Organometallic compounds reagents

Many syntheses use alkyl halides as starting materials for making more complex molecules. The conversion of alkyl halides to organometallic reagents (compounds containing carbon-metal bonds) is a particularly important tool for organic synthesis. We discuss the formation of organometallic compounds in Section 10-8. 

To show how these general principles of nucleophilic substitution and addition apply to carbonyl compounds, we are going to discuss oxidation and reduction reactions, and reactions with organometallic reagents—compounds that contain carbon-metal bonds. We begin with reduction to build on what you learned previously in Chapter 12. 

Application of 7r-allylpalladium chemistry to organic synthesis has made remarkable progress[l]. As deseribed in Chapter 3, Seetion 3, Tt-allylpalladium complexes react with soft carbon nucleophiles such as maionates, /3-keto esters, and enamines in DMSO to form earbon-carbon bonds[2, 3], The characteristie feature of this reaction is that whereas organometallic reagents are eonsidered to be nucleophilic and react with electrophiles, typieally earbonyl eompounds, Tt-allylpalladium complexes are electrophilie and reaet with nucleophiles such as active methylene compounds, and Pd(0) is formed after the reaction. 

Before we describe the applications of organometallic reagents to organic synthesis let us examine their preparation Organolithium compounds and other Group I organometal he compounds are prepared by the reaction of an alkyl halide with the appropriate metal... 

When planning the synthesis of a compound using an organometallic reagent or indeed any synthesis the best approach is to reason backward from the product This method is called retrosynthetic analysis Retro synthetic analysis of 1 methylcyclohexanol suggests it can be prepared by the reaction of methylmagnesmm bromide and cyclohexanone... 

There is another possible mechanism for addition of organometallic reagents to carbonyl compounds. This involves a discrete electron-transfer step. °... 

The distinguishing feature of this mechanism is the second step, in which an electron is transferred fixim the organometallic reagent to the carbonyl compound to give the radical... 

Nitriles are similar in some respects to carboxylic acids and are prepared either by SN2 reaction of an alkyl halide with cyanide ion or by dehydration of an amide. Nitriles undergo nucleophilic addition to the polar C=N bond in the same way that carbonyl compounds do. The most important reactions of nitriles are their hydrolysis to carboxylic acids, reduction to primary amines, and reaction with organometallic reagents to yield ketones. 

In his original paper,2 Cram disclosed an alternative model that rationalizes the preferred stereochemical course of nucleophilic additions to chiral carbonyl compounds containing an a heteroatom that is capable of forming a complex with the organometallic reagent. This model, known as the Cram cyclic or Cram chelate model, has been extensively studied by Cram9 and by others,410... 

The addition of an achiral organometallic reagent (R M) to a chiral carbonyl compound 1 (see Section 1.3.1.1.) leads to a mixture of diastercomers 2 (syn/anti) which can be either racemic, or enantiomerically enriched or pure, depending on whether the substrates are race-mates or pure enantiomers. This section incorporates only those reactions starting from optically pure a-amino aldehydes, however, optical purity of the starting material has not been demonstrated in all cases. 

In most cases of diastereoselective nucleophilic addition reactions where achiral organometallic reagents are added to chiral carbonyl compounds, the chirulity inducing asymmetric center is in close vicinity to the newly created center and cannot be removed without the loss of chirality of either the inducing center or the newly formed center. This type of reaction is very useful in propagating chirality in a molecule from one center to an adjacent one, or in immolative processes. 

As well as the addition of achiral organometallic reagents to chiral aldehydes (see also Sections 1.3.2. and 1.3.3.), the addition of chiral organometallic reagents to carbonyl compounds is a well-known and intensively studied process which may lead to enantiomerically and/or diastereomerically enriched products. Chiral organometallic reagents can be classified into three groups ... 

Among the a-hetero-substituted chiral organometallic reagents, a-lithio ethers 2 are an important class of compounds. A general route to these compounds is the reductive lithiation of a-(phcnylthio) ethers 1 with lithium (dimethylamino)naphthalenide (I.DMAN)4,5. The generality of this method lies in the ready availability of various types of a-(phenylthio) ethers. 

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