Synthons amide anion

A C—N disconnection of a primary amine gives rise to the carbocation and amide anion synthons. It might be predicted therefore that treatment of an alkyl halide with ammonia (reagents equivalent to the above synthons) under pressure would constitute a suitable synthesis of a primary amine. In practice, however, the yield is poor since a mixture of all three classes of amines, together with some of the quaternary ammonium salt, is obtained, owing to more ready further alkylation of the sequentially formed products. 

An alternative reagent equivalent for the amide anion synthon is the potassium salt of phthalimide which can only react with one molecular proportion of alkyl halide. The resulting JV-alkylphthalimide is then cleaved to the primary amine (the Gabriel synthesis). The preliminary preparation of potassium phthalimide (from a solution of phthalimide in absolute ethanol and potassium hydroxide in 75% ethanol) may be avoided in some cases by boiling phthalimide with the halide in the presence of anhydrous potassium carbonate. The cleavage of the JV-substituted phthalimide is best effected by reaction with hydrazine hydrate and then heating the reaction mixture with hydrochloric acid. The insoluble phthalylhydrazide is filtered off, leaving the amine hydrochloride in solution from which the amine may be liberated and isolated in the appropriate manner. 

The formation of the above anions ("enolate type) depend on equilibria between the carbon compounds, the base, and the solvent. To ensure a substantial concentration of the anionic synthons in solution the pA" of both the conjugated acid of the base and of the solvent must be higher than the pAT -value of the carbon compound. Alkali hydroxides in water (p/T, 16), alkoxides in the corresponding alcohols (pAT, 20), sodium amide in liquid ammonia (pATj 35), dimsyl sodium in dimethyl sulfoxide (pAT, = 35), sodium hydride, lithium amides, or lithium alkyls in ether or hydrocarbon solvents (pAT, > 40) are common combinations used in synthesis. Sometimes the bases (e.g. methoxides, amides, lithium alkyls) react as nucleophiles, in other words they do not abstract a proton, but their anion undergoes addition and substitution reactions with the carbon compound. If such is the case, sterically hindered bases are employed. A few examples are given below (H.O. House, 1972 I. Kuwajima, 1976). 

An impressive application is the total synthesis28 of the anti-tumour antibiotic (+)-macbecin I 163. The amide disconnection is obvious and the decision to make the amino quinone from an aromatic nitro compound 164 sensible. Less obvious is the synthon 165 as the anion at C-14 could be an allyl silane but the further disconnections of 165 all correspond to allyl silane chemistry. 

Azetidinyl-4-ketones are closer than azetidinyl-4-carboxylic esters to the target 4-acyloxy derivatives 11, 29, 36. Thus, Hanessian s version of the threonine route [29], utilizing a-keto anions, can be considered an improvement over Shiozaki s a-carboxyanion strategy, especially when its aptitude for being scaled-up for industrial production is considered. The key-step, cyclization of amide 68a (prepared from epoxyacid 64 and fV-anisylphenacylamine) to azeti-dinone 28a, is carried out by simple treatment with K2CO3 at ambient temperature silylation, CAN-mediated cleavage and oxidation with mono-perphthalic acid complete the sequence to synthon 29b. 

This route is especially convenient because no over-alkylation of the anion of acetonitrile occurs. Over-alkylation can be a problem in attempts to methylate the anion of diethyl cyano-methylphosphonate (4) directly a mixture of unalkylated, monoalkylated and dialkylated products in a ratio of 1 2 1 is formed. The same problem arises with the alkylation of triethyl phosphonoacetate (11). For the preparation of a Ca-ester synthon, an alternative method to the propionitrile route is used (Scheme 7). This method has been used in the synthesis of labelled Cio-central units, described in the next Section. The starting material is acetic acid (9) which is converted into ethyl bromoacetate (10) as described above (Scheme 3). The ethyl bromoacetate (10) is reacted with triphenyl phosphine in a nucleophilic substitution reaction the phosphonium salt is formed (yield 97%). The phosphonium salt is deprotonated in a two-layer system of dichloromethane and an aqueous solution of NaOH. After isolation, the phosphorane 22 is reacted at room temperature with one equivalent of methyl iodide (19) the product consists mainly of the monomethylated phosphonium salt (>90%) which is deprotonated with NaOH, to give the phosphorane 23 in quantitative yield relative to phosphorane 22, and 23 is reacted with the aldehyde in dichloromethane. The ester product 12 can subsequently be reduced to the corresponding alcohol and reoxidized to the aldehyde 8. An alternative two-step sequence for this has also been used. First, the ester 12 is converted into the A -methyl-iV-methoxyamide (16) quantitatively by allowing it to react with the anion of A, 0-dimethylhydroxylamine as described above (Scheme 5). This amide 16 is converted, in one step, into the aldehyde 8 by reacting it with DIB AH in THF at -40°C [46]. 

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