Stereochemical control, importance

The question of stereochemical control has been a theme running throughout the programme and as you progress to more comphcated molecules it becomes more important. This is very clear from many of the syntheses described in Fleming. 

In the synthesis of polymers it is very important to control the configuration of the multiple stereogenic centers but free radical methods generally fail to give significant stereochemical control (96T(52)4181). To compare the effects of several chiral and achiral auxiliary groups, acrylamides of type 110 were studied. 

Further discussion on the effects of the reaction media and Lewis acids on lacticily appears in Section 7.2. Attempts to control laciicily by template polymerization and by enzyme mediated polymerization are described in Section 7.3. Devising effective means for achieving stereochemical control over propagation in radical polymerization remains an important challenge in the field. 

In spite of the fact that biotechnology rather than chemical processing will probably provide the future greatly needed chirally pure compounds (ref. 1), we believe that simple chemical reactions starting from chiral natural compounds and proceeding under stereochemical control will eventually retain full importance. On the above grounds, we report on simple reactions which start from a-aminoacids, as an example of utilization of natural compounds, and move to related bromine containing compounds (Fig. 1). 

The following parameters are critically important for stereochemical control ... 

The ultimate goal of designing highly enantioselective aldol condensations demands that all stereochemical aspects of the bond construction process be kinetically controlled. Over the past 5 years, this objective has stimulated a great deal of research, and a wealth of new information is now becoming available on the important kinetic stereochemical control elements and possible transition state geometries for this reaction. 

The importance of conformational analysis is made evident, for instance, in the total synthesis of reserpine (9) in which Woodward [6] introduced conformational stereochemical control, in two versions thermodynamic control and kinetic control. 

Note that aldol condensations I, II and III concern the creation of a relative configuration 2,3-syn, which can be easily achieved starting from the (Z)-enolates 74a-74c. Scheme 9.27 summarises the synthesis of 93 and 95, which are equivalent to fragments B and A, respectively. Compound 88 is the abovementioned Prelog-Djerassi lactonic acid 42 which is obtained in optically pure from (>98% ee). On the other hand, for the stereochemical control of the aldol condensation IV a different methodology is necessary whih involves the coupling of two structurally predefined reactants and which will not be discussed here (Scheme 9.28). An important feature of this reaction is that the coordination of Li" " with the oxygen atom at the P-position of the aldehyde 95 is mainly responsible for the observed stereoselection [22e]. 

Stereochemically controlled synthesis of this subunit, which contains five stereogenic centers, is important to an efficient bleomycin synthesis. (2S,3S,4i )-4-(/er/-Butoxycarbonyl-amino)-3-hydroxy-2-methylpentanoic acid (15) was obtained via a stereoselective syn aldol addition of a boron Z-enolate with (27 )-2-(tert-butoxycarbonylamino)propanal (Scheme 4). Similarly, the L-threonine subunit 18 was prepared by diastereoselective syn aldol addition of an N- acy I ox azo I i di n one stannous Z-enolate with acetaldehyde. The bithiazole unit 19 was prepared using a direct DCC-promoted condensation of 3-(methylsulfanyl)propylamine. Convergent access to tetrapeptide S was obtained by coupling of acid 15 and deprotected 18 to give dipeptide 20, followed by further coupling with the bithiazole 19 to ultimately give tetrapeptide S (21). 

Anionic ring-opening polymerization of l,2,3,4-tetramethyl-l,2,3,4-tetraphenylcyclo-tetrasilane is quite effectively initiated by butyllithium or silyl potassium initiators. The process resembles the anionic polymerization of other monomers where solvent effects play an important role. In THF, the reaction takes place very rapidly but mainly cyclic live- and six-membered oligomers are formed. Polymerization is very slow in nonpolar media (toluene, benzene) however, reactions are accelerated by the addition of small amounts of THF or crown ethers. The stereochemical control leading to the formation of syndiotactic, heterotactic or isotactic polymers is poor in all cases. In order to improve the stereoselectivity of the polymerization reaction, more sluggish initiators like silyl cuprates are very effective. A possible reaction mechanism is discussed elsewhere49,52. 

The first cyclisations to be put to synthetic use were those of aryl lithiums onto carbonyl compounds, imines and epoxides. These are known as Parham cyclisations , and the method for transforming an aryl bromide to an aryllithium the Parham protocol , after W. E. Parham, who developed the reaction. We will survey the use of Parham cyclisations in synthesis, before assessing intramolecular attack of other electrophiles. The most important of these are the alkenes, and the usefulness of anionic cyclisations onto unactivated double bonds compares very favourably with radical cyclisations, particularly with regard to stereochemical control. 

Any method of making such bicyclic compounds will automatically form this stereochemistry. An important method of stereochemical control that we have not used so far in this chapter is catalytic hydrogenation of alkenes, which adds a molecule of hydrogen stereospecifically cis. If the reaction also makes a fused ring system, it may show stereoselectivity too. Here is an example with 5/5 fused rings. 

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