Trimethylenemethane scheme

The Trost group has devised a strategy for stereoselective spirocyclic ring installation across 3-alkylidene oxindoles via palladium-catalyzed [3-1-2] cycloaddition with cyano-substituted trimethylenemethane (Scheme 33) [74, 75]. As illustrated, the opposite sense of diastereoselectivity was observed depending on the choice of chiral ligand 125 or 126. Preferential orientation of the benzenoid portion of the oxindole as dictated by the varied steric environments of the naphthyl ring systems on the catalysts has been put forth as a rationale for the observed difference in stereochemical outcomes. Spirooxindoles 127 and 128 were obtained in 92% ee and 99% ee, respectively. A variation of this methodology has been applied in the racemic synthesis of marcfortine B [75]. 

Methylenecyclopropane in the free state may also be regarded as trimethylenemethane (Scheme 11,4A), but on chemisorption the former structure is the more appropriate because with this compound hydrogenation gives simultaneously methylcyclopropane and butanes in which then-isomcrpredominates. Breaking at the C—C bond opposite the point of substitution also occurs with ethenylcyclopropanes, and prior chemisorption at the C=C bond facilitates the splitting of the nearer C—C bond. However the insertion of a methylene group... 

Interactions polarize bonds. Trimethylenemethane (TMM) and 2-buten-l,4-diyl (BD) dianions (Scheme 6a, b) are chosen as models for hnear and cross-conjngated dianions. The bond polarization (Scheme 7) is shown to contain cyclic orbital interaction (Scheme 6c) even in non-cyclic conjugation [15]. The orbital phase continnity-discon-tinnity properties (Scheme 6d, e) control the relative thermodynamic stabihties. 

There is a degree in the continuity and discontinuity of the orbital phase [20]. 2-Oxopropane-l,3-diyl (Scheme 10) is a hetero analog of trimethylenemethane (TMM) where the orbital phase is continuous in the triplet diradical (Sect. 2.1.5) and discontinuous in the singlet diradical (Sect. 2.1.6). The n and orbitals of carbonyl bonds are lower in energy than those of C=C bonds. The lowering strengthens the interaction of the radical orbitals (a, b) with and weakens that... 

Trimethylenemethane is a special type of alkene that does not exist as the free compound. Various synthetic equivalents to the synthon 43 shown below have been reported. Trost, in particular, has exploited these compounds in 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions.138 139 A metal-bound, isolated trimethylenemethane species was recently reported by Ando (Scheme 6). It resulted from the complexation of an ero-methylenesila-cyclopropene with group 8 carbonyls (Fe, Ru).140,140a The structure was proved by X-ray crystal structure analysis.29Si NMR data were consistent with the -structure shown. 

The palladium-catalyzed trimethylenemethane reaction with tropanones was reported in 1987 by Trost and Seoane and is the first example of a [6 + 3]-cycloaddition.130 Chromium-mediated [6 + 3]-cycloadditions of two types have been described-one in which the chromium complex activates the six-carbon component and one in which the chromium complex activates the three-atom component. An example of the first type involves the reaction of a cycloheptatriene-Cr(CO)3 complex with azirines to give cyclic imines in moderate yields (Scheme 40).131... 

CH4/O2 and CF4 as the reactant gases and observed the formation of [M — 4 H] ions in the Cl plasma (Scheme 13)166. Thus, repeated deprotonation and electron transfer processes appear to offer an efficient access to more highly unsaturated and/or ring condensed trimethylenemethane radical anions. The [M — 4 H]- ion is considered identical to the molecular radical anion (42) of acepentalene (43), which was generated as a short-lived species from the former by neutralization-reionization mass spectrometry167. Efforts to apply Squires methodology to triquinacene 41 and the tribenzotriquinacenes 44 have been made168. 

Acetoxymethyl)allyl]trimethylsilane (5) in the presence of a Pd(0) reagent, for instance, acts as an equivalent of trimethylenemethane in cycloadditions to electron-deficient alkenes such as a,p-unsaturated ketones, esters, nitriles, sulphones and lactones [7] (Scheme 6.6). 

In the same group, Feustel and G. Muller have observed an interesting reaction between two equivalents of the tris(phosphinomethyl)methanol 52 and five equivalents of n-butyl-lithium . Formally, the elimination of lithium oxide leads to the formation of a mixed aggregate of the lithium aUtoxide 53 and the dilithiated trimethylenemethane dianion 54 in the solid state (Scheme 19, Figure 15). The mechanism of the formal elimination of lithium oxide, which could also be part of a further mixed aggregate, has not been cleared up yet. 

Stable five-membered ring adducts of Cgg can be synthesized by ]3+2] cycloadditions of trimethylenemethanes (TMM) [13, 195], The TMM intermediates are prepared in situ by thermolysis of 7-alkylidene-2,3-diazabicycloheptene (non-polar TMM) or methylenecyclopropanone ketals (polar TMM). With the mefhylenecyclopropanone ketal addition (Scheme 4.31), 185 and 186 were isolated after chromatography on silica gel. 

