Reactions with carbon electrophiles transition metal catalysis

As stated above, aliphatic amines are potent ligands for electrophilic transition metals and are efficient catalyst poisons in attempted alkene animation reactions. However, tosylation of the basic amino group greatly reduces its complexing ability, yet does not compromise its ability to nucleophilically attack complexed alkenes. Thus, a variety of alkenic tosamides efficiently cyclized under palladium(II) catalysis producing N-tosylenamines in excellent yield (equations 17 and 18).32 Again, this alkene amination proceeded through an unstable a-alkylpalladium(II) species, which could be intercepted by carbon monoxide, to result in an overall aminocarbonylation of alkenes. With ureas of 3-hydroxy-4-pentenyl-amines (Scheme 7), this palladium-catalyzed process was quite efficient but it was somewhat less so with... 

Among common carbon-carbon bond formation reactions involving carbanionic species, the nucleophilic substitution of alkyl halides with active methylene compounds in the presence of a base, e. g., malonic and acetoacetic ester syntheses, is one of the most well documented important methods in organic synthesis. Ketone enolates and protected ones such as vinyl silyl ethers are also versatile nucleophiles for the reaction with various electrophiles including alkyl halides. On the other hand, for the reaction of aryl halides with such nucleophiles to proceed, photostimulation or addition of transition metal catalysts or promoters is usually required, unless the halides are activated by strong electron-withdrawing substituents [7]. Of the metal species, palladium has proved to be especially useful, while copper may also be used in some reactions [81. Thus, aryl halides can react with a variety of substrates having acidic C-H bonds under palladium catalysis. 

In addition to the very important palladium-catalysed reactions, boronic acids undergo a number of useful reactions that do not require transition-metal catalysis, particularly those involving electrophilic ipso-substitutions by carbon electrophiles. The Petasis reaction involves ip,y(9-replacement of boron under Mannich-like conditions and is successful with electron-rich heterocyclic boronic acids. A variety of quinolines and isoquinolines, activated by ethyl pyrocarbonate, have been used as the Mannich reagent . A Petasis reaction on indole 3-boronic acids under standard conditions was an efficient route to very high de a-indolylglycines. " ... 

The same transition metal systems which activate alkenes, alkadienes and alkynes to undergo nucleophilic attack by heteroatom nucleophiles also promote the reaction of carbon nucleophiles with these unsaturated compounds, and most of the chemistry in Scheme 1 in Section 3.1.2 of this volume is also applicable in these systems. However two additional problems which seriously limit the synthetic utility of these reactions are encountered with carbon nucleophiles. Most carbanions arc strong reducing agents, while many electrophilic metals such as palladium(II) are readily reduced. Thus, oxidative coupling of the carbanion, with concomitant reduction of the metal, is often encountered when carbon nucleophiles arc studied. In addition, catalytic cycles invariably require reoxidation of the metal used to activate the alkene [usually palladium(II)]. Since carbanions are more readily oxidized than are the metals used, catalysis of alkene, diene and alkyne alkylation has rarely been achieved. Thus, virtually all of the reactions discussed below require stoichiometric quantities of the transition metal, and are practical only when the ease of the transformation or the value of the product overcomes the inherent cost of using large amounts of often expensive transition metals. 

Various addition reactions of organozincs with aldehydes, ketones, and related carbon electrophiles have been catalysed by Ni and Pd complexes. In general, however, catalysis by these transition metals pertains to oxidative addition66 and some processes other than carbonyl addition, such as crosscoupling.42 Since organozincs are known to add to aldehydes and some ketones, it is not clear if Ni or Pd is at all involved in the carbonyl addition step itself (Scheme 11.21). It should be noted that allylzinc derivatives tend to... 

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