Nucleophilic Additions to Aldehydes and Epoxides

Scheme 7.4 illustrates some of the important synthetic reactions in which organolithium reagents act as nucleophiles. The range of reactions includes S/v2-(ype alkylation (Entries 1 to 3), epoxide ring opening (Entry 4), and formation of alcohols by additions to aldehydes and ketones (Entries 5 to 10). Note that in Entry 2, alkylation takes place mainly at the 7-carbon of the allylic system. The ratio favoring 7-alkylation... 

Stereoselective epoxidation can be realized through either substrate-controlled (e.g. 35 —> 36) or reagent-controlled approaches. A classic example is the epoxidation of 4-t-butylcyclohexanone. When sulfonium ylide 2 was utilized, the more reactive ylide irreversibly attacked the carbonyl from the axial direction to offer predominantly epoxide 37. When the less reactive sulfoxonium ylide 1 was used, the nucleophilic addition to the carbonyl was reversible, giving rise to the thermodynamically more stable, equatorially coupled betaine, which subsequently eliminated to deliver epoxide 38. Thus, stereoselective epoxidation was achieved from different mechanistic pathways taken by different sulfur ylides. In another case, reaction of aldehyde 38 with sulfonium ylide 2 only gave moderate stereoselectivity (41 40 = 1.5/1), whereas employment of sulfoxonium ylide 1 led to a ratio of 41 40 = 13/1. The best stereoselectivity was accomplished using aminosulfoxonium ylide 25, leading to a ratio of 41 40 = 30/1. For ketone 42, a complete reversal of stereochemistry was observed when it was treated with sulfoxonium ylide 1 and sulfonium ylide 2, respectively. ... 

Barrett and coworkers have explored hetero-substituted nitroalkenes in organic synthesis. The Michael addition of nucleophiles to 1-alkoxynitroalkenes or 1-phenylthionitroalkenes followed by oxidative Nef reaction (Section 6.1) using ozone gives a-substituted esters or thiol esters, respectively.41 As an alternative to nucleophilic addition to l-(phenylthio)-nitroalkenes, Jackson and coworkers have used the reaction of nucleophiles with the corresponding epoxides (Scheme 4.4).42 Because the requisite nitroalkenes are readily prepared by the Henry reaction (Chapter 3) of aldehydes with phenylthionitromethane, this process provides a convenient tool for the conversion of aldehydes into ot-substituted esters or thiol esters. 

Dimsylsodium (24) functions as a highly basic sulfur ylide. It can be used to convert phosphonium salts to phosphorus ylides for use in the Wittig reaction. Dimsylsodium also reacts with aldehydes and ketones by nucleophilic addition to form epoxides and with esters by nucleophilic substitution to yield p-ketosulfoxides (25) (Scheme 11). The p-ketosulfoxides (25) contain acidic a-hydrogens which can be readily removed to allow alkylation, and the products (26) suffer reductive desulfuration on treatment with aluminium amalgam to yield ketones (27) (Scheme 11) This procedure can, for instance, be applied to the conversion of ethyl benzoate to propiophenone (28) (Scheme 12). 

Lithiated epoxides are more commonly trapped by electrophiles, generating elaborated oxiranes. In this arena, Hodgson and co-workers <04OL4187> have optimized the lithiation of non-stabilized terminal epoxides with iec-hutylhthium assisted by diamine ligands, such as dibutylbispidine (DBB, 99) or (-)-sparteine 100. The oxiranyl anions thus formed engage in smooth nucleophilic addition onto aldehydes to form epoxyalcohols e.g., 101) the same conditions can be used for the stannylation of epoxides e.g., 84 102). Similarly,... 

The reaction between an aldehyde and a carbon nucleophile, such as a sulfur ylide, constitutes an alternative approach to the synthesis of epoxides. Since alkenes, which are the normal epoxidation substrates, are often formed from aldehydes, this approach can be highly efficient. On the other hand, the synthesis of appropriate carbon nucleophiles usually requires additional steps. 

In Entry 5, the carbanion-stabilizing ability of the sulfonyl group enables lithiation and is then reductively removed after alkylation. The reagent in Entry 6 is prepared by dilithiation of allyl hydrosulfide using n-bulyl lithium. After nucleophilic addition and S-alkylation, a masked aldehyde is present in the form of a vinyl thioether. Entry 7 uses the epoxidation of a vinyl silane to form a 7-hydroxy aldehyde masked as a cyclic acetal. Entries 8 and 9 use nucleophilic cuprate reagents to introduce alkyl groups containing aldehydes masked as acetals. 

The successive reaction of (dibromomethyl)silanes with LDA (hthium diisopropyl-amide) and two equivalents of benzaldehyde gives 1,3-diol monosilyl ethers in good yield (Scheme 10.221) [574]. This tandem reaction would proceed via anionic 1,3-silyl migration of /l-lithioxyalkylsilane intermediate 152 and addition of the resulting lithium carbenoid to benzaldehyde. Thus, internal activation of the silicon-lithium alkoxide promotes nucleophilic addition of a-haloalkylsilanes. Similar tandem reactions of 2-trimethylsilyl-l,3-dithiane with aldehydes [575] and epoxides [576] have been reported. 

---