Nitroalkenes catalysts

Formic acid is a good reducing agent in the presence of Pd on carbon as a catalyst. Aromatic nitro compounds are reduced to aniline with formic acid[100]. Selective reduction of one nitro group in 2,4-dinitrotoluene (112) with triethylammonium formate is possible[101]. o-Nitroacetophenone (113) is first reduced to o-aminoacetophenone, then to o-ethylaniline when an excess of formate is used[102]. Ammonium and potassium formate are also used for the reduction of aliphatic and aromatic nitro compounds. Pd on carbon is a good catalyst[103,104]. NaBH4 is also used for the Pd-catalyzed reduction of nitro compounds 105]. However, the ,/)-unsaturated nitroalkene 114 is partially reduced to the oxime 115 with ammonium formate[106]... 

Allylic nitro compounds are obtained by the reacdon of cyclic ketones with nitromethane in the presence of 1,2-diaminoethane fl mol% as catalyst. Because exa-cyclic nitroalkenes are rearranged to the fi)iifo-cyclic fi,Y-nitroalkenes, allylic nitro compounds are selecdvely produced fEq. 3.21. ... 

Various types of alkylpytroles are prepared under mild conditions by reacting nitroalkenes with Imines in the presence of SmfOi-Pri- fEq. 10.11. Thus, the Grob-Camenish type reacdon is accelerated by samarium catalysts. 

Rovis and co-workers have also extended the intermolecular Stetter reaction to inclnde nitroaUcenes as the electrophilic component. Fluorinated triazolinm precatalyst 155 was effective in catalysing the reaction of a variety of heteroaromatic aldehydes 153 with nitroalkenes 154 to generate P-nitroketones in excellent yields and enantioselectivities. The authors propose that stereoelectronically induced conformational effects on the catalyst skeleton are key to the high selectivities observed with flnorinated catalyst 155 (Scheme 12.33) [69],... 

A very attractive method for the preparation of nitroalkenes, which is based on the reaction with NO, has been reported. Treatment of alkenes at ambient pressure of nitrogen monoxide (NO) at room temperature gives the corresponding nitroalkenes in fairly good yields along with P-nitroalcohols in a ratio of about 8 to 2. The nitroalcohol by-products are converted into the desired nitroalkenes by dehydration with acidic alumina in high total yield. This simple and convenient nitration procedure is applied successfully to the preparation of nitroalkenes derived from various terminal alkenes or styrenes (Eq. 2.27).53 This process is modified by the use of HY-zeolites instead of alumina. The lack of corrosiveness and the ability to regenerate and reuse the catalyst make this an attractive system (Eq. 2.28).54... 

Asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions have been performed by using either chiral dienophiles or chiral dienes in the presence or the absence of catalysts.47 The progress in this field is remarkable catalytic asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions are generally carried out either by the use of chiral dienophiles or by the use of chiral dienes. Here, the reactions of chiral nitroalkenes with dienes or the reactions of nitroalkenes with chiral dienes are discussed. Many different chiral auxiliaries are now available, and some of them have been used in asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions of nitroalkenes. 

The third cycloaddition substrate explored the feasibility of a vinyl nitro functionality as an activated dipolarophile (98, Scheme 1.9c). Preparation of nitroalkene oxidopyridinium betaine 98 began with silylenol ether 92, which was treated with methoxydioxolane in the presence of Lewis acid catalyst, TrC104, to afford keto dioxolane 93 in 58 % yield [47]. Ketone 93 then underwent a-nitration by treatment with /-BuONCL and KOt-Bu to provide nitro ketone 84 (91 %), which was then converted to the nitroalkene functionality via reduction under Luche conditions to... 

Reactions with alkenes and nonconjugated dienes have been described in many publications (101, 103, 106-111). Various alkenes, such as cycloalkenes as well as acyclic alkenes, up to tetrasubstituted derivatives, can react with nitroalkenes (42) (110). Only one double bond is involved in the reactions of heterodienes (42) with nonconjugated dienes (111), whereas the second double bond can be used in subsequent transformations of target nitronates (35). The reactions of heterodienes (42) with inactivated alkenes require the presence of LA as catalyst. 

