Reductive elimination leaving groups

Isoindolines comprise a group of well-characterized and easily synthesized substances, and being at the next stable reduction state below that of isoindoles, they constitute suitable precursors for synthesis of the latter. In principle, either oxidation or elimination from isoindolines should lead to isoindoles however, in view of the susceptibility of isoindoles to further oxidation, elimination has been preferred, and in all cases reported the leaving group has been placed on nitrogen rather than carbon. 

The presence of a potential leaving group (3 to the site of carbanionic character usually leads to p-elimination. In some useful synthetic procedures, the carbanionic character is generated by a reductive process. 

In the reduction of acids there is a tendency for the lithium salt, RCO20Li to separate from the ethereal solution, and thus bring reduction to a halt this can be avoided by first converting the acid to a simple, e.g. Me or Et, ester. In the reduction of the latter, the initial nucleophilic attack by AIH4 results in an addition/elimination reaction—OR is a good leaving group in (40)—followed by normal attack, as above, on the resultant carbonyl compound (41) to yield the primary alcohol (42) ... 

The isomerization barrier of 15.0-20.0 kcal mol-1 (AG ) can be considered to be large enough to allow isolation and characterization of bis(q3-<2 /),A- nms-dodecatrienediyl-Nin stereoisomers of 7b41 as reactive intermediates in the stoichiometric cyclotrimerization process. Furthermore, the trans orientation of the two allylic groups gives rise to an insurmountable barrier for reductive elimination for these cases, which prevents these species from readily leaving the thermodynamic sink via a facile reductive elimination. The isolated intermediates clearly constitute dead-end... 

Alkenes are obtained by the transformation of various functional groups, e.g. dehydration of alcohols (see Section 5.4.3), dehalogenation of alkyl halides (see Section 5.4.5) and dehalogenation or reduction of alkyl dihalides (see Section 5.4.5). These reactions are known as elimination reactions. An elimination reaction results when a proton and a leaving group are removed from adjacent carbon atoms, giving rise to a tt bond between the two carbon atoms. 

The reaction is believed to proceed via a c-allyl copper complex, in which the carbon-copper bond is formed at the "/-position, anti to the acetate leaving group. Reductive elimination of copper led to pure "/-substitution. With cyclic aliphatic allylic acetates, the selectivity is generally lower because the o-allyl copper complex can isomerize to the ir-allyl complex with loss of regioselectivity. 

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