Nitrone catalyzed

In 2002, the coupling of alkynes with nitrones catalyzed by Cu(I)/bis(aza-ferrocene) has been reported to produce (3-lactams enantioselectively [156]. The generation of... 

Carbodiitnides (332 Scheme 55) form amidines on treatment with NaBH4 in alcohols, Grignard reagents, sodium phenylacetylide, carbon monoxide in the presence of s-butyl- or t-butyl-lithium and nitrones catalyzed by HBF4. In the reaction of stannylated or silylated ynamines with carbodiimides... 

Miscellaneous. An asymmetric Henry reaction involving combination of an aldehyde with a silyl nitronate, catalyzed by Cu(OTf)2 in the presence of TBAT and a chiral BOX ligand, gives the nitroaldol products in moderate yield and stereoselectivity. TBAT is effective in triggering desilylation of certain functionalized silyloximes, resulting in concomitant cyclization and nitrone formation (eq 9) ... 

Suga, H., Nakajima, T. Itoh, K., Kakehi, A. (2005). Highly ero-selective and enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of nitrones catalyzed by a chhal binaphthylditmine-Nifll) complex. Organic Letters, 7, 1431-1434. 

Scheme 1.19 Enantioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones catalyzed by chiral bis-titanium catalyst (12).

The mechanism is presumed to involve a pathway related to those proposed for other base-catalyzed reactions of isocyanoacetates with Michael acceptors. Thus base-induced formation of enolate 9 is followed by Michael addition to the nitroalkene and cyclization of nitronate 10 to furnish 11 after protonation. Loss of nitrous acid and aromatization affords pyrrole ester 12. 

Gothelf presents in Chapter 6 a comprehensive review of metal-catalyzed 1,3-di-polar cycloaddition reactions, with the focus on the properties of different chiral Lewis-acid complexes. The general properties of a chiral aqua complex are presented in the next chapter by Kanamasa, who focuses on 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones, nitronates, and diazo compounds. The use of this complex as a highly efficient catalyst for carbo-Diels-Alder reactions and conjugate additions is also described. 

Scheeren et al. reported the first enantioselective metal-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with alkenes in 1994 [26]. Their approach involved C,N-diphenylnitrone la and ketene acetals 2, in the presence of the amino acid-derived oxazaborolidinones 3 as the catalyst (Scheme 6.8). This type of boron catalyst has been used successfully for asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions [27, 28]. In this reaction the nitrone is activated, according to the inverse electron-demand, for a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with the electron-rich alkene. The reaction is thus controlled by the LUMO inone-HOMOaikene interaction. They found that coordination of the nitrone to the boron Lewis acid strongly accelerated the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction with ketene acetals. The reactions of la with 2a,b, catalyzed by 20 mol% of oxazaborolidinones such as 3a,b were carried out at -78 °C. In some reactions fair enantioselectivities were induced by the catalysts, thus, 4a was obtained with an optical purity of 74% ee, however, in a low yield. The reaction involving 2b gave the C-3, C-4-cis isomer 4b as the only diastereomer of the product with 62% ee. 

In a more recent work the same research group has applied cyclic and acyclic vinyl ethers in the oxazaborolidinone-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction with nitrones [30]. The reaction between nitrone 5 and 2,3-dihydrofuran 6 with 20 mol% of the phenyl glycine-derived catalyst 3c, gave the product 7 in 56% yield as the sole diastereomer, however, with a low ee of 38% (Scheme 6.9). 

Further improvement of the reaction was achieved by applying ethyl vinyl ether 8a in the reaction instead of 8b (Scheme 6.12). The reactions between a series of nitrones la-d with 8a catalyzed by 10 mol% of 11b all proceeded to give the corresponding products 9 with excellent exo selectivity and with enantioselectivity of 88-97% ee in all cases [23]. 

Several titanium(IV) complexes are efficient and reliable Lewis acid catalysts and they have been applied to numerous reactions, especially in combination with the so-called TADDOL (a, a,a, a -tetraaryl-l,3-dioxolane-4,5-dimethanol) (22) ligands [53-55]. In the first study on normal electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions between nitrones and alkenes, which appeared in 1994, the catalytic reaction of a series of chiral TiCl2-TADDOLates on the reaction of nitrones 1 with al-kenoyloxazolidinones 19 was developed (Scheme 6.18) [56]. These substrates have turned out be the model system of choice for most studies on metal-catalyzed normal electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones as it will appear from this chapter. When 10 mol% of the catalyst 23a was applied in the reaction depicted in Scheme 6.18 the reaction proceeded to give a yield of up to 94% ee after 20 h. The reaction led primarily to exo-21 and in the best case an endo/ exo ratio of 10 90 was obtained. The chiral information of the catalyst was transferred with a fair efficiency to the substrates as up to 60% ee of one of the isomers of exo3 was obtained [56]. 

