Cyclopropanation olefins

The direct carbene insertion scheme in Fig. 4.8 is thought to be the most common cyclopropanation mechanism, but in some cases the reaction may occur in a stepwise fashion through a metallacyclobutane intermediate. Once formed by 

Regenerate metal-carbene (e.g., with diazo compounds) 

The factors that direct a metallacyclobutane intermediate along one of these pathways are only partially understood. For example, in the case shown in Fig. 4.10, both metathesis and cyclopropanation are mediated by the same tungsten-carbene complex when the reaction is performed in a non-coordinating solvent [31]. These conditions are consistent with reaction via a metallacyclobutane because they allow the olefin to coordinate to the metal center, a prerequisite for [2 -I- 2] cycloaddition. In contrast, only cyclopropanation occurs when the reaction is performed in a coordinating solvent, presumably because formation of a metal-solvent adduct prevents olefin coordination and leaves only a direct carbene transfer mechanism available. 

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EPR studies of diphenylmethylene and a number of other arylmethylenes have indicated that these carbenes have triplet ground states.<30) Photolysis of diphenyldiazomethane in olefin matrices results in the formation of triplet diphenylmethylene, which undergoes primarily abstraction reactions with the olefins. Cyclopropanes are produced as minor products. 

In considering catalyzed olefin-cyclopropane interconversions, an important question arises concerning thermodynamic control and the tendency (or lack thereof) to attain a state of equilibrium for the system. Mango (74) has recently estimated the expected relative amounts of ethylene and cyclopropane for various reaction conditions and concluded that the reported results were contrary to thermodynamic expectation. In particular, the vigorous formation of ethylene from cyclopropane (16) at -78°C was stated to be especially unfavored. On the basis of various reported observations and considerations, Mango concluded that a reaction scheme such as that in Eq. (26) above (assuming no influence of catalyst) was not appropriate, because the proper relative amounts of cyclopropanes and olefins just do not occur. However, it can be argued that the role of the catalyst is in fact an important element in the equilibration scheme, for the proposed metal-carbene and [M ] species in Eq. (26) are neither equivalent nor freely interconverted under normal reaction conditions. Consequently, all the reaction pathways are not simultaneously accessible with ease, as seen in the published literature, and the expected equilibria do not really have an opportunity for attainment. In such a case, absence of thermodynamic control should not a priori deny the validity of Eq. (26). 

When the reaction of DMFL with alcohols, cyclohexane, or a-methylstyrene is initiated by triplet senitization, the outcome is virtually the same as it is for the direct irradiation. Thus ethers are formed in high yield with the alcohols, direct insertion accounts for the major product in cyclohexane, and the olefin cyclopropanation is stereospecific. 

Various approaches to epoxide also show promise for the preparation of chiral aziridines. Identification of the Cu(I) complex as the most effective catalyst for this process has raised the possibility that aziridination might share fundamental mechanistic features with olefin cyclopropanation.115 Similar to cyclo-propanation, in which the generally accepted mechanism involves a discrete Cu-carbenoid intermediate, copper-catalyzed aziridation might proceed via a discrete Cu-nitrenoid intermediate as well. 

Furthermore, cyclopropane structures have often served as intermediates in organic synthesis. For these reasons, olefin cyclopropanation has proved to be a useful tool for synthetic organic chemists. This has led to the development of several methods for cyclopropanation reactions,91 including the metal-catalyzed reactions of diazo compounds with olefins, as well as the Simmons-Smith reaction. 

Two of the most characteristic reactions of carbene complexes are olefin metathesis and olefin cyclopropanation. Olefin metathesis is a reaction in which the C-C double bond of an alkene is cleaved, and one of the resulting alkylidene fragments combines with the metal-bound carbene to form a new alkene. The second alkylidene fragment forms a new carbene eomplex with the metal. Olefin cyclopropanation is a reaction in which a a bond is formed between the metal-bound alkylidene and each of the two carbon atoms of the alkene, to yield a cyclopropane. 

Ylides other than acceptor-substituted diazomethanes have only occasionally been used as carbene-complex precursors. lodonium ylides (PhI=CZ Z ) [1017,1050-1056], sulfonium ylides [673], sulfoxonium ylides [1057] and thiophenium ylides [1058,1059] react with electrophilic transition metal complexes to yield intermediates capable of undergoing C-H or N-H insertions and olefin cyclopropanations. 

