Olefins nitrile oxide cycloadditions

Although nitrile oxide cycloadditions have been extensively investigated, cycloadditions of silyl nitronates, synthetic equivalent of nitrile oxides in their reactions with olefins, have not received similar attention. Since we found that the initial cycloadducts, hl-silyloxyisoxazolidines, are formed with high degree of stereoselectivity and can be easily transformed into isoxazolines upon treatment with acid or TBAF, intramolecular silylnitronate-olefin cycloadditions (ISOC) have emerged as a superior alternative to their corresponding INOC reactions [43]. Furthermore, adaptability of ISOC reactions to one-pot tandem sequences involving 1,4-addition and ISOC as the key steps has recently been demonstrated [44]. 

Isoxazolines are good precursors of a,(3-unsaturated ketones.63,94 This transformation is useful for synthesis of polyenes. For example, nitrile oxide cycloaddition chemistry is used to prepare 4-oxo-2-alkenylphosphonates, which are useful to synthesize a long polyethylenic unit via Woodworth-Emmons olefination (Eq. 8.66).101... 

From the 1980s on, many efforts were directed toward asymmetric induction of nitrile oxide cycloadditions to give pure (dia)stereoisomeric isoxazolines, and acyclic products derived from them (17,18,20-23). The need to obtain optically active cycloaddition products for use in the synthesis of natural products was first served by using chiral olefins, relying on 1,2-asymmetric induction, and then with optically active aldehydes or nitro compounds for the nitrile oxide part. In the latter case, insufficient induction occurs using chiral nitrile oxides, a problem still unsolved today. Finally, in the last 5 years, the first cases of successful asymmetric catalysis were found (29), which will certainly constitute a major area of study in the coming decade. 

A large number of nitrile oxide cycloadditions to chiral olefins were reported from several groups in the early 1980s (16,18,20). A clear rationale of regioselec-tivity was developed only when the traditional view, which focused on ground-state conformers, was abandoned and calculational approaches to identify transition states and transition state conformations were refined (158,159). Calculations... 

A number of examples involving nitrile oxide cycloadditions to cyclic cis-disubstituted olefinic dipolarophiles was presented in the first edition of this treatise, notably to cyclobutene, cyclopentene, and to 2,5-dihydrofuran derivatives (15). The more recent examples discussed here also show, that the selectivity of the cycloaddition to 1,2-cis-disubstituted cyclobutenes depends on the type of substituent group present (Table 6.8 Scheme 6.41). The differences found can be explained in terms of the nonplanarity (i. e., pyramidalization) of the double bond in the transition state (15) and steric effects. In the cycloaddition to cis-3,4-diacetyl-(197) and cis-3,4-dichlorocyclobutene (198), the syn-pyramidalization of the carbon atoms of the double bond and the more facile anti deformability of the olefinic hydrogens have been invoked to rationalize the anti selectivity observed. 

Aliphatic nitro compounds are versatile building blocks and intermediates in organic synthesis,14 15 cf. the overview given in the Organic Syntheses preparation of nitroacetaldehyde diethyl acetal.16 For example, Henry and Michael additions, respectively, lead to 1,2- and 1,4-difunctionalized derivatives.14 18 1,3-Difunctional compounds, such as amino alcohols or aldols are accessible from primary nitroalkanes by dehydration/1,3-dipolar nitrile oxide cycloaddition with olefins (Mukaiyama reaction),19 followed by ring cleavage of intermediate isoxazolines by reduction or reduction/hydrolysis.20 21... 

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