Nucleophilic Addition on Ketenes

The pioneering studies in this field are done by Pracejus and coworkers in a series of papers published in the 1960s in which they studied the asymmetric addition/protonation of alcohols to ketenes [8]. They carried out a number of experiments to demonstrate the catalytic role of a tertiary amine on the nucleophilic 

The thioester group was readily converted into a ketone, an aldehyde, or a primary alcohol and the silyl moiety into a protected alcohol, all reactions preserving the stereochemistry of the products. 

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. 

Despite the obvious potential of cinchona alkaloids as bifunctional chiral catalysts of the nucleophilic addition/enantioselective protonation on prochiral ketenes, no further contribution has appeared to date and only a few papers described this asymmetric reaction with other catalysts [13], When the reaction is carried out with soft nucleophiles, the catalyst, often a chiral tertiary amine, adding first on ketene, is covalently linked to the enolate during the protonation. Thus, we can expect an optimal control of the stereochemical outcome of the protonation. This seems perfectly well suited for cinchona analogues and we can therefore anticipate successful applications of these compounds for this reaction in the near future. 

Plaquevent and coworkers synthesized methyl dihydrojasmonate 28 using this methodology by performing the asymmetric Michael addition of dimethyl malonate 29 on 2-pentyl-2-cydopentenone 30 [18]. The mechanism involved the tandem deprotonation of the malonate 29 using solid-liquid phase-transfer catalysis 

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The nucleophilic addition on substituted ketenes is a well-known method to generate a prochiral enolate that can be further protonated by a chiral source of proton. Metallic nucleophiles are used under anhydrous conditions therefore, the optically pure source of proton must be added then (often in a stoichiometric amount) to control the protonation. In the case of a protic nucleophile, an alcohol, a thiol, or an amine, the chiral inductor is usually present at the beginning of the reaction since it also catalyzes the addition of the heteroatomic nucleophile before mediating the enantioselective protonation (Scheme 7.5). The use of a chiral tertiary amine as catalyst generates a zwitterionic intermediate B by nucleophilic addition on ketene A, followed by a rapid diastereoselective protonation of the enolate to acylammonium C, and then the release of the catalyst via its substitution by the nucleophile ends this reaction sequence. 

The regioselectivity of the double nucleophilic addition of ketene silyl acetals to a,/3-unsaturated imines has been found to be highly dependent on the subtle difference in the reactivities of the ketene silyl acetals the factors are mainly derived from the ability of the ketene silyl acetals to undergo the silicon-aluminium exchange reaction, where the aluminium enolate preferentially undergoes 1,4-addition.209... 

There are very few examples with a,/3-unsaturated aldimines, but it has to be noted that under TiCb activation, they are able to undergo a 1,4-nucleophilic addition of ketene silyl acetal followed by a 1,2-addition of the allyltributyltin on the resulting imine giving the homoallylic amine in good yield [260]. 

Reaction of crowded chromium alkenyl Fischer carbene (50) with bulky ketene acetals provides an interesting entry to 3-substituted pent-l-ynoate (53)45 Formation of the alkyne can be rationalized by a 1,4-nucleophilic addition of the ketene on the unsaturated carbene complex (crowded complexes will not undergo potential 1,2-addition), following by oxonium (51) formation and fragmentation to a vinylidene carbene complex (52), which undergoes a 1,3-shift to the alkynylchromium complex leading the alkyne after reductive elimination. 

We must here anticipate a little and use some concepts developed in the following chapters. If the reaction is considered as a nucleophilic addition of the alkene to the ketene, the alkene should attack the central atom of the ketene, making an obtuse angle with C=0 (p. 144). If it is considered as an electrophilic addition of ketene on the alkene, the central atom of the ketene should attack the double bond on its center... 

Intermolecular addition of carbon nucleophiles to the ri2-pyrrolium complexes has shown limited success because of the decreased reactivity of the iminium moiety coupled with the acidity (pKa 18-20) of the ammine ligands on the osmium, the latter of which prohibits the use of robust nucleophiles. Addition of cyanide ion to the l-methyl-2//-pyr-rolium complex 32 occurs to give the 2-cyano-substituted 3-pyrroline complex 75 as one diastereomer (Figure 15). In contrast, the 1-methyl-3//-pyrrolium species 28, which possesses an acidic C-3-proton in an anti orientation, results in a significant (-30%) amount of deprotonation in addition to the 2-pyrroline complex 78 under the same reaction conditions. Uncharacteristically, 78 is isolated as a 3 2 ratio of isomers, presumably via epimerization at C-2.17 Other potential nucleophiles such as the conjugate base of malononitrile, potassium acetoacetate, and the silyl ketene acetal 2-methoxy-l-methyl-2-(trimethylsiloxy)-l-propene either do not react or result in deprotonation under ambient conditions. 

The use of substituted pyridines in organic synthesis has broad application. The activation of the pyridine ring toward nucleophilic attack is well known in the literature. The products of such reactions are often dihydropyridines which can serve as intermediates in more complex synthetic strategies. Rudler and co-workers have reported on the nucleophilic addition of bis(trimethylsilyl)ketene acetals to pyridine (26). The 1,4-addition product 27 was then cyclized with iodine to afford bicycle 28 in 90% overall yield <02CC940>. Yamada has elegantly shown that facial selectivity can be achieved and chiral 1,4-dihydropyridines accessed in high yield and de (29—>30) <02JA8184>. 

The (dienyl)iron cations of type (248) and (265) are susceptible to reaction with nucleophiles. For the (cyclohexadienyl)iron cations, nucleophilic attack always occurs at a terminal carbon, on the face of the ligand opposite to the metal, to afford / -cyclohexadiene products. Typical nucleophiles used are malonate anions, amines, electron-rich aromatics, silyl ketene acetals, enamines, hydrides, and aUyl silanes intramolecular nucleophilic addition is also possible. The addition of highly basic organometaUic nucleophiles (Grignard reagents, organolithiums) is often problematic this may be overcome by replacing one of the iron carbonyl... 

It is important to emphasize that three different types of reactions, i.e., electron transfer from (TPP)Co to Q (Eq. 13), Diels-Alder reaction of anthracenes with Q (Scheme 12) and hydride transfer from BNAH to Q (Scheme 14), have the common rate-determining step of Mg +-catalyzed electron transfer from these electron donors to Q. In each case, the relative catalytic dependence of A obs on [Mg ] is the same as indicated by Eq. 14, irrespective of different electron donors. The nucleophilic addition of a / ,/ -dimethyl-substituted ketene silyl acetal such as Me2C= C(OMe)OSiMe3 is also catalyzed by Mg + in MeCN [227, 228]. No reaction takes... 

Scheme 7.5 Chiral tertiary amine catalyzed addition of heteroatomic nucleophiles on ketenes.

A differentiation between 8.100 and 8.101 is possible on the basis of theoretical investigations on the addition of water to ketenes. Such nucleophilic additions were... 

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