Dinuclear Rh(II) compounds are another class of effective catalysts (227). Electrophilic carbenes formed from diazo ketones and dimeric Rh(II) carboxylates undergo olefin cyclopropanation. Chiral Rh(II) carboxamides also serve as catalysts for enantioselective cyclopropanation (Scheme 95) (228). The catalysts have four bridging amide ligands, and... 

An account on telluronium and sulfonium ylides has briefly described the development of ylide olefination, cyclopropanation, epoxidation, and aziridination.56 Optically active m-2-substituted vinylaziridines (22) have been synthesized by the reaction of jV-r-butylsulfinylimines with telluronium ylides with excellent diastereoselectivity (g) (de > 98%) in good to excellent yields (56-98%) (Scheme ll).57... 

Although this view is oversimplified and borderline metal carbene complexes have been isolated, this approach is convenient for discussing the activity of metal carbene species in the ring-opening metathesis polymerisation of cycloolefins. Calculations have predicted [81,82] and recent results have shown [83] that, in some systems, metal alkylidene reactivity is competitive with metal carbene reactivity, i.e. olefin metathesis is competitive with olefin cyclopropanation. 

Llewellyn DB, Arndtsen BA (2005) Synthesis of a library of chiral a-amino acid-based borate counteranions and their application to copper catalyzed olefin cyclopropanation. Tetrahedron Asymmetry 16 1789-1799 Makino T, Baba N, Oda J, Inouye Y (1977) Asymmetric reduction of alpha, beta-unsaturated iminuum salt with A-glucopyranosyl-l,4-dihydronicotin-amides. Chemlnd 1977 277-278... 

In the carbene insertions to alkane C-H bonds the same concept as for the olefin cyclopropanations is applied. In that work, the gold-catalyzed carbene transfer is now used for insertions into C-H bonds (equation 150), with a selectivity that is influenced by the electronic properties of the ligand and the counterion employed. The carbene and nitrene insertion is not limited to Csp H bonds, but N H (equation 151), O H (equation 152), and aryl Csp -H bonds react as well (equation 153). ... 

Copper salts accelerate the decomposition and completely reverse the product distribution in favour of the cyclopropane derivatives. The solvent also seems to be of great importance in determining the product distribution. The ratio olefin-cyclopropane is increased by using solvents with higher dielectric constants". This phenomenon is illustrated by the decomposition of 4-(l-bromo-l-methylethyl)pyrazolines (87) ". In non-polar solvents both a cyclopropane (88) and an olefinic product (89) are formed (equation 18). In polar solvents, both protic and aprotic, the cyclopropane 88 is the only product observed. The rate of formation of 88 is very solvent dependent. A striking feature is a very strong acceleration rate in the cyclopropane formation with increasing solvent... 

Dictyopterene B (1) is one of the polyacetate-derived cyclopropane-containing natural products and is isolated from the essential oil of brown algae Dictyopteris plagiogramma and D. australis. This tri-olefinic cyclopropane is a sex pheromone released by the female plants to attract male gametes. This unusual Cn hydrocarbon along with other Dicyopteris constituents has a characteristic odor associated with ocean beaches. A second... 

There is thus to date no single general mechanism model for olefin cyclopropanation. The basic mode of ring closure in metal-catalyzed carbene transfer reactions must still be regarded as hypothetical in most cases. 

Rhodium-based catalysis suffers from the high cost of the metal and quite often from a lack of stereoselectivity. This justifies the search for alternative catalysts. In this context, ruthenium-based catalysts look rather attractive nowadays, although still poorly documented. Recently, diruthenium(II,II) tetracarboxylates [42], polymeric and dimeric diruthenium(I,I) dicarboxylates [43], ruthenacarbor-ane clusters [44], and hydride and silyl ruthenium complexes [45 a] and Ru porphyrins [45 b] have been introduced as efficient cyclopropanation catalysts, superior to the Ru(II,III) complex Ru2(OAc)4Cl investigated earlier [7]. In terms of efficiency, electrophilicity, regio- and (partly) stereoselectivity, the most efficient ruthenium-based catalysts compare rather well with the rhodium(II) carboxylates. The ruthenium systems tested so far seem to display a slightly lower level of activity but are somewhat more discriminating in competitive reactions, which apparently could be due to the formation of less electrophilic carbenoid species. This point is probably related to the observation that some ruthenium complexes competitively catalyze both olefin cyclopropanation and olefin metathesis [46], which is at variance with what is observed with the rhodium catalysts. 

