Trimethylenemethane, cycloadditions with alkenes, palladium

Catalytic asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions are presented by Hayashi, who takes as the starting point the synthetically useful breakthrough in 1979 by Koga et al. The various chiral Lewis acids which can catalyze the reaction of different dieno-philes are presented. Closely related to the Diels-Alder reaction is the [3-1-2] carbo-cyclic cycloaddition of palladium trimethylenemethane with alkenes, discovered by Trost and Chan. In the second chapter Chan provides some brief background information about this class of cycloaddition reaction, but concentrates primarily on recent advances. The part of the book dealing with carbo-cycloaddition reactions is... 

Acetoxymethyl)-3-(trimethylsilyl)propene (1) is used as a trimethylenemethane precursor in palladium(0)-catalvzed [3 + 2] cycloaddition with electron-deficient alkenes, such as enones, acrylonitriles and a,/ -unsaturaled esters23,26. Mechanistically, this reaction, which gives methylenecyclopentane derivatives 2. is interpreted to proceed via trimethylenemethane-palladium complexes 27,28. 

D.iii. Trimethylenemethane Equivalents. Palladium catalysts can be used to convert trimethylsilyl acetate 390 to a trimethylene methane (TMM, 391) equivalent. Reaction with alkenes via [3+2]-cycloaddition (sec. 11.11) generates cyclopentanes (this process constitutes a quinane annulation reaction).229 in this reaction, the trimethylsilyl unit is a carbanion equivalent and acetate is a carbocation equivalent. In one example, Trost reacted 390 and 392 with palladium acetate and triisopropyl phosphite [P(Oi-Pr)3] to generate 393 in... 

The reactivity of trimethylenemethane complexes has not been studied extensively. There are, however, a number of catalytic reactions, for which the intermediacy of trimethylenemethane complexes is plausible albeit not proved in all cases, stepwise processes might also be considered [33]. The most prominent examples in this context are palladium-catalyzed trimethylenemethane cycloadditions [34,35] in the presence of a phosphane or phosphite, starting from 2-acetoxymethyl-3-allyltrimethsilane (33), which have been explored in great depth by Trost et al. [36, 37]. 33 undergoes [3-1-2]- as well as [3-H4]cyclizations with electron-poor alkenes or dienes such as 34, respectively, leading to 35 and 36 (Scheme 10.13). 

A similar pressure effect on regioselectivity was reported for palladium-catalyzed [3-I-2]-cycloadditions [19]. In the reaction of the trimethylenemethane (TMM) precursor 61 with the alkene 62 the two regioisomeric cycloadducts 63 and 64 are possible while 64 is mainly formed at 1 bar, the only product observed at 10 kbar is 63. A possible explanation of this dramatic change in selectivity could be the increased rate of the bimolecular reaction of 65 and 62 to give 63 compared to the unimolecular isomerization of the TMM complexes 65 and 66. Thus, the kineti-cally formed complex 65 is effectively trapped under pressure by the alkene 62. 

In this latter reaction mode, which is observed much more rarely than /3-dehydropal-ladation, a wide variety of ligands can be coupled to each other with the formation of new C—C, C—H, C— N, C—O, and C—Hal bonds. This section does not cover the numerous cascade couplings in which a number of successive intramolecular additions of 2 onto double bonds is eventually completed by /3-dehydropalladationt as well as the numerous [2 -I- 2 -I- 2] and [4 + 2] cyclotri- and cyclodimerizations of alkynes, enynes, and related compounds. " The Pd(0)-catalyzed Cope rearrangement also will not be considered here, as it proceeds via bis(i7 -allyl)palladium(ll) intermediates. The carbopalladation reactions of aUenes, which have been reviewed recently, are covered in Sect. IV.7. (For new examples see also refs. [10]-[12]). On the other hand, the numerous Pd-catalyzed formal [3 + 2] cycloadditions of trimethylenemethane (TMM) complexes may be classified as carbopalladations of alkenes without subsequent dehydropalladation. As the subject of this section has partially been covered in several newly published reviews, " the attention here will be on the most recent and interesting communications. 

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