Syntheses Using 3-Dicarbonyl Compounds

Key Mechanism 22-12 The Claisen Ester Condensation 1071 22-13 The Dieckmann Condensation A Claisen Cyclization 1074 22-14 Crossed Claisen Condensations 1074 22-15 Syntheses Using /3-Dicarbonyl Compounds 1077 22-16 The Malonic Ester Synthesis 1079 22-17 The Acetoacetic Ester Synthesis 1082 22-18 Conjugate Additions The Michael Reaction 1085 Mechanism 22-13 1,2-Addition and 1,4-Addition (Conjugate Addition) 1085... 

The term condensation refers to the joining of two molecules with the splitting out of a smaller molecule. The Claisen condensation is used extensively in the synthesis of dicarbonyl compounds. In biochemistry it is used to build fatty acids in the body. The Dieckmann condensation, the crossed Claisen condensation, and others (with other carbanions) cire variations of the Claisen condensation. In this section we briefly look at these variations. 

In the first step, alcohol 22 is oxidized to give aldehyde 50 using the Parikh-Doering procedure which has already been used for the synthesis of dicarbonyl compound 38. 

The most general methods for the syntheses of 1,2-difunctional molecules are based on the oxidation of carbon-carbon multiple bonds (p. 117) and the opening of oxiranes by hetero atoms (p. 123fl.). There exist, however, also a few useful reactions in which an a - and a d -synthon or two r -synthons are combined. The classical polar reaction is the addition of cyanide anion to carbonyl groups, which leads to a-hydroxynitriles (cyanohydrins). It is used, for example, in Strecker s synthesis of amino acids and in the homologization of monosaccharides. The ff-hydroxy group of a nitrile can be easily substituted by various nucleophiles, the nitrile can be solvolyzed or reduced. Therefore a large variety of terminal difunctional molecules with one additional carbon atom can be made. Equally versatile are a-methylsulfinyl ketones (H.G. Hauthal, 1971 T. Durst, 1979 O. DeLucchi, 1991), which are available from acid chlorides or esters and the dimsyl anion. Carbanions of these compounds can also be used for the synthesis of 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds (p. 65f.). 

Enolate ions of p dicarbonyl compounds are useful intermediates m organic synthesis We shall see some examples of how they are employed m this way later m the chapter... 

Isoxazoles are susceptible to attack by nucleophiles, the reactions involving displacement of a substituent, addition to the ring, or proton abstraction with subsequent ring-opening. Isoxazolium salts are even more susceptible to attack by a variety of nucleophiles, providing useful applications of the isoxazole nucleus in organic synthesis. Especially useful is the reductive cleavage of isoxazoles, which may be considered as masked 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds or enaminoketones. 

The major development in the Knorr pyrrole synthesis has been access to the amine component. For example, use of preformed diethyl aminomalonate with 1,3-diketones affords much higher yields of pyrroles 14. Reaction of 6-dicarbonyl compounds with hydroxylamine 0-sulfonic acid gives pyrroles 15 in one step. Weinreb a-aminoamides have found use in the Knorr pyrrole synthesis of a wide variety of pyrroles 16. °... 

Finally, the Hinsberg synthesis has been extended to the use of a-aryl-a-carboethoxydimethyl sulfide in conjunction with a series of 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds. Specifically, the 4-nitroaryl substituent provides for sufficient activation of the a-proton to allow condensation and ring closure. These examples appear general and suggest future opportunities for the Hinsberg thiophene protocol. 

This type of synthesis has been used extensively in the preparation of hydroxamic acids resembling aspergillic acid. a-Aminohj droxamic acids react with a-dicarbonyl compounds to yield pyrazine hydroxamic acids (18). Glyoxal and diacetyl react readily, but poor... 

In the case of NH2OH with a sharp difference in the nucleophilicity of the two functions, the primary amino group reacts with the carbocation C-1 center. For example, the reaction of l-alkylaminoalk-l-en-3-ynes with hydroxylamine leads to selective synthesis of alkylisoxazoles (69ZOR1179). A preparative value of this method is evident because the use of dicarbonyl compounds as starting materials for the synthesis of alkylisoxazoles results in a mixture of isomers. 

