Umpolung-Michael-Addition

Fermenting baker s yeast also catalyzes the 1,4-addition of a formal trifluoroethanol-d1-synthon to a,/i-unsaturated aldehydes, to give optically active l,l,l-trifluoro-2-hydroxy-5-alka-nones52. Presumably, the mechanism involves oxidation of the alcohol to the corresponding aldehyde followed by an umpolung step with thiamine pyrophosphate and Michael addition to the a,/i-unsaturated aldehyde. For example, l,l,l-trifluoro-2-hydroxy-5-hexanone (yield 26%, ee 93%) is thus obtained from trifluoroethanol and l-bnten-3-one. 

This reaction achieves an umpolung cyclization in vhich a terminal alkyne is hydrated and undergoes an intramolecular Michael addition according to the mechanism depicted in Scheme 6.34. 

Another common umpolung synthon is a homoenolate. Normally the ft position of a carbonyl compound is an electrophilic center (by Michael addition to an 0, /3-unsaturated carbonyl derivative). To make it a nucleophilic center, an organometallic is needed since it is unactivated and nonconjugated. A common way to do this is to use a /3-bromo acetal. 

Overall the reaction achieves an anti-Michael addition across the double bond of 42, an umpolung reactivity pattern also observed in some unsaturated amides (see below).31... 

Therefore acceptor cyclopropanes 1 will be ring opened by nucleophiles N to provide products like 2 (homo Michael addition) as depicted in Eq. 1. On the other hand, electrophiles E+ cleave donor activated cyclopropanes 3 affording adducts 4 or 5 which demonstrates that the cyclopropane serves as a homoenolate equivalent in this sequence (Eq. 2). Seebach consequently classified these methods as umpolung with the cyclopropane trick 4. ... 

Besides the Michael addition of heteroatomic nucleophiles initiating cyclocondensations, acceptor substituted unsaturated systems can also be reacted with carbon nucleophiles stemming from aldehydes in the sense of an umpolung, generally referred to as the Stetter reaction [244-246]. This process is organocatalytic and furnishes in turn 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds, intermediates that are well suited for Paal-Knorr cyclocondensations giving rise to furans or pyrroles. Among numerous heterocycles furans and pyrroles have always been the most prominent ones since they constitute important classes of natural products [247-249], of synthetic... 

Thiamine anions add to aldehydes and ketones (e.g., acetaldehyde, carbohydrates, and pyruvic acid). Pyruvic acid adducts decarboxylate with a half-life of 24 hours in water and 3.2 minutes in ethanol, since ethanol cannot stabilize the intermediate zwitterion as well as water. After acidification, acetaldehyde is split off. In the adduct between acetaldehyde and thiamine, the electrophilic carbon atom of the aldehyde undergoes an Umpolung " to a resonance-stabilized enolate carbon atom. The thiazole-bound acetaldehyde then functions as carban-ion in Michael additions under mildly basic conditions. Retro-aldo reactions are observed, when 1,3-thiazolium ions react with the carbonyl groups of carbohy-... 

In this chapter, asymmetric organocatalyzed umpolung conjugate additions are considered. Particular emphasis on deconjugative Michael additions with a,a-dicyanoalkenes, the intramolecular Rauhut-Currier reaction, and the Stetter reaction is placed. These are very efficient transformations in the synthetic chemist s arsenal, but they are also challenging to control. 

NHC-catalyzed reactions are unique in organic synthesis, and very useful for the construction of carbon-carbon bonds. Great success has been made for the NHC-catalyzed benzoin condensation, Stetter reactions, and a -d Umpolung reactions in the past decades. NHC catalysis has also hnd application in many other reactions, such as umpolung of Michael acceptors, Morita-Baylis-Hilman reaction, Michael additions, redox reaction, and reactions of ketenes. With the rapid development of NHC catalysis, more reactions will surely be found, and the wide applications in organic synthesis could be expected. 

