Enolates preformed

In general the reaction of an aldehyde with a ketone is synthetically useful. Even if both reactants can form an enol, the a-carbon of the ketone usually adds to the carbonyl group of the aldehyde. The opposite case—the addition of the a-carbon of an aldehyde to the carbonyl group of a ketone—can be achieved by the directed aldol reaction The general procedure is to convert one reactant into a preformed enol derivative or a related species, prior to the intended aldol reaction. For instance, an aldehyde may be converted into an aldimine 7, which can be deprotonated by lithium diisopropylamide (EDA) and then add to the carbonyl group of a ketone ... 

The enantiomers are obtained as a racemic mixture if no asymmetric induction becomes effective. The ratio of diastereomers depends on structural features of the reactants as well as the reaction conditions as outlined in the following. By using properly substituted preformed enolates, the diastereoselectivity of the aldol reaction can be controlled. Such enolates can show E-ot Z-configuration at the carbon-carbon double bond. With Z-enolates 9, the syn products are formed preferentially, while fi-enolates 12 lead mainly to anti products. This stereochemical outcome can be rationalized to arise from the more favored transition state 10 and 13 respectively ... 

Certain starting materials may give rise to the non-selective formation of regioisomeric enolates, leading to a mixture of isomeric products. Furthermore a ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds tend to polymerize. The classical Michael procedure (i.e. polar solvent, catalytic amount of base) thus has some disadvantages, some of which can be avoided by use of preformed enolates. The CH-acidic carbonyl compound is converted to the corresponding enolate by treatment with an equimolar amount of a strong base, and in a second step the a ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound is added—often at low temperature. A similar procedure is applied for variants of the aldol reaction. 

The best method to achieve a high regioselectivity is the use of preformed enolates. A double annulation reaction is possible if, for example, a diketone such as 11 is used as starting material. The product of the Michael addition 12 can undergo two subsequent aldol condensation reactions to yield the tricyclic dienone 13 ... 

Three types of synthases catalyze the addition of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to aldoses or the corresponding terminal phosphate esters. By concurrent release of inorganic phosphate from the preformed enolate nucleophile, the additions are essentially irreversible. None of the enzymes are yet commercially available and little data are available oil the individual specificities for the aldehydic substrates. A bacterial NeuAc synthase (EC 4.1.3.19) has been used for the microscale synthesis of A -acetylncuraminic acid from Af-acetyl-D-mannosamine31 and its 9-azido analog from 2-acetamido-6-azido-2,6-dideoxy-D-mannose32. 

Methodology for the preparation of preformed enolates with well-defined double bond configuration was developed and it was shown that simple diastereoselection can be controlled, in many instances, through the use of these enolates 3. 

Reaction between Two Different Ketones. This is seldom attempted (except with the use of preformed enolates, see below), but similar considerations apply. 

The reactions with preformed enol derivatives provide a way to control the stereoselectivity of the aldol reaction. As with the Michael reaction (15-16), the aldol reaction creates two new chiral centers, and, in the most general case, there are four stereoisomers of the aldol product, which can be represented as... 

Among the preformed enol derivatives used in this way have been enolates of magnesium, lithium, titanium, zirconium, and tin, ° silyl enol ethers, enol borinates,and enol borates, R CH=CR"—OB(OR)2. The nucleophilicity of silyl enol ethers has been examined. In general, metallic Z enolates give the syn (or erythro) pair, and this reaction is highly useful for the diastereoselective synthesis of these products. The ( ) isomers generally react nonstereoselectively. However, anti (or threo) stereoselectivity has been achieved in a number of cases, with titanium enolates, with magnesium enolates, with certain enol bor-inates, and with lithium enolates at — 78°C. ... 

A reaction related to the aldol involves treatment of a ketone with a silyl ketene acetal R2C= C(OSiMe3)OR in the presence of TiCl4 to give 27. The silyl ketene acetal can be considered a preformed enolate that give an aldol product, and when... 

For some other aldol reactions with preformed enol derivatives, see Mukaiyama, T. Isr. J. Chem., 1984, 24, 162 Caine, D. in Augustine, Ref 564, p. 264. 

Conditions for kinetic control of enolate formation can be applied to the Robinson annulation to control the regiochemistry of the reaction. Entries 5 and 6 of Scheme 2.11 are cases in which the reaction is carried out on a preformed enolate. Kinetic... 

Scheme 2.12 shows some representative Mannich reactions. Entries 1 and 2 show the preparation of typical Mannich bases from a ketone, formaldehyde, and a dialkylamine following the classical procedure. Alternatively, formaldehyde equivalents may be used, such as l>is-(di methyl ami no)methane in Entry 3. On treatment with trifluoroacetic acid, this aminal generates the iminium trifluoroacetate as a reactive electrophile. lV,A-(Dimethyl)methylene ammonium iodide is commercially available and is known as Eschenmoser s salt.192 This compound is sufficiently electrophilic to react directly with silyl enol ethers in neutral solution.183 The reagent can be added to a solution of an enolate or enolate precursor, which permits the reaction to be carried out under nonacidic conditions. Entries 4 and 5 illustrate the preparation of Mannich bases using Eschenmoser s salt in reactions with preformed enolates. 

Another attractive domino approach starts with an aldol reaction of preformed enol ethers and carbonyl compounds as the first step. Rychnovsky and coworkers have found that unsaturated enol ethers such as 2-237 react with different aldehydes 2-238 in the presence of TiBr4. The process consists of an aldol and a Prins-type reaction to give 4-bromotetrahydropyrans 2-239 in good yields, and allows the formation of two new C-C-bonds, one ring and three new stereogenic centers (Scheme 2.56) [131]. In the reaction, only two diastereomers out of eight possible isomers were formed whereby the intermediate carbocation is quenched with a bromide. 

