Unsaturated carbonyl compounds, effect

Triethylammonium formate is another reducing agent for q, /3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Pd on carbon is better catalyst than Pd-phosphine complex, and citral (49) is reduced to citronellal (50) smoothly[55]. However, the trisubstituted butenolide 60 is reduced to the saturated lactone with potassium formate using Pd(OAc)2. Triethylammonium formate is not effective. Enones are also reduced with potassium formate[56]. Sodium hypophosphite (61) is used for the reduction of double bonds catalyzed by Pd on charcoal[57]. 

Methacryhc acid and its ester derivatives are Ctfjy -unsaturated carbonyl compounds and exhibit the reactivity typical of this class of compounds, ie, Michael and Michael-type conjugate addition reactions and a variety of cycloaddition and related reactions. Although less reactive than the corresponding acrylates as the result of the electron-donating effect and the steric hindrance of the a-methyl group, methacrylates readily undergo a wide variety of reactions and are valuable intermediates in many synthetic procedures. 

More recent work has shown that the 2-unsubstituted compound 40 (R = H, R = Pr ) is an effective formyl anion equivalent which reacts at C2 and undergoes both 1,4-addition to a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds and 1,2-addition to aldehydes (93TL3907 96T4719). 

Reduction of unsaturated carbonyl compounds to the saturated carbonyl is achieved readily and in high yield. Over palladium the reduction will come to a near halt except under vigorous conditions (73). If an aryl carbonyl compound, or a vinylogous aryl carbonyl, such as in cinnamaldehyde is employed, some reduction of the carbonyl may occur as well. Carbonyl reduction can be diminished or stopped completely by addition of small amounts of potassium acetate (i5) to palladium catalysts. Other effective inhibitors are ferrous salts, such asferroussulfate, at a level of about one atom of iron per atom of palladium. The ferrous salt can be simply added to the hydrogenation solution (94). Homogeneous catalysts are not very effective in hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehydes because of the tendencies of these catalysts to promote decarbonylation. 

The net effect of the Stork reaction is the Michael addition of a ketone to an cn/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound. For example, cyclohexanone reacts with the. cyclic amine pyrrolidine to yield an enamine further reaction with an enone such as 3-buten-2-one yields a Michael adduct and aqueous hydrolysis completes the sequence to provide a 1,5-diketone (Figure 23.8). 

The combined influences of polar and steric effects and of the strength of the newly formed bond93 was also recognized in the reaction of a,0-unsaturated carbonyl compounds and similar electron deficient alkenes95 with organomercurials and NaBH4. For the addition of alkyl radicals to substituted styrenes, p assumed a... 

Finally, chiral epoxides can be prepared from a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds through an entirely different approach, in which the epoxide oxygen is derived from the carbonyl moiety. For example, trans-aryl-vinyl epoxides 52 can be synthesized from conjugated aldehydes 50 and chiral sulfonium salts 51, with excellent ee s. The protocol is especially effective for substrates which bear a p-mcthoxy group on the aryl substituent <00TL7309>. 

Shibasaki s lanthanide-alkaline metal-BINOL system, discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, can also effect the asymmetric conjugate addition reaction. As shown in Scheme 8-35, enantioselective conjugate addition of thiols to a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds proceeds smoothly, leading to the corresponding products with high yield and high ee.76... 

Some chiral quaternary ammonium salts are also effective in Michael addition reactions. The Merck catalysts 7 (R=4-CF3, X=Br) and 9 (R=4-CF3, X=Br, 10,11-dihydro) were used tor the Michael additions of 59,61, and 64 to vinyl ketones to give the adducts 60,62, and 65 (isolated as 66), respectively,148,491 with excellent enantioselectivity, as shown in Scheme 19. The Michael addition of the O Donnell imine 23 to the a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds also efficiently proceeded by use of the N-anthracenyl-methyl catalyst 12 (R=allyl, X=Br), giving the Michael adducts 67 (Scheme 20).1251... 

Conjugate reduction.1 This stable copper(I) hydride cluster can effect conjugate hydride addition to a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, with apparent utilization of all six hydride equivalents per cluster. No 1,2-reduction of carbonyl groups or reduction of isolated double bonds is observed. Undesirable side reactions such as aldol condensation can be suppressed by addition of water. Reactions in the presence of chlorotrimethylsilane result in silyl enol ethers. The reduction is stereoselective, resulting in hydride delivery to the less-hindered face of the substrate. 

