Unsaturated carbonyl compounds formation

Aldol additions and ester condensations have always been and still are the most popular reactions for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds (A.T. Nielsen, 1968). The earbonyl group acts as an a -synthon, the enoi or enolate as a d -synthon. Both reactions will be treated together here, and arguments, which are given for aldol additions, are also valid for ester condensations. Many famous name reactions belong to this category ). The products of aldol additions may be either /J-hydroxy carbonyl compounds or, after dehydration, or, -unsaturated carbonyl compounds. 

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]. 

The reactions of enamines with aldehydes (329,350) are noteworthy in that they provide a route to the monobenzylidene derivatives of five- to seven-membered eyclic ketones as well as a method for the formation of other a, 9-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, in fair to good yields. The condensation of benzaldehyde with enamines is also involved in the formation of 3,5-dibenzylpyridine from piperidine and benzaldehyde (191-193). 

Despite the increasing information on the photochemistry of 2,4-dienones and other unsaturated ketones, as well as on the ring-chain valence isomerism of halogen-substituted pyran and dihydi opyran systems,the data are still very scarce. The intermediate formation of pyrans valence-isomeric with unsaturated carbonyl compounds in the pyridine syntheses based on reactions of ammonia with aldehydes or ketones, advocated by various authors (cf. Section II,B,2,f), is still rather speculative. (See also Section II,B,2,e for the valence isomerism of 5-chloro-2,4-dienones with pyrylium chlorides.)... 

One of the most important routes to isoxazole and isoxazoline rings involving the formation of the 1—5 and 2—3 bonds involves the condensation of hydroxylamine with a,/8-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. This method was previously widely used, but it is now of no preparative value, though it has been recently applied to determine the configuration of oximes. " The only new modification of this synthesis is the use of the acetals (27) of a,/8-acetylenic aldehydes for preparation of 5-substituted isoxazoles (28)... 

A simple approach for the formation of 2-substituted 3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrans, which are useful precursors for natural products such as optically active carbohydrates, is the catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reaction of a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds with electron-rich alkenes. This is an inverse electron-demand cycloaddition reaction which is controlled by a dominant interaction between the LUMO of the 1-oxa-1,3-butadiene and the HOMO of the alkene (Scheme 4.2, right). This is usually a concerted non-synchronous reaction with retention of the configuration of the die-nophile and results in normally high regioselectivity, which in the presence of Lewis acids is improved and, furthermore, also increases the reaction rate. 

The addition of the a-carbon of an enolizable aldehyde or ketone 1 to the carbonyl group of a second aldehyde or ketone 2 is called the aldol reaction It is a versatile method for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds, and is frequently used in organic chemistry. The initial reaction product is a /3-hydroxy aldehyde (aldol) or /3-hydroxy ketone (ketol) 3. A subsequent dehydration step can follow, to yield an o ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound 4. In that case the entire process is also called aldol condensation. 

The mechanistic pathway of the ordinary Friedlander synthesis is not rigorously known. Two steps are formulated. In a first step a condensation reaction, catalyzed by acid or base, takes place, that can lead to formation of two different types of products (a) an imine (Schiff base) 4, or (b) an o ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound 5 ... 

The formation of Zj -adducts—e.g. 8 by a consecutive Michael addition reaction, is observed in some cases. This reaction is formulated as a 1,4-addition of a second molecule of the CH-acidic starting material 2 to the initially formed a ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound 3 ... 

Because of their manifold reactivity, Mannich bases 4 are useful intermediates in organic synthesis. For example the elimination of amine leads to formation of an o ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound 8 ... 

The 1,4-addition of an enolate anion 1 to an o ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound 2, to yield a 1,5-dicarbonyl compound 3, is a powerful method for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds, and is called the Michael reaction or Michael addition The 1,4-addition to an o ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl substrate is also called a conjugate addition. Various other 1,4-additions are known, and sometimes referred to as Michael-like additions. 

The overall process is the addition of a CH-acidic compound to the carbon-carbon double bond of an o ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound. The Michael reaction is of particular importance in organic synthesis for the construction of the carbon skeleton. The above CH-acidic compounds usually do not add to ordinary carbon-carbon double bonds. Another and even more versatile method for carbon-carbon bond formation that employs enolates as reactive species is the aldol reaction. 

