Onium carbanion

The representative reaction system applied in asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis is the biphasic system composed of an organic phase containing an acidic methylene or methine compound and an electrophile, and an aqueous or solid phase of inorganic base such as alkaline metal (Na, K, Cs) hydroxide or carbonate. The key reactive intermediate in this type of reaction is the onium carbanion species, mostly onium enolate or nitronate, which reacts with the electrophile in the organic phase to afford the product. 

The exact pathway for generating the reactive onium carbanion species remains the subject of controversy, typically among Starks extraction mechanism (Scheme 1.2) and the Makosza interfacial mechanism (Scheme 1.3). 

Clearly, the area of the interface and the basicity of the inorganic salt affect the amount of available onium carbanion. It should be also noted that an excessively lipophilic phase-transfer catalyst would hardly access the interface, and consequently the use of such a catalyst would result in an insufficient reaction. 

The onium carbanion formed under phase-transfer conditions is unstable depending on the anion source, and in the absence of an electrophilic reaction partner, degradation of the accumulated onium carbanion in the organic phase may be observed. This is known to proceed via Hoffman elimination, nucleophilic substitution and/or Stevens rearrangement (Scheme 1.4) [4f,6,7]. The direct decomposition of onium salt, as influenced by the strong inorganic base at the interface, may be also operative. 

Cation exchange from the metal cation to the onium carbanion improves the intrinsic reactivity of the latter due to formation of the naked anion . At the same time, the... 

The fate of the onium carbanion Q+R incorporated into the organic phase depends on the electrophilic reaction partner. The most studied area in the asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis is that of asymmetric alkylation of active methylene or methine compounds with alkyl halides, in an irreversible manner. The reaction mechanism illustrated above is exemplified by the asymmetric alkylation of glycine Schiff base (Scheme 1.5) [8]. 

Unlike the nucleophilic substitution reactions which generate stable onium halide after the reaction, nucleophilic additions to electrophilic C=X double bonds (X=C, N, O) provide rather basic onium anion species as an initial product. If the anion is sufficiently stable under the reaction conditions, onium anion will then exchange the counter ion for the other metal carbanion at the interface to regenerate the reactive onium carbanion Q+R. In another scenario, the basic onium anion may abstract the acidic hydrogen atom of the other substrate to provide Q 1 R directly. Such a reaction system ideally requires only a catalytic amount of the base although, in general, a substoichiometric or excess amount of the base is used to lead the reaction to completion. An additional feature of this system is the substantial possibility of a retro-process at the crucial asymmetric induction step, which might be problematic in some cases. 

Figure 14.1 Pathways for generating the reactive onium carbanion species.

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