Organolithium butyllithium

Most isothiazoles are lithiated at the 5-position by the action of butyllithium or other organolithium compounds, provided that this position is vacant (65AHC(4)107, 72AHC(14)l, 77SST(4)339). 3-Methyl-4-nitroisothiazole, however, is inert (65AHC(4)107). 2,1-... 

Crystal structure determination has also been done with -butyllithium. A 4 1 n-BuLi TMEDA complex is a tetramer accommodating two TMEDA molecules, which, rather than chelating a lithium, link the tetrameric units. The 2 2 -BuLi TMEDA complex has a structure similar to that of [PhLi]2 [TMEDA]2. Both 1 1 -BuLi THF and 1 1 -BuLi DME complexes are tetrameric with ether molecules coordinated at each lithium (Fig. 7.2). These and many other organolithium structures have been compared in a review of this topic. ... 

The reaction of butyllithium with 1-naphthaldehyde cyclohexylimine in the presence of (/C )-l,2-diphenylethane-1,2-diol dimethyl ether in toluene at —78 °C, followed by treatment with acetate buffer, gave 2-butyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene-l-carbaldehyde, which was then reduced with sodium borohydride in methanol to afford (1 R,2.S)-2-butyl-1 -hydroxymcthyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene in 80% overall yield with 91 % ee83. Similarly, the enantioselective conjugate addition of organolithium reagents to several a,/J-unsaturated aldimines took place in the presence of C2-symmetric chiral diethers, such as (/, / )-1,2-butanediol dimethyl ether and (/, / )- ,2-diphenylethane-1,2-diol dimethyl ether. 

The first stable silaallene, 56, was synthesized in 1993 " " by the intramolecular attack of an organolithium reagent at the /f-carbon of a fluoroalkynylsilane (Scheme 16). Addition of two equivalents of r-butyllithium in toluene at O C to compound 54 gave intermediate 55. The a-lithiofluorosilane then eliminated lithium fluoride at room temperature to form the 1-silaallene 56, which was so sterically hindered that it did not react with ethanol even at reflux temperatures. 1-Silaallene 56 was the first, and so far the only, multiply bonded silicon species to be unreactive toward air and water. The X-ray crystal structure and NMR spectra of 56 is discussed in Sect. IVA. 

Alternatively, organolithium reagents of the type (CH3)3SiCH(Li)Z, where Z is a carbanion-stabilizing substituent, can be prepared by deprotonation of (CH3)3SiCH2Z with -butyllithium. 

Unsymmetrical dienynes react regioselectively with organolithium compounds at the less substituted double bond (Scheme 2.37). Thus, addition of n-butyllithium to 2-methylhexa-l,5-dien-3-yne (107) led after hydrolysis to vinylallene 108, whereas the corresponding carbolithiation of the linear isomer 109 furnished product 110 with 55% yield [68]. 

A more recent application of this chemistry was reported by Oestreich and Hoppe [74] and involved the enantioselective deprotonation of the enyne carbamate ester 125 with sec-butyllithium in the presence of (-)-sparteine (Scheme 2.41). Removal of the pro-S hydrogen atom led to the corresponding organolithium intermediate, which then underwent a highly enantioselective intramolecular 1,4-addition to the enyne. Protonation of the resulting allenyllithium species 126 provided a 70 30 mixture of the two diastereomeric allenes 127. 

Self-condensations are another set of important reactions of organolithium compounds. Tamao and Kawachi had reported that [(tert-butoxy diphenyl)silyl]lithium (20) exhibited ambiphUic character, and underwent a self-condensation reaction to give a [2- tert-butoxy)disilynyl]lithium derivative in THF as shown in Scheme 4, and also a nucleophilic substitution reaction with n-butyllithium . 

The complex formation between ethyl and t-butyllithium in benzene was later investigated by Weiner and West by spectroscopic methods. The new organolithium compounds differ from any pure component, but contain both types of alkyl groups bonded to lithium. 

In order to determine the strnctnres of the intermediate organolithium compounds, 1-phenylpropyne was metalated with 4 equivalents of w-butyllithium in refluxing cyclohexane . One hour later, no absorption due to lithiated phenylpropynes was detected. The IR spectrum showed only a strong peak at 1775 cm due to a trilithioallene, which gradually became much stronger. Apparently, the introduction of the first Li atom is much slower than subsequent lithiations, so no mono- and dilithiated species were observed in the IR spectrum. 

How well an organolithium reagent fares as an exchange component depends on its basicity. Thus, tert-butyllithium outperforms iec-butyllithium, which in turn is superior to butyllithium. MethyUithium is the least reactive alkyllithium but still surpasses phenyl-lithium, at least at low concentrations, i.e. the order is ... 

Standard organolithium reagents such as butyllithium, ec-butyllithium or tert-butyllithium deprotonate rapidly, if not instantaneously, the relatively acidic hydrocarbons of the 1,4-diene, diaryhnethane, triarylmethane, fluorene, indene and cyclopentadiene families and all terminal acetylenes (1-alkynes) as well. Butyllithium alone is ineffective toward toluene but its coordination complex with A/ ,A/ ,iV, iV-tetramethylethylenediamine does produce benzyllithium in high yield when heated to 80 To introduce metal into less reactive hydrocarbons one has either to rely on neighboring group-assistance or to employ so-called superbases. 

However, either for aliphatic or aromatic amines, the corresponding S-phenylthio derivatives are adequate precursors in order to generate /i-amido organoUthium intermediates. Starting materials 157 were successively treated with n-butyllithium and lithinm in the presence of a catalytic amount of DTBB (15%) in THF at —78 °C giving the expected functionalized organolithium intermediates 158, which reacted with different electrophiles to afford, after hydrolysis, the corresponding products 159 (Scheme 56) " ". 

The only way to introduce two different electrophilic fragments in compounds such as 508 is to have a starting material with different halogens. This is the case with 510, which could be lithiated (bromide-lithium exchange) with t-butyllithium in THF at — 100°C giving intermediates 511, which reacted with a carbonyl compound R R CO and, after naphthalene-catalyzed lithiation, gave the new functionalized organolithium intermediate 512. Final reaction with 3-pentanone followed by hydrolysis yielded mixed products 513 (Scheme 142) °. 

Configurational stability has also been confirmed for various metalated carbamates by Hoppe and coworkers. Remarkably, carbamate-protected alcohols such as 20 are deprotonated enantioselectively, when treated with i-butyllithium in the presence of (—)-sparteine. The lithium carbenoids like 21 (R = alkyl) thus generated turn out to retain their configuration (equation 11). Similar results have been obtained for a-lithiated amines and carbamate protected amines " . As a rule, dipole stabilization of the organolithium compounds in general also enhances the configurational stability of a-oxygen-substituted lithium carbenoids. 

When the protocol is applied to allylcarbamates 170, the deprotonation in the presence of (—)-sparteine does not occur with kinetic preference. Indeed, a dynamic resolntion by crystallization takes place. The epimeric allylfithinm componnds 171 and 172 are eqni-librating, whereby one of them crystallizes predominantly. Under optimized conditions, when n-butyllithium is used for the deprotonation and cyclohexane serves as a cosolvent, the preference of the diastereomer 172 leads to snbstimtion products in 90-94% gg393-395 enantioselective homoaldol reaction has been developed based on this protocol Transmetalation of the organolithium into the titaninm compound occnrring nnder inversion of the configuration (172 173) and subseqnent addition to aldehydes leads to... 

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