Nitro compounds, enolate anions, addition

In chapter 21 we mentioned nitro compounds as promoters of conjugate addition they also stabilise anions strongly but do not usually act as electrophiles so that self-condensation is not found with nitro compounds. The nitro group is more than twice as good as a carbonyl group at stabilising an enolate anion. Nitromethane (p/ a 10) 1 has a lower pKa than malonates 4 (pKa 13). In fact it dissolves in aqueous NaOH as the enolate anion 3 formed in a way 2 that looks like enolate anion formation. 

In many of these cases, both the enolate anion and substrate can exist as (Z) or (E) isomers. With enolates derived from ketones or carboxylic esters. The (E) enolates gave the syn pair of enantiomers (p. 166), while (Z) enolates gave the anti pair. Nitro compounds add to conjugated ketones in the presence of a dipeptide and a piperazine. ° Malonate derivatives also add to conjugated ketones, and keto esters add to conjugated esters.Addition of chiral additives to the reaction, such as metal-salen complexes,proline derivatives, or (—)-sparteine, ... 

NaBHj/NiC or Raney nickel, the menthyloxy group is removed with NaBH /KOH to give 3,4-disubstituted butyrolactones with a high diastereo- and enantioselectivity (Figure 7.69). Corey and Houpis [1458] have described asymmetric Michael reactions of ketone enolates with a 2-thiophenyl crotonate of 8-phenmenthol. Chirality has also been introduced on the amino group of 2-ami-nomethyiacrylates to perform the asymmetric addition of the anion of the tert-Bu ester of cyclopentanecarboxylate [1459], More important developments have been reported with chiral a,p-unsaturated sulfoxides and nitro compounds as Michael acceptors (see below). 

The term Michael addition has been used to describe 1,4- (conjugate) additions of a variety of nucleophiles including organometallics, heteroatom nucleophiles such as sulfides and amines, enolates, and allylic organometals to so-called Michael acceptors such as a,p-unsaturated aldehydes, ketones, esters, nitriles, sulfoxides, and nitro compounds. Here, the term is restricted to the classical Michael reaction, which employs resonance-stabilized anions such as enolates and azaenolates, but a few examples of enamines are also included because of the close mechanistic similarities. 

A new synthesis of aldehydes with 2-methyl-2-thiazoline has the advantage of releasing the aldehydes from the thiazolidine intermediate under neutral conditions . Acetylene derivatives can be obtained from aldehydes via dibromomethylene compounds Novel reactions of alkynes with cationoid electrophiles have been published. -Diketones and 2-ketoalkoximes can be obtained by this reaction from acid chlorides and aliphatic nitro compounds respectively Addition of aldehydes to activated carbon-carbon double bonds occurs smoothly in the presence of cyanide ions as catalysts . Poly- -carbonyl compounds have been prepared by condensation of two anions, whereby the enolate salt of a y8-keto ester condenses as an electrophilic anion with strong nucleophiles such as the dianion of benzoylacetone. ... 

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