Nucleophile with soft nucleophiles

Application of 7r-allylpalladium chemistry to organic synthesis has made remarkable progress[l]. As deseribed in Chapter 3, Seetion 3, Tt-allylpalladium complexes react with soft carbon nucleophiles such as maionates, /3-keto esters, and enamines in DMSO to form earbon-carbon bonds[2, 3], The characteristie feature of this reaction is that whereas organometallic reagents are eonsidered to be nucleophilic and react with electrophiles, typieally earbonyl eompounds, Tt-allylpalladium complexes are electrophilie and reaet with nucleophiles such as active methylene compounds, and Pd(0) is formed after the reaction. 

In addition, a catalytic version of Tt-allylpalladium chemistry has been devel-oped[6,7]. Formation of the Tr-allylpalladium complexes by the oxidative addition of various allylic compounds to Pd(0) and subsequent reaction of the complex with soft carbon nucleophiles are the basis of catalytic allylation. After the reaction, Pd(0) is reformed, and undergoes oxidative addition to the allylic compounds again, making the reaction catalytic.-In addition to the soft carbon nucleophiles, hard carbon nucleophiles of organometallic compounds of main group metals are allylated with 7r-allylpalladium complexes. The reaction proceeds via transmetallation. These catalytic reactions are treated in this chapter. 

Dienes and allylarcncs can be prepared by the Pd-catalyzcd coupling of allylic compounds with hard carbon nucleophiles derived from alkenyl and aryl compounds of main group metals. Allylic compounds with various leaving groups can be used. Some of them are unreactive with soft nucleophiles, but... 

The reaction of 2,3-butadienyl acetate (843) with soft carbon nucleophiles such as dimethyl malonate gives dimethyl 2,3-butadienylmalonate (844)[520]. On the other hand, the reaction of the 2,3-butadienyl phosphate 845 with hard carbon nucleophiles such as Mg and Zn reagents affords the 2-allcyl-1,3-butadiene 846[520,521]. The 3-methoxy-1,3-butadiene 848 is obtained by the reaction of the 2-methoxy-2,3-butadienyl carbonate 847 with organozinc reagent. 

It was mentioned earlier that 6-halopenlclllanlc acids are resistant to nucleophilic displacement. Displacement at the 6-positlon with soft nucleophiles (e.g. halide, RS ) but not hard nucleophiles e.g. MeO , amines) can be carried out, however, on 6-trifloxy- and 6-nonafloxy-penlclllanate esters (80TL2991). Some examples are shown in Scheme 38. 

Additions of carbon nucleophiles to vinylepoxides are well documented and can be accomplished by several different techniques. Palladium-catalyzed allylic alkylation of these substrates with soft carbon nucleophiles (pKa 10-20) proceeds under neutral conditions and with excellent regioselectivities [103, 104]. The sul-fone 51, for example, was cyclized through the use of catalytic amounts of Pd(PPh3)4 and bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) under high-dilution conditions to give macrocycle 52, an intermediate in a total synthesis of the antitumor agent roseophilin, in excellent yield (Scheme 9.26) [115, 116]. 

Although thiirene dioxides do not react with typical tertiary amines like triethylamine, they do react with the amidine 1,5-diazobicyclo-[4.3.0]-non-5-ene (DBN) to give a 1 1 adduct betaine119158 141, analogously to the reaction of thiirene dioxides with soft nucleophiles (equation 57). 

Scheme 1.1 Mechanism for Pd-catalysed allylic substitution with soft nucleophiles.

We can also describe the differences between these reaction types in terms of Pearson s hard-soft description (Pearson, 1966 Pearson and Songstad, 1967). Cationic micellar head groups interact best with soft bases, e.g. relatively large anions of low charge density such as bromide or arenesulfo-nate, or anionic transition states such as those for nucleophilic aromatic substitution. They interact less readily with hard bases, e.g. high charge density anions such as OH ", or anionic transition states for deacylation. 

In general, Pd-catalyzed allylic substitutions with soft nucleophiles involve nudeophilic attack directly on the allyl unit, on the opposite face to that occupied by the metal. This is contrasted with the situation for hard nucleophiles where the initial attack occurs at the metal, with subsequent migration of the nudeo-phile to the allyl moiety - the addition to the allyl unit therefore occurring from the same face as the metal. Obviously, this has profound implications on the stereochemical outcome. 

