Organozinc compounds copper-catalyzed reactions

More attractive copper-catalyzed (mediated) transformations of allenes into alkynes were reported by Caporusso and co-workers [27f, 73-75], Allenes 142 were converted into alkynes 143 by treatment with stoichiometric amounts of a cuprate species, as exemplified in Scheme 14.35. The problem of regioselective formation of either alkyne 143 or allene 144 was solved by the proper choice of the organometallic species. Preferential formation of alkynes 143 could be achieved employing cuprates such as R3Cu(CN)ZnCl-LiCl, which are prepared from organozinc compounds. On the other hand, reactions of organomagnesium derived cuprates (R3CuBr)Mg-LiBr mostly provided allenes 144 as major components. 

There are a large number of reports on copper(I)-catalyzed conjugate additions, yet there is only scant information available about their reaction mechanisms. Recently, the conjugate addition of organozinc compounds to enones was found by Kitamura, Noyori, et al. to be catalyzed by N-benzylbenzenesulfonamide and CuCN, and the mechanism was scrutinized (Fig. 10.1). The kinetic rate was found to be first order in the concentrations of the catalyst that exist in equilibrium with R2Zn and enone [77]. 

The introduction of a polyfluorinated chain is not so easy as that of an alkyl chain. Transition metal catalyzed cross-coupling of Grignard reagents and organozinc compounds are inefficient in the synthesis of polyfluorinated 3-alkylthiophene. The copper-catalyzed perfluoroalkylation results in the formation of 2-and 3-substituted thiophenes, which are difficult to separate from each other. The reaction of fluorinated alkylmagnesium iodide with 3-formylthiophene, follwed by reduction with lithium aluminum hydride, gave (22) in an overall yield of 40% [27]. 

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