Hoveyda and co-workers presented the asymmetric addition of alkylzincs to small-, medium-, and large-ring nitroolefins with chiral peptide-based phosphines 57 as catalyst.87 The enantioselectivities were typically >90%. Ligand 57 also worked well in the asymmetric addition of dialkylzinc to acyclic disubstituted nitroalkenes (up to 95% ee Scheme 26).88... 

Nitroalkenes are good candidates for the rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric 1,4-addition of organoboronic acids. Hayashi et al. reported that the reaction of 1-nitrocyclohexene with phenylboronic acid in the presence of rhodium/ -BINAP catalyst gave 99% ee of 2-phenyl-1-nitrocyclohexane (Scheme 38).117... 

Besides rhodium catalysts, palladium complex also can catalyze the addition of aryltrialkoxysilanes to a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (ketones, aldehydes) and nitroalkenes (Scheme 60).146 The addition of equimolar amounts of SbCl3 and tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF) was necessary for this reaction to proceed smoothly. The arylpalladium complex, generated by the transmetallation from a putative hypercoordinate silicon compound, was considered to be the catalytically active species. 

In spite of the success of asymmetric iridium catalysts for the direct hydrogenation of alkenes, there has been very limited research into the use of alternative hydrogen donors. Carreira and coworkers have reported an enantioselective reduction of nitroalkenes in water using formic acid and the iridium aqua complex 69 [66]. For example, the reduction of nitroalkene 70 led to the formation of the product 71 in good yield and enantioselectivity (Scheme 17). The use of other aryl substrates afforded similar levels of enantioselectivity. 

The Ir(lll) complex also funchoned as a catalyst in a tandem Nazarov cyclization-Michael addition. The reaction of monocyclic a-alkylidene-P-keto-y.b-unsaturated ester with nitroalkene gave bicyclic cyclopentenones which possessed an alkyl side chain, with high yield and diastereoselectivity (Scheme 11.36) [47]. 

When nitroalkenes were used as Michael acceptors, high yields and enantioselectivities of the desired Michael addition products were also obtained (Scheme 5.22). In these reactions, a well-defined chiral Ru amido complex (Figure 5.9) was an efficient catalyst. The mild reaction conditions and high reactivities and stereoselectivities allowed a large-scale reaction in the presence 1 mol% Ru catalyst. By using a chiral Pd(II) catalyst, an asymmetric allylic arylation was reported by Mikami and coworkers to give the cross-couphng product via the activation of both allylic C H and aryl C H bonds in moderate enantioselectivity (Scheme 5.23). ... 

The first organocatalyzed conjugate addition of a-substituted p-ketoester to a,P-unsaturated ketones was presented by Deng et al. [42] (Scheme 3). Although traditional Cinchona alkaloids were efficient catalysts for conjugate addition of carbon nucleophiles to nitroalkenes and sulfones, replacement of the C(9)-OH with an ester group (Q-7b) showed great improvement in stereoselectivity. The reaction is applicable to a variety of cyclic and acyclic enones (16,18). 

Nitroalkanols are intermediate compounds that are used extensively in many important syntheses 142). They can be converted by hydrogenation into / -aminoalcohols, which are intermediates for pharmacologically important chemicals such as chloroamphenicol and ephedrine. They are obtained by Henry s reaction by the condensation of nitroalkanes with aldehydes. The classical method for this transformation involves the use of bases such as alkali metal hydroxides, alkoxides, Ba(OH)2, amines, etc. 142-144). However, these catalysts give predominantly dehydrated products—nitroalkenes— which are susceptible to polymerization (Scheme 16). The reaction proceeds by the nucleophilic addition of the carbanion formed by the abstraction of a proton from the nitro compound to the carbon atom of the carbonyl group, finally forming the nitroaldol by abstraction of a proton from the catalyst. 

Thereafter, Terada applied related binaphthyl guanidine base catalyst 24 to the asymmetric 1,4 addition of diphenylphosphite to nitroalkenes (Scheme 5.45) [81]. 

Scheme 6.26 Proposed model of the biomimetic reduction of conjugated nitroalkenes in the presence of thiourea catalyst 9 and 19.

Scheme 6.65 Mechanistic proposals for the biflinctional mode of action of catalyst 12 in the Michael addition of thioacetic acid to nitroalkenes (A) and to chalcones (B).

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