Nucleophilic addition reactions chiral ketones

In general, nucleophilic addition reactions using Grignard or organolithium reagents to -chiral or other remotely chiral ketones usually yield mixtures of stereoisomers which are not synthetically use-fiil.9,12-27 However, some specific examples of stereoselective organolithium and Grignard additions to these remotely chiral carbonyl compounds have been reported. 

The aldol reaction is an important carbon-carbon bond formation reaction. The general concept of the reaction involves the nucleophilic addition of a ketone enolate to an aldehyde to form a P-hydroxy ketone, or aldol , a structural unit found in many naturally occurring molecules and pharmaceuticals. Since the aldol addition reaction creates two new stereocenters, up to four stereoisomers may result. The Evans aldol reaction performs a diasteroselective aldol transformation using an Evans s acyl oxazolidinone (also known as Evans chiral auxiliary), a chiral carbonyl compound that creates a temporary chiral enolate for the aldol addition. Upon subsequent removal of the auxiliary, the desired aldol stereoisomer is revealed. ... 

To expand the scope of C-based nucleophiles in asymmetric CDC reactions, organocatalysis was examined. Klussmann and co-workers reported a catalytic system consisting of VO(acac)2/TBHP and L-proline for cross-coupling between simple ketones and N-aryl THIQs. These two catalysts are considered to play independent roles. Although the proposed mechanism involves nucleophilic addition of chiral enamines to iminium ions formed oxidatively from THIQs. The level of asymmetric induction was low ( 17% ee). 

Chiral amine-mediated organocaialytic cascade reactions have become a benchmaik in contemporary organic synthesis, as wimessed by a number of cascade processes developed in the past decade [1]. The great success is attributed to two unique interconveilible activation modes, enamine [2] and iminium activations [3]. Enamine catalysis has been widely applied to the a-functionalizations of aldehydes and ketones. Mechanistically, dehydration between a chiral amine and the carbonyl of an aldehyde or ketone generates an intermediate, 2, which undergoes an enantioselective a-substitution or nucleophilic addition reaction to produce respective iminium intermediate 3 or 5 (Scheme 1.1). Hydrolysis affords the products and, meanwhile, releases the chiral amine catalyst. 

As outlined in Section D.2.3.5., the stereochemical outcome of the addition of nucleophilic reagents to chiral aldehydes or ketones is rationalized most plausibly by the Cram-Felkin-Anh model. On the other hand, the corresponding reactions of oxygen- or nitrogen-heterosub-stituted aldehydes or ketones may be interpreted either by the same transition state hypothesis or, alternatively, by Cram s cyclic model. 

In addition to metal catalysts, organocatalysts could also be used in asymmetric cyanation reactions. Chiral Lewis bases, modified cinchona alkaloids, catalyzed asymmetric cyanation of ketones by using ethyl cyanoformate as the cyanide source (Scheme 5.34)." Similar to metal-catalyzed reactions, ethyl cyanoformate was first activated by chiral Lewis bases to form active nucleophiles. Various acyclic and cyclic dialkyl ketones were transformed into the desired products. Because of using... 

The introduction of umpoled synthons 177 into aldehydes or prochiral ketones leads to the formation of a new stereogenic center. In contrast to the pendant of a-bromo-a-lithio alkenes, an efficient chiral a-lithiated vinyl ether has not been developed so far. Nevertheless, substantial diastereoselectivity is observed in the addition of lithiated vinyl ethers to several chiral carbonyl compounds, in particular cyclic ketones. In these cases, stereocontrol is exhibited by the chirality of the aldehyde or ketone in the sense of substrate-induced stereoselectivity. This is illustrated by the reaction of 1-methoxy-l-lithio ethene 56 with estrone methyl ether, which is attacked by the nucleophilic carbenoid exclusively from the a-face —the typical stereochemical outcome of the nucleophilic addition to H-ketosteroids . Representative examples of various acyclic and cyclic a-lithiated vinyl ethers, generated by deprotonation, and their reactions with electrophiles are given in Table 6. 

Reviews on stoichiometric asymmetric syntheses M. M. Midland, Reductions with Chiral Boron Reagents, in J. D. Morrison, ed., Asymmetric Synthesis, Vol. 2, Chap. 2, Academic Press, New York, 1983 E. R. Grandbois, S. I. Howard, and J. D. Morrison, Reductions with Chiral Modifications of Lithium Aluminum Hydride, in J. D. Morrison, ed.. Asymmetric Synthesis, Vol. 2, Chap. 3, Academic Press, New York, 1983 Y. Inouye, J. Oda, and N. Baba, Reductions with Chiral Dihydropyridine Reagents, in J. D. Morrison, ed., Asymmetric Synthesis, Vol. 2, Chap. 4, Academic Press, New York, 1983 T. Oishi and T. Nakata, Acc. Chem. Res., 17, 338 (1984) G. Solladie, Addition of Chiral Nucleophiles to Aldehydes and Ketones, in J. D. Morrison, ed., Asymmetric Synthesis, Vol. 2, Chap. 6, Academic Press, New York, 1983 D. A. Evans, Stereoselective Alkylation Reactions of Chiral Metal Enolates, in J. D. Morrison, ed., Asymmetric Synthesis, Vol. 3, Chap. 1, Academic Press, New York, 1984. C. H. Heathcock, The Aldol Addition Reaction, in J. D. Morrison, ed., Asymmetric Synthesis, Vol. 3, Chap. 2, Academic Press, New York, 1984 K. A. Lutomski and A. I. Meyers, Asymmetric Synthesis via Chiral Oxazolines, in J. D. Morrison, ed., Asymmetric Synthesis, Vol. 3, Chap. 

The enantio-determining step of nucleophilic additions to a-bromo-a,y -unsaturated ketones is mechanistically similar to those of nucleophilic epoxidations of enones, and asymmetry has also been induced in these processes using chiral phase-transfer catalysts [20]. The addition of the enolate of benzyl a-cyanoacetate to the enone 31, catalysed by the chiral ammonium salt 32, was highly diastereoselective and gave the cyclopropane 33 in 83% ee (Scheme 12). Good enantiomeric excesses have also been observed in reactions involving the anions of nitromethane and an a-cyanosulfone [20]. 

Selenophenols function as nucleophiles in 1,4-addition reactions to a,J -unsaturated ketones. When this addition is catalyzed by a cinchona alkaloid, chiral 3-(phenylseleno)cycloalkanones 5 are formed in quantitative yield and with up to 67% ee" 5. Moreover, the solid adducts are readily purified to 100% ee by crystallization. A variety of chiral 3-arylselenocyclohexanones have been prepared in this manner using quinine as a catalyst (Table 13). 

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