Potassium pinacolate

During the enantioselective total synthesis of (-)-coriolin, I. Kuwajima and co-workers used a Darzens-type reaction to construct the spiro epoxide moiety on the triquinane skeleton. Interestingly, the usual Darzens condensation where the a-bromoketone was condensed with paraformaldehyde yielded a bromohydrin in which the hydroxymethyl group was introduced from the concave face of the molecule. This bromohydrin upon treatment with DBU gave the undesired stereochemistry at C3 (found in 3-ep/-coriolin). To obtain the correct stereochemistry at C3, the substituents were introduced in a reverse manner. It was also necessary to enhance the reactivity of the enolate with potassium pinacolate by generating a labile potassium enolate in the presence of NIS. The in situ formed iodohydrin, then cyclized to the spiro epoxide having the desired stereochemistry at C3. 

Base catalyzed pinacol rearrangement of vicinal m-glycol monotosylates is a simple and useful general method for preparing perhydroazulenes. Thus, treatment of cholestane-5a,6a-diol 6-tosylate (115a) with either one mole-equivalent of potassium t-butoxide in f-butanol at 25° or with calcium carbonate in dimethylformamide at 100° gives a quantitative yield of 10(5 6/5H)... 

A simple and direct approach to 10(5 4j H)<2Z)eo-5-lceto derivatives lacking functionality in ring A is the controlled pinacol rearrangement of vicinal cw-diols analogous to the process described in the previous section. An example is the reaction of cholestane-4a,5a-diol 4-tosylate (136) with 1 mole-equivalent of potassium t-butoxide or with dimethylforraamide-calcium carbonate at reflux which gives a quantitative yield of Q(5ApH)abeo-cholestan-5-one (137). ... 

A solution of potassium naphthalenide is prepared from 2.0 g (50 mmol) of potassium and 6.4 g (50 mmol) of naphthalene in 40 mL ofTHF. After 1 h at r.t. this mixture is diluted with 10 mL of diethyl ether and 10 mL of petroleum ether (bp 40-60 °C) and cooled to — 120 °C. 4.5 g (25 mmol) of ( )-l-methoxy-3-phenylthio-1-propcne arc added followed by 3.36 g (25 mmol) of chlorobis(l-dimethylamino)borane. This mixture is allowed to warm to r.t. over 3 h the solvents are removed in vacuo and the residue is carefully distilled through a 5-cm column at 10 2 Torr. The distillate, containing also naphthalene, is dissolved in 30 mL of diethyl ether and treated with 2.95 g (25 mmol) of pinacol for 3 h. The crude product is chromatographed over 30 g of basic alumina (activity 1) using petroleum ether (bp 40 -60°C) giving 9.2 g of a mixture of product and naphthalene the yield of product (89% E) is determined to be 60% by H-NMR analysis. Similarly prepared is ... 

A. 1,1-Dibromo-2,2-bis(chloromethyl)cyclopropane (1). Into a 1-L, threenecked, round-bottomed flask, equipped with an efficient mechanical stirrer, a thermometer, and a condenser equipped with a potassium hydroxide drying tube, are placed 54.1 g (0.403 mol) of 3-chloro-2-(chloromethyl)propene (Note 1), 212 g (0.805 mol) of bromoform (Note 2), 1.70-2.00 g (14.4-16.9 mmol) of pinacol (Note 3), and 1.45 g (3.94 mmol) of dibenzo-18-crown-6 (Note 4). With very vigorous stirring (Note 5), 312 g of an aqueous 50% sodium hydroxide solution that has been cooled to 15°C is added in one portion. The reaction mixture turns orange, then brown, then black within 5 min, and the temperature of the reaction mixture begins to rise. Within 20 min, the internal reaction temperature is 49-50°C at which point the reaction flask is cooled with a room-temperature water bath, and the reaction temperature decreases to ca. 

An interesting deoxygenation of ketones takes place on treatment with low valence state titanium. Reagents prepared by treatment of titanium trichloride in tetrahydrofuran with lithium aluminum hydride [205], with potassium [206], with magnesium [207], or in dimethoxyethane with lithium [206] or zinc-copper couple [206,209] convert ketones to alkenes formed by coupling of the ketone carbon skeleton at the carbonyl carbon. Diisopropyl ketone thus gave tetraisopropylethylene (yield 37%) [206], and cyclic and aromatic ketones afforded much better yields of symmetrical or mixed coupled products [206,207,209]. The formation of the alkene may be preceded by pinacol coupling. In some cases a pinacol was actually isolated and reduced by low valence state titanium to the alkene [206] (p. 118). 

The LIC-KOR reagent consisting of stoichiometrically equal amounts of butyllithium ( LIC ) and potassium feri-butoxide ( KOR ) was conceived in Heidelberg and optimized in a trial-and-error effort . The fundamental idea was simple. To activate butyllithium optimally by deaggregation and carbon-metal bond polarization, a ligand was required that would surpass as an electron donor any crown ether but not suffer from the drawback of the latter, i.e. its proneness to /3-elimination. Whereas pinacolates and other v/c-diolates proved too labile to be generally useful, potassium terf-butoxide or any other bulky, hence relatively soluble, potassium or cesium alkoxide was found to serve the purpose. ... 

This sequence bears an interesting resemblance to a one-step couphng reaction developed many decades later, a transform that would seem apphcable to the synthesis of DES if that were still an important drug. Thus, treatment of acetophenone (4-1) with titanium trichloride has been demonstrated to yield initially the pinacol product (4-2) if a reducing agent such as potassium metal is present, the glycol is eliminated to form a double bond. The product (4-3) consists predominantly ( 90%) of the tmns isomer [4]. 

While norbornene, norbornadiene, 2-triallkylsilylnorbornadiene, and 1,3,5-cycloheptatriene are selectively deprotonated by the LIC-NAOR mixture (butyllithium/sodium /f 7-butoxide), other less acidic substrates such as bicyclo[2.2.2]oct-2-ene, camphene, 3,3-dimethyl-l-butene, and tro/o-dicyclopentadiene require the use of stronger bases constituted by mixtures of pentylsodium/disodium pinacolate (NAC-NAOR) or pentylsodium/ potassium ftrt-butoxide (NAC-KOR). 

Lewis acids and Bu4NI catalyzed allylboration with potassium allyl- and crotyltrifluoroborates (Equation (154)).30,40 620,621 The reaction of pinacol ester derivatives was very slow even at room temperature, but Sc(OTf)3 smoothly catalyzed the addition at — 78 °C with high diastereoselectivity (Equation (155)622 and (156)623,624). A palladium pincer complex catalyzed the addition of trifluoroborate to tosylimines (Equation (157)).625... 

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