Transmetalation 2,3 -Wittig rearrangement

Benzyl methyl ether or allyl methyl ethers can be selectively metalated at the benzylic/allylic position by treatment with BuLi or sBuLi in THF at -40 °C to -80 C, and the resulting organolithium compounds react with primary and secondary alkyl halides, epoxides, aldehydes, or other electrophiles to yield the expected products [187, 252, 253]. With allyl ethers mixtures of a- and y-alkylated products can result [254], but transmetalation of the lithiated allyl ethers with indium yields y-metalated enol ethers, which are attacked by electrophiles at the a position (Scheme 5.29). Ethers with ft hydrogen usually undergo rapid elimination when treated with strong bases, and cannot be readily C-alkylated (last reaction, Scheme 5.29). Metalation of benzyl ethers at room temperature can also lead to metalation of the arene [255] (Section 5.3.11) or to Wittig rearrangement [256]. Epoxides have been lithiated and silylated by treatment with sBuLi at -90 °C in the presence of a diamine and a silyl chloride [257]. 

Wittig rearrangements proceed with predominant inversion, with radicals intervening in the mechanism.27 For example, stannane (/ )-30 of 88% ee rearranges, on transmetallation with alkyllithiums, to the alcohol (/ )-31 of 42% ee, a reaction demonstrating 74% invertive stereospecificity. 

Z)-Trisubstitutedalkenes. Still and Mitra have described an efficient synthesis of alkenes of this type from allylic alcohols by a [2.3] sigmatropic Wittig rearrangement. The alcohol 2 is converted into the allyl stannylmethyl ether (3), which can be isolated if desired. Treatment with n-butyllithium results in tin-lithium exchange and rearrangement to the homoallylic alcohol 4 in 95% overall yield. When 3 is transmetalated and immediately quenched with cyclohexanone, 5 is obtained in 73% yield. 

The first asymmetric total synthesis of (+)-astrophylline was accomplished in the laboratory of S. Blechert. The Still variant of the [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement was used to generate the 1,2-trans relationship between the substituents of the key cyclopentene intermediate. The tributylstannylmethyl ether substrate was transmetalated with n-BuLi, which initiated the desired [2,3]-sigmatropic shift to afford the expected homoallylic alcohol as a single enantiomer. 

After alkylation of the alcohol with iodomethyltrimethyltin (to give 666), transmetallation to the lithium derivative, and [2,3] Wittig rearrangement of the resulting a-lithio ether, a mixture of trans-661 and cis-66S olefins is produced. In all cases the trans olefin predominates. 

The regioselectivity can be better controlled if a-alkoxystannanes are used as substrates. This modification is named the Wittig-Still Rearrangement . Here, the intermediate organolithium compound is produced through transmetallation ... 

Transmetallation can be employed in order to avoid the use of strongly basic conditions. One such variant is the [2,3]-Wittig-Still rearrangement wherein stannyl ethers can be converted to homoallylic alcohols. Several examples of this tranformation in the synthesis of amino acid components of bioactive polyoxins have been reported by Ghosh. In their synthesis of 5-0-carbomylpolyoxamic acid, a bioactive amino acid nucleoside, E and Z-allylic stannyl ethers, such as 45, derived from an isopropylidene L-threitol derivative, were subjected to the [2,3]-Wittig-Still rearrangement. 

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