The TiX2-TADD0Late-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar q cloaddition reactions were extended to include an acrylate derivative [66]. In the absence of a catalyst, the reaction between nitrones 1 and acryloyl oxazolidinone 19b proceeded to give a mixture all eight regio-and stereoisomers (Scheme 6.23). However, application of in this case only 10 mol% of Ti(OTs)2-TADDOLate 23d as catalyst for the reaction of various nitrones 1 with alkene 19b, led to complete regioselectivity and high endo selectivity in the reaction and the endo products 21 were obtained with 48-70% ee (Scheme 6.23) [66]. 

The enantioselective inverse electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones with alkenes described so far were catalyzed by metal complexes that favor a monodentate coordination of the nitrone, such as boron and aluminum complexes. However, the glyoxylate-derived nitrone 36 favors a bidentate coordination to the catalyst. This nitrone is a very interesting substrate, since the products that are obtained from the reaction with alkenes are masked a-amino acids. One of the characteristics of nitrones such as 36, having an ester moiety in the a position, is the swift E/Z equilibrium at room temperature (Scheme 6.28). In the crystalline form nitrone 36 exists as the pure Z isomer, however, in solution nitrone 36 have been shown to exists as a mixture of the E and Z isomers. This equilibrium could however be shifted to the Z isomer in the presence of a Lewis acid [74]. 

The above described approach was extended to include the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with allyl alcohol (Scheme 6.35) [78]. The zinc catalyst which is used in a stoichiometric amount is generated from allyl alcohol 45, Et2Zn, (R,J )-diisopropyltartrate (DIPT) and EtZnCl. Addition of the nitrone 52a leads to primarily tmns-53a which is obtained in a moderate yield, however, with high ee of up to 95%. Application of 52b as the nitrone in the reaction leads to higher yields of 53b (47-68%), high trans selectivities and up to 93% ee. Compared to other metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of... 

In 1997 the application of two different chiral ytterbium catalysts, 55 and 56 for the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction was reported almost simultaneously by two independent research groups [82, 83], In both works it was observed that the achiral Yb(OTf)3 and Sc(OTf)3 salts catalyze the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between nitrones 1 and alkenoyloxazolidinones 19 with endo selectivity. In the first study 20 mol% of the Yb(OTf)2-pyridine-bisoxazoline complex 55 was applied as the catalyst for reactions of a number of derivatives of 1 and 19. The reactions led to endo-selective 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions giving products with enantioselectivities of up to 73% ee (Scheme 6.38) [82]. In the other report Kobayashi et al. described a... 

The reactions of nitrones constitute the absolute majority of metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions. Boron, aluminum, titanium, copper and palladium catalysts have been tested for the inverse electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with electron-rich alkenes. Fair enantioselectivities of up to 79% ee were obtained with oxazaborolidinone catalysts. However, the AlMe-3,3 -Ar-BINOL complexes proved to be superior for reactions of both acyclic and cyclic nitrones and more than >99% ee was obtained in some reactions. The Cu(OTf)2-BOX catalyst was efficient for reactions of the glyoxylate-derived nitrones with vinyl ethers and enantioselectivities of up to 93% ee were obtained. 

Zinc-tartrate complexes were applied for reactions of both nitrones and nitrile oxides with allyl alcohol and for both reaction types selectivities of more than 90% ee were obtained. Whereas the reactions of nitrones required a stoichiometric amount of the catalyst the nitrile oxide reactions could be performed in the presence of 20 mol% of the catalyst. This is the only example on a metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile oxides. It should however be no-... 

The development of metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions is probably going to continue during the next decade. High level of control of the reactions of nitrones has been obtained, and for these reactions one of the next challenges is to explore new substrates that are designed for application in synthesis. The development of metal-catalyzed asymmetric reactions of the other... 

Dipolar cydoadditions are one of the most useful synthetic methods to make stereochemically defined five-membered heterocydes. Although a variety of dia-stereoselective 1,3-dipolar cydoadditions have been well developed, enantioselec-tive versions are still limited [29]. Nitrones are important 1,3-dipoles that have been the target of catalyzed enantioselective reactions [66]. Three different approaches to catalyzed enantioselective reactions have been taken (1) activation of electron-defident alkenes by a chiral Lewis acid [23-26, 32-34, 67], (2) activation of nitrones in the reaction with ketene acetals [30, 31], and (3) coordination of both nitrones and allylic alcohols on a chiral catalyst [20]. Among these approaches, the dipole/HOMO-controlled reactions of electron-deficient alkenes are especially promising because a variety of combinations between chiral Lewis acids and electron-deficient alkenes have been well investigated in the study of catalyzed enantioselective Diels-Alder reactions. Enantioselectivities in catalyzed nitrone cydoadditions sometimes exceed 90% ee, but the efficiency of catalytic loading remains insufficient. 

