Samarium halides intramolecular

The ability of Sml2 to reduce alkyl halides has been exploited in a number of carbon carbon bond-forming reactions. Radicals generated from the reduction of alkyl halides can be trapped by alkenes in cyclisation reactions to form carbocyclic and heterocyclic rings (see Chapter 5, Section 5.3), and the alkyl-samarium intermediates can be used in intermolecular and intramolecular Barbier and Grignard reactions (see Chapter 5, Section 5.4). The reduction of ot-halocarbonyl compounds with Sml2 gives rise to Sm(III) enolates that can be exploited in Reformatsky reactions (Chapter 5, Section 5.5) and are discussed in Section 4.5. 

In 1993, Molander found that in the presence of catalytic Fe(III) salts, Sml2 mediates intramolecular Barbier additions to esters to give cyclic ketones (or cyclic hemiketals, if they prove to be stable).135 Double addition to the ester is not observed, nor is reduction of the cyclic ketone product. This suggests that the tetrahedral intermediate, a samarium alkoxide of a cyclic hemiketal, is partially stable to the reaction conditions and the ketone group is not revealed until work-up. Molander found that both alkyl and allyl halides could be used in the additions (Scheme 5.83).135... 

Intermediate samarium enolates derived from ketones 1522 or 1525 could stereoselectively be trapped with allyl halides, leading to tricycles 1524 and 1526. The intramolecular alkylation by the chloroalkyl terminus of compound 1527 led to tetracyclic compound 1528 with satisfactory efficiency. These cascade reactions selectively generate three continuous stereogenic centers, including a quaternary carbon atom at the 3-position of the dihydroindole moiety, a structural motif of many indole alkaloids. 

Exceptionally clean cyclization can be accomplished by utilizing conjugated enones as precursors for the Barbier reaction (equation 43). High diastereoselectivity is achieved in these reactions, and under the mild conditions required for cyclization the TMS ether protecting group remains intact. It is also interesting that a neopentyl halide is effective in the cyclization. This result would appear to exclude an 5N2-type displacement of an organic halide by a samarium ketyl as a possible mechanism for the Smh-promoted intramolecular Barbier reaction. 

Samarium acyl anions can be trapped by electrophiles other than acid halides. For example, addition of a mixture of a carboxylic acid chloride and an aldehyde or ketone to a solution of Sml2 in THF results in the synthesis of a-hydroxy ketones (equations 78 and 79). Intramolecular versions of the reaction have also been performed, although the scope of the reaction is limited owing to the difficulty in obtaining suitable substrates for the reaction (equation 80). ... 

These examples again have some mechanistic implications in that they appear to rule out cyclization via 5n2 displacement of the halide by a samarium ketyl. However, one cannot distinguish between a mechanism based on allylsamarium addition to the carbonyl versus an electron transfer mechanism as outlined for the alkyl hdide substrates above. Both mechanisms allow for isomerization of the double bond (via 1,3-allylic transposition in the case of an allylmetallic, or configurational instability in an allylic radical in a diradical coupling mechanism) and also provide reasonable routes for generation of butadiene. Further mechanistic work is clearly required in order to provide a more detailed understanding of all of these intramolecular Barbier-type reactions. 

The reduction of allylic halides (in the cepham family) by SmI2/THF in the presence of some water gave a very fast transformation into exomethylene ce-phams [113]. The authors made the hypothesis that an intramolecular protonation occurs in a a-allylsamarium by H20 coordinated to samarium. 

A radical-mediated two-step synthesis of spiroketals has recently been reported the strategy (an example is shown in Scheme 8) involves an intramolecular radical cyclization of a ketal precursor (14), which could be easily prepared from 2-methylene-3,4-epoxyoxolanes (13). As alternative to tin-hydride mediated cyclization of alkynyl halides, samarium(II) iodide has been used to generate the alkyl radical which adds intramolecularly to the triple bond. ... 

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