Oxazole derivatives cyclopropanation

Much of the early work into the rhodium(II)-catalysed formation of oxazoles from diazocarbonyl compounds was pioneered by the group of Helquist. They first reported, in 1986, the rhodium(II) acetate catalysed reaction of dimethyl diazomalonate with nitriles.<86TL5559, 93T5445, 960S(74)229> A range of nitriles was screened, including aromatic, alkyl and vinyl derivatives with unsaturated nitriles, cyclopropanation was found to be a competing reaction (Table 3). 

The meso-ionic 1,3-oxazol-S-ones show an incredible array of cycloaddition reactions. Reference has already been made to the cycloaddition reactions of the derivative 50, which are interpreted as involving cycloaddition to the valence tautomer 51. In addition, an extremely comprehensive study of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of meso-ionic l,3-oxazol-5-ones (66) has been undertaken by Huisgen and his co-workers. The 1,3-dipolarophiles that have been examined include alkenes, alkynes, aldehydes, a-keto esters, a-diketones, thiobenzophenone, thiono esters, carbon oxysulfide, carbon disulfide, nitriles, nitro-, nitroso-, and azo-compounds, and cyclopropane and cyclobutene derivatives. In these reactions the l,3-oxazol-5-ones (66)... 

Of the many substituted and functionalized alkenes that have been combined with diazo dipoles to give A -pyrazolines or products derived from them (i.e., A -pyrazolines, pyrazoles, cyclopropanes), only a selection will be mentioned. These include ot-alkylidene-cycloalkanones (62), -flavanones, -thioflavanones, -chroma-nones, and thiochromanones (63,64) a-arylidene-indanones and -indolones (65) diarylideneacetones (66) l-benzopyran-2(77)-ones (coumarins) (67,68) 4-nitro-1,2-oxazoles (69) 2-alkylidene-2-cyanoacetates (70) dimethyl 2,3-dicyanofuma-rate (71) tetracyanoethylene (72) tetraethyl ethylenetetracarboxylate (72) 1,4-quinones (35,73-75) 2-X-l,l,l-trifluoro-2-propene [X = Br, (76), SPh, SOPh, S02Ph (77)] nitroalkenes (78) including sugar nitroalkenes (79) 1-diethoxyphos-phoryl-1-alkenyl-sulfoxides (80) methyl 2-(acetylamino)cinnamate and -acrylate... 

The enantioselective cyclopropanation of styrene with diazoacetic esters has been tested to evaluate a variety of other chiral copper catalysts, but the enantiomeric excesses were never as high as in the aforementioned cases. With a chiral 1,6-bis(4,5-dihydro-l, 3-oxazol-2-yl) ligand, the ee-values dropped to 28% trans) and 0% (c/s). Similar low values were observed when chiral derivatives of 2,2 -bipyridyl and related chelating compounds were used as ligands.Only moderate ee-values also resulted when copper(Il) tartrate, or the catalyst derived from copper(I) triflate and borate 3, was applied. 

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