Titanium-catalysed reactions reagent

The Kulinkovich reaction is the titanium-catalysed synthesis of cyclo-propanols from carbo ylic esters and Grignard reagents. The reaction is very diastereoselective, and an asymmetric variant was described by Corey et al. in 1994, by using the spirotitanate 79 (Scheme 7.48). Since this work, only a few titanium-catalysed asymmetric syntheses of cyclopropanols were reported, with enantiomeric excesses never higher than 80%. ... 

Although it was also Henbest who reported as early as 1965 the first asymmetric epoxidation by using a chiral peracid, without doubt, one of the methods of enantioselective synthesis most frequently used in the past few years has been the "asymmetric epoxidation" reported in 1980 by K.B. Sharpless [3] which meets almost all the requirements for being an "ideal" reaction. That is to say, complete stereofacial selectivities are achieved under catalytic conditions and working at the multigram scale. The method, which is summarised in Fig. 10.1, involves the titanium (IV)-catalysed epoxidation of allylic alcohols in the presence of tartaric esters as chiral ligands. The reagents for this asyimnetric epoxidation of primary allylic alcohols are L-(+)- or D-(-)-diethyl (DET) or diisopropyl (DIPT) tartrate,27 titanium tetraisopropoxide and water free solutions of fert-butyl hydroperoxide. The natural and unnatural diethyl tartrates, as well as titanium tetraisopropoxide are commercially available, and the required water-free solution of tert-bnty hydroperoxide is easily prepared from the commercially available isooctane solutions. 

Thirty years ago it was reported that reactions of Grignard reagents with 1-alkenes, catalysed by titanium tetrachloride, lead to organomagnesium compounds, formally derived by addition of HMgX to the carbon-carbon double bond [50,51], e.g. 

Propyl nitrite has been shown to be a poor reagent for nitrosation of aniline derivatives, but the reaction can be catalysed by halide ions the probable mechanism involves rapid equilibrium formation of the nitrosyl halide, which then reacts with aniline. A similar mechanism has been proposed when alkyl nitrites and titanium tetrahalides are used as a nitrosating reagent. ... 

A Leimbruger-Batcho-type amino-enamine intermediate is likely to be involved on reduction of the base-catalysed condensation product of an ortho-nitro araldehydes with nitromethane. Reduction, traditionally with metal/acid combinations, but now with reagents such as palladium/carbon with ammonium formate and formic acid, iron with acetic acid and silica gel, or titanium(III) chloride, gives the indole. The arylacetaldehyde precursors can also be generated by Heck reactions on vinylidene carbonate. ... 

Cyanohydrins are usually prepared from carbonyl compounds and a cyanide source. Initially performed with volatile and very toxic hydrogen cyanide, the reaction is now carried out with safer cyanide agents, such as acetone cyanohydrin, acyl cyanides, cyanoformates or the most used trimethylsilyl cyanide. In terms of atom economy, this reaction is 100% atom efficient and is widely used despite the toxicity of the reagents. The asymmetric reaction can now be efficiently catalysed by a variety of chiral Lewis acids, and a recent review presents in detail the work realised in this field, with a large description of titanium-based catal)dic systems. 

Organotitanium and -zirconium chemistry already has an established place in organic synthesis and many reactions are covered elsewhere in the Practical Approach series. Examples include reductive coupling of carbonyl compounds with low valent titanium to form 1,2-diols or alkenes methylenation of ester carbonyl groups with titanocene methylidene (Cp2Ti=CH2) zirconium-catalysed methylalumination of alkynes and hydrozirconation of alkynes and alkenes with the Schwartz reagent, Cp2ZrHCl. ... 

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