Sulfinyl carbanion

The a-sulfinyl carbanion attacks a-halocarboxylic acid esters at the carboxylic carbon atom, not at the a-carbon atom, and the corresponding ketones are obtained slereoselectively in high yield62. 

TABLE 11. Relative stabilities derived from H/D exchange reactions of a-sulfinyl carbanions... 

Corey and Chaykovsky had discovered that dimethyl sulfoxide is converted to methyl-sulfinyl carbanion upon treatment with sodium hydride114 and that this conjugate base of DMSO reacts with various electrophiles115. This finding has opened up various reactions with a-sulfmyl carbanions derived from sulfoxides, since the sulfinyl function can be removed either by thermolysis or by subjecting the compound to reductive desulfurization. Thus a-sulfmyl carbanions have become versatile synthetically useful reagents. 

Sulfoxides (R1—SO—R2), which are tricoordinate sulfur compounds, are chiral when R1 and R2 are different, and a-sulfmyl carbanions derived from optically active sulfoxides are known to retain the chirality. Therefore, these chiral carbanions usually give products which are rich in one diastereomer upon treatment with some prochiral reagents. Thus, optically active sulfoxides have been used as versatile reagents for asymmetric syntheses of many naturally occurring products116, since optically active a-sulfinyl carbanions can cause asymmetric induction in the C—C bond formation due to their close vicinity. In the following four subsections various reactions of a-sulfinyl carbanions are described (A) alkylation and acylation, (B) addition to unsaturated bonds such as C=0, C=N or C= N, (C) nucleophilic addition to a, /5-unsaturated sulfoxides, and (D) reactions of allylic sulfoxides. 

Other asymmetric syntheses, based on aldol condensation of chiral a-sulfinyl carbanions with carbonyl compounds, are the formation of / -hydroxyketones from /J-sulfinylhydrazones 166211-214, of /3, /l -dihydroxyketones from 3-(p-tolylsulfinyl-methyl)-A2-methylisoxalinones 167215, of /1-hydroxyacids from 2-(p-tolylsulfinylmethyl)oxazolines 168216 and of /J-hydroxyesters from ethyl-p-tolylsulfinyl-W-methoxyacetamide 169217. 

Asymmetric synthesis using a-sulfinyl carbanions and / -unsaturated sulfoxides... 

III. REACTIONS OF ELECTROPHILES WITH a-SULFINYL CARBANIONS A. Carbanions from Alkyl Sulfoxides... 

This type of asymmetric conjugate addition of allylic sulfinyl carbanions to cyclopen-tenones has been applied successfully to total synthesis of some natural products. For example, enantiomerically pure (+ )-hirsutene (29) is prepared (via 28) using as a key step conjugate addition of an allylic sulfinyl carbanion to 2-methyl-2-cyclopentenone (equation 28)65, and (+ )-pentalene (31) is prepared using as a key step kinetically controlled conjugate addition of racemic crotyl sulfinyl carbanion to enantiomerically pure cyclopentenone 30 (equation 29) this kinetic resolution of the crotyl sulfoxide is followed by several chemical transformations leading to (+ )-pentalene (31)68. 

This review is concerned with the formation of cation radicals and anion radicals from sulfoxides and sulfones. First the clear-cut evidence for this formation is summarized (ESR spectroscopy, pulse radiolysis in particular) followed by a discussion of the mechanisms of reactions with chemical oxidants and reductants in which such intermediates are proposed. In this section, the reactions of a-sulfonyl and oc-sulfinyl carbanions in which the electron transfer process has been proposed are also dealt with. The last section describes photochemical reactions involving anion and cation radicals of sulfoxides and sulfones. The electrochemistry of this class of compounds is covered in the chapter written by Simonet1 and is not discussed here some electrochemical data will however be used during the discussion of mechanisms (some reduction potential values are given in Table 1). 

III. REACTIONS WITH CHEMICAL OXIDANTS AND REDUCTANTS A. SET Involving er-Sulfonyl and ar-Sulfinyl Carbanions... 

Stable conformation for CHjSOH and CH3SOCH3 may be illustrated by the Newman projections of 32 and 33, while those of the carbanions are given by 34 and 35. This means that the a-sulfinyl carbanion is nonplanar and the Hj proton on the opposite side of the S—O bond is removed preferentially. The same calculation also indicated that conformer 32 is 16.5kcalmol and 17.2kcalmol" more stable than conformers 29 and 31, respectively . This new MO calculation thus contradicts the earlier suggestion that the most stable carbanionic conformer is 29 but emphasizes the importance of the contribution of 3d-orbitals for the stabilization of a-sulfinyl carbanions. 

Table 11 summarizes the relative conformation stabilities of various sulfinyl carbanions, based on the H/D exchange rates of the corresponding sulfinyl compounds 36-39. The results are in good agreement with the order of stabilities obtained from the MO calculations using the 3-21G basis set. This is remarkable, since the calculation did not take into consideration the solvent effect, despite the strong unsymmetrical solvation on the a-sulfinyl carbanion. 

Accordingly, there have been numerous studies on the stereochemistry of these a-sulfinyl carbanions . Representative data on the reactions of a-lithiosulfoxides derived from benzyl sulfoxides with some electrophiles are listed in Table 13. Although the stereochemistry depends on the substituent on the sulfinyl function, the diastereomeric ratio remains the same regardless of the electrophile used for each sulfoxide. 

Other asymmetric syntheses, based on aldol condensation of chiral a-sulfinyl carbanions with carbonyl compounds, are the formation of -hydroxyketones from -sulfinylhydrazones of -dihydroxyketones from 3-(p-tolylsulfmyl-... 

The Michael addition of nucleophiles to a, -unsaturated sulfoxides creates initially a-sulfinyl carbanions by nucleophilic attack on the /S-carbon atom. Russell and Becker found that treatment of a mixture of diphenylmethane and anisaldehyde with potassium t-butoxide in DMSO gave at first the condensation product 170, which upon Michael addition afforded the final product 171. 

This chapter, however, does not deal with above-mentioned reactions of sulfoxides. Rather it is limited to asymmetric synthesis using a-sulfinyl carbanions and -unsaturated sulfoxides, specifically in which the stereogenic sulfoxide sulfur atom is enantiomerically pure. Therefore reactions of racemic sulfoxides are for the most part excluded from this review. For more general discussions, the reader is referred to other chapters in this volume and to other reviews on the chemistry of sulfoxides. Especially useful are the reviews by Johnson and Sharp and by Mislow in the late 1960s and by Oae and by Nudelman as well as a book by Block . A review by Cinquini, Cozzi and Montanari" through mid-1983 summarizes the chemistry and stereochemistry of optically active sulfoxides. This chapter emphasizes results reported from 1984 through mid-1986. 

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