Nucleophilic addition carbanions

Ordinarily nucleophilic addition to the carbon-carbon double bond of an alkene is very rare It occurs with a p unsaturated carbonyl compounds because the carbanion that results IS an enolate which is more stable than a simple alkyl anion... 

A synthetically useful reaction known as the Michael reaction, or Michael addition, involves nucleophilic addition of carbanions to a p unsaturated ketones The most common types of carbanions used are enolate 10ns derived from p diketones These enolates are weak bases (Section 18 6) and react with a p unsaturated ketones by conjugate addition... 

Because of thetr electron deficient nature, fluoroolefms are often nucleophihcally attacked by alcohols and alkoxides Ethers are commonly produced by these addition and addition-elimination reactions The wide availability of alcohols and fliioroolefins has established the generality of the nucleophilic addition reactions The mechanism of the addition reaction is generally believed to proceed by attack at a vinylic carbon to produce an intermediate fluorocarbanion as the rate-determining slow step The intermediate carbanion may react with a proton source to yield the saturated addition product Alternatively, the intermediate carbanion may, by elimination of P-halogen, lead to an unsaturated ether, often an enol or vinylic ether These addition and addition-elimination reactions have been previously reviewed [1, 2] The intermediate carbanions resulting from nucleophilic attack on fluoroolefins have also been trapped in situ with carbon dioxide, carbonates, and esters of fluorinated acids [3, 4, 5] (equations 1 and 2)... 

Nucleophilic addition of the base to the intermediate 2 leads to ring opening. With a symmetrically substituted cyclopropanone, cleavage of either Ca-CO bond leads to the same product. With unsymmetrical cyclopropanones, that bond is broken preferentially that leads to the more stable carbanion 5 ... 

Q Nucleophilic addition of hydroxide ion to the electron-poor aromatic ring takes place, yielding a stabilized carbanion intermediate. 

We saw in Section 17.5 that treatment of an aldehyde or ketone with a Grignard reagent, RMgX, yields an alcohol by nucleophilic addition of a carbon anion, or carbanion. A carbon-magnesium bond is strongly polarized, so a Grignard reagent reacts for all practical purposes as R - +MgX. 

Mechanism of the Grignard reaction. Nucleophilic addition of a carbanion to an aldehyde or ketone, followed by protonation of the alkoxide intermediate, yields an alcohol. 

The reaction is similar to the reduction of a nitrile to an amine, except that only one nucleophilic addition occurs rather than two, and the attacking nucleophile is a carbanion (R ) rather than a hydride ion. For example ... 

Perfluoroalkyl carbanions, generated by reversible nucleophilic addition of a fluoride anion to fluoroalkenes, react with dry benzenediazonium chloride in dimethyl formamide, giving phenylazoperfluoroalkanes in 41-53% yield (Dyatkin et al., 1972). The dianion obtained from 1,2-dinitrobenzene with dipotassium cyclo-octatetraenide reacts in a complex way with arenediazonium salts, forming 4-aryl-azo-2-nitrophenol in 46-58% yield (Todres et al., 1988). 

Sulfoxides (R1—SO—R2), which are tricoordinate sulfur compounds, are chiral when R1 and R2 are different, and a-sulfmyl carbanions derived from optically active sulfoxides are known to retain the chirality. Therefore, these chiral carbanions usually give products which are rich in one diastereomer upon treatment with some prochiral reagents. Thus, optically active sulfoxides have been used as versatile reagents for asymmetric syntheses of many naturally occurring products116, since optically active a-sulfinyl carbanions can cause asymmetric induction in the C—C bond formation due to their close vicinity. In the following four subsections various reactions of a-sulfinyl carbanions are described (A) alkylation and acylation, (B) addition to unsaturated bonds such as C=0, C=N or C= N, (C) nucleophilic addition to a, /5-unsaturated sulfoxides, and (D) reactions of allylic sulfoxides. 

Treatment of a-lithionitriles with vinylic sulfones resulted in the formation of cyclized products, i.e., 3-oxothian-l, 1-dioxides 346 or cyclopropane derivatives 348. When a-lithiated aliphatic nitriles were used, carbanions 343, formed by the nucleophilic addition,... 

In the first step of nucleophilic addition a nucleophile brings its pair of electrons to one carbon atom of the double or triple bond, creating a carbanion. The second step is combination of this carbanion with a positive species ... 

Protonation of the enolate ion is chiefly at the oxygen, which is more negative than the carbon, but this produces the enol, which tautomerizes. So, although the net result of the reaction is addition to a carbon-carbon double bond, the mechanism is 1,4 nucleophilic addition to the C=C—C=0 (or similar) system and is thus very similar to the mechanism of addition to carbon-oxygen double and similar bonds (see Chapter 16). When Z is CN or a C=0 group, it is also possible for Y to attack at this carbon, and this reaction sometimes competes. When it happens, it is called 1,2 addition. 1,4 Addition to these substrates is also known as conjugate addition. The Y ion almost never attacks at the 3 position, since the resulting carbanion would have no resonance stabilization " ... 

If the mechanism for nucleophilic addition is the simple carbanion mechanism outlined on page 975, the addition should be nonstereospecific, though it might well be stereoselective (see p. 166 for the distinction). For example, the E) and (Z) forms of an alkene ABC=CDE would give 6 and 7 ... 

If the carbanion has even a short lifetime, 6 and 7 will assume the most favorable conformation before the attack of W. This is of course the same for both, and when W attacks, the same product will result from each. This will be one of two possible diastereomers, so the reaction will be stereoselective but since the cis and trans isomers do not give rise to different isomers, it will not be stereospecific. Unfortunately, this prediction has not been tested on open-chain alkenes. Except for Michael-type substrates, the stereochemistry of nucleophilic addition to double bonds has been studied only in cyclic systems, where only the cis isomer exists. In these cases, the reaction has been shown to be stereoselective with syn addition reported in some cases and anti addition in others." When the reaction is performed on a Michael-type substrate, C=C—Z, the hydrogen does not arrive at the carbon directly but only through a tautomeric equilibrium. The product naturally assumes the most thermodynamically stable configuration, without relation to the direction of original attack of Y. In one such case (the addition of EtOD and of Me3CSD to tra -MeCH=CHCOOEt) predominant anti addition was found there is evidence that the stereoselectivity here results from the final protonation of the enolate, and not from the initial attack. For obvious reasons, additions to triple bonds cannot be stereospecific. As with electrophilic additions, nucleophilic additions to triple bonds are usually stereoselective and anti, though syn addition and nonstereoselective addition have also been reported. 

The Knoevenagel reaction has many similarities to the Michael addition, in which a base is required to form a carbanion Ifom an activated methylene precursor which subsequently undergoes nucleophilic addition to an alkene containing a group such as an ester capable of stabilizing the resulting anion by delocalization. These reactions are widely used for... 

Nucleophilic addition to a, -unsaturated sulfones has long been known. For example, treatment of divinyl sulfone with sodium hydroxide has been known to afford bis( -hydroxyethyl) sulfone "", while the reaction of a- and -naphthyl allyl sulfones and allyl benzyl sulfone " with alkali hydroxide or alkoxide gave -hydroxy or alkoxy derivatives. In the latter reaction, the allyl group underwent prototropy to the 1-propenyl group, which in a subsequent step underwent nucleophilic attack . Amines, alcohols and sulfides are known to add readily to a, -unsaturated sulfones, and these addition reactions have been studied widely. In this section, the addition of carbon nucleophiles to a, ji-unsaturated sulfones and the reactions of the resulting a-sulfonyl carbanions will be examined. 

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