Suitably semi-protected pyranoses can react with soft carbon nucleophiles generating mixtures of alditols that can undergo elimination of water and intramolecular addition of the 8-hydroxy group to the intermediate alkenes.94,95... 

With soft anions crown-ethers are more efficient than quaternary salts, the reverse being observed when less polarizable nucleophiles are used. This is explained by the different extent of complexation of crown-ethers which depends not only on the complexed cation, but also on the anionic counterpart. Swelling and hydration measurements of polymer-supported crown-ethers in toluene/aqueous KY showed that the content of water in the imbibed solvent increases with the loading. This leads to a progressive polarity increase within the polymers and to a better crown-ether complexing... 

The Pd-catalyzed allylic subshtution with soft nucleophiles proceeds via two substitutions with inversion-that is, with a net retention of configuration. By using standard tests, the same steric course was found for the Ir-catalyzed alkylation... 

Enamine nucleophiles react readily with soft conjugated electrophiles, such as a, 3-unsaturated carbonyl, nitro, and sulfonyl compounds [20-22], Both aldehydes and ketones can be used as donors (Schemes 27 and 28). These Michael-type reactions are highly useful for the construction of carbon skeletons and often the yields are very high. The problem, however, is the enantioselectivity of the process. Unlike the aldol and Mannich reactions, where even simple proline catalyst can effectively direct the addition to the C = O or C = N bond by its carboxylic acid moiety, in conjugate additions the charge develops further away from the catalyst (Scheme 26) ... 

Nitrogen-15 NMR has been used to study the course of acylation and carbamidization reactions of 3-amino-5-methylthio-1,2,4-thiadiazole (3). Using a N label in the 2-position of (3), its reaction with hard nucleophiles was found to proceed via initial reactioa on the 2-position followed by a Dimroth rearrangement to give the acylated product (4) with the N label in the exocyclic position. The reaction of (3) with soft nucleophiles, such as methyl isocyanate occurs directly on the exocyclic nitrogen to give the urea (5) (Scheme 1) <84CHEC-l(6)463 >. 

Since biological systems are rich in nucleophiles (DNA, proteins, etc.) the possibility that electrophilic metabolites may become irreversibly bound to cellular macromolecules exists. Electrophiles and nucleophiles are classified as hard or soft depending on the electron density, with hard electrophiles generally having more intense charge localization than soft electrophiles in which the charge is more diffuse. Hard electrophiles tend to react preferentially with hard nucleophiles and soft electrophiles with soft nucleophiles. 

Hexacyano-dinickelate (1) ion, 4 141 Hexacyanofeirate ion, 3 24-25 Hexacyanometalate anions, 43 244—245 Hexadecacarbonylhexairidium, reaction with soft nucleophiles, 30 193 Hexadecacarbonylhexarhodium reactions of reduction, 30 176 with soft nucleophiles, 30 193... 

Asymmetric nickel-catalyzed allylic alkylation with soft carbon-centered nucleophiles was reported in 1996 by Mortreux and his co-workers. Use of a catalytic amount of [Ni(cod)2] together with chiral diphosphines 138 promotes the allylic alkylation of a cyclic ester such as 2-cyclohexenyl acetate with dimethyl malonate in the presence of BSA and gives the corresponding alkylated compounds only with a moderate enantioselectivity (40% ee) (Equation (42)). 

Our understanding of the chemistry of N-arylnitrenium ions is significantly more advanced than it was a decade ago. Nevertheless, this field of research is still considerably less developed than that of carbenium ions, carbenes, or nitrenes. For example, although singlet nitrenium ions behave as one might expect that their 4-imino-2,5-cyclohexadienyl resonance contributors would in their reactions with H2O, NJ, or Cl, their reactions with carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur nucleophiles, particularly d-G, are not so easily rationalized. Except for d-G, these reactions with soft nucleophiles have not been examined systematically and the regiochemistry exhibited by these nucleophiles is incompletely understood. 

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