This method can also be applied to complexes of conjugated trienes. The uncomplexed double bond may be constructed within the complex via Wittig olefination. Cyclopropanation of the uncomplexed double bond of the resulting tricarbonyliron-triene complexes and oxidative decomplexation leads to dienylcyclopropane products. In this manner chiral dienyl-cyclopropanes 4 and 5 were prepared in high enantiomeric excess (> 90% ee) starting from optically active tricarbonyliron-hexatriene complexes 3 obtained from chirally modified sorbic aldehyde complexes. 

New evidence as to the nature of the intermediates in catalytic diazoalkane decomposition comes from a comparison of olefin cyclopropanation with the electrophilic metal carbene complex (CO)jW—CHPh on one hand and Rh COAc) / NjCHCOOEt or Rh2(OAc)4 /NjCHPh on the other . For the same set of monosubstituted alkenes, a linear log-log relationship between the relative reactivities for the stoichiometric reaction with (CO)5W=CHPh and the catalytic reaction with RhjfOAc) was found (reactivity difference of 2.2 10 in the former case and 14 in the latter). No such correlation holds for di- and trisubstituted olefins, which has been attributed to steric and/or electronic differences in olefin interaction with the reactive electrophile . A linear relationship was also found between the relative reactivities of (CO)jW=CHPh and Rh2(OAc) NjCHPh. These results lead to the conclusion that the intermediates in the Rh(II)-catalyzed reaction are very similar to stable electrophilic carbenes in terms of electron demand. As far as cisjtrans stereoselectivity of cyclopropanation is concerned, no obvious relationship between Rh2(OAc) /N2CHCOOEt and Rh2(OAc),/N2CHPh was found, but the log-log plot displays an excellent linear relationship between (CO)jW=CHPh and Rh2(OAc) / N2CHPh, including mono-, 1,1-di-, 1,2-di- and trisubstituted alkenes In the phenyl-carbene transfer reactions, cis- syn-) cyclopropanes are formed preferentially, whereas trans- anti-) cyclopropanes dominate when the diazoester is involved. 

There are examples of all metals from groups 8 to 11 to catalyze the transfer of a carbene group from a diazo compound to organic substrates. One of the most studied transformation is the olefin cyclopropanation reaction, " for which the use of Tp ML catalysts has provided valuable improvement. Thus, the diastereoselectivity of this reaction, that usually leads to mixtures of both cis and trans isomers, was directed toward the d.y-cyclopropane with the complex Tp Cu(thf) (hydrotris [3-mesitylpyrazolyl]borate) as the catalyst, affording a 98 2 cisdrans mixture with styrene (Scheme 5) and ethyl diazoacetate (EDA) as the carbene source. Other olefins were also cyclopropanated with the preferential formation of the cis isomer. The catalysts can be prepared in situ by mixing a Cu(I) source and the MTp salt. Also, the Tp Cu(NCMe) complex has been employed as catalyst in a fluorous phase for the styrene cyclopropanation reaction. ... 

The asymmetric version of the olefin cyclopropanation reaction has also been described with a chiral fran5-Tpp Cu complex (Scheme 8), that led to enantiomeric excess (ee) values in the 80-85% range for both cis and trans isomers in the reaction of styrene and EDA7 ... 

It has been reported that it is possible to fix the preformed copper poly(pyrazolyl)borate complexes Cu(Tp ) and Cu(pzTp) on silica gel and use them under heterogeneous conditions as catalysts for the olefin cyclopropanation reaction. The catalytic activity is similar to that found in homogeneous conditions as a consequence of a ligand-to-support interaction that likely involve the hydroxyl groups of the silica gel surface and the borohydride B-H or the nitrogen atom of a pyrazolyl ring.537... 

The [Cu(Bp)] system has been employed to investigate kinetics of the ethyl diazoacetate decomposition reaction in the presence or absence of olefin. The available data have allowed the proposition for a copper-mediated olefin cyclopropanation reaction. It has been proposed that the real catalyst is a 14-electron species, independent of the nature of the ligand bonded to the copper center.50... 

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