Nitrogen lithium amides

Imines can be deprotonated at the a-carbon by strong bases to give the nitrogen analogs of enolates. Originally, Grignard reagents were used for deprotonation but lithium amides are now usually employed. These anions, referred to as imine anions... 

Irradiation of matrix-isolated imidazole-2-carboxylic acid gave the 2,3-dihydro-imidazol-2-ylidene-C02 complex (31) characterized by IR spectroscopy and calculated to lie 15.9 kcal mol above the starting material. A series of non-aromatic nucleophilic carbenes (32) were prepared by desulfurization of the corresponding thiones by molten potassium in boiling THF. The most hindered of the series (32 R = Bu) is stable indefinitely under exclusion of air and water and can be distilled without decomposition. The less hindered carbenes slowly dimerize to the corresponding alkenes. Stable aminoxy- and aminothiocarbenes (33 X = O, S) were prepared by deprotonation of iminium salts with lithium amide bases. The carbene carbon resonance appears at 260-297 ppm in the NMR spectrum and an X-ray structure determination of an aminooxycarbene indicated that electron donation from the nitrogen is more important than that from oxygen. These carbenes do not dimerize. 

Both diastereoisomers of -homothreonine derivatives (109) and their 2-deuteriated analogues have been synthesized by 1,4-addition of homochiral lithium amides (107) as nitrogen nucleophiles to y-alkoxyenoates (108) (Scheme 13). The product distribution of the 1,4-addition depends strongly on the nature of the substrate (110) vs... 

A recent study has indicated that the skeletal rearrangement step in the B12-catalysed isomerization of methylmalonyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA occurs not by a radical pathway but by an anionic or organocobalt pathway. A computational study of the isomerization of allyl alcohol into homoallyl alcohol by lithium amide has pointed to a process proceeding via a transition state in which the proton is half transferred between carbon and nitrogen in a hetero-dimer. l,l-Dilithio-2,2-diphenylethene... 

A regioselective deprotonation with amide base by preferential abstraction of the a-methylene hydrogen syn to the phenylaziridyl moiety in 116 and subsequent decomposition of the resulting monoanion furnishes, with extrusion of styrene and nitrogen, the alkyllithium 118. After abstraction of the amine proton, the c -alkene 117 is formed with regeneration of the lithium amide base for further use in the catalytic cycle. 

The use of lithium amides to metalate the a-position of the N-substituent of imines generates 2-azaallyl anions, typically stabilized by two or three aryl groups (Scheme 11.2) (48-62), a process pioneered by Kauffmann in 1970 (49). Although these reactive anionic species may be regarded as N-lithiated azomethine ylides if the lithium metal is covalently bonded to the imine nitrogen, they have consistently been discussed as 2-azaallyl anions. Their cyclization reactions are characterized by their enhanced reactivity toward relatively unactivated alkenes such as ethene, styrenes, stilbenes, acenaphtylene, 1,3-butadienes, diphenylacetylene, and related derivatives. Accordingly, these cycloaddition reactions are called anionic [3+2] cycloadditions. Reactions with the electron-poor alkenes are rare (54,57). Such reactivity makes a striking contrast with that of N-metalated azomethine ylides, which will be discussed below (Section 11.1.4). 

Lithium diethylamide has been shown to be an effective initiator for the homopolymerization of dienes and styrene llr2). It is also known that such a polymerization process is markedly affected by the presence of polar compounds, such as ethers and amines (2,3). However, there has been no report of the use of a lithium amide containing a built-in polar modifier as a diene polymerization initiator. This paper describes the preparation and use of such an initiator, lithium morpholinide. A comparison between polymerization with this initiator and lithium diethyl amide, with and without polar modifiers, is included. Furthermore, we have examined the effects of lithium-nitrogen initiators on the copolymerization of butadiene and styrene. 

Lithium amides, chiral. Koga et al.x have prepared a series of lithium amides of the type in which one carbon atom adjacent to the nitrogen is chiral and bears a bulky group (phenyl, naphthalene, r-butyl). Highest enantioselective deprotonation... 

V,7V-Diethylcarbamoyl trimethylsilane has been prepared by the reaction of bis(trimethylsilyl) sulphide with bis(A,A-diethylcarbamoyl) mercury (Scheme 30)16. Silylation of the carbamoyl cuprate reagent derived from a lithium amide, by addition of copper(I) cyanide and subsequent exposure to carbon monoxide (1 atm), is also effective75,110. Poor to moderate yields of carbamoyl silanes may be isolated by treatment of lithium silylamides with carbon monoxide and methyl iodide, in a reaction sequence involving a nitrogen to carbon silyl shift in an intramolecular silylation (Scheme 31)111. 

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