Organolithium reagents, nucleophile addition

In contrast to the extraordinarily high preference for endo attack observed with camphor (1), nucleophilic additions of organolithium and Grignard reagents to norcamphor (3) proceed with exclusive attack of the nucleophile from the exo face of the carbonyl group. 

Organolithium Reagents/Sparteine Combinations as Chiral Nucleophiles for Enantioselective Additions... 

Scheme 7.4 illustrates some of the important synthetic reactions in which organolithium reagents act as nucleophiles. The range of reactions includes S/v2-(ype alkylation (Entries 1 to 3), epoxide ring opening (Entry 4), and formation of alcohols by additions to aldehydes and ketones (Entries 5 to 10). Note that in Entry 2, alkylation takes place mainly at the 7-carbon of the allylic system. The ratio favoring 7-alkylation... 

Complexation of enones with MAD can be used to effect conjugate additions with organolithium reagents. This unusual 1,4-selectivity is observed mainly with cyclic systems and requires 2 equiv. of the aluminum reagent as well as of the nucleophile for full effect. 

The chemical behavior of heteroatom-substituted vinylcarbene complexes is similar to that of a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (Figure 2.17) [206]. It is possible to perform Michael additions [217,230], 1,4-addition of cuprates [151], additions of nucleophilic radicals [231], 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions [232,233], inter-[234-241] or intramolecular [220,242] Diels-Alder reactions, as well as Simmons-Smith- [243], sulfur ylide- [244] or diazomethane-mediated [151] cyclopropanati-ons of the vinylcarbene C-C double bond. The treatment of arylcarbene complexes with organolithium reagents ean lead via conjugate addition to substituted 1,4-cyclohexadien-6-ylidene complexes [245]. 

The most important application of organolithium reagents is their nucleophilic addition to carbonyl compounds. One of the simplest cases would be the reaction with the molecule CO itself, whose products are stable at room temperature. Recently, it was shown that a variety of RLi species are able to react with CO or f-BuNC in a newly developed liquid xenon (LXe) cell . LXe was used as reaction medium because it suppresses electron-transfer reactions, which are known to complicate the reaction . In this way the carbonyllithium and acyllithium compounds, as well as the corresponding isolobal isonitrile products, could be characterised by IR spectroscopy for the first time. 

Dimethylpyrimido[4,5-f]pyridazine-5,7-dione 23 and its derivatives undergo attack at both C-3 and C-4. Under conditions of kinetic control, addition occurs preferentially at the more electron-deficient C, whereas thermodynamic control conditions, or the use of bulkier nucleophiles, favor addition at the less hindered position 3. This duality is illustrated by the addition of Grignard and organolithium reagents to C of 3-chloro analogue 24 (Equation 9), whereas stabilized nucleophiles such as the anion of nitromethane add at C-3 (Scheme 10) <2000CHE975>. Displacement of the 3-chloride occurs also upon treatment of 24 with amines (Equation 10) <2000CHE1213>. 

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