Nucleophilic addition, diastereoselective

With chiral auxiliaries1,41 a remote chiral moiety is temporarily introduced into the substrate in order to direct the nucleophilic addition diastereoselectively. The chiral auxiliary can be removed from the initial addition product with complete conservation of the chirality of the desired product and also of the chiral auxiliary. The recovered chiral auxiliary can then be reused in further reactions. Therefore, chiral auxiliaries are used to chiralize an a priori achiral carbonyl substrate by the introduction of a covalently bound, but nevertheless easily removable, chiral source. 

Pracejus also studied the tandem nucleophilic addition/diastereoselective protonation of optically pure (S)-phenylethylamine on phenylmethylketene [11], With the aim of synthesizing amino acids and their derivatives, Calmes and coworkers reinvestigated the reaction of prochiral ketenes (generated in situ from acid chorides in the presence of a tertiary amine) with (R)-pantolactonc, an a-hydroxylactone [12], The authors have shown that the diastereoselectivity is dependent on the base used. Particularly, triethylamine and quinuclidine afforded complementary results and the diasteromeric ratios observed with quinuclidine suggest that the high stereoselections could be observed in nucleophilic additions to prochiral ketenes in the presence of cinchona alkaloids. 

The conversion of a thiolactone to a cyclic ether can also be used as a key step in the synthesis of functionalized, stereochemically complex oxacycles (see 64—>66, Scheme 13). Nucleophilic addition of the indicated higher order cuprate reagent to the C-S double bond in thiolactone 64 furnishes a tetrahedral thiolate ion which undergoes smooth conversion to didehydrooxepane 65 upon treatment with 1,4-diiodobutane and the non-nucleophilic base 1,2,2,6,6-pentamethylpiperidine (pempidine).27 Regio- and diastereoselective hydroboration of 65 then gives alcohol 66 in 89 % yield after oxidative workup. Versatile vinylstannanes can also be accessed from thiolactones.28 For example, treatment of bis(thiolactone) 67 with... 

The stereochemical outcome of nucleophilic addition reactions to cyclic ketones is the subject of numerous experimental and theoretical studies, with substituted cyclohexanones and cy-clopcntanones having been intensively studied. In addition reactions to substituted cyclohexanones 1 the problem of simple diastereoselectivity is manifested in the predominance of cither axial attack of a nucleophile, leading to the equatorial alcohol 2 A. or equatorial attack of the nucleophile which leads to the axial alcohol 2B. 

Similar to cyclohexanones, substituted cyclopentanones also adopt a conformation with the substituents in a sterically favorable position. In the case of 2-substituted cyclopentanones 1 the substituent occupies a pseudoequatorial position and the diastereoselectivity of nucleophilic addition reactions to 1 is determined by the relative importance of the interactions leading to predominant fra s(equatorial) or cw(axial) attack of the nucleophile. When the nucleophile approaches from the cis side, steric interaction with the substituent at C-2 is encountered. On the other hand, according to Felkin, significant torsional strain between the pseudoaxial C-2—H bond and the incipient bond occurs if the nucleophile approaches the carbonyl group from the trans side. 

With a-alkyl-substituted chiral carbonyl compounds bearing an alkoxy group in the -position, the diastereoselectivity of nucleophilic addition reactions is influenced not only by steric factors, which can be described by the models of Cram and Felkin (see Section 1.3.1.1.), but also by a possible coordination of the nucleophile counterion with the /J-oxygen atom. Thus, coordination of the metal cation with the carbonyl oxygen and the /J-alkoxy substituent leads to a chelated transition state 1 which implies attack of the nucleophile from the least hindered side, opposite to the pseudoequatorial substituent R1. Therefore, the anb-diastereomer 2 should be formed in excess. With respect to the stereogenic center in the a-position, the predominant formation of the anft-diastereomer means that anti-Cram selectivity has occurred. 

In contrast to the results obtained with the jS-alkoxy-a-alkyl-y-lactol 16 (vide supra), a chelation-directed, anti-Cram selective nucleophilic addition to the a-methyl-y-lactol 1 was not only observed with methyllithium and methylmagnesium bromide but also with (triisopropoxy)methyl-titanium72. In fact, the highest diastereoselectivity (> 98 % de) was observed with the titanium reagent in dichloromethane as reaction solvent. A seven-membered chelate 3 with the a-methyl substituent in a pscudoequatorial position has been postulated in order to explain the stereochemical outcome. 

