Nitronates preparation

The classical Henry reaction conditions (base catalyzed addition) have some drawbacks sometimes the nitro alcohols are obtained in low yields and diastereoselectivities are not always high. To improve these results, a number of modifications were introduced. One of them is the Seebach s silyl nitronate method,25 that involves a reaction between an aldehyde with a silyl nitronate prepared by metalation of the corresponding nitro alkane with LDA, followed by reaction of the resulting nitronate with tert-butyldimethylsilyl chloride.26... 

Similar facial selectivity has been observed in nitronates derived from chiral vinyl ethers (69), as well as from nitronates prepared with a chiral Lewis acid, which lack any bias from a chiral auxiliary (66). Even in the absence of a substituent at C(4), as in the nitronate 287, there remains a high facial selectivity upon the addition of a dipolarophile (Eq. 2.28) (84). Both RHE and B3LYP calculations for the approach of a dipolarophile to the nitronates 289 and 290 show at least a... 

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