Quaternary carbon centers

The cyclization to form very congested quaternary carbon centers involving the intramolecular insertion of di-, tri-, and tetrasubstituted alkenes is particularly useful for natural products synthesis[l36-138], In the total synthesis of gelsemine, the cyclization of 166 has been carried out, in which very severe steric hindrance is e.xpected. Interestingly, one stereoisomer 167... 

Akylsilanes undergo highly regioselective acylation to give P,y-unsaturated ketones (177). Acylation of y,y-dialkylallyltrialkylsilane provides a route to the constmction of difficulty accessible quaternary carbon centers. 

Conjugate addition [2] to Midiael acceptors is die most important and usefid reaction in orgatiocopper diemistiy, and die reaction is ofien used as die key step in die syndiesis of numerous natural and unnatural products. Perhaps one of die most efficient methods for die syndiesis of quaternary carbon centers is organo-copper-mediated conjugate addidon to /, / -disubstituted enones. 

Recently, Uneyama reported that treatment of (R)-l-tosyl-2-trifTuoromethylazir-idine 76 (Scheme 3.24) with w-BuLi at -100 °C and subsequent trapping of the anion with electrophiles such as chloroformates produced aziridine-2-carboxylates 77 in good to excellent yields [71]. The retention of the configuration of the tri-fluoromethylated quaternary carbon center in the course of the reaction was confirmed by derivatization of the product and by X-ray studies. 

Scheme 8.46 Construction of the quaternary carbon center of fasicularin.

The unique power of Hoveyda s recyclable ruthenium catalyst D in RCM with electron-deficient and sterically demanding substrates is illustrated in Honda s total synthesis of the simple marine lactone (-)-malyngolide (54), which contains a chiral quaternary carbon center (Scheme 10) [35]. Attempted RCM of diene 52 with 5 mol% of NHC catalyst C for 15 h produced the desired... 

Successful applications of these stereocontrolled conjugate additions have led to asymmetric syntheses of several natural products such as (-I-)-cuparenone (39) which involves formation of a quaternary carbon center (- )-iS-vetivone (40) ° and steroidal equilenin 41 the wavy lines in these structures indicate that C—C bond formed stereoselectively under the influence of a temporarily-attached stereogenic sulfoxide auxiliary group. 

Among Michael acceptors that have been shown to react with ketone and ester enolates under kinetic conditions are methyl a-trimethylsilylvinyl ketone,295 methyl a-methylthioacrylate,296 methyl methylthiovinyl sulfoxide,297 and ethyl a-cyanoacrylate.298 Each of these acceptors benefits from a second anion-stabilizing substituent. The latter class of acceptors has been found to be capable of generating contiguous quaternary carbon centers. 

Catalyst 70 is very effective for the reaction of terminal alkenes, however 1,1-disubstituted olefins provide hydrosilylation products presumably, this is due to steric hindrance [45]. When a catalyst with an open geometry (78 or 79) is employed, 1,1-disubstituted alkenes are inserted into C-Y bonds to give quaternary carbon centers with high diastereoselectivities (Scheme 18). As before, initial insertion into the less hindered alkene is followed by cyclic insertion into the more hindered alkene (entry 1) [45]. Catalyst 79 is more active than is 78, operating with shorter reaction times (entries 2 and 3) and reduced temperatures. Transannular cyclization was possible in moderate yield (entry 4), as was formation of spirocyclic or propellane products... 

N-Aziridinylimines are valuable substrates for domino radical cydizations since they are able to serve simultaneously as radical acceptors and donors. They allow a versatile and general construction of quaternary carbon centers from carbonyl compounds [33]. By employing this methodology, an elegant and stereoselective synthesis of ( )-modhephene (3-70), one of the rare naturally occurring [3.3.3]propellanes,... 