P-, and S-Heterocycles The reaction of two similar or dissimilar aryl aldehydes 250/251 with malonodi-nitrile 21 or ethyl 2-cyanoacetate 175 catalyzed by Af-hetero-cyclic carbenes (NHCs) has been demonstrated to provide fully substituted furans 252 in good to high yields (74-90%), within short reaction times up to 5 h under solvent-free conditions (Scheme 13.59) [97]. This transformation is based on the umpolung of one of the aldehydes by the NHC, while the other one undergoes a Knoevenagel condensation with the CH-acidic reaction partner. The Breslow intermediate then attacks the condensation product in fashion of a Michael addition. After elimination of the NHC, base-catalyzed cyclization provides the desired products. Five different NHCs have been tested catalyzing this reaction. 

Ye and co-workers have shown that NHC 67 can catalyse the aza-Morita-Bay-lis-Hillman reaction of enones 66 and N-tosyl imines 63, presumably via initial NHC conjugate addition to the enone to generate an azolium enolate 68 [18]. A related conjugate addition approach has been exploited by Fu and co-workers, with tautomerisation of the initial enolate 72 derived from NHC conjugate addition to 70 giving 73, with subsequent cyclisation resulting in the umpolung of Michael acceptors (Scheme 12.13) [19]. 

Fn and co-workers describe Umpolung reactivity of Michael acceptors catalyzed by triazolinylidene carbenes (Eq. 33) [168], Nncleophilic addition followed by tantomerization renders the [3 position of the Michael acceptor nncleophilic, which snbseqnently nndergoes alkylation. Compatible leaving gronps inclnde Br, Cl, and OTs. a,P-unsatnrated esters, nitriles, and amides all provide good to excellent yields of cyclized products. 

In addition to the stabilized carbanions, electron-rich aromatic compounds, for example indole derivatives have emerged as new Michael donors [25], In these reactions, aromatic sp2-C-H transformation is involved. These reactions are described in detail in Section 111.1.3.1.3. A highly enantioselective intramolecular Stetter reaction, in which umpolung reactivity of a formyl group was accomplished using a chiral triazolium salt, has also been reported by Rovis [26]. 

The synthetic value of homoenolates, in exact analogy to that of enolates, stems from their amphoteric nature (equations 1 and 2). In addition, homoenolates represent archetypal synthons in the concept of umpolung , acting as inverse polarity nucleophilic synthons of Michael acceptors. 

The actual umpolung reaction that allows a ketene dithioacetal to function as if it had an electrophilic carbon a to a carbonyl is achieved by conjugate addition of nucleophiles to the ketene dithioacetal, followed by hydrolysis. Both sulfide and sulfoxide ketene derivatives can be used. Conjugate addition of an ester enol-ate derived from ferf-butyl acetate (secs. 9.2, 9.4.B, 9.7.A) to the ketene dithioacetal [CH2=C(SOMe)2] gave the stable dithioacetal anion (382). Conversion of the dithioacetal to the bis(sulfoxide) enhanced the ability of that species to function as a Michael acceptor. Subsequent transformation of 382 gave the aldehyde-ester (383).370... 

Due to the unique bivalent carbene and diversity of the N-heterocyclic motif, NHCs have been demonstrated to be efficient organocatalysts for various enantioselective reactions. In addition to the traditional thioazolium and imidazolium NHCs, triazolium NHCs have become the most successful organocatalysts. Recently, NHC/Lewis acid cocatalysis and bifunctional NHCs have shown a very promising future. Beyond the classic NHC-catalysed umpolung of aldehydes, the extended umpolung of functionalised aldehydes are extremely successful. A series of NHC-catalysed reactions of ketenes have been developed for the synthesis of various enantioriched heterocycles. Esters, anhydrides, carboxylic acids and even Michael acceptors are useful alternative substrates for NHC-catalysed reactions. With increasing interest and rapid development of NHC catalysis, new structures of the catalysts, new reaction modes, and synthetic applications can be expected in the near future. 

A diastereoselective 6-exo-tng cyclization of (318), producing the trans-disubstituted tetralone (319) upon treatment with BF3-Me2S at low temperature, has been reported. This cyclization can be regarded as an intramolecular Michael-type addition with umpolung at the imine carbon. The mechanism includes an internal... 

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