A crucial methodological step forward was the discovery " that one could observe weU-defined electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra of frozen solutions of triplet species in random orientation. By the early 1960s, spectra of the triplet states of a number of carbenes had been recorded. Thus, when Dowd showed that photolysis of frozen matrices of the diazene (11) or the ketone (12) (Scheme 5.1) gave TMM (4), the spectroscopic tools for the characterization of this key non-Kekule compound lay to hand. Trimethylenemethane was the first non-Kekule molecule to be identified by ESR spectroscopy. 

Scheme 21. The gas-phrase reactions of CoO+ with 2-methylpropane (iso-butane). Note that the compound labeled A is a 2-methyl-l-propene (iso-butylene) complex of Co , while the compound labeled B is a trimethylenemethane complex of Co. ...

The addition of simple ester or ketoenolates to TT-allylpalladium complexes may constitute the second step of an ingenious [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction. One substrate that undergoes this process is 2-(tri-methylsilylmethyl)allyl acetate (5). The mechanism proposed involves initial formation of a 2-(tri-methylsilylmethyl)allylpalladium cation followed by desilylation by the acetate liberated in the oxidative addition (Scheme 1). The dipolar intermediate can be envisioned as an T]3-trimethylenemethane-PdL2 species (6) or, less likely, an -complex (7). 

Nitroxides are the most common of the oxygen-centred biradicals to be reported. As a model for spin-crossover molecules, the nitronyl nitroxide (105) was prepared and by oxidation with PbC>2 afforded the triplet biradical (106) which was characterized by ESR (Scheme 15).242 The one-electron oxidation of (105) afforded the singlet cation (107) which was seen to exist in equilibrium with (106) in solution. The authors claim that pH-controlled interconversion between two species of different spin multiplicities in this way may provide die basis for novel magnetic switches or pH sensors. The N.N-dialkylamino nitronyl nitroxides (108) were prepared and afforded die diplet-state biradical cation species by one-electron oxidation with iodine.243 The authors propose that, by the similarity of die electronic structures, diese structures can be regarded as hetero-analogues of trimethylenemethane. A paper confirms die conversion of 3,3-dimethyldioxetane into die corresponding ring-opened 1,2-diol but refutes the... 

In a variation on the two-component cycloaddition reaction, a [3+3] strategy was reported whereby reaction of enantiomerically pure aziridines, generated from amino acids, with palladium trimethylenemethane complexes leads to a piperidine (Scheme 114). Yields ranged from 63% to 82% and the efficiency of the methodology was demonstrated by the four-step synthesis of (—)-pseudoconhydrin <2001SL1596>. 

One of the most important classes of Michael initiated ring closure processes in the construction of carbo- and heterocycles are stepwise cycloaddition reactions where a metal induces dipolar behavior in otherwise unreactive organic compounds to be reacted with activated olefins. In this area, Pd-assisted cycloaddition reactions which involve zwitterionic zr-allylPd complexes of type I (linear type), II, or III (Pd-Trimethylenemethane (TMM) type and analogs) as reactive dipole partners are popular methods that provide highly functionalized, saturated ring systems often with high stereocontrol and atom economy (Scheme 1). Discovered in the early 1980s, they have been extensively covered in the review literature [8-16]. 

The mode of COj linkage to a methylenccyclopropane involves the intermediate trimethylenemethane, which has also been Implicated in the cycloadditions of mcthylenecyclopropane to alkenes catalyzed by palladium(O). The insertion of COj into this allylic intermediate gives cyclic carboxylate species, which liberate the lactones, as shown in Scheme 11. 

Both the thermally and the photochemically initiated extrusion of nitrogen from bicyclic diazene (1) leads to the formation of a 1,3-diradical (diyl) which is structurally related to trimethylenemethane. As shown in the cascade mechanism illustrated, two forms of the diyl can be intercepted by alkenes bearing electron-withdrawing groups (diylophiles), viz. the open form of the singlet diyl and the triplet diyl which is formed via intersystem crossing from the singlet (Scheme 1). ... 

Scheme 13. Reactions of a substituted trimethylenemethane radical cation.

H 2]-Cycloaddition occurs between 3-methoxycarbonyl-2-pyrone 309 and a trimethylenemethane Pd[(/-PrO)3P]4 complex to give the cycloadduct 310 in 71% yield (88JA1602). (See Scheme 59.) Reactions of 309 and 3-acetylcoumarin 236a with cyclopropenone acetal derivative 312 afford regioselectivity the cyclopentenone acetal compound 313 and 314, respectively (92JA5523). 

Some annulation reactions other than those described above have been found. Reaction of 4-ethyl-5-methyl-2-pyrone 509 (Scheme 93) with the trimethylenemethane palladium complex derived from 2-trimethylsilylmethylallyl acetate 307a gives the [4 + 3]-cycloadduct 510 in... 

Methylenecyclopropane (96CH2), allene oxides (960) and allene episulfide (96S) are shown in Scheme 40. These systems undergo interconversion (96)-(97)-(98) and have always intrigued chemists from both theoretical and synthetic points of view. Trimethylenemethane (97CH2), oxyallyl... 

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