They have developed direct asymmetric synthesis of quaternary carbon centers via addition-elimination process. The reactions of chiral nitroenamines with zinc enolates of a-substituted-8-lactones afford a,a-disubstituted-6-lactones with a high ee through addition-elimination process, in which (5)-(+)-2-(methoxy methy l)pyrrolidine (SMP) is used as a chiral leaving group (Eq. 4.96).119 Application of this method to other substrates such as a-substituted ketones, esters, and amides has failed to yield high ee. 

The alternative electrophilic mechanism for the nitration of ESE with TNM requires a close approach of a hindered ESE to a N02 group on the quaternary carbon center of TNM. However, this transition state is sterically very demanding, and it will not readily account for the observed reactivity. Furthermore, the observed lack of regioselectivity in the nitration of the isomeric enol silyl ethers of 2-methylcyclohexanone that leads to the same 2-methyl-2-nitrocyclohexanone (in thermal as well as photochemical nitration) is not readily reconciled by a concerted (electrophilic) mechanism (equation 18). 

The previous section discussed chelation enforced intra-annular chirality transfer in the asymmetric synthesis of substituted carbonyl compounds. These compounds can be used as building blocks in the asymmetric synthesis of important chiral ligands or biologically active natural compounds. Asymmetric synthesis of chiral quaternary carbon centers has been of significant interest because several types of natural products with bioactivity possess a quaternary stereocenter, so the synthesis of such compounds raises the challenge of enantiomer construction. This applies especially to the asymmetric synthesis of amino group-substituted carboxylic acids with quaternary chiral centers. 

As mentioned in Section 2.3, a large number of biologically active natural products contain quaternary carbon atoms, and the addition of carbon nucleophiles to ketones has attracted increasing attention for the construction of quaternary carbon centers. 

Pd-catalyzed Heck reactions are among the most effective methods for the formation of quaternary carbon centers. Considering the significance and the strategic difficulties associated with the synthesis of quaternaiy carbons, particularly in the optically enriched or pure form, it is not a surprise that the development of catalytic asymmetric Heck reactions has held center stage for the past few years. One of the leading labs in this area is that of Shibasaki, who in 1993 reported a concise total synthesis of eptazodne 23 (Scheme 4).141 Thus, treatment of silyl ether 18 with 10 mol% Pd(OAc>2 and 25 mol% (S)-19 leads to the formation of 20 in 90 % yield and 90% ee As illustrated in Scheme 4, once the quaternary carbon center is synthesized efficiently and selectively, the target molecule is accessed in a few steps. 

T. Takemoto, M. Sodeoka, H. Sasai, M. Shibasaki Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Benzylic Quaternary Carbon Centers. An Efficient Synthesis of (-)-Eptazocine , J. Am. Chem. Soc 1993,115, 8477-8478. 

The above method has been applied to a stereoselective synthesis of cyclopenta-nones with quaternary carbon centers (Scheme 16.21) [25],... 

Scheme 16.21 Formation ofcyclopentanones with quaternary carbon centers.

Since the conversion of 235 to 233 requires only heating, it is possible to synthesise the vinylketenimine complex directly from the vinylketene merely by extending the reaction time sufficiently.69,87,89 Note that 233.j and 233.k were obtained as 1 1 mixtures of diastereoisomers. The subsequent reactivity of the vinylketenimine complexes,87,89,135,143 particularly their utility in the asymmetric synthesis of quaternary carbon centers,143 has also been investigated, but is beyond the scope of this review. 

An intriguing feature is that the previously unknown bisindoles 154 display atropisomerism as a result of the rotation barrier about the bonds to the quaternary carbon center. With the use of A-triflyl phosphoramide (1 )-41 (5 mol%, R = 9-phenanthryl), bisindole 154a could be obtained in 62% ee. Based on their experimental results, the authors invoke a Brpnsted acid-catalyzed enantioselective, nucleophilic substitution following the 1,2-addition to rationalize the formation of the bisindoles 154 (Scheme 65). 

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