Terminal olefins, cross-metathesis

Another study of CH2 and CD2 exchange between 1-hexene and [l,l-D2]-l-pentene showed that this reaction was approximatively 10 times faster than productive metathesis in WCl —BuLi or WCl —. AlEtCl2 systems [35]. The structural selectivity of metathesis reactions can be summed up as follows Degenerate exchange of =CH2 groups between terminal olefin > cross metathesis between terminal and internal alkenes > metathesis of internal olefins > non-degenerate metathesis of terminal alkenes. 

C-E bond formation via hydroalumination, 10, 859 C-E bond formation via hydroboration, 10, 842 olefin cross-metathesis, 11, 195 terminal acetylene silylformylation, 11, 478 Chemspeed automated synthesizer, for high-throughput catalyst preparation, 1, 356 Chini complexes, characteristics, 8, 410 Chiral bisphosphanes, in hydrogenations on DIOP modification, 10, 7... 

Ruthenium-catalyzed olefin cross-metathesis (ring-closing metathesis, RGM) between terminal alkenes and vinyl-boronic acid or esters has recently been developed for the synthesis of ( )-l-alkenylboron compounds from alkenes.459,460 The efficiency of protocol was proved in the synthesis of a key intermediate of epothilone 490 292 461 (Equation (84)). The vinyl boronate was given almost exclusively the trans-adduct. 

Substituted vinylphosphonates (195) and allylphosphonates (196) with E-olefin stereochemistry have been prepared for the first time via intermolecular olefin cross-metathesis (CM) using ruthenium alkylidene complex (197) in good yield. A variety of terminal olefins, styrenes and geminally substituted olefins has been successfully employed in these reactions (Scheme 49). ... 

Choi and co-workers [579] studied the reactivity of vinyl-terminated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of undec-lO-ene-1-thiol on gold (see Fig. 6.32) toward olefin cross-metathesis (CM). Vinyl groups on SAMs were successfully converted into a, P-unsaturated carbonyl groups by CM with acrylic acid, methyl acrylate, and acrylamide. Result shows that various useful functional groups can be introduced to SAMs on gold (and other solid surfaces) by olefin CM and suggests an alternative to the S3mthesis of desired molecules in solution [579]. 

This concept was refined by the research group of Li, who employed the thiol-yne reaction instead of the olefin cross-metathesis reaction as key step [60]. In this case, the carboxylic acid component served as anchor, whereby terminal alkynes were introduced by the remaining components (5-hexyn-l-al and propargyl isocyanoacetamide). Interestingly, thiol-yne addition of 3-mercaptopropionic acid to the pendant alkynes enabled not only the incorporation of further carboxylic acids, but also resulted in additional branching. Therefore, the second generation dendrimer, synthesized in three steps, exhibited 16 peripheral triple bonds. Moreover, this concept offers the opportunity to introduce structural diversity into the dendrimer architecture because the use of only one alkyne-functionalized compound in the Passerini-3CR still results in branching due to the thiol-yne reaction. Here, a structural sequence of employed phenylacetaldehyde and 2-nitrobenzaldehyde was demonstrated. 

The housefly (Musca domestica) uses the hydrocarbon (Z)-9-tricosene (318 in Scheme 58) as the major component of its sex pheromone. Simple syntheses involve Wittig coupling 153, 154) or alkylation of a terminal alkyne and subsequent reduction 155, 156) to afford the desired Z-isomer in ca. 95% purity. Erucic acid 157, 158) or oleic acid 159, 160) have served as starting material of known Z stereochemistry. The transition metal-catalyzed olefin cross-metathesis reaction has been applied by Rossi 161) to synthesize (318) as a mixture of /Z-isomers together with the other possible Cis and C28 olefins (Scheme 58). 

The reversible nature of cross metathesis is of synthetic importance because, by the use of a sufficiently active metathesis catalyst, it generally ensures the preferential formation of the most thermodynamically stable product. This results in the transformation of terminal olefins into internal ones, and we have seen that undesired self-metathesis products can be recycled by exposing them to a second CM process. 

Tebbe and co-workers reported the first olefin metatheses between titanocene-methyli-dene and simple terminal olefins [13]. They showed cross-metathesis between isotopically labeled isobutene and methylenecyclohexane to be catalyzed by titanocene-methylidene. This process is referred to as degenerate olefm metathesis as it does not yield any new olefin (Scheme 14.6). The intermediate titanacyclobutane has been isolated and characterized [14], and its stability [15] and mechanism of rearrangement [16] have been investigated. 

Only recently a selective crossed metathesis between terminal alkenes and terminal alkynes has been described using the same catalyst.6 Allyltrimethylsilane proved to be a suitable alkene component for this reaction. Therefore, the concept of immobilizing terminal olefins onto polymer-supported allylsilane was extended to the binding of terminal alkynes. A series of structurally diverse terminal alkynes was reacted with 1 in the presence of catalytic amounts of Ru.7 The resulting polymer-bound dienes 3 are subject to protodesilylation (1.5% TFA) via a conjugate mechanism resulting in the formation of products of type 6 (Table 13.3). Mixtures of E- and Z-isomers (E/Z = 8 1 -1 1) are formed. The identity of the dominating E-isomer was established by NOE analysis. 

