Nitroolefins amino

The enantioselective Michael reaction of malonates to nitroolefins catalysed by bifunctional amino-thioureas has recently been reported by Take-moto [161]. Excellent ee (75-93%) were obtained with diethylmalonate after solvent optimisation, toluene being the best solvent both for the activity and for the selectivity. Substituted malonates were then reacted with various nitroolefins under the same conditions. Excellent enantioselectivities were observed (Scheme 45). 

This bifunctionnal amino-thiourea organocatalyst led to high selectivity because it was activating both the nitrone and the malonate, in its enol form, due to the acidic hydrogen atoms of the thiourea. Thus, the amino-thiourea catalyst promoted the Michael reaction of malonates to various nitroolefins... 

Bifunctional thiourea-catalysed enantioselective Michael reaction has been achieved. The thiourea moiety and an amino group of the catalyst activated a nitroolefin and a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound, respectively afford the Michael adduct with high enantioselectivity.177,178 Thioureas work as one of the most effective and general enantioselective nitro-Mannich reaction and carbonyl cyanation catalyst.179,180... 

For Michael addition to nitroolefins, the lithio or titanium derivatives have been found to be useful [87AG(E)480], Hydrolysis gives a-amino--y-nitrocarboxylate esters (Scheme 69). 

Thus, the 1,4-addition of the lactams 72 to nitroolefins provided access to the Michael adducts 73 with good stereoselectivities, which could be improved by recrystallization or chromatography. After reduction and protection of the amino group the y-butyrolactams 74 were converted to the corresponding a-substituted lactams 75 in good overall yields (37-65%) and excellent diastereo- and enantio-... 

Nitroolefins are good Michael acceptors and have been used as such in the carbohydrate series. One advantage of this approach would be the subsequent transformation into branched-chain amino sugars after reduction of the nitro group. Baer has reported the... 

In 2007, Connon and McCooey developed highly efficient, asymmetric syn-selective addition reactions of enolizable carbonyl compounds to nitroolefins by adopting the enamine catalysis approach [48]. The 9-epi-amino cinchona alkaloid derivative (160,9 -epi-DHQDA) as an aminocatalyst promoted the addition ofa variety... 

A more simple thiourea catalyst with amino functionality catalyses the asymmetric Michael addition of 1,3-dicarbonyl compound to nitroolefin [29,30]. In the reaction of malonate to nitrostyrene (Table 9.11) the adduct is satisfactorily obtained when A-[3,5-bis(trifluor-omethyl)phenyl]-A -(2-dimethylaminocyclohexyl)thiourea is used as a catalyst (ran 1), whereas the reaction proceeds slowly when the 2-amino group is lacking (ran2). In addition, chiral amine without a thiourea moiety gives a poor yield and enantioselectivity of the product (run 3). These facts clearly show that both thiourea and amino functionalities are necessary for rate acceleration and asymmetric induction, suggesting that the catalyst simultaneously activates substrate and nucleophile as a bifunctional catalyst. 

A similar scenario has been demonstrated by Najera et al. to support the bifunc-tional Br0nsted acid-base organocatalytic character and the origin of the observed enantioselectivity achieved by protonated 2-aminobenzimidazol-derived catalyst 163 in the conjugate addition of malonates and 1,3-diketones to nitroolefins [251]. DFT calculations have shown that the lowest energy transition state corresponds to the addition of the malonate or diketone to the electrophile with activation of the nucleophile by formation of two hydrogen bonds with the amino-benzimidazole moiety and activation of the nitroolefin better achieved by the protonated tertiary amine (C, Fig. 2.19). 

Regarding the hydroxylation of nitroolefins, the reaction is performed under hydrogen-bonding catalysis using quinine-derived thiourea 170 (5 mol%), ethyl glyoxylate oxime as nucleophile in toluene at -24°C [374], This process, which constitutes a valid alternative to the Henry reaction, yields the corresponding hydroxylated nitrocompounds in good yields (63-83%) and enantioselectivities (48-93% ee) from ahphatic electrophiles (styrene derivatives are prone to retio-Michael addition) and has been successfully employed in the synthesis of optically active P-amino alcohols (Scheme 2.132) [375]. 

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