Certain starting materials may give rise to the non-selective formation of regioisomeric enolates, leading to a mixture of isomeric products. Furthermore a ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds tend to polymerize. The classical Michael procedure (i.e. polar solvent, catalytic amount of base) thus has some disadvantages, some of which can be avoided by use of preformed enolates. The CH-acidic carbonyl compound is converted to the corresponding enolate by treatment with an equimolar amount of a strong base, and in a second step the a ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound is added—often at low temperature. A similar procedure is applied for variants of the aldol reaction. 

Enamines behave in much the same way as enolate ions and enter into many of the same kinds of reactions. In the Stork reaction, for example, an enamine adds to an aqQ-unsaturated carbonyl acceptor in a Michael-like process. The initial product is then hydrolyzed by aqueous acid (Section 19.8) to yield a 1,5-dicarbonyi compound. The overall reaction is thus a three-step sequence of (11 enamine formation from a ketone, (2) Michael addition to an a,j3-unsaturated carbonyl compound, and (3) enamine hydrolysis back to a ketone. 

After reduction of the nitro function of the porphyrin, the porphyrinamine intermediate can be reacted with z./l-unsaturated carbonyl compounds to yield porphyrins with a fused pyridine ring, which is formed by Michael addition, imine formation and dehydrogenation. 

The enantioselective 1,4-addition addition of organometaUic reagents to a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, the so-called Michael reaction, provides a powerful method for the synthesis of optically active compounds by carbon-carbon bond formation [129]. Therefore, symmetrical and unsymmetrical MiniPHOS phosphines were used for in situ preparation of copper-catalysts, and employed in an optimization study on Cu(I)-catalyzed Michael reactions of di-ethylzinc to a, -unsaturated ketones (Scheme 31) [29,30]. In most cases, complete conversion and good enantioselectivity were obtained and no 1,2-addition product was detected, showing complete regioselectivity. Of interest, the enantioselectivity observed using Cu(I) directly in place of Cu(II) allowed enhanced enantioselectivity, implying that the chiral environment of the Cu(I) complex produced by in situ reduction of Cu(II) may be less selective than the one with preformed Cu(I). 

Dimethylsulfonium methylide is both more reactive and less stable than dimethylsulfoxonium methylide, so it is generated and used at a lower temperature. A sharp distinction between the two ylides emerges in their reactions with a, ( -unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Dimethylsulfonium methylide yields epoxides, whereas dimethylsulfoxonium methylide reacts by conjugate addition and gives cyclopropanes (compare Entries 5 and 6 in Scheme 2.21). It appears that the reason for the difference lies in the relative rates of the two reactions available to the betaine intermediate (a) reversal to starting materials, or (b) intramolecular nucleophilic displacement.284 Presumably both reagents react most rapidly at the carbonyl group. In the case of dimethylsulfonium methylide the intramolecular displacement step is faster than the reverse of the addition, and epoxide formation takes place. 

The catalytic conditions are well suited for the preparation of cyclopropanes provided that a, /J-unsaturated carbonyl compounds are employed as radical acceptors (formation of electrophilic radicals after cyclization) as shown in Scheme 32 [123]. 

Viewed systematically, formation of the olefins 24 on reaction of methyleneoxo-phosphorane 9 with a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds is to be classified as an olefination reaction. The similarity to the Wittig reaction is obvious, the differences being just a matter of degree. 

Palladium(II) acetate was found to be a good catalyst for such cyclopropanations with ethyl diazoacetate (Scheme 19) by analogy with the same transformation using diazomethane (see Sect. 2.1). The best yields were obtained with monosubstituted alkenes such as acrylic esters and methyl vinyl ketone (64-85 %), whereas they dropped to 10-30% for a,p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds bearing alkyl groups in a- or p-position such as ethyl crotonate, isophorone and methyl methacrylate 141). In none of these reactions was formation of carbene dimers observed. 7>ms-benzalaceto-phenone was cyclopropanated stereospecifically in about 50% yield PdCl2 and palladium(II) acetylacetonate were less efficient catalysts 34 >. Diazoketones may be used instead of diazoesters, as the cyclopropanation of acrylonitrile by diazoacenaph-thenone/Pd(OAc)2 (75 % yield) shows142). 