Reduction of a., -unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Hydrosilanes, particularly (QH,)2SiH2, in the presence of Pd(0), and a Lewis acid, particularly ZnCl2, can effect selective conjugate reduction of unsaturated ketones, aldehydes, and carboxylic acid derivatives. Chloroform is the solvent of choice. In addition, 1 equiv. of water is required. Experiments with D,0 and (C6H,),SiD2 indicate that... 

As previously noted (Scheme 1), prior to the explosion of interest in iminium ion catalysis as a platform for the activation of a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds in 2000, Yamaguchi [29-33] and Taguchi [34] showed that proline derived bi-func-tional catalysts could provide an effective platform for the ion-pair controlled conjugate addition of malonates and nitroalkanes to a, 3-unsaturated ketones with good levels of stereocontrol. 

The new ionic liquid/H20 system has also been shown to be highly effective for the epoxidation of various oc, 3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. [BMIMjPF retained almost all of its original activity for the epoxidation of mesityl oxide, even after eight repeated uses. 

N-Metalated azomethine ylides generated from a-(alkylideneamino) esters can exist as tautomeric forms of the chelated ester enolate (Scheme 11.8). On the basis of the reliable stereochemical and regiochemical selectivities described below, it is clear that the N-metalated tautomeric contributor of these azomethine ylides is important. Simple extension of the above irreversible lithiation method to a-(alkylideneamino) esters is not very effective, and cycloadditions of the resulting lithiated ylides to a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds are not always clean reactions. When the a-(alkylideneamino) esters bear a less bulky methyl ester moiety, or when a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds are sterically less hindered, these species suffer from nucleophihc attack by the organometalhcs, or the metalated cycloadducts undergo further condensation reactions (81-85). 

One problem in the anti-selective Michael additions of A-metalated azomethine ylides is ready epimerization after the stereoselective carbon-carbon bond formation. The use of the camphor imines of ot-amino esters should work effectively because camphor is a readily available bulky chiral ketone. With the camphor auxiliary, high asymmetric induction as well as complete inhibition of the undesired epimerization is expected. The lithium enolates derived from the camphor imines of ot-amino esters have been used by McIntosh s group for asymmetric alkylations (106-109). Their Michael additions to some a, p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds have now been examined, but no diastereoselectivity has been observed (108). It is also known that the A-pinanylidene-substituted a-amino esters function as excellent Michael donors in asymmetric Michael additions (110). Lithiation of the camphor... 

Toyota, Ihara, and coworkers demonstrated that silyl enol ethers undergo Pd -promoted intramolecular nucleophilic attack on alkenes [18]. Allhough early examples required stoichiometric Pd [167], they have also shown that Pd(OAc)2 in DMSO is an effective catalyst in the presence of an aerobic atmosphere (Eq. 38) [168-170]. The reaction is proposed to proceed through an oxo-jt-allyl intermediate that can undergo competitive alkene insertion or P-hydride elimination (Scheme 11). The latter reaction is the basis for the synthetically useful conversion of silyl enol ethers to a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (see below). Efforts to use BQ as an oxidant were not described. 

In terms of Michael additions at the indole C-3-position, montmorillonite KIO has been shown to be effective in promoting the conjugate addition of indoles to a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds <99MC929>. In what is also a Michael process, microwave irradiation has been shown to be effective in promoting the trimolecular condensation of substituted indoles 111 with... 

An empirical increment system permits prediction of charge distribution in a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds, assuming additivity of electronic effects and neglecting the conformational dependence of carbon-13 chemical shifts [290]. Moreover, carbonyl and alkenyl carbon shifts of a, /3-unsaturatcd ketones may be used to differentiate between planar and twisted conjugated systems, as shown in Table 4.29 [291] and outlined for phenones in Section 3.1.3.8. 

The effect of conjugation also is reflected in infrared carbonyl frequencies (Section 16-3A) and nmr spectra. With respect to the latter, it is found that the protons on the (3 carbon of a,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds usually come at 0.7 to 1.7 ppm lower fields than ordinary alkenic protons. The effect is smaller for the a protons. 

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