Nucleophiles addition to carbonyls

Although the present chapter includes the usual collection of topics designed to acquaint us with a particular class of compounds its central theme is a fundamental reaction type nucleophilic addition to carbonyl groups The principles of nucleophilic addition to aide hydes and ketones developed here will be seen to have broad applicability m later chap ters when transformations of various derivatives of carboxylic acids are discussed... 

Cyanohydrin formation is reversible and the position of equilibrium depends on the steric and electronic factors governing nucleophilic addition to carbonyl groups described m the preceding section Aldehydes and unhindered ketones give good yields of cyanohydrins... 

Nucleophilic addition to carbonyl groups sometimes leads to a mixture of stereoisomeric products The direction of attack is often controlled by stenc factors with the nude ophile approaching the carbonyl group at its less hindered face Sodium borohydride reduction of 7 7 dimethylbicyclo[2 2 IJheptan 2 one illustrates this point... 

Generally, in the nucleophilic addition to carbonyl groups, either magnesium compounds or alkali metal compounds (such as the Li, Na and K derivatives) are used. In some cases even potassium carbonate or piperidine were used as the base for condensation with sulfones. Good results were obtained when concentrated aqueous NaOH was used under phase-transfer conditions288,297,333. 

Alkyl substituents accelerate electrophilic addition reactions of alkenes and retard nucleophilic additions to carbonyl compounds. The bonding orbital of the alkyl groups interacts with the n bonding orbital, i.e., the HOMO of alkenes and raises the energy (Scheme 22). The reactivity increases toward electron acceptors. The orbital interacts with jt (LUMO) of carbonyl compounds and raises the energy (Scheme 23). The reactivity decreases toward electron donors. 

Sander and Jencks introduced a linear free energy relationship for nucleophilic addition to carbonyls. The equilibrium nucleophilicity of a species HNu is given by... 

If the substituents are nonpolar, such as an alkyl or aryl group, the control is exerted mainly by steric effects. In particular, for a-substituted aldehydes, the Felkin TS model can be taken as the starting point for analysis, in combination with the cyclic TS. (See Section 2.4.1.3, Part A to review the Felkin model.) The analysis and prediction of the direction of the preferred reaction depends on the same principles as for simple diastereoselectivity and are done by consideration of the attractive and repulsive interactions in the presumed TS. In the Felkin model for nucleophilic addition to carbonyl centers the larger a-substituent is aligned anti to the approaching enolate and yields the 3,4-syn product. If reaction occurs by an alternative approach, the stereochemistry is reversed, and this is called an anti-Felkin approach. 

Allylic derivatives are particularly important in the case of boranes, silanes, and stannanes. Allylic boranes effect nucleophilic addition to carbonyl groups via a cyclic TS that involves the Lewis acid character of the borane. 1,3-Allylic transposition occurs through the cyclic TS. 

Deprotonated trialkylstannanes are potent nucleophiles. Addition to carbonyl groups or iminium intermediates provides routes to a-alkoxy- and a-amino-alkylstannanes. 

These reactions comprise nucleophilic SN2 substitutions, -eliminations, and nucleophilic additions to carbonyl compounds or activated double bonds, etc. They involve the reactivity of anionic species Nu associated with counterions M+ to form ion-pairs with several possible structures [52] (Scheme 3.4). 

Nucleophilic Additions to Carbonyl Compounds Saponification of hindered aromatic esters... 

Nucleophilic additions to carbonyl groups lead to alcohols which on dehydration, furnish alkenes70,71. This two-step protocol has been extremely useful for diene and polyene synthesis with wide variation in the carbonyl substrate and the nucleophilic addendum. Diene synthesis using aldol-type condensation as well as phenyl sulphonyl carbanion (the Julia reaction) are also discussed in this section. 

Baldwin s rules. It is noteworthy that the EM5/EM6 ratio is reduced to a factor as small as about 2, which is less than the intrinsic entropic advantage of 5- over 6-membered ring formation. Kirby (1980) in his review lists a large number of EM data for intramolecular nucleophilic additions to carbonyl. Probably because these data derive from laboratories of chemists mainly interested in intramolecular nucleophilic catalysis and its relevance to understanding enzymic catalysis, the great majority of them refer to reactions occurring via 5- and 6-membered transition states. The only example where a 4-membered transition state is involved is (70), whose kinetics were studied... 

As mentioned already, new methylidene-group IV metal complexes have been prepared and were subsequently used in nucleophilic additions to carbonyl electrophiles (Scheme 43).53 In contrast to titanium and zirconium, the reaction of methylidene hafnium dichloride 97 benzophenone stopped at the first stage (i.e., addition). The tertiary alcohol was obtained in 73% yield, while the corresponding alkene was formed only as minor product. 

Dunitz (180) has collected X-ray crystallographic data for carbonyl compounds that possess nucleophilic atoms in proximity to C=0, and has postulated that such molecules can be used as models for the incipient transition state (reaction coordinate) for the nucleophilic addition to carbonyl compounds. Atrop-isomeric compounds have the potential, by providing a variety of such data, for understanding the incipient transition states. For example, the interaction found in the 1,4-dimethoxy-9-(2-acyloxyethyl)triptycenes (130) can be viewed as a model for SN2 type reactions where the acyloxy group is the leaving group and the methoxy is the nucleophile. In an extreme case of this sort, cyclization actually takes place. Such an example has been reported (181). 

Nucleophilic addition to carbonyl groups aldehydes and ketones... 

NUCLEOPHILIC ADDITION TO CARBONYL GROUPS ALDEHYDES AND KETONES... 

The most important application of organolithium reagents is their nucleophilic addition to carbonyl compounds. One of the simplest cases would be the reaction with the molecule CO itself, whose products are stable at room temperature. Recently, it was shown that a variety of RLi species are able to react with CO or f-BuNC in a newly developed liquid xenon (LXe) cell . LXe was used as reaction medium because it suppresses electron-transfer reactions, which are known to complicate the reaction . In this way the carbonyllithium and acyllithium compounds, as well as the corresponding isolobal isonitrile products, could be characterised by IR spectroscopy for the first time. 

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