Rhodium(i) complexes are excellent catalysts for the 1,4-addition of aryl- or 1-alkenylboron, -silicon, and -tin compounds to a,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. In contrast, there are few reports on the palladium(n) complex-catalyzed 1,4-addition to enones126,126a for the easy formation of C-bound enolate, which will result in /3-hydride elimination product of Heck reaction. Previously, Cacchi et al. described the palladium(n)-catalyzed Michael addition of ArHgCl or SnAr4 to enones in acidic water.127 Recently, Miyaura and co-workers reported the 1,4-addition of arylboronic acids and boroxines to a,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. A cationic palladium(n) complex [Pd(dppe)(PhCN)2](SbF6)2 was found to be an excellent catalyst for this reaction (dppe = l,2-bis(diphenyl-phosphine)ethane Scheme 42).128... 

With an operating catalytic cycle for the reductive opening of epoxides at hand, we decided to investigate the preparatively more important formation of carbon—carbon bonds. Inter-molecular addition reactions to a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds have been described for the stoichiometric process of Nugent and RajanBabu [5], The general concept behind the catalytic conditions is outlined in Scheme 12.16. 

Cycloadditions and cyclization reactions are among the most important synthetic applications of donor-substituted allenes, since they result in the formation of a variety of carbocyclic and heterocyclic compounds. Early investigations of Diels-Alder reactions with alkoxyallenes demonstrated that harsh reaction conditions, e.g. high pressure, high temperature or Lewis acid promotion, are often required to afford the corresponding heterocycles in only poor to moderate yield [12b, 92-94]. Although a,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds have not been used extensively as heterodienes, considerable success has been achieved with activated enone 146 (Eq. 8.27) or with the electron-deficient tosylimine 148 (Eq. 8.28). Both dienes reacted under... 

Kelly and colleagues91 explored the use of bisphenylenediol 103 as a catalyst in Diels-Alder reactions of a,/i-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Activation of the dieno-phile occurred through double hydrogen bonding of the two hydroxyl functions on 103 to the carbonyl group on the dienophile. The reaction of cyclopentadiene with methyl vinyl ketone (equation 31) at ambient temperature showed, after a reaction time of 10 minutes, 3% of product formation in the absence of 103 against 90% of product formation in the presence of 0.4 equivalents of 103. 

Besides direct nucleophilic attack onto the acceptor group, an activated diene may also undergo 1,4- or 1,6-addition in the latter case, capture of the ambident enolate with a soft electrophile can take place at two different positions. Hence, the nucleophilic addition can result in the formation of three regioisomeric alkenes, which may in addition be formed as E/Z isomers. Moreover, depending on the nature of nucleophile and electrophile, the addition products may contain one or two stereogenic centers, and, as a further complication, basic conditions may give rise to the isomerization of the initially formed 8,y-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (and other acceptor-substituted alkenes of this type) to the thermodynamically more stable conjugated isomer (Eq. 4.1). 

A wide range of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen nucleophiles react with allylic esters in the presence of iridium catalysts to form branched allylic substitution products. The bulk of the recent literature on iridium-catalyzed allylic substitution has focused on catalysts derived from [Ir(COD)Cl]2 and phosphoramidite ligands. These complexes catalyze the formation of enantiomerically enriched allylic amines, allylic ethers, and (3-branched y-8 unsaturated carbonyl compounds. The latest generation and most commonly used of these catalysts (Scheme 1) consists of a cyclometalated iridium-phosphoramidite core chelated by 1,5-cyclooctadiene. A fifth coordination site is occupied in catalyst precursors by an additional -phosphoramidite or ethylene. The phosphoramidite that is used to generate the metalacyclic core typically contains one BlNOLate and one bis-arylethylamino group on phosphorus. 

Benzylideneacetone reacts with lithiated phenylacetonitrile under kinetic control, in THF and media that favour association, to give 1,2- and 1,4-adducts in proportions which are directly related to concentrations of monomeric and dimeric ion pair species, respectively." An attempt has been made to explain the different regioselec-tivities towards a,-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, including cyclic a-enones and cinnamaldehyde, in terms of intermediate complex formation. 

Elimination of phenyltellurol from the telluroesters intermediate explains the formation of a, -unsaturated carbonyl compounds. 

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