Nucleophilic addition aldol condensation

An aldol reaction is a reaction between two carbonyl compounds in which one carbonyl compound plays the role of a nucleophile while the other carbonyl compound acts as an electrophile. The term aldol reaction covers two types of reactions, aldol additions (see Section 13.3) and aldol condensations. The aldol reactions that lead to /i-hydroxycarbonyl compounds belong to the class of aldol additions. Aldol condensations start from the same substrates but result in a,/l-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (Figure 13.49). 

Indeed formaldehyde is so reactive toward nucleophilic addition that it suppresses the self condensation of the other component by reacting rapidly with any enolate present Aromatic aldehydes cannot form enolates and a large number of mixed aldol con densations have been carried out m which an aromatic aldehyde reacts with an enolate... 

Aldol reactions, Like all carbonyl condensations, occur by nucleophilic addition of the enolate ion of the donor molecule to the carbonyl group of the acceptor molecule. The resultant tetrahedral intermediate is then protonated to give an alcohol product (Figure 23.2). The reverse process occurs in exactty the opposite manner base abstracts the -OH hydrogen from the aldol to yield a /3-keto alkoxide ion, which cleaves to give one molecule of enolate ion and one molecule of neutral carbonyl compound. 

Tire mechanism of the Claisen condensation is similar to that of the aldol condensation and involves the nucleophilic addition of an ester enolate ion to the carbonyl group of a second ester molecule. The only difference between the aldol condensation of an aldeiwde or ketone and the Claisen condensation of an ester involves the fate of the initially formed tetrahedral intermediate. The tetrahedral intermediate in the aldol reaction is protonated to give an alcohol product—exactly the behavior previously seen for aldehydes and ketones (Section 19.4). The tetrahedral intermediate in the Claisen reaction, however, expels an alkoxide leaving group to yield an acyl substitution product—exactly the behavior previously seen for esters (Section 21.6). The mechanism of the Claisen condensation reaction is shown in Figure 23.5. 

The coupling of a secondary alcohol 1 with a primary alcohol 2 is achieved by the temporary removal of from each substrate which generates the ketone 3 and aldehyde 4 intermediates. A crossed aldol condensation occurs under the reaction conditions by the enolate derived from ketone 3 undergoing nucleophilic addition... 

Scheme 7.5 gives some examples of the Reformatsky reaction. Zinc enolates prepared from a-haloketones can be used as nucleophiles in mixed aldol condensations (see Section 2.1.3). Entry 7 is an example. This type of reaction can be conducted in the presence of the Lewis acid diethylaluminum chloride, in which case addition occurs at -20° C.171... 

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. 

This aldol condensation is assumed to proceed via nucleophilic addition of a ruthenium enolate intermediate to the corresponding carbonyl compound, followed by protonation of the resultant alkoxide with the G-H acidic starting nitrile, hence regenerating the catalyst and releasing the aldol adduct, which can easily dehydrate to afford the desired a,/3-unsaturated nitriles 157 in almost quantitative yields. Another example of this reaction type was reported by Lin and co-workers,352 whereas an application to solid-phase synthesis with polymer-supported nitriles has been published only recently.353... 

Recently, Trost et al. reported the vanadium-catalyzed addition reaction of 2,3-allenols [180], Here the oxygen in 401 served as an intramolecular nucleophile to attack the center carbon atom of allene to form a vanadium enolate 402. Aldol condensation of 402 with an aldehyde afforded (2-hydroxy)alkyl vinylic ketones 403. 

Zirconium tetrachloride promotes a tandem nucleophilic addition and aldol-type condensation reaction of methyl propynoate, or /V,/V-dimethylpropynamidc, with aldehydes, or ketones, in the presence of tetra-n-butylammonium iodide (Scheme 6.13) [8] with a high selectivity towards the formation of Z-isomers. A similar reaction occurs between aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes and penta-3,4-dien-2-one to yield 1-substituted 2-acetyl-3-iodobut-3-enols (50-75%) [9]. 

Application of an organocatalytic domino Michael addition/intramolecular aldol condensation to the preparation of a series of important heterocycles has recently received much attention [158] with methods being disclosed for the preparation of benzopyrans [159-161], thiochromenes [162-164] and dihydroquinolidines [165, 166]. The reports all use similar conditions and the independent discovery of each of these reactions shows the robust nature of the central concept. A generalised catalytic cycle which defines the principles of these reports is outlined in Fig. 10. Formation of iminium ion 102 is followed by an intermolecular Michael addition of an oxygen, sulfur or nitrogen based nucleophile (103) to give an intermediate... 

Aldol addition and condensation reactions involving two different carbonyl compounds are called mixed aldol reactions. For these reactions to be useful as a method for synthesis, there must be some basis for controlling which carbonyl component serves as the electrophile and which acts as the enolate precursor. One of the most general mixed aldol condensations involves the use of aromatic aldehydes with alkyl ketones or aldehydes. Aromatic aldehydes are incapable of enolization and cannot function as the nucleophilic component. Furthermore, dehydration is especially favorable because the resulting enone is conjugated with the aromatic ring. 

