Organometallic reagents substitution

Alkylations are also possible by nucleophilic displacement of a chlorine atom using an organometallic reagent. Substitution occurs faster when the silicon atom is pentacoordinated and the rate of the reaction depends upon the size of the ring, reflecting the strength of the coordination.269... 

There are a wide variety of methods for introduction of substituents at C3. Since this is the preferred site for electrophilic substitution, direct alkylation and acylation procedures are often effective. Even mild electrophiles such as alkenes with EW substituents can react at the 3-position of the indole ring. Techniques for preparation of 3-lithioindoles, usually by halogen-metal exchange, have been developed and this provides access not only to the lithium reagents but also to other organometallic reagents derived from them. The 3-position is also reactive toward electrophilic mercuration. 

Carbanions are very useful intermediates in the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. This is true both for unstabilized structures found in organometallic reagents and stabilized structures such as enolates. Carbanions can participate as nucleophiles both in addition and in substitution reactions. At this point, we will discuss aspects of the reactions of carbanions as nucleophiles in reactions that proceed by the 8 2 mechanism. Other synthetic aj lications of carbanions will be discussed more completely in Part B. 

The most common reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives are substitution by water (hydrolysis) to yield an acid, by an alcohol (alcoholysis) to yield an ester, by an amine (aminolysis) to yield an amide, by hydride ion to yield an alcohol (reduction), and by an organometallic reagent to yield an alcohol (Grignard reaction). 

Especially in the early steps of the synthesis of a complex molecule, there are plenty of examples in which epoxides are allowed to react with organometallic reagents. In particular, treatment of enantiomerically pure terminal epoxides with alkyl-, alkenyl-, or aryl-Grignard reagents in the presence of catalytic amounts of a copper salt, corresponding cuprates, or metal acetylides via alanate chemistry, provides a general route to optically active substituted alcohols useful as valuable building blocks in complex syntheses. 

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. 

The only preparative limitation to this method is the occasional coproduction of alkenyl-boronates that presumably arise via a-elimination pathways of the ate complex generated upon addition of the organometallic reagent to the a-haloalkylboronate4,29-30. This problem is illustrated in the synthesis of 5-(rm-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-2-pentenyl-substituted dioxaborolane30. 

Addition of Grignard and organolithium reagents to imines 2. derived from enantiomerically pure (S)-valinol (1), provides a-substituted phenethylamines 3 in moderate to good yield and excellent diastereoselectivity (in each case only one diastereomer can be detected by NMR)15. By appropriate selection of imine and organometallic reagent both diastereomeric amines are accessible (see also refs 16 and 17). 

Some covalent compounds, such as a-aminonitriles D (formation of an iminium ion by solvolysis) or TV-substituted 1,3-oxazolidincs E can be regarded as masked iminium salts because there is evidence that in reactions of these species with organometallic reagents iminium intermediates are involved101214-17. 

The central bond of the l-(arylsulfonyl)bicyclo[1.1.0]butane system behaves like the double bond of a, /i-unsaturated sulfones to give alkyl-substituted cyclobutyl aryl sulfones on treatment with organometallic reagents (equation 20)17. This method has been applied... 

Bromo compounds are useful intermediates for the synthesis of a range of more complicated organic compounds via direct substitution or by prior conversion into organometallic reagents. They therefore hold a key position in the synthesis of fine chemicals. This position demands that more selective methods for the synthesis of bromo compounds also be developed. In this report we have illustrated the development of selected syntheses of bromoaromatic compounds and demonstrated new ways in which they can be applied in synthetic procedures. 

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