Phenol chromium carbene

The convergent approach comprises, among other reaction steps, a regio-specific intermolecular benzannulation reaction between the alkyne 88 and the chromium carbene complex 89 for AB ring construction (Scheme 43). It is noteworthy that the regioselectivity of this reaction is attributed to the bulky TBDMS ether in the alkyne a-substituent, that dictates the incorporation of the large substituent ortho to the phenol. Another curiosity is the fact that the reaction failed to provide 90 in the absence of acetic anhydride. 

Density functional calculations on the Dotz reaction leading from chromium carbene (75) with acetylene to give the phenol (78) suggested a new mechanism involving the formation of a chromahexatriene complex (77) from the initially formed vinylallyl-idene complex (76). " Complex (77) then collapses to the phenol complex (78). 

Alkynyl complexes. These complexes, which are readily available by reaction of an alkynyllithium with chromium carbonyl followed by methylation with CH3OSO2F, undergo facile Diels-Alder reactions with dienes to provide a general route to ,p-un-saturated chromium carbene complexes. The latter undergo benzannelation or cyclo-hexadienone annelation on reaction with an alkyne. A (trimethylsilyl)ethynyl complex is useful because benzannelation results in migration of silicon from carbon to oxygen to provide a protected phenol. 

Sugar acetylene reacted with a Fisher chromium carbene complex to give a phenol derivative, a possible intermediate for naturally occurring aryl-C-glycoside antibiotics (O Scheme 34) [55]. 

In the Dotz reaction, an unsaturated chromium carbene complex is combined with an alkyne to give a substituted phenol. The unsaturated group may be an alkenyl, cycloalkenyl, or aryl group. There is almost always a methoxy or other alkoxy group attached to the carbene. 

Fischer-type chromium carbene complexes with 1-ethoxycyclopropylalkynyl substituents at the carbene carbon, e.g. 25, on reaction with dimethylamine and subsequent conversion of the resulting vinylcarbene with alkynes surprisingly did not give phenol derivatives, as would be expected from the known Dotz reaction, but gave cyclopenta[ )]pyrans, e.g. 26. The reaction is interpreted as a double alkyne-insertion/CO-insertion sequence with formation of a trienylketene intermediate, which undergoes intramolecular hetero-Diels-Alder cycloaddition and dimethylamine elimination. ... 

C. A. Merlic made use of this procedure in a benzannulation reaction leading to ortho-substituted phenols. Note that the photochemical method perfectly complements the Dotz-reaction which gives p-alkoxyphenols from chromium carbene complexes and alkynes. 

Three component cyclization of an aromatic or vinylic alkoxy pentacarbonyl chromium carbene complex, an alkyne, and carbon monoxide, generating a Cr(CO)3 coordinated phenol ... 

The currently accepted mechanism of the DBR is shown above. The rate-determining step is thought to be loss of a carbon monoxide ligand to form a coordinatively unsaturated intermediate II. This process can be facilitated thermally or photolytically. An alkyne can then coordinate to form 12. The alkyne inserts into the carbene heteroatom bond to give a new chromium carbene 13. At this point there are at least two possible pathways. In the first pathway, carbon monoxide can insert to provide chromium complexed ketene 14, which undergoes electrocyclization to give the hexadienone 15. Tautomerization completes the reaction to provide the phenol 2. Alternatively, metallacycle 16 can form prior to carbon monoxide insertion. Reductive elimination before carbon monoxide insertion leads to pentadiene 5, a commonly observed by-products of the DBR. Cyclopentanones 6, cyclobutenones 7, and indenes have also been observed as by-products in the... 

Seperately Wulff has described the effect on selectivity and yield of substitution on the aryl ring of chromium carbene complexes. It was shown that electron-withdrawing groups para- to the chromium carbene increase the chemoselectivity for benzannulation. Substituents in the ortho position are detrimental to phenol formation irrespective of the substituent s electronic nature. Finally, it was shown that large alkoxy groups on the earbene earbon (1, X = OR) give increased yields of the desired phenol product. 

This acylation strategy was used to prepare pol5mier-supported chromium carbenes. Microwave irradiation on Wang resin shows the same regioselectivity as solution chemistry but fewer side products. The resin-bound phenol 21 is simultaneously released and oxidized to the benzoquinone 22 with ceric ammonium nitrate. Microwave irradiation has been shown to accelerate the DBR and provide high yields of benzannulated products in short reaction times (ca. 5 min). ... 

As stated above, the reaction is highly valuable for both the synthesis of highly substituted phenols and further conversion of these phenols to quinones. Harrity has described optimized conditions for DBR using boronate esters requiring three equivalents of alkyne. Anderson applied these conditions toward sytheses of boronate-substituted quinones. Chromium carbene 26 reacts with boronate 27 in 48% yield over two steps to give the quinone 28. ... 