Imines and iminium ions are nitrogen analogs of carbonyl compounds, and they undergo nucleophilic additions like those involved in aldol condensations. The reactivity order is C=NR < C=0 < [C=NR2] + < [C=OH] +. Because iminium ions are more reactive than imines, condensations involving imines are frequently run under acidic conditions where the imine is protonated. 

The reactions of 2-substituted 6-methyl-4/7-l,3-oxazin-4-ones 98 with isoxazole ketones 99 in the presence of potassium / -rt-butoxide furnished 3-acetyl-5-(3-methylisoxazol-5-yl)-2-pyridones 101 in good to excellent yields (Scheme 14). The formation of 2-pyridones 101 presumably proceeds via nucleophilic addition of the methylene carbon of 99 to the carbon atom at position 2 of the l,3-oxazin-4-ones 98, followed by ring opening to give the acetoacetyl intermediates 100, which are transformed into 101 by intramolecular aldol condensation <2005H(66)299>. 

The addition of the nucleophilic carbanion-enolate, usually of an aldehyde, to the C=0 group of its parent compound is called an aldol condensation. The product is a /3-hydroxycarbonyl compound. In a mixed aldol condensation the carbanion-enolate of an aldehyde or ketone adds to the 0=0 group of a molecule other than its parent. The more general condensation diagramed above is termed an aldol-type condensation. Since the C, not the O, is the more reactive site in the hybrid, the enolate contributing structure is usually omitted when writing equations for these reactions. This is done even though the enolate is the more stable and makes the major contribution. 

In aldol condensation, the enolate anion of one carbonyl compound reacts as a nucleophile, and attacks the electrophilic carbonyl group of another one to form a larger molecule. Thus, the aldol condensation is a nucleophilic addition reaction. 

Classical organic reactions that have been carried out in water include, among others, the Diels-Alder reaction, the Claisen rearrangement, aldol condensations, Michael additions, and nucleophilic substitutions. In the Diels-Alder reaction, for example, water has been found to increase the reaction rate and to enhance the endoselectivity 120). Two reviews summarize the results for organic reactions in water 121). 

Support-bound carbonyl compounds can be converted into alcohols by treatment with suitable carbon nucleophiles. Aldehydes react readily with ketones or other C,H-acidic compounds under acid- or base-catalysis to yield the products of aldol addition (Table 7.2). Some types of C,H-acidic compound, such as 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds, can give the products of aldol condensation directly (Section 5.2.2.2). 

The first step is a condensation of the aldol type (see Section 5.18.2, p. 799) involving the nucleophilic addition of the carbanion derived from the methyl ketone to the carbonyl-carbon of the aromatic aldehyde. Dehydration of the hydroxyketone to form the conjugated unsaturated carbonyl compound occurs spontaneously. 

The first nan of -this reaction is technically called aidof addition but is sometimes referred in as aldol condensation, T e aldol to enal step is actually tlie condensation part of Ihe reaction and almost always accompanies aidol addition. Although complicated this reaction is easy to remember if yo-i keen in mind the acidity T the a-uydrogens am the planar configuration of the carbonyl, v hich makes it susceptible jo nucleophilic attack. You must know this reaction for i-.ii.AT... 

In origin, the Mannich reaction is a three-component reaction between an eno-lizable CH-acidic carbonyl compound, an amine, and an aldehyde producing / -aminocarbonyl compounds. Such direct Mannich reactions can encompass severe selectivity problems since both the aldehyde and the CH-acidic substrate can often act as either nucleophile or electrophile. Aldol addition and condensation reactions can be additional competing processes. Therefore preformed electrophiles (imines, iminium salts, hydrazones) or nucleophiles (enolates, enamines, enol ethers), or both, are often used, which allows the assignment of a specific role to each car-... 

The intramolecular nucleophilic addition of the formyl group to the electron deficient alkene unit in the propenoate (10) affords a benzofuranone when catalysed by a thiazolium salt. However, when NaCN is used as the catalyst, an initial Michael addition to the acrylate function is followed by an intramolecular aldol condensation and the chroman (11) is formed. The corresponding butanoates afford chroman-4-ones under the influence of thiazolium cations, but give benzoxepins in the presence of a basic catalyst (95S1311). 

In a recently reported synthesis of pyridines, lithiated methoxyallenes react with nitriles in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid (Scheme 107) <2004CEJ4283>. The mechanism is postulated to proceed via initial protonation followed by nucleophilic addition of the trifluoroacetate ion with subsequent intramolecular acyl transfer and aldol condensation to give the pyridine. An additional pyridine formation starting from azaenyne allenes forms a-5-didehydro-3-picoline diradicals, which can be trapped by 1,4-cyclohexadiene, chloroform, and methanol to produce various pyridines <20040L2059>. 

In addition to the above hydrolysis reactions, dinuclear approach to providing joint Lewis acid activation and nucleophile activation has been applied to other organic reactions (Figure 6.14) including stereoselective ring-opening of epoxides (18) [65, 66], stereoselective aldol condensation (19) [67, 68], and stereoselective reduction (20) reactions [69]. 

---