Pyrroles oxidative olefination

Pyrroles from 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds and ammonia isoxazolines from olefins and nitrile oxides. 

In most cases, the oxidative addition process consumes stoichiometric amount of Pd(OAc>2. One of the earliest examples of the use of palladium in pyrrole chemistry was the Pd(0Ac)2 induced oxidative coupling of A-methylpyrrole with styrene to afford a mixture of olefins 18 and 19 in low yield based on palladium acetate [28]. 

Finally, the intramolecular coupling reaction between an olefin and a pyrrole ring has been examined (Scheme 40). In this example, a 66% isolated yield of the six-membered ring product was obtained. A vinyl sulfide moiety was used as the olefin participant and the nitrogen protected as the pivaloyl amide in order to minimize the competition between substrate and product oxidation. Unlike the furan cyclizations, the anodic oxidation of the pyrrole-based substrate led mainly to the desired aromatic product without the need for subsequent treatment with acid. 

Electron-rich heterocycles can also be coupled with olefins in the presence of a suitable palladium(II) catalyst. The oxidative coupling requires the use of a stoichiometric amount of palladium however, unless a suitable oxidising agent is added to the reaction. In an early example N-sulphonylated pyrrole was reacted with 1,4-naphthoquinone in the presence of an equimolar amount of palladium acetate to give the coupled product in good yield (6.92.).124... 

A number of complex heterocycles have been assembled using dipolar cycloadditions (Fig. 6). The Affymax group [32] published an approach to the synthesis of tetrasubsti-tuted pyrrolidines by the reaction of azomethine ylids with electron-deficient olefins. A similar approach was described by researchers at Monsanto however, the aldehyde component was bound to the resin instead of the amino acid [33]. Kurth and co-workers [34] described a route to 2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofurans using a nitrile oxide cycloaddition as the key reaction. Mjalli et al. [35] synthesized highly substituted pyrroles using the dipolar cycloaddition of intermediate 5 with mono- or disubstituted acetylenes. 

Olefins Silver tetrafluoroborate Silver-I, sodium-I Composite (poly ethylene oxide) Nafion-poly(pyrrole) Pinnau and Toy (2001) Sungpet et al. (2001)... 

Polyelectrolytes and soluble polymers containing triarylamine monomers have been applied successfully for the indirect electrochemical oxidation of benzylic alcohols to the benzaldehydes. With the triarylamine polyelectrolyte systems, no additional supporting electrolyte was necessary [91]. Polymer-coated electrodes containing triarylamine redox centers have also been generated either by coating of the electrode with poly(4-vinyltri-arylamine) films [92], or by electrochemical polymerization of 4-vinyl- or 4-(l-hydroxy-ethyl) triarylamines [93], or pyrrol- or aniline-linked triarylamines [94], Triarylamine radical cations are also suitable to induce pericyclic reactions via olefin radical cations in the form of an electron-transfer chain reaction. These include radical cation cycloadditions [95], dioxetane [96] and endoperoxide formation [97], and cycloreversion reactions [98]. 

A rather rare coordination mode of pyridines is the olefin-like n (C=C) mode, which is exclusively stabilized by the electron-rich [OsCNHj),] fragment, as described by Taube and coworkers for 2,6-dimethylpyridine (lutidine) [52], [OsCNHj),] is also known to bind in this manner to thiophenes, pyrroles and arenes. The olefin-like complex easily rearranges to the ti (N) mode by a one-electron oxidation (see Eq. 6.13). 

Heterocyclic Compounds. Such materials undergo catalytic hydrogenation to yield the corresponding saturated derivatives. Thus, pyrrole is slowly converted to pyrrolidine at 200 C over either a nickel or copper-chromium oxide catalyst pyridine and pyridine derivatives behave similarly. Compounds such as furan and dihydropyran reduce rapidly and behave more like olefins in reactivity. Similarly, thiophene is converted to the tetrahydro derivative. 

Another innovation involves the preparation of chiral ruthenium porphyrins of type 28, readily available from the reaction of pyrrole with enantiopure aldehydes (e.g., 26), as catalysts for the asymmetric epoxidation of unfunctionalized olefins. Using 2,6-dichloropyridine A-oxide as a terminal oxidant, good yields and enantioselectivities were observed <97JCS(P1)2265>. 