Organometallic reagents were used for the synthesis of bicyclic aromatic compounds via Moore-type cyclization. Rahm and Wulff described the new synthesis of 5-hydroxyindolines with the use of a chromium carbene complex bearing alkynyl substituent 22." The amino-tethered bis-alkynyl carbene complex 22 was transformed into indoline 23 by thermolysis in the presence of a hydrogen source. The low yield of product 23 was improved when the reaction was carried out in the presence of the electrophile, added to protect the phenol function. This process involves the insertion of one carbon monoxide group from the chromium complex into the skeleton of an eneyne compound 24. The resulting enyne-ketene 25 undergoes a cycloaromatization reaction to afford the 1,4-diradical intermediate 26. Subsequent demetalation yields product 23."... 

The [3+2+1] cycloaddition of an a, 3-unsaturated or aryl carbene complex of chromium, an alkyne, and carbon monoxide, that is named the Dotz benzannulation, is a useful method for the synthesis of a phenol or naphthol derivative, although this reaction requires a stoichiometric amount of the chromium carbene complex of chromium [35]. A mechanism of this reaction is shown in Scheme 21.31. When unsymmetrical alleynes are used, the regioselectivity is determined in the alkyne insertion step by the steric effect. 

Structural analogues of the /]4-vinylketene E were isolated by Wulff, Rudler and Moser [15]. The enaminoketene complex 11 was obtained from an intramolecular reaction of the chromium pentacarbonyl carbene complex 10. The silyl vinylketene 13 was isolated from the reaction of the methoxy(phenyl)-carbene chromium complex 1 and a silyl-substituted phenylacetylene 12, and -in contrast to alkene carbene complex 7 - gave the benzannulation product 14 after heating to 165 °C in acetonitrile (Scheme 6). The last step of the benzannulation reaction is the tautomerisation of the /]4-cyclohexadienone F to afford the phenol product G. The existence of such an intermediate and its capacity to undergo a subsequent step was validated by Wulff, who synthesised an... 

A plausible pathway is that the aromatisation of the cyclohexadienone 92 by a proton shift is accelerated in the presence of Ac20 under formation of acetate 93. The simultaneously generated acetic acid then cleaves the acetate to form the free phenol 94 (Scheme 44). This effect was observed for the first time during studies towards the total synthesis of the lipid-alternating and anti-atherosclerotic furochromone khellin 99 [64].The furanyl carbene chromium complex 96 was supposed to react with alkoxyalkyne 95 in a benzannulation reaction to give the densely substituted benzofuran derivative 97 (Scheme 45). Upon warming the reaction mixture in tetrahydrofuran to 65 °C the reaction was completed in 4 h, but only a dimerisation product could be isolated. This... 

Arene(alkoxy)carbene chromium complexes react with aryl-, alkyl-, terminal, or internal alkynes in ethers or acetonitrile to yield 4-alkoxy-1-naphthols, with the sterically more demanding substituent of the alkyne (Rl Figure 2.24) ortho to the hydroxy group. Acceptor-substituted alkynes can also be used in this reaction (Entry 4, Table 2.17) [331]. Donor-substituted alkynes can however lead to the formation of other products [191,192]. Also (diarylcarbene)pentacarbonyl chromium complexes can react with alkynes to yield phenols [332]. 

The stepwise coupling of two cis ligands as depicted in Scheme 3 has been verified as involving a sequence of three discrete steps at low temperatures, allowing the isolation of the relevant intermediates as individual compounds [18]. When a chelated tetracarbonyl amino-vinyl carbene complex (chelated analogue of intermediate B in Scheme 3) was reacted with an electron-deficient alkyne under controlled conditions, a l,4,5- 3-dienylcarbene tetracarbonyl chromium complex (corresponding to intermediate D in Scheme 3) was formed. It underwent thermal decomposition to give phenol derivatives as the final products. 

The reactions of Fischer carbene complexes with alkynes can under certain conditions lead to products that result from the incorporation of two alkynes, the carbene ligand and a carbon monoxide. In inter-molecular reactions, this is most commonly observed for acetylene itself or for sterically unhindered al-kynes. °2 As can be anticipated by the mechanism in Scheme 36, two-alkyne incorporated products of the type (258) are also favored for high alkyne concentration. Synthetically, the two-alkyne reactions are most useful in intramolecular reactions, two of which have been reported and are exemplified by the reactions in Scheme 43. The typical product from the reaction of a Fischer carbene complex with a diyne, such as (308), is a bicyclic phenol of the type (309). ° These products are apparently the result of the assembly of pieces indicated by (311). Under some conditions, dienones of the type (310) and (314) can be isolated, and it is thought they are the immediate precursors of the phenol products via an in situ reduction by a chromium(O) species. This reaction is completely regioselective with diyne (308) and the phenol (309) results from incorporation of the terminal alkyne of (308) before the disubstituted alkyne. Phenols of the type (309) have also been observed from the reaction of diynes with carbyne complexes. ... 

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