Titanocene synthesis

The method was later extended to the synthesis of a number of meroter-penoids from epoxygeranyl carbonates or acetates in a two-step approach combining titanocene catalysis with Stifle reactions (carbonates) [108,109] or copper-catalyzed allylic substitutions (acetates) [110-112], The cyclizations... 

Catalytic enantioselective synthesis of vzc-diols is a challenging issue. Chiral induction using chiral ligands is difficult to achieve. The moderately enantioselective pinacolization of benzaldehyde is demonstrated to be performed by the chiral titanocene catalysts 15 and 16 [42,43]. 

Titanocene catalysts do not catalyze the hydrosilation of most internal olefins, although they can attach active olefins such as styrene, or norbornene to the growing polymer chain ends. The zirconocene-based catalysts, on the other hand, can be powerful hydrosilation catalysts and the remarkable copolymer synthesis shown in Equation 3 can be easily achieved under mild conditions (V7). 

Scheme 3.40. Titanocene-catalyzed synthesis of a tricyclic terpenoid.

Whilst hydrogenation catalysts based on early transition metals are as active and selective as those based on late transition metals, they are usually not as compatible with functional groups, and this represents the major difficulty for their use in organic synthesis. Nonetheless, titanocene derivatives have been used in industry to hydrogenate unsaturated polymers. 

Organometallic Chemistry of Titanocene and Zirconocene Complexes with Bis(trimethylsilyl)acetylene as the Basis for Applications in Organic Synthesis... 

Scheme 10.9. Synthesis of titanocene (1, 3, rac-5) and zirconocene (4, rac-6) complexes with bis(trimethylsilyl)acetylene without additional ligands.

Scheme 12.6. Synthesis of enantiomerically pure allylic alcohols with titanocene chloride.

More recently, Doris et al. have described the reductive ring-opening of a-keto epoxides [16]. In this manner, p-hydroxy ketones can be obtained in high yields. The synthesis of enantiomerically pure compounds can easily be realized. The titanocene] 111) reagents are distinctly superior to samarium diiodide, which is also known to induce this transformation. 

The formation of C—C bonds is generally considered to be more important than the formation of C—H bonds. It is therefore not surprising that these reactions have attracted more attention. Of special importance in organic synthesis are 5 -exo cyclizations [17], and the titanocene-mediated reactions are a valuable tool for carrying out these transformations. Three examples are shown in Scheme 12.9. 

The observation of a stereoconvergent cyclization by Roy et al. [18], as shown in the third example, is of special interest from a synthetic point of view because it exploits the configurational lability of radicals in a favorable manner. The other examples, i. e. Nugent and RajanBabu s cyclization of a carbohydrate-derived epoxide [5d] and Clive s quinane synthesis [19], amply demonstrate the usefulness of the titanocene-initiated epoxide opening. 

Silyltitanation of 1,3-dienes with Cp2Ti(SiMe2Ph) selectively affords 4-silylated r 3-allyl-titanocenes, which can further react with carbonyl compounds, C02, or a proton source [26]. Hydrotitanation of acyclic and cyclic 1,3-dienes functionalized at C-2 with a silyloxy group has been achieved [27]. The complexes formed undergo highly stereoselective addition with aldehydes to produce, after basic work-up, anti diastereomeric (3-hydroxy enol silanes. These compounds have proved to be versatile building blocks for stereocontrolled polypropionate synthesis. Thus, the combination of allyltitanation and Mukayiama aldol or tandem aldol-Tishchenko reactions provides a short access to five- or six-carbon polypropionate stereosequences (Scheme 13.15) [28],... 

Efforts have been made to apply r 3-allyltitanium chemistry to the asymmetric synthesis of homoallylic alcohols and carboxylic acids. The synthesis and reactions of chiral r 3 -allyl-titanocenes with planar chirality, or containing Cp ligands with chiral substituents, have been reported [6c,15,30—32]. The enantiofacial selectivity in the allyltitanation reactions has been examined for the complexes 12 [15], 13 [30], 14 [31], 15, 16, and 17 [32] depicted in Figure 13.2. 

The same procedure was also applied to the synthesis of a-C-galactosyl compounds. Similarly, reductive ring opening of 1,2-anhydro sugar 93 with titanocene(m) chloride produces an anomeric radical 97 that can be trapped... 

Scheme 2.54 Synthesis of allenes with titanocene vinylidene complexes.

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