Gunnoe has also reported examples of catalytic aromatic alkylation using a ruthenium complex and olefins. With propylene and other terminal olefins, a 1.6 1 preference for anti-Markovnikov addition was seen. The proposed mechanism involved olefin insertion into the metal-aryl bond followed by a metathesis reaction with benzene to give the alkylated aromatic and a new metal-phenyl bond (Equation (26)). DFT calculations supported the proposed non-oxidative addition mechanism. The work was extended to include catalytic alkylation of the a-position of thiophene and furan. With pyrrole, insertion of the coordinated acetonitrile into the a-C-H bond was observed. Gunnoe has also summarized recent developments in aromatic C-H transformations in synthesis using metal catalysts. ... 

A similar type of chiral rhodium porphyrin was found to be effective for the carbene-insertion reaction to olefins, where formation of the carbene complex takes place. Chiral rhodium complexes for catalytic stereoselective-carbene addition to olefins were prepared by condensation of a chiral aldehyde and pyrrole. Formation of the metal-carbene complex and substrate access to the catalytic center are crucial to the production of optically active cyclopropane derivatives. Optically active a-methoxy-a-(trifluoro-methyOphenylacetyl groups are linked witfi the amino groups of a,p,0L,p isomers of tetrakis-(2-aminophenyI)por-phyrin through amide bonds. Oxidation reactions of the... 

Fig. 4.29 Alkylation of a pyrrole nitrogen of the porphyrin heme framework occurs during the cytochrome P450-catalyzed oxidation of many terminal olefins. The heme porphyrin ring is represented by the square of pyr-...

Independent evidence that olefin oxidation can proceed via a nonconcerted mechanism is provided by the fact that terminal olefins are not only oxidized to epoxides but, in many cases, simultaneously alkylate the P450 prosthetic heme group by covalently binding to one of its pyrrole nitrogen atoms (Fig. 4.29) [180]. It should be noted, however, that this heme alkylation process is relatively infrequent, with ratios of epoxidation to heme alkylation usually greater than 200. Despite the structures of the heme adducts, which nominally could arise by nucleophilic attack of the pyrrole nitrogen on the epoxide, epoxides are not involved in heme alkylation. This was definitely established by the fact that the synthetic epoxides do not react with the heme [181], and... 

The oxidation of terminal acetylenes, like that of monosubstituted olefins, often results in inactivation of the P450 enzyme involved in the oxidation. In some instances, this inactivation involves reaction of the ketene metabolite with nucleophilic residues on the protein [196, 197], but in other instances it involves alkylation of the prosthetic heme group (Fig. 4.31). Again, as found for heme alkylation in the oxidation of olefins, the terminal carbon of the acetylene binds to a pyrrole nitrogen of the heme and a hydroxyl is attached to the internal carbon of the triple bond. Of course, as one of the two m-bonds of the acetylene remains in the adduct, keto-enol equilibration yields a final adduct structure with a carbonyl on the original internal carbon of the triple bond [182, 198]. It is to be noted that the oxidation of terminal triple bonds that produces ketene metabohtes requires addition of the ferryl oxygen to the imsubstituted, terminal carbon, whereas the oxidation that results in heme alkylation requires its addition to the internal carbon. As a rale, the ratios of metabolite formation to heme alkylation are much smaller for terminal acetylenes than for olefins. 

Interestingly, this Heck-type palladium-catalyzed oxidative addition/insertion manifold can also be applied to the actual formation of the carbon-heteroatom bond. This was illustrated by Narasaka in the reaction of olefin-tethered oxime derivatives. This chemistry can be considered to arise from oxidative addition of the N—O bond to palladium (30) followed by the more classical olefin insertion and (3-hydride elimination, ultimately allowing the assembly of pyrroles (Scheme 6.58) [79]. The nature of the OR unit was found to be critical in pyrrole formation, with the pentafluorobenzoylimine leading to selective cyclization and rearrangement to the aromatic product. An analogous approach has also been applied to pyridines and imidazoles [80]. 

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