Tungsten enolates aldol reaction

The enolates (48) and (49) of the transition metals tungsten, rhenium and molybdenum can be successfully prepared by the nucleophilic displacement of a-chloro ketones and a-chloro esters with the appropriate transition metal anion (Scheme 6). They are isolated as C-bound enolate derivatives and, except for the rhenium enolate (49), do not undergo thermal aldol additions to benzaldehyde. However, Bergman and Heathcock et al. have found that an aldol reaction of complex (48) with benzaldehyde can occur on irradiation via the rearranged q -oxaallyl derivative (50), where the metal aldolate (51) can then be... 

At the time the chemistry of main group enolates flourished already for a while, that of late transition metals had a shadowy existence in synthetic organic chemistry. Their stoichiometric preparation and the sluggish reactivity - tungsten enolates, for example, required irradiation to undergo an aldol addition [24a] - did not seem to predestine them to become versatile tools in asymmetric syntheses [27]. The breakthrough however came when palladium and rhodium enolates were discovered as key intermediates in enantioselective catalyses. After aldol reactions of silyl enol ethers or silyl ketene acetals under rhodium catalysis were shown to occur via enolates of the transition metal [8] and after the first steps toward enantioselective variants were attempted [28], palladium catalysis enabled indeed aldol additions with substantial enantioselectivity... 

Another example of a [4S+1C] cycloaddition process is found in the reaction of alkenylcarbene complexes and lithium enolates derived from alkynyl methyl ketones. In Sect. 2.6.4.9 it was described how, in general, lithium enolates react with alkenylcarbene complexes to produce [3C+2S] cycloadducts. However, when the reaction is performed using lithium enolates derived from alkynyl methyl ketones and the temperature is raised to 65 °C, a new formal [4s+lcj cy-clopentenone derivative is formed [79] (Scheme 38). The mechanism proposed for this transformation supposes the formation of the [3C+2S] cycloadducts as depicted in Scheme 32 (see Sect. 2.6.4.9). This intermediate evolves through a retro-aldol-type reaction followed by an intramolecular Michael addition of the allyllithium to the ynone moiety to give the final cyclopentenone derivatives after hydrolysis. The role of the pentacarbonyltungsten fragment seems to be crucial for the outcome of this reaction, as experiments carried out with isolated intermediates in the absence of tungsten complexes do not afford the [4S+1C] cycloadducts (Scheme 38). 

Molybdenum and tungsten C-enolates can be generated by reaction of complexes with a-chlorocarbo-nyls (Scheme 67). These 2-oxaallyl(T) -C-enolate) complexes react with aldehydes in a photoreaction to produce aldol products, by way of the ii -enolate. 

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