Nucleophilic reactivity, lithium carbenoids

The electrophilic reactivity of lithium carbenoids (reaction b) becomes evident from their reaction with alkyl lithium compounds. A, probably metal-supported, nucleophilic substitution occurs, and the leaving group X is replaced by the alkyl group R with inversion of the configuration . This reaction, typical of metal carbenoids, is not restricted to the vinylidene substitution pattern, but occurs in alkyl and cycloalkyl lithium carbenoids as well ". With respect to the a-heteroatom X, the carbenoid character is... 

A final carbenoid-type reactivity of a-oxygen-substituted vinylidene carbenoids has been reported for the carbamate 111. When wanned up to temperatures higher than —40 °C, a Fritsch-Buttenberg-Wiechell reanangement takes place to give the alkyne 112 (equation 60). Below that temperature, the lithium compound 111 maintains its nucleophilic reactivity . 

Organolithium compounds which bear a lithium atom as well as a leaving group such as a halogen atom or an alkoxy group on the same carbon atom — lithium carbenoids — are a well-characterized class of compounds [1-5]. They react as nucleophiles or electrophiles depending on the chosen conditions the electrophilic reactivity is typical of carbenoids. 

The mechanistic outline of carbenoid/carbonyl reactivity follows the paradigm illustrated at the outset of this chapter (Scheme 1 X = halogen). The nucleophilic lithium species adds to the carbonyl compound and suffers elimination to provide the epoxide. Competition from molecular rearrangements emanating from the intermediate halohydrin or the product epoxides is sometimes a problem, particularly with cyclic ketones. Also, the initial adduct frequently fails to cyclize when the reaction is quenched at low temperature, but it is usually a simple matter to effect ring closure by treatment of the halohydrin with mild base in a separate step. 

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