The treatment of equivalent amounts of two different alkenes with a metathesis catalyst generally leads to the formation of complex product mixtures [925,926]. There are, however, several ways in which cross metathesis can be rendered synthetically useful. One example of an industrial application of cross metathesis is the ethenolysis of internal alkenes. In this process cyclic or linear olefins are treated with ethylene at 50 bar/20 80 °C in the presence of a heterogeneous metathesis catalyst. The reverse reaction of ADMET/RCM occurs, and terminal alkenes are obtained. 

Much more challenging is the targetted introduction of carbon substituents at terminal olefins by means of cross metathesis. Because of the mild reaction conditions under which alkene metathesis proceeds, cross metathesis could become an extremely valuable tool for the synthetic chemist if the critical parameters for productive cross metathesis between different, functionalized olefins were understood. 

Cross-metathesis, however, is usually a nonselective reaction. Transformation of two terminal alkenes in the presence of a metathesis catalyst, for instance, can give six possible products (three pairs of cis/trans isomers) since self-metathesis of each alkene and cross-metathesis occur in parallel. It has been observed, however, that terminal olefins when cross-metathesized with styrene yield trans-P-alkylstyrenes with high selectivity.5 A useful synthetic application of cross-metathesis is the cleavage of internal alkenes with ethylene called ethenolysis to yield terminal olefins ... 

Metathesis is a versatile reaction applicable to almost any olefinic substrate internal, terminal or cyclic alkenes, as well as dienes or polyenes. (Alkyne metathesis is a growing area, but will not be dealt with here.) The reaction is also known as olefin disproportionation or olefin transmutation, and involves the exchange of fragments between two double bonds. Cross metathesis (CM, Figure 1) is defined as the reaction of two discrete alkene molecules to form two new alkenes. Where the two starting alkene molecules are the same it is called self-metathesis. Ethenolysis is a specific type of cross metathesis where ethylene... 

Another example that the successfiil discovery of new reactions may effect fine chemical synthesis is the selective cross-metathesis of acrylonitrile with terminal olefins to give substituted acrylonitriles. This is the first time that an olefin functionalized directly at the double bond undergoes cross-metathesis. ... 

It is interesting to note that if the sticky olefin hypothesis were correct, the conventional mechanism would also account for both these consequences as well as for cyclic olefins and terminal olefins yielding essentially no cross products. This can be seen, for example, in Scheme 3, where the reaction of cyclic and acyclic olefins is considered. Here, if the end of the olefin to which R is attached is more easily displaced from the metal than the end to which R is attached, reaction 2 will be faster than reaction 1. This will preferentially form conventional product—diene capped by the same groups, R and R, as the starting olefin. The other product, B, upon rapid metathesis yields A, and the cycle is then repeated. The effect would be that if one of the paths in Scheme 3 were preferred, only the conventional product would form. 

Derivatives of oleic acid that imdergo cross-metathesis with simple olefins are listed in Table 9.4, while Table 9.5 gives some examples of cross-metathesis reactions of simple olefins with other functional olefins. Such cross-metathesis reactions may provide useful routes to speciality chemicals such as synthetic perfumes, insect pheromones (Crisp 1988), prostaglandin intermediates (Dalcanale 1985), etc. (see Mol 1982, 1991). Of special interest are ethenolysis reactions, which allow the synthesis of compoimds with terminal double bonds. Ethenolysis (and cross-metathesis with lower olefins) has been investigated extensively for... 

The fact that the unsymmetrical product dominates in the cross-metathesis of a cyclic olefin and a terminal olefin is an advantage for the efficient synthesis of the brown algae pheromones multifidene (yield 31%) and viridiene (yield 30%) via the cross-metathesis between bicyclo[3.2.0]hepta-2,6-diene and but-l-ene or butadiene, respectively (molar ratio 1/2), in the presence of lmol% of Ru(=CHCH=CPh2)(Cl)2(PCy3)2 Scheme 15.1 (Randall 1995). 

Terminal tungsten nitride complexes containing W N bonds have been reported to catalyze nitrile-alkyne cross-metathesis (NACM) by a mechanism that has parallels with the non-pairwise mechanism for olefin metathesis (A. M. Geyer, E. S. Weidner, J. B. Gary, R. L. Gdula, N. C. Kuhlmann, M. J. A. Johnson, B. D. Dunietz, J. W. Kampf, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130, 8984.) When p-methoxybenzonitrile and 3-hexyne were mixed in the presence of catalyst candidate N=W(OC(Cp3)2Me)3(DME), two principal products attributable to metathesis were observed. 

Indeed, upon reaction of 32 with catalyst 13 at ambient temperature, the desired dimer 33 was formed hy cross-metathesis in 58 % yield. Although the material return is modest, this result is still remarkable because there are so many seemingly deleterious coordinating functional groups near the terminal olefin, including two free hydroxy groups and a ketone. 

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