Titanium cyclopropanation with

Fig. 3.34. Cyclopropanation with titanium carbene complexes generated in situ [33].

Experimental Procedure 3.2.2. Cyclopropanation with a Titanium Carbene Complex (E)-l-Hexyl-2-(2-phenylethenyl)cyclopropane [33]... 

In 1977, an article from the authors laboratories [9] reported an TiCV mediated coupling reaction of 1-alkoxy-l-siloxy-cyclopropane with aldehydes (Scheme 1), in which the intermediate formation of a titanium homoenolate (path b) was postulated instead of a then-more-likely Friedel-Crafts-like mechanism (path a). This finding some years later led to the isolation of the first stable metal homoenolate [10] that exhibits considerable nucleophilic reactivity toward (external) electrophiles. Although the metal-carbon bond in this titanium complex is essentially covalent, such titanium species underwent ready nucleophilic addition onto carbonyl compounds to give 4-hydroxy esters in good yield. Since then a number of characterizable metal homoenolates have been prepared from siloxycyclopropanes [11], The repertoire of metal homoenolate reactions now covers most of the standard reaction types ranging from simple... 

The reaction of 1-ethoxy-l-(trimethylsiloxy)cyclopropane with titanium(IV) chloride gives the (6-trichlorotitanio ester 1 (R = Et) in high yield. This /i-titanio ester reacts readily with benzaldehyde to give the ester adduct as the 4-chloro derivative (Table 10, entry 1). ... 

Although the reaction of a titanium carbene complex with an olefin generally affords the olefin metathesis product, in certain cases the intermediate titanacyclobutane may decompose through reductive elimination to give a cyclopropane. A small amount of the cyclopropane derivative is produced by the reaction of titanocene-methylidene with isobutene or ethene in the presence of triethylamine or THF [8], In order to accelerate the reductive elimination from titanacyclobutane to form the cyclopropane, oxidation with iodine is required (Scheme 14.21) [36], The stereochemistry obtained indicates that this reaction proceeds through the formation of y-iodoalkyltitanium species 46 and 47. A subsequent intramolecular SN2 reaction produces the cyclopropane. 

The cyclopropane 1 reacts with none of the group 1 and 2 metal chlorides. Among early transition metal chlorides, NbCl reacted with i in moderate yield to give the same homoenolate obtained by the reaction of equimolar amounts of titanium homoenolate 2 and NbCl (Scheme 2). TaCl5, CrCl3, MoCls, and WC15 did not give any characterizable products. 

Another broad class of compounds are the bridged carbene complexes. These compounds contain two identical or two different metal centers with the carbene centers bonded to both of the metal atoms in a bridging relationship. However, these binuclear complexes generally do not show classical carbene reactivity and will therefore not be discussed further, except to mention briefly the special case of the titanium-aluminum complex (3) developed by Tebbe and Grubbs and their coworkers.101 This, and related complexes, has proven to be particularly useful in organic synthesis, although its principal importance is in reactions other than cyclopropanations. 

Cyanopyridines undergo titanium-mediated reductive cyclopropanation to give pyridylcyclopropylamines in good yield <20030L753>. Both 2- and 3-cyanopyridine react with the titanium species 81 formed from diethylzinc and methyltriisopropyloxytitanium in the presence of lithium isopropoxide to give the cyclopropylamine product in 80% and 82% yield, respectively (Equation 55). 

The bifunctional cyclopropane 156 was also prepared by modified Simmons-Smith cyclopropanation 85) of 2-trimethylsilyl-2-propen-l-ol 157 84) followed by oxidation of the cyclopropylcarbinol 158 with activated manganese dioxide 88 >, in 72% overall yield, Eq. (50) 86,89). Coupling of the aldehyde 156 with 2,6-dimethylcyclohexenone 159 90) induced by the low valent titanium reagent from TiCl3 and zinc-copper couple (or lithium metal) provided the silylated cyclopropyldiene 160, in 50-60% yield, Eq. (51) 89 91>. 

If an alkene is present in the reaction mixture the intermediate, titanacyclopropane, undergoes facile ligand exchange, giving new titanium species, which react further in the catalytic cycle. Thus, various alkenes can be involved in this reaction, inter- or intramolecularly, allowing the preparation of numerous cyclopropane derivatives. In the presence of a chiral titanium alcoholate the reaction can be performed with good enantioselectivity (Scheme 110).319... 

Interestingly, the subsequent reactions of the titanium-alkylidene species 12 obtained from dithioacetals are not limited to carbonyl olefina-tions. When the carbene complex is prepared in the presence of olefins, the latter are smoothly cyclopropanated (Scheme 8 13) [14]. Furthermore, the reaction of symmetrically disubstituted acetylenes with dithioacetals containing a methylene unit provides the corresponding trisubsti-tuted 1,3-dienes 14 in a stereoselective fashion 115]. 

Consequently, various Grignard reagents have been shown to be effective for the intramolecular cyclopropanation reactions with insignificant differences in yields. Whereas several titanium alkoxides and aryloxides can also be employed, chlorotitanium triisopropoxide and methyltitanium triisopropoxide have often been found to be the titanium reagent of choice. Ether, THE, toluene, or even dichloromethane are generally appropriate reaction solvents. 

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