These observations showed that the reaction can be simplified by preformation of the indanone enolate in toluene/50% NaOH and subsequent addition of catalyst and CH3CI (Figure 12). This eliminates the "induction period and most importantly the high sensitivity of rate and ee to the catalyst/indanone ratio. Detailed kinetic measurements on this preformed enolate methylation in toluene/50% NaOH determined that the reaction is 0.55 order in catalyst. This is consistent with our finding that the catalyst goes into solution as a dimer which must dissociate prior to com-plexation with the indanone anion. If the rate has a first order dependence on the monomer, the amount of monomer is very small, and the equilibration between dimer and monomer is fast, then the order in catalyst is expected to be 0.5. The 0.5 order in catalyst is not due to the preformation of solid sodium indanone enolate but is a peculiarity of this type of chiral catalyst. Vlhen Aliquat 336 is used as catalyst in this identical system the order in catalyst is 1. Finally, in the absence of a phase transfer catalyst less than 2% methylation was observed in 95 hours. 

Synthesis of p-Ketoesters by C-Acylation of Preformed Enolates with Methyl Cyanoformate Preparation of (la,4ag,8ao)Methyl 2-Oxo-decahydro-l-naphthoate... 

Synthetic studies for sialic acid and its modifications have extensively used the catabolic enzyme N-acetylneuraminic acid aldolase (NeuA E.C. 4.1.3.3), which catalyzes the reversible addition of pyruvate (70) to N-acetyl-D-mannosamine (ManNAc, 11) to form the parent sialic acid N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuSNAc, 12 Scheme 2.2.5.23) [1, 2, 45]. In contrast, the N-acetylneuraminic acid synthase (NeuS E.C. 4.1.3.19) has practically been ignored, although it holds considerable synthetic potential in that the enzyme utilizes phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP, 71) as a preformed enol nucleophile from which release of inorganic phosphate during... 

Among the preformed enol derivatives used in this way have been enolates of magnesium, lithium,526 titanium,527 rhodium,528 zirconium,522 and tin,529 silyl enol ethers,530 enol bori-nates,531 and enol borates R CH=CR"—OB(OR)2.532 In general, metallic Z enolates give... 

Most synthetically useful approaches use a preformed enolate as one of the reactants. 

A directed aldol reaction requires that one partner provides a preformed enolate (or chemically equivalent reactive species) and is then added to the second carbonyl-containing molecule. 

Phosphoenolpyruvate, a key metabolic intermediate. A compound of central importance in metabolism is the phosphate ester of the enol form of pyruvate, commonly known simply as phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP).249 It is formed in the glycolysis pathway by dehydration of 2-phosphoglycerate (Eq. 13-15) or by decarboxylation of oxaloacetate. Serving as a preformed enol from which a reactive enolate anion can be released for condensation reactions,250 251 PEP... 

As long as nucleophilic addition of the preformed enolate to the second carbonyl component is rapid and the carbonyl electrophile is added after the enolate is formed, the product is predictable and is not a mixture. The rule of thumb to ensure success is that the carbonyl electrophile should be more reactive than the carbonyl compound from which the enolate is derived. If this condition is met, the carbonyl electrophile can have a protons and the structural possibilities are increased tremendously. Typical enolate-carbonyl pairs that have been condensed by this methodology include the following ... 

An asymmetric Mannich reaction was recently successfully achieved by means of different types of catalyst, metal- and organocatalysts [20, 21]. With the latter the reaction can be performed asymmetrically by use of L-proline and related compounds as chiral organocatalyst [22-35]. A key advantage of the proline-catalyzed route is that unmodified ketones are used as donors, which is synthetically highly attractive. In contrast, many other asymmetric catalytic methods require preformed enolate equivalents as nucleophile. 

Although both LDA and LHMDS were examined as bases, it was found that the most consistent results were obtained with commercial solutions of LHMDS, and hence, most experiments were conducted with this base. Importantly, it was found that the addition of DMPU as cosolvent resulted in complete consumption of ketone 53. The optimum yield of 53% of triflate 80 was obtained when the DMPU was added with the A-phenyltriflimide solution to the preformed enolate. The results of these studies are summarized in Scheme 35 and Table 5. It is worth noting that recovered ketone 53 from the earlier attempts at this reaction showed no sign of C-3 epimerization, suggesting that deprotonation had only occurred at C-5. 

Beyond the scope discussed so far, Michael additions also include additions of stoichio-metrically generated enolates of ketones, SAMP or RAMP hydrazones, or esters to the C=C double bond of ,/Tun saturated ketones and a,/Tunsaturated esters. These Michael additions convert one kind of enolate into another. The driving force stems from the C—C bond formation, not from differential stabilities of the enolates. It is important that the addition of the preformed enolate to the Michael acceptor is faster than the addition of the resulting enolate to another molecule of the Michael acceptor. If that reactivity order were not true, an anionic polymerization of the Michael acceptor would occur. In many Michael additions, however, the enolate created is more hindered sterically than the enolate employed as the starting material, and in these cases Michael additions are possible without polymerization. 

Our research group developed catalytic enantioselective protonations of preformed enolates of simple ketones with (S,S)-imide 23 or chiral imides 25 and 26 based on a similar concept [29]. For catalytic protonation of a lithium eno-late of 2-methylcyclohexanone, chiral imide 26, which possesses a chiral amide moiety, was superior to (S.S)-imide 23 as a chiral acid and the enolate was pro-tonated with up to 82% ee. 

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