N-Aryl imines

Bolm et al. [108] prepared a C2-symmetric bis (sulfoximine) as ligand for the copper-catalyzed hetero-Diels-Alder reaction. The stereogenic sulfur atom being located near the AT-coordinating atom, these structures were assumed to be promising for asymmetric catalysis. Their Hgand (79 in Scheme 43) was synthesized by palladium-catalyzed N-aryl imination from 1,2-dibromobenzene and (S)-S-methyl-S-phenylsulfoximine with Pd2dba3 in 70% yield. 

The nature of the substituent directly attached to the N-atom influences the properties (basicity, reduction potential, etc.) of the C = N function more than the substituents at the carbon atom. For example, it was found that Ir-dipho-sphine catalysts that are very active for N-aryl imines are deactivated rapidly when applied for aliphatic imines [7], or that titanocene-based catalysts are active only for N-alkyl imines but not for N-aryl imines [8, 20, 21]. Oximes and other C = N-X compounds show even more pronounced differences in reactivity. 

Table 34.2 Selected results for the enantioselective hydrogenation of N-aryl imines 1 and 2 (for structures, see Fig. 34.4) Catalytic system, reaction conditions, enantioselectivity, productivity and activity.

Ru-diphosphine-diamine complexes developed originally by Noyori for the hydrogenation of aryl ketones are also suitable for the hydrogenation of imines. The best results are obtained for N-aryl imines where a Ru-duphos-diamine complex achieved up to 94% ee, albeit with relatively low activity and productivity (entry 3.7) (for data relating to cyclic imines, see Table 34.5). 

Ir-PN catalysts which are quite effective for N-aryl imines also show some promise for N-alkyl derivatives. Of special interest were the high TOF claimed for the Ir-L4 system, but unfortunately the ee is very low (entry 4.5). Several other Ir-PN were described with moderate to good ee-values, but again the TON and TOF were modest, as shown (Table 34.4 entry 4.6 (see also [49]). 

Fig. 34.14 Schematic catalytic cycle postulated for the Ir diphosphine-catalyzed hydrogenation of N-aryl imines. For clarity, the halide ligands are not shown.

F. Spindler, B. Pugin, H.-P. Jalett, H.-P. Buser, U. Pittelkow, H.-U Blaser, A Technically Useful Catalyst for the Homogeneous Enantioselective Hydrogenation of N-Aryl Imines A Case Study, in Catalysis of Organic Reactions (Ed. R. E. Maltz), Dekker, New York, 1996, pp. 153-168. 

IrCl2H(cod)]2 catalyzed the synthesis of substituted quinolines, where the reachon of aniline derivahves, aromatic and alkyl aldehydes efficiently proceeds under an oxygen atmosphere (Scheme 11.34) [46]. The plausible mechanism consists of a Mannich reaction, a Friedel-Craft-type aromahc substituhon, dehydration, and dehydrogenation. This can be recognized as a formal [4+2] cycloaddition of N-aryl imine and enol (Scheme 11.35). 

As mentioned above, iridium complexes are also active in the formation of amines via the hydrosilylation/protodesUylation of imines. In the presence of 2 equiv. of HSiEts, the cationic complex [lr bis(pyrazol-l-yl)methane (CO)2][BPh4] (C4) catalyzes the reduction of various imines, including N-alkyl and N-aryl imines and both aldimines and ketimmes. Excellent conversions directly to the amine products were achieved rapidly at room temperature in a methanol solution (Scheme 14.7) [53]. 

Later in 2007, Gong utilized If and saturated derivative 2 in a direct Mannich reaction between in situ generated N-aryl imines and cyclic ketones as well aromatic ketones (Scheme 5.3) [10], It was found that electron poor anilines as coupling partners gave the highest enantioselectivities. The authors postulate that acid promoted enolization of the ketone forms the reactive enol which adds to the protonated aldimine. 

In the Diels-Alder reaction between Danishefsky s diene and N-aryl imines derived from o-hydroxyaniline catalyzed by Ih, Akiyama observed substantial increases in chemical yield and enantioselectivty by the addition of stoichiometric amounts of acetic acid (Scheme 5.14) [27]. The authors concede that the role of the protic acid is unclear. 

Akiyama applied Im in the inverse-demand aza-Diels-Alder reaction of various acyclic and cyclic vinyl ethers with N-aryl imines derived from o-hydroxyaniline to provide ophcally active tetrahydroquinoline derivatives (Scheme 5.16) [29]. Since aldimines derived from p-methoxyaniline gave no cycloaddition product, a nine-membered cyclic TS (akin to that proposed for the author s Mannich reachon) was invoked to rationalize the high levels of enantio-control. 

VAPOL-derived phosphoric acid 11 was shown to catalyze the amidation of Boc-protected N-aryl imines with sulfonamide, phthaUmide, and maleimide nucleophiles to furnish the corresponding chiral aminals in excellent yields and ee s (Scheme 5.29) [52, 53]. This represents the first general catalytic and asymmetric... 

Uneyama has described some interesting reactions of the N-aryl imines of ethyl trifluoropyruvate. Tandem alkylation/defluorination occurred (Eq. 97) upon exposure to diethylzinc, via attack at nitrogen and SN2 displacement of fluoride anion [279]. Interestingly, an alkylzinc halide reagent attacked regioselec-tively at carbon, perhaps the more expected outcome. 