Scheme 3b). It is instructive at this point to reiterate that the furan nucleus can be used in synthesis as a progenitor for a 1,4-dicarbonyl. Whereas the action of aqueous acid on a furan is known to provide direct access to a 1,4-dicarbonyl compound, exposure of a furan to an alcohol and an acid catalyst should result in the formation of a 1,4-diketal. Indeed, when a solution of intermediate 15 in benzene is treated with excess ethylene glycol, a catalytic amount of / ara-toluenesulfonic acid, and a trace of hydroquinone at reflux, bisethylene ketal 14 is formed in a yield of 71 %. The azeotropic removal of water provides a driving force for the ketalization reaction, and the presence of a trace of hydroquinone suppresses the formation of polymeric material. Through a Finkelstein reaction,14 the action of sodium iodide on primary bromide 14 results in the formation of primary iodide 23, a substance which is then treated, in crude form, with triphenylphosphine to give crystalline phosphonium iodide 24 in a yield of 93 % from 14.

The rapid synthesis of heteroaromatic Hantzsch pyridines can be achieved by aromatization of the corresponding 1,4-DHP derivative under microwave-assisted conditions [51]. However, the domino synthesis of these derivatives has been reported in a domestic microwave oven [58,59] using bentonite clay and ammoniiun nitrate, the latter serving as both the source of ammonia and the oxidant, hi spite of some contradictory findings [51,58,59], this approach has been employed in the automated high-throughput parallel synthesis of pyridine libraries in a 96-well plate [59]. In each well, a mixture of an aldehyde, ethyl acetoacetate and a second 1,3-dicarbonyl compound was irradiated for 5 min in the presence of bentonite/ammonium nitrate. For some reactions, depending upon the specific 1,3-dicarbonyl compound used. 

The synthesis of imidazoles is another reaction where the assistance of microwaves has been intensely investigated. Apart from the first synthesis described since 1995 [40-42], recently a combinatorial synthesis of 2,4,5-trisubstituted and 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted imidazoles has been described on inorganic solid support imder solvent-free conditions [43]. Different aldehydes and 1,2 dicarbonyl compounds 42 (mainly benzil and analogues) were reacted in the presence of ammonium acetate to give the trisubstituted ring 43. When a primary amine was added to the mixture, the tetrasubstituted imidazoles were obtained (Scheme 13). The reaction was done by adsorption of the reagent on a solid support, such as silica gel, alumina, montmorillonite KIO, bentonite or alumina followed by microwave irradiation for 20 min in an open vial (multimode reactor). The authors observed that when a non-acid support was used, addition of acetic acid was necessary to obtain good yields of the products. 

On the other hand, the enantioselective 1,4-addition of carbanions such as enolates to linear enones is an interesting challenge, since relatively few efficient methods exist for these transformations. The Michael reaction of p-dicarbonyl compounds with a,p-unsaturated ketones can be catalysed by a number of transition-metal compounds. The asymmetric version of this reaction has been performed using chiral diol, diamine, and diphosphine ligands. In the past few years, bidentate and polydentate thioethers have begun to be considered as chiral ligands for this reaction. As an example, Christoffers et al. have developed the synthesis of several S/O-bidentate and S/O/S-tridentate thioether... 

The reaction pattern can be used for the synthesis of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds and other systems in which an acyl group is (3 to an anion-stabilizing group. 

Enantioselective additions of (3-dicarbonyl compounds to (3-nitrostyrenes have been achieved using to-oxazolidine catalysts. This method was used in an enantioselective synthesis of the antidepressant drug rolipram.325... 

The enol ethers of P-dicarbonyl compounds are reduced to a, 3-unsaturated ketones by LiAlH4, followed by hydrolysis.115 Reduction stops at the allylic alcohol, but subsequent acid hydrolysis of the enol ether and dehydration leads to the isolated product. This reaction is a useful method for synthesis of substituted cyclohexenones. 

Officially, the history of MCRs dates back to the year 1850, with the introduction of the Strecker reaction (S-3CR) describing the formation of a-aminocyanides from ammonia, carbonyl compounds, and hydrogen cyanide [4]. In 1882, the reaction progressed to the Hantzsch synthesis (H-4CR) of 1,4-dihydropyridines by the reaction of amines, aldehydes, and 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds [5], Some 25 years later, in 1917, Robinson achieved the total synthesis of the alkaloid tropinone by using a three-component strategy based on Mannich-type reactions (M-3CR) [6]. In fact, this was the earliest application of MCRs in natural product synthesis [7]. 

Today, multi-parallel synthesis lies at the forefront of organic and medicinal chemistry, and plays a major role in lead discovery and lead optimization programs in the pharmaceutical industry. The first solid-phase domino reactions were developed by Tietze and coworkers [6] using a domino Knoevenagel/hetero-Diels-Alder and a domino Knoevenagel/ene protocol. Reaction of solid-phase bound 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds such as 10-22 with aldehydes and enol ethers in the presence of piperidinium acetate led to the 1-oxa-1,3-butadiene 10-23, which underwent an intermolecular hetero-Diels-Alder reaction with the enol ethers to give the resin-bound products 10-24. Solvolysis with NaOMe afforded the desired dihydro-pyranes, 10-25 with over 90 % purity. Ene reactions have also been performed in a similar manner [7]. 

