction for the construction of pyrrolidines. 

Recently, other research groups have developed the addition of 1,3 dicarbonyl or related compounds to enones. For example, Lattanzi reported the addition of malononitriles to enones catalyzed by cinchona alkaloids with good yields and enantioselectivities [84], Jaszay reported the addition of diethylcyanomethyl phos-phonate to enones using thiourea catalysts with moderate yields and enantioselectivities [85], and Wang reported the Michael addition of ketones to chalcones using pyrrolidine-derived catalysts with good yields and excellent enantioselectivities [86]. 

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