Ring closure olefination

Abstract For many years after its discovery, olefin metathesis was hardly used as a synthetic tool. This situation changed when well-defined and stable carbene complexes of molybdenum and ruthenium were discovered as efficient precatalysts in the early 1990s. In particular, the high activity and selectivity in ring-closure reactions stimulated further research in this area and led to numerous applications in organic synthesis. Today, olefin metathesis is one of the... 

Section B of the Scheme 9.1 shows several procedures for the synthesis of ketones. Entry 6 is the synthesis of a symmetrical ketone by carbonylation. Entry 7 illustrates the synthesis of an unsymmetrical ketone by the thexylborane method and also demonstrates the use of a functionalized olefin. Entries 8 to 10 illustrate synthesis of ketones by the cyanide-TFAA method. Entry 11 shows the synthesis of a bicyclic ketone involving intramolecular hydroboration of 1,5-cyclooctadiene. Entry 12 is another ring closure, generating a potential steroid precursor. 

The relative reactivity of cyclopentadiene and ds-dichloroethylene toward triplet cyclopentadiene was found to be greater than 20 1 while that for cyclopentadiene and trans-dichloroethylene is less than 5 1. Thus the trans isomer is about four times more reactive toward the triplet cyclopentadiene than the cis isomer. An interesting temperature dependence of the product distribution of this reaction has been reported (Table 10.8). The data in Table 10.8 indicate that the relative amount of 1,4 addition [products (39) and (40)] is much more sensitive to temperature than 1,2 addition [products (35)—(38)], especially for the trans-olefin. The data also indicate that some rotation about the CHC1-CHC1 bond occurs in intermediate radicals derived from both cis- and trans-dichloroethylene. However, rotational equilibrium is not established at ring closure since the ratios of ds-dichlorocyclobutanes... 

On orbital symmetry grounds, the addition of ethylene to ethylene with ring closure (cycloaddition) should be thermally forbidden. If one compares this reaction with the reaction of trimethylene with approaching ethylene and butadiene (Fig.4), it is readily seen that, the A level being below the S level in trimethylene, the behaviour with respect to cycloaddition to olefins is reversed, that is, trimethylene is essentially an anti-ethylene structure. This principle can be generalized for instance (16) ... 

This reaction is extended to the intramolecular ring closure of the intermediate radical 224 with olefinic or trimethylsilylacetylenic side chains [121]. Cu(BF4)2 is also effective as an oxidant (Scheme 89) [122]. Conjugate addition of Grignard reagents to 2-eyclopenten-l-one followed by cyclopropanation of the resulting silyl enol ethers gives the substituted cyclopropyl silyl ethers, which are oxidized to 4-substituted-2-cyclohexen-l-ones according to the above-mentioned method [123]. (Scheme 88 and 89)... 

The metal-catalysed olefin metathesis (equation 122) when applied to dienes results in ring-closure and expulsion of an olefin (equation 123). Thus the molybdenum carbene complex 241 promotes the decomposition of the 1,6-heptadiene derivative 242 to a mixture of the cyclopentene 243 and ethylene (equation 124)122. An analogous reaction of the alcohol 244 gives 245 (equation 125), and 4-benzyloxy-l,7-decadiene (246) affords the cyclohexene 247 and 1-butene (equation 126). These transformations, which occur in benzene at room temperature, proceed in excellent yields122. 

A close comparison between intramolecular proton transfer and intramolecular nucleophilic attack at carbon is provided by the varying amounts of olefins [46] which accompany the ring-closure reactions of 0--OC6H4O(CH2) 4Br [1] to the corresponding catechol polymethylene ethers [2] (Illuminati etal., 1975). 

The only aspect to which the reader is referred is the fact that a comparison of the different strategies nicely illustrates the fundamental requirements for productive RCM as discussed in Sect. 3.3. Specifically, it is of utmost importance that (1) the distance of the olefinic sites to the polar relay substituents, and (2) the low steric hindrance close to the double bonds are properly assessed when choosing the site of ring closure (Scheme 24). Moreover, in all syntheses directed towards 75 or analogues thereof, mixtures of the (E)- and (Z)-isomers have been... 

With the C12,C13 disconnection producing an effective solution to the synthesis of epothilone A (4), it would seem likely that the metathesis approach could be extended readily to the preparation of epothilone B (5). However, installation of the desired C12 methyl group requires ring-closure of a diene precursor in which one of the olefins is disubstituted. Recently, such reactions have been shown to be problematic for Grubbs initiator 3 but more successful with Schrock s molybdenum initiator 1 [19]. Consistent with these reports, Danishefsky demonstrated that triene 38 would not undergo RCM with 3, whereas 1 was effective in promoting the transformation of 38 into a 1 1 mixture of 39a and 39b in good yield [14b] (Scheme 8). 

Catalytic ring-closing metathesis makes available a wide range of cyclic alkenes, thus rendering a number of stereoselective olefin functionalizations practical. The availability of effective metathesis catalysts has also spawned the development of a variety of methods that prepare specially-outfitted diene substrates that can undergo catalytic ring closure. The new metathesis catalysts have already played a pivotal role in a number of enantioselective total syntheses. 

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