In analogy to the Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis described by Taddei and coworkers [342] (Scheme 6.181), similar reaction conditions were used by these authors to cyclize 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds to give furans (Scheme 6.190). Thus, heating a solution of a 1,4-dicarbonyl compound in ethanol/water in the presence of a catalytic amount of hydrochloric acid at 140 °C for 3 min provided an excellent yield of the corresponding trisubstituted furan derivative. 

In each reaction ethyl acetoacetate 51 a was used as one of the components of the Hantzsch synthesis, whereas the second 1,3-dicarbonyl compound 51 (or 53) and the aldehydes 50 were used in all possible combinations (one unique combination per... 

The formation of quinoxaline heterocyclic systems is a well-known transformation of benzofuroxanes, which occurs in the presence of /3-dicarbonyl compounds <2001RJ0891, 2003BMC2149, 2003EJM791, 2005JME2019>. For example, the synthesis of quinoxaline 1,4-di-jV-oxides was carried out by reaction of the appropriate benzofuroxane 69 with the corresponding /3-ketoester, using triethylamine as the catalyst (Scheme 15) <2005JME2019>. 

Diaminofurazans 156 are useful starting materials for the synthesis of fused heterocyclic compounds. For example, 3,4-diaminofurazans 156 reacted with dicarbonyl compounds (e.g., with ct-keto acids) to produce a series of 5-hydroxy[l,2,5]oxadiazolo[3,4-A pyrazines 163 (Equation 26) <2003BML3133>. 

Schreiber and his coworkers have published extensively over the past decade on the use of this photocycloaddition for the synthesis of complex molecules730 81. Schreiber was the first to recognize that the bicyclic adducts formed in these reactions could be unmasked under acidic conditions to afford threo aldol products of 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds (175 to 176) (Scheme 40). The c -bicyclic system also offers excellent stereocontrol in the addition of various electrophilic reagents (E—X) to the enol ether of these photoadducts on its convex face (175 to 177). This strategy has been exploited in the synthesis of a variety of architecturally novel natural products. 

The low yield in this reaction might be caused by a number of reasons. First, the overall reaction is only rapid for readily enolizable compounds. 1,3-Dicarbonyl compounds will therefore be a better choice as compared to acetic acid. Second, to prevent oxidation of radical 54, it is advantageous to work with excess diene and therefore speed up trapping of 54 through diene addition. Finally, lactone 55 can, as an enolizable compound itself, also be oxidized by manganese(III) acetate and form various oxidation products. Shorter reaction time and the use of understoichiometric amounts of oxidant might therefore benefit the overall result. All these factors have been taken into account in the synthesis of bicyclic /-lactone 56, which has been obtained from cyanoacetic acid and 1,3-cyclohexadiene in 78% yield within 15 min reaction time (equation 25)60,88. 

This approach can be used for the development of a versatile and facile procedure for the synthesis of functionalized 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds from very simple precursors (Scheme 3.113, Eq. 3). 

This ring system has been covered in several reviews <1984CHEC(5)305, 1984CHEC(5)607, 1987AHC(41)319, 1996CHEC-II(8)345, B-2002SOS(12)613>. The methods used for synthesis are quite diverse, and include the reactions of thiosemicarbazide with 1,3,5-tricarbonyl compounds and unsaturated dicarbonyl compounds, or their equivalents. 

Non-Benzenoid Aromatic Compounds.—The synthesis of aromatic molecules containing small, medium, and large rings, using the reaction of dicarbonyl compounds and bis-ylides, has been thoroughly reviewed.95... 

During the coverage period of this chapter, reviews have appeared on the following topics reactions of electrophiles with polyfluorinated alkenes, the mechanisms of intramolecular hydroacylation and hydrosilylation, Prins reaction (reviewed and redefined), synthesis of esters of /3-amino acids by Michael addition of amines and metal amides to esters of a,/3-unsaturated carboxylic acids," the 1,4-addition of benzotriazole-stabilized carbanions to Michael acceptors, control of asymmetry in Michael additions via the use of nucleophiles bearing chiral centres, a-unsaturated systems with the chirality at the y-position, and the presence of chiral ligands or other chiral mediators, syntheses of carbo- and hetero-cyclic compounds via Michael addition of enolates and activated phenols, respectively, to o ,jS-unsaturated nitriles, and transition metal catalysis of the Michael addition of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds. ... 

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