Ring Expansion by One Carbon

Scheme VIII/6. Reductive ring expansion by one carbon atom.

Ring expansion by one carbon atom, for instance by the use of a Tiffeneau-Dem-janov rearrangement, provides access to the series of odd-numbered macrocyclic systems. The precursor is readily available through cyanhydrin formation and hydrogenation, or Corey epoxidation and epoxide ring-opening with ammonia... 

The trimethylsilyl ethers 212 of four-membered 1-alkenyl-1-cyclobutanols rearrange to the ring-expanded 0-mercuriocyclopentanones 213. These can be converted into the a-methylenecyclopentanones 214 through elimination or further expanded by one-carbon atom into cyclohexanones 215 via the Bu3SnH-mediated free radical chain reactions [116]. A similar radical intermediate is suggested to be involved in the ring expansion of a-bromomethyl-fi-keto esters [117]. (Scheme 84)... 

Cu(hfacac)2-catalyzed elimination of N2 from aroyl(a-diazoacyl)hydra-zines 653 yields 2//-l,3,4-oxadiazin-2-ones 654 (70%). The reaction occurs consecutively via intramolecular carbonyl ylide formation, 1,3-cyclization into oxirane 655, and ring opening by the carbon-oxygen bond followed by a C- 0 shift with ring expansion (88CB887). 

Recently, the sulfonium-ylide pathway has been used repeatedly to perform one-carbon ring expansion by formal insertion of a carbene moiety into a C—S or N—S bond of a cyclic sulfur compound. Examples are compiled in Scheme 37. It can be seen that ring enlargement was successful with thiochroman-4-ones 345 and 348,... 

The methodology available for the construction of medium and large ring ketones continues to benefit from the development of, and extensions to, ring-expansions by more than one carbon atom at a time. Macrocyclic keto-lactones are available from a-nitro-cycloalkanones (Scheme 21). The overall yields in... 

In a second example of a ring-expansion reaction, this time by one carbon, an a-selenoalkyl-lithium is added to the cycloalkanones (285) to give the addition products (286), which then rearrange by loss of the Me2Se group. However, the reaction appears limited to those cases in which is an alkyl group. 

The idea that dichlorocarbene is an intermediate in the basic hydrolysis of chloroform is now one hundred years old. It was first suggested by Geuther in 1862 to explain the formation of carbon monoxide, in addition to formate ions, in the reaction of chloroform (and similarly, bromoform) with alkali. At the end of the last century Nef interpreted several well-known reactions involving chloroform and a base in terms of the intermediate formation of dichlorocarbene. These reactions included the ring expansion of pyrroles to pyridines and of indoles to quinolines, as well as the Hofmann carbylamine test for primary amines and the Reimer-Tiemann formylation of phenols. 

This procedure illustrates a new three-step reaction sequence for the one-carbon ring expansion of cyclic ketones to the homologous tt,/3-unsaturated ketones. The key step in the sequence is the iron(III) chloride-induced cleavage of the central bond of trimethyl-silyloxycyclopropanes which me obtained by cyclopropanation of trimethylsilyl enol ethers. The procedure for the preparation of 1-trimethylsilyloxycyclohexene from cyclohexanone described in Part A is that of House, Czuba, Gall, and Olmstead. ... 

The reaction of crotonaldehyde and methyl vinyl ketone with thiophenol in the presence of anhydrous hydrogen chloride effects conjugate addition of thiophenol as well as acetal formation. The resulting j3-phenylthio thioacetals are converted to 1-phenylthio-and 2-phenylthio-1,3-butadiene, respectively, upon reaction with 2 equivalents of copper(I) trifluoromethanesulfonate (Table I). The copper(I)-induced heterolysis of carbon-sulfur bonds has also been used to effect pinacol-type rearrangements of bis(phenyl-thio)methyl carbinols. Thus the addition of bis(phenyl-thio)methyllithium to ketones and aldehydes followed by copper(I)-induced rearrangement results in a one-carbon ring expansion or chain-insertion transformation which gives a-phenylthio ketones. Monothioketals of 1,4-diketones are cyclized to 2,5-disubstituted furans by the action of copper(I) trifluoromethanesulfonate. ... 

---