Sulfoxides lateral lithiation

Sulfoxides direct lateral lithiation in a reaction which is also highly stereoselective.409 In common with other electrophiles, ClC02Et produces as a single diastereoisomer of 455 from 454, and Raney nickel can be used to remove the sulfinyl group from the product, making this a very versatile method for asymmetric functionalisation of a benzyl group. 

Another approach to enantiomerically pure planar chiral azaferrocenes involves 2-lithiation of (367) followed by addition of (-)-menthyl-(5 ) — jo-toluenesulfinate. The diastereomeric sulfoxides thus obtained are chromatograph-ically separable, and treatment of each diastereomer with t-BuLi produces an enantiomerically pure planar chiral anion that may be trapped with an electrophile (Scheme 98). Finally, in order to obviate the need for performing a resolution or a chromatographic separation, chiral ligand-mediated enantioselective deprotonations have been investigated. Lithiation of (367) in the presence of (-)-sparteine followed by addition of an electrophile gives the 2-substituted azaferrocene in good enantioselectivities (Scheme 99). However, lateral lithiation of (370) mediated by 5-valine-derived bis(oxazoline) (371) provides planar chiral products with excellent enantios-electivity. 

The rapid development of chiral phosphine derivatives of ferrocene was undoubtedly due to their application in catalysis. In contrast, chiral sulfur compounds from lithiated iV,iV-dimethyl-l-ferrocenylethylamine were only prepared about 15 years later [140], For the synthesis of such derivatives, the lithiated amine is treated with disulfides as shown in Fig. 4-24, top (and analogously, diselenides [141]). The sulfides obtained are easily oxidized by peracids or NaI04 to the corresponding sulfoxides. As sulfur becomes a new center of chirality by the oxidation, diastereoisomeric sulfoxides are formed in ratios depending on the oxidant [140]. If chiral oxaziridines [106, 142] are used as oxidizing agents, the diastereoisomeric ratio is appreciably... 

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