Mixed aggregates ester enolates

Mixed aggregates of chiral lithium amide and lithium ester enolate have been employed in the enantioselective conjugate addition on a,/S-unsaturated esters.27 Michael adducts have been obtained in ees up to 76% combining a lithium enolate and a chiral 3-aminopyrrolidine lithium amide. The sense of the induction has been found to be determined by both the relative configuration of the stereogenic centres borne by the amide and the solvent. 

The structure of mixed aggregates involving ester enolates is also of major interest to macromolecular chemists, since ionic additives are often introduced in the polymerization medium. The more stable arrangement between lithium 2-methoxyethoxide and MIB lithium enolate was thus calculated (at the DFT level) to be a 5 1 hexagonal complex with similar O—Li lateral coordinations212. The same team has recently extended this study to complexes formed between the same enolate in THF and a-ligands such as TMEDA, DME, 12-crown-4 and cryptand-2,1,1213. Only in the case of the latter ligand could a separate ion pair [(MIB-Li-MIB),2 THF]-, Li(2,l,l)+ be found as stable, still at the DFT level, as the THF solvated dimer [(MIB-Li)2,4 THF]. 

The complexity of the solvation of lithium bases has also been demonstrated by studies of LiNPr 2 mediated ester enolization of Bu -cyclohexanecarboxylate in four different solvents (THF, Bu OMe, HMPA/THF and DMPU/THF (DMPU = l,3-dimethyl-3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-2(lH)-pyrimidone)). Even when experiments are designed to exclude mixed aggregate effects, four different mechanisms with nearly identical rates are observed, involving ... 

Lithium enolates of ketones and esters can be generated by the action of chiral lithium amides. If the base is used in stoichiometric amounts, the lithium cation of the endate bears the chiral amine as a ligand. If the amide is used in excess, chiral mixed aggregates can be formed [77, SS7, 558, 559], These lithium... 

For the effect of mixed aggregates derived from lithium ester enolates and chiral lithium... 

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