Highly enantioselective hydrosilylation of N-aryl imines derived from aliphatic ketones was achieved by the use of (S)-ll as a chiral catalyst (Scheme 10)... 

The N-aryl imines 412 as protected anilines can be prepared by Pd-catalysed arylation of benzophenone imine with aryl halides using DPPF and BINAP as ligands, and aniline derivatives are obtained by deprotection [204a],... 

Spindler, F., Pugin, B., Jalett, H.-P., Buser, H.-P., Pittelkow, U. and Blaser, H.-U. (1996) A technically useful catalyst for the homogeneous enantioselective hydrogenation of N-aryl imines A case study. Chem. Ind. (Dekker) Catal. Org. React., 68, 153. 

The reaction sequence depicted in Fig. 3-12 involves an in situ generation of a 2-aza-1,3-butadiene and thus represents a typical domino process [3,4]. It has found an interesting application in the synthesis of aza steroids [258,259]. This elegant approach takes advantage of Grieco s observation that in reactions of N-aryl imines with cyclopentadiene the latter compound is employed exclusively as dienophilic ( ) component [260]. 

An intramolecular aza Diels-Alder reaction of as well electronically neutral N-aryl imines useful for the synthesis of novel tetrahydropyridine derivatives has been introduced by our group [268]. The reactive intermediate 3-43 exhibiting the 2-aza-l,3-butadiene subunit was generated in situ from the aldehyde 3-41 and the amino isoxazole 3-42 and led directly to the diastereomerically pure cycloadduct 3-44 (Fig. 3-14). In contrast to the reactions studied by Barlu-enga, the 2-aza-1,3-butadiene acts as electron-deficient component in this case. 

Intramolecular cycloadditions of N-aryl imines [269] have also found widespread use in the synthesis of tri- and tetracyclic compounds like octahydro-acridine derivatives [270-273]. In these studies tricarbonylchromium comple-... 

For a recent study concerning intermolecular aza-Diels-Alder reactions of N-aryl imines see Narasaka K, Shibata T (1993) Heterocycles 35 1039... 

You will notice that in both of these examples there is an aryl substituent on the nitrogen atom of the imine. This is simply because imines are rather unstable and cannot normally be prepared with a hydrogen atom on the nitrogen. N-Aryl imines are quite stable (Chapter 14, p. 349). 

It has also been shown that the isomerization rates of />ara-substi-tuted C-aryl-N-aryl imines show a more pronounced dependence on the para substituent in the N-aryl ring than on the para C-aryl substituent this again favours nitrogen inversion as the operative process 121,134)... 

Hermitage S, Howard JAK, Jay D, Pritchard RG, Probert MR, Whiting A (2004) Mechanistic studies on the formal aza-Diels-Alder reactions of N-aryl imines evidence for the non-concertedness under Lewis-acid catalysed conditions. Org Biomol Chem 2 2451-2460 Hoffmann S, Nicoletti M, List B (2006) Catalytic asymmetric reductive ami-nation of aldehydes via dynamic kinetic resolution. J Am Chem Soc 128 13074-13075... 

A subset of imino-Diels-Alder cycloadditions involving reactions between N-aryl imines and electron-rich dienophiles is the Povarov reaction [75]. 

The addition of arylboronic acids to imines in an aqueous solvent gave a mixture of amine (Eq. 6) and alcohol (Eq. 4) because the imines were partially hydrolyzed to the aldehyde during the reaction. The use of Ph4BNa in place of phenylboronic acid allowed the catalytic addition to various N-sulfonyl imines in the absence of water (Eq. 6). The representative results are summarized in Table 5. The cationic rhodium complexes such as [Rh(cod)(MeCN)2]BF4 was found to be the most efficient catalyst for both aromatic and aliphatic N-sulfonyl imines whereas no reactions were observed for N-alkyl and N-aryl imine derivatives. 

Silylketene acetals react with imines under acidic conditions (Scheme 22). With N-alkylimines in the presence of a stoichiometric amount of TiCU, -lactams are formed in good yields. N-Aryl- " and N-trimethyl-silylimines also react under acidic conditions but yield only open-chain products. On the other hand, bis(trimethylsilyl)ketene acetals yield 3-lactams with both N-alkyl- and N-aryl-imines (Scheme 22). °... 

If the anodic oxidation of N-alkylanilines is performed in the presence of nucleophiles like enol ethers, nucleophilic substitution in the of-position to nitrogen by the enol ether can be observed in low yields. The electrophilic intermediate is the N-aryl iminium ion or the N-aryl imine after loss of two electrons and one or two protons. These intermediates add to the enol ether to give acetals (up to 26%) as addition products, or the first addition step is followed by an electrophilic aromatic substitution to form tetrahydroqui-nolines (13-39%) [47]. It should be noted at this point that better results for the nucleophilic a-substitution to nitrogen can be obtained with N,N-dialkylanilines (see next subsection). Optimum results, however, are obtained with N-acylated compounds via the intermediate N-acyl iminium ions (see Ref. 8). 

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