The nucleophilic addition of Grignard reagents to a-epoxy ketones 44 proceeds with remarkably high diastereoselectivity70. The chelation-controlled reaction products are obtained in ratios >99 1 when tetrahydrofuran or tetrahydrofuran/hexamethylphosphoric triamide is used as reaction solvent. The increased diastereoselectivity in the presence of hexamethylphos-phoric triamide is unusual as it is known from addition reactions to a-alkoxy aldehydes that co-solvents with chelating ability compete with the substrate for the nucleophile counterion, thus reducing the proportion of the chelation-controlled reaction product (vide infra). 

Whereas the nucleophilic addition of vinylmagnesium bromide to a-alkoxy aldehydes (12, 16) proceeds with a low to moderate chelation-controlled diastereoselectivity, a remarkably high preference for the opposite stereochemical behavior is found with the jS-silyl phosphorus ylide 1477. Due to the electron-donating 4-methoxyphenyl substituents at the phosphorus atom, as well as the /i-methyldiphenylsilyl group, 14 is an excellent vinylation reagent which does not lead to any Wittig olefination products. 

With respect to the nucleophilic addition of organocopper reagents, a sharp contrast between the rigid isopropylidene glyceraldehyde and its open-chained analog, 2,3-bis(benzyloxy)propanal. was observed (compare Tables 15 and 16). With the isopropylidene-protected aldehyde a high syn diastereoselectivity could only be obtained when tetrahydrofuran was used as reaction solvent, and the diastereoselectivity dropped considerably in diethyl ether. In contrast, the latter solvent allows excellent syn selectivities in additions to the dibenzyl-protected glyceraldehyde81. On the other hand, tetrahydrofuran yields better results than diethyl ether in the... 

In most cases of diastereoselective nucleophilic addition reactions where achiral organometallic reagents are added to chiral carbonyl compounds, the chirulity inducing asymmetric center is in close vicinity to the newly created center and cannot be removed without the loss of chirality of either the inducing center or the newly formed center. This type of reaction is very useful in propagating chirality in a molecule from one center to an adjacent one, or in immolative processes. 

Results of nucleophilic addition reactions to various a-oxo 4,5-dihydrooxazoles are summarized in Table 24. In general, the diastereoselectivity of these reactions is low to moderate, although an increased selectivity is found in the presence of triethylamine or N,N,N, N -te-tramethylethylenediamine, which slow down the rate of reaction. Nevertheless, enantiomerical-ly pure 2-hydroxy carboxylic acids can be prepared by this method, since the diastereomeric addition products are separable either by recrystallization or HPLC21. 

The high diastereoselectivity which is found in the nucleophilic addition of Grignard reagents to chiral 2-0x0 acetals can be explained by a chelation-controlled mechanism. Thus, coordination of the magnesium metal with the carbonyl oxygen and the acetal moiety leads to a rigid structure 3A in the transition state with preferred attack of the nucleophile occurring from the S/-side. 

Besides 1,3-oxathianes, the 1,3-dithiane 1-oxide moiety can be used for directing the nucleophilic addition of an organometallic reagent to a carbonyl group in a diastereoselective manner. The addition of methylmagnesium iodide to the 2-acyl-l,3-dithiane 1-oxide 23A leads exclusively to the diastereomer which is formed by Re-side attack. On the other hand, addition... 

Besides high effectiveness in the diastereoselective control of nucleophilic addition reactions, another major goal in the design of chiral auxiliaries is the use of readily available, chiral starting materials. The hexahydro-l//-pyrrolo[l,2-c]imidazole derivatives 9a-e are examples which use the inexpensive amino acid L-proline (7) as starting material. 

The diastereoselectivity of the nucleophilic addition to nitrone 2 may be rationalized by assuming that magnesium bromide preferentially coordinates with the nitrone oxygen. The Grignard reagent is therefore forced to interact with the acetal oxygen in position 3. 

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. 

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