Reactions of Imines

Reactions of imino dienophiles with appropriate dienes lead to tetrahydropyridines. In general, activation of the C=N group is achieved by electron-withdrawing substituents and application of acids, such as trifiuoroacetic acid or Lewis acids as catalysts, to take advantage of the higher reactivity of the protonated or cotnplexed imine functionality. 

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The assumed transition state for this reaction is shown in Scheme 5.5. The two bulky t-butoxy groups are expected to locate at the two apical positions. One of the 3,3 -phenyl groups would effectively shield one face of an imine, and consequently, a diene attacks from the opposite side. Judging from this model, similar selectivities were expected in the Mannich-type reactions of imines with silyl eno-lates. Actually, when ligand 10 was used in the reaction of imine la with S-ethyl-thio-l-trimethylsiloxyethene, the corresponding / -amino thioester was obtained in 84% ee (Scheme 5.6). As expected, the sense of the chiral induction in this case was the reverse of that observed when using catalyst 6 [12, 25]. 

Polymer-supported BINOLs thus prepared were treated with Zr(Ot-Bu)4 to form polymer-supported zirconium 20. In the presence of 20 mol% of various zirconium 20, the model aza Diels-Alder reactions of imine Id with Danishefsky s diene (7a) were performed results from selected examples are shown in Table 5.8. Whereas the 4-t-butylphenyl group resulted in lower enantiomeric excess (ee), higher ee were obtained when 3,5-xylyl, 4-biphenyl, 4-fluorophenyl, and 3-tri-... 

Reaction of Imines with Diethyl Pyrocarbonate General Procedure59" ... 

Lanthanide triflates catalyze the Diels-Alder reaction of imines, generated from anilines and aldehydes, with both dienes and alkenes [26]. Thus N-benzyl-ideneaniline in the presence of Yb(OTf)3 (Scheme 6.16) reacts in organic solvent with open-chain dienes, such as Danishefsky s diene, to give tetrahy-dropyridine derivatives, while with cyclopentadiene and vinylethers and vinylthioethers it works like azadiene in both organic solvent and aqueous medium, affording tetrahydroquinoline derivatives. 

Reaction of imines with a-halo carbonyl compounds... 

Y(03SCF3)3 to afford a monoaminoalkylation product in good yield in aqueous media.40 Zinc tetrafluoroborate is also highly effective for such couplings in aqueous THF.41 Kobayashi also reported a Mannich-type reaction of imines with silyl enolates catalyzed by neutral salts such as sodium triflate in water as a suspension medium. Unusual kinetic behavior indicates that the presence of the Mannich adduct facilitates the rate of its formation.42... 

As in the case of Diels-Alder reactions, aqueous aza-Diels-Alder reactions are also catalyzed by various Lewis acids such as lanthanide triflates.113 Lanthanide triflate-catalyzed imino Diels-Alder reactions of imines with dienes or alkenes were developed. Three-component aza-Diels-Alder reactions, starting from aldehyde, aniline, and Danishefsky s diene, took place smoothly under the influence of HBL4 in aqueous media to afford dihydro-4-pyridone derivatives in high yields (Eq. 12.46).114... 

An alternate means of forming 96 arises from reaction of imine 97 with methylvinylketone in a variant of the Robinson annulation reaction. This... 

It was first observed that reactions of imines with ketene silyl acetals proceeded smoothly in the presence of 5mol.% Yb(OTf)3 to afford the corresponding /3-amino ester derivatives in moderate yields.50 However, Sc(OTf)3 was found to be a more active catalyst in this reaction. Benzoylhy-drazones also react with ketene silyl acetals in the presence of a catalytic amount of Sc(OTf)3 to afford the corresponding adducts in high yields (Scheme 11).51 In contrast, catalytic activation of benzoylhydrazones by use of a typical Lewis acid such as TiCl4, SnCl4, or BF3-OEt2, etc. is not effective. 

Rare-earth-metal triflates are efficient catalysts in Diels-Alder reactions, and Sc(OTf)3 is clearly more effective than Ln(OTf)3 as a catalyst.45,53-55 In the presence of 10mol.% Y(OTf)3 or Yb(OTf)3, only a trace amount of the adduct was obtained in the Diels-Alder reaction of methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) with isoprene. In contrast, the reaction proceeded smoothly to give the adduct in 91% yield in the presence of 10mol.% Sc(OTf)3 (Scheme 13).45 Sc(OTf)3 has also proved to be an efficient catalyst for the Diels-Alder reaction of imines (aza Diels-Alder reactions).56,57... 

Ally 1-tin compounds are employed as more reactive allylating agents. Because of their high reactivity, less active catalysts (TX species having mild Lewis acidity) or less reactive substrates are often required (Scheme 23).88,89 In addition to carbonyl compounds as substrates, allylation reactions of imines have been also reported.90 Also, a binuclear TiIV Lewis acid has been developed (compound (C) in Scheme 23), which shows higher catalytic activity than the mononuclear analogue (D) because of bidentate coordination to the carbonyl moiety of the substrate.91... 

The reaction of imines with thiohydrazides gives 1,3,4-thiadiazole via a thioacylimidohydrazine intermediate. The imidoyl chloride 148 when treated with the IV-phenyl thiosemicarbazide 149 gave the 1,3,4-thiadiazole hydrochloride 150 (Equation 53) <2002MI1241>. 

Domino reactions of imines with difluorocarbene in the presence of electron-deficient alkynes lead to 2-fluoropyrroles. For instance, reaction of A-benzylideneaniline (18) with difluorocarbene yields an intermediate azomethine ylide 19 capable of undergoing 1,3-... 

Table 13. Asymmetric Strecker-type reaction of imines catalyzed by 123.

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