Kobayashi and co-workers reported similar enantioselectivity switch in the bi-nol-yterrbium(III) triflate complex-catalyzed cycloaddition reactions [69] between N-benzylidenebenzylamine N-oxide and 3-crotonoyl-2-oxazolidinone [70]. The reaction in the presence of MS 4 A showed an exclusively high enantioselectivity of 96% ee, while that in the absence of MS 4 A (-50% ee) or in the presence of pyridine N-oxide (-83% ee) had the opposite enantioselectivity (Scheme 7.24). This chirality switch happens generally for the combination of a wide variety of nitrones and dipolarophiles. 

In the nitrone cycloaddition reactions catalyzed by the l ,J -DBFOX/Ph transition metal complexes also, the diastereo- and enantioselectivities were found to depend upon the presence of MS 4 A [71]. Thus, both the selectivities were much lowered in the iron(II) or nickel(II) complex-catalyzed reactions without MS 4 A,... 

Nitronates derived from primary nitroalkanes can be regarded as a synthetic equivalent of nitrile oxides since the elimination of an alcohol molecule from nitronates adds one higher oxidation level leading to nitrile oxides. This direct / -elimination of nitronates is known to be facilitated in the presence of a Lewis acid or a base catalyst [66, 72, 73]. On the other hand, cycloaddition reactions of nitronates to alkene dipolarophiles produce N-alkoxy-substituted isoxazolidines as cycloadducts. Under acid-catalyzed conditions, these isoxazolidines can be transformed into 2-isoxazolines through a ready / -elimination, and 2-isoxazolines correspond to the cycloadducts of nitrile oxide cycloadditions to alkenes [74]. 

Accordingly, cyclic nitronates can be a useful synthetic equivalent of functionalized nitrile oxides, while reaction examples are quite limited. Thus, 2-isoxazoline N-oxide and 5,6-dihydro-4H-l,2-oxazine N-oxide, as five- and six-membered cyclic nitronates, were generated in-situ by dehydroiodination of 3-iodo-l-nitropropane and 4-iodo-l-nitrobutane with triethylamine and trapped with monosubstituted alkenes to give 5-substituted 3-(2-hydroxyethyl)isoxazolines and 2-phenylperhydro-l,2-oxazino[2,3-fe]isoxazole, respectively (Scheme 7.26) [72b]. Upon treatment with a catalytic amount of trifluoroacetic acid, the perhydro-l,2-oxazino[2,3-fe]isoxazole was quantitatively converted into the corresponding 2-isoxazoline. Since a method for catalyzed enantioselective nitrone cycloadditions was established and cyclic nitronates should behave like cyclic nitrones in reactivity, there would be a good chance to attain catalyzed enantioselective formation of 2-isoxazolines via nitronate cycloadditions. 

The parent five-membered nitronate having no substituent at the 3-position was too unstable to be isolated. However, 3-substituted derivatives were highly stabilized. Especially, the 3-ethyl derivatives having a terminal electron-withdrawing substituent are readily available by the dehydrochlorination of 3-chloro-l-nitropropane in the presence of electron-deficient alkenes. It was our delight that the reaction of 3-al-kyl-substituted five-membered nitronates was also successfully catalyzed by R,R-DBFOX/Ph-Ni(SbFg)2 complex to at room temperature. This reaction was highly endo-selective (cisjtrans= 91 9) and enantioselective for the endo cycloadduct (92% ee). 

Monodentate dipolarophiles such as acrolein, methacrolein, and a-bromoacrolein could be successfully utilized in the l ,J -DBFOX/Ph-transition metal complex-catalyzed asymmetric nitrone cycloadditions [76]. The reactions of N-benzylideneani-line N-oxide with acrolein in the presence of the nickel(II) aqua complex R,R-DBF0X/Ph-Ni(C104)2 3H20 (10mol%) and MS 4 A produced a mixture of two regioisomers (5-formyl/4-formyl regioisomers ca 3 1). However, enantio-... 

Nitrones are a rather polarized 1,3-dipoles so that the transition structure of their cydoaddition reactions to alkenes activated by an electron-withdrawing substituent would involve some asynchronous nature with respect to the newly forming bonds, especially so in the Lewis acid-catalyzed reactions. Therefore, the transition structures for the catalyzed nitrone cydoaddition reactions were estimated on the basis of ab-initio calculations using the 3-21G basis set. A model reaction indudes the interaction between CH2=NH(0) and acrolein in the presence or absence of BH3 as an acid catalyst (Scheme 7.30). Both the catalyzed and uncatalyzed reactions have only one transition state in each case, indicating that the reactions are both concerted. However, the synchronous nature between the newly forming 01-C5 and C3-C4 bonds in the transition structure TS-J of the catalyzed reaction is rather different from that in the uncatalyzed reaction TS-K. For example, the bond lengths and bond orders in the uncatalyzed reaction are 1.93 A and 0.37 for the 01-C5 bond and 2.47 A and 0.19 for the C3-C4 bond, while those in... 

The Lewis acid-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones to a,/ -un-saturated carbonyl compound in the presence of Lewis acids has been investigated by Tanaka et al. [31]. Ab-initio calculations were performed in a model reaction of the simple nitrone 18 reacting with acrolein 1 to give the two cycloadducts 19 and 20 (Scheme 8.7). 

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