Vinyl carbon nucleophiles, Michael addition

Vinyl sulfones, being good Michael acceptors, have been regarded as useful reagents for carbon-carbon bond formation. Nucleophiles used often are organometallic reagents, enamines and enolate anions and the Michael addition products are usually obtained in... 

In principle, numerous reports have detailed the possibility to modify an enzyme to carry out a different type of reaction than that of its attributed function, and the possibility to modify the cofactor of the enzyme has been well explored [8,10]. Recently, the possibility to directly observe reactions, normally not catalyzed by an enzyme when choosing a modified substrate, has been reported under the concept of catalytic promiscuity [9], a phenomenon that is believed to be involved in the appearance of new enzyme functions during the course of evolution [23]. A recent example of catalytic promiscuity of possible interest for novel biotransformations concerns the discovery that mutation of the nucleophilic serine residue in the active site of Candida antarctica lipase B produces a mutant (SerlOSAla) capable of efficiently catalyzing the Michael addition of acetyl acetone to methyl vinyl ketone [24]. The oxyanion hole is believed to be complex and activate the carbonyl group of the electrophile, while the histidine nucleophile takes care of generating the acetyl acetonate anion by deprotonation of the carbon (Figure 3.5). 

Highly stabilized phosphorus ylides are prepared from acetylenic esters, a carbon-based nucleophile, and triphenylphosphine in aqueous media.40 In acetone-water (2 1) solvent, the reaction proceeds via the conjugate addition of triphenylphosphine to dialkyl acetylenedicarboxy-lates the resulting vinyl triphenylphosphonium salts undergo Michael addition reaction with a carbon-nucleophile to give the corresponding highly stabilized phosphorus ylides. 

The reaction of vinylic phenyliodium salts (57) with cyanide anions could be mistaken for a simple substitution reaction.59 However, the presence of both allylic (58) and vinylic (59) nitrile products suggests a more complex picture. Deuterium labelling experiments show that the allylic product is formed via the Michael addition of cyanide to the vinylic iodonium salt, followed by elimination of iodobenzene and a 1,2-hydrogen shift in the 2-cyanocycloalkylidene intermediate (60). H-shift occurs from the methylene carbon in preference to the methine carbon. The effects of substitution and different nucleophiles were examined. 

Michael additions are useful in acetoacetic ester syntheses and malonic ester syntheses because the enolate ions of both of these esters are good Michael donors. As an example, let s consider the addition of the malonic ester enolate to methyl vinyl ketone (MVK). The crucial step is the nucleophilic attack by the enolate at the carbon. The resulting enolate is strongly basic, and it is quickly protonated. 

The palladium-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloaddition of vinylic oxirane 20a [42] and aziridine 20b [39] with the activated olefin 4a for the formation of five membered cyclic ether 21a and pyrrolidine derivative 21b has also been reported in our laboratories. The mechanistic issue is very much similar to that discussed in Scheme 9. Pd(0) catalyst added oxidatively to 20 to produce the 7r-allylpalladium complex 22. The Michael addition of a hetero nucleophile in 22 to the activated olefin 4a gives 23 which undergoes intramolecular nucleophilic attack on the inner 7r-allylic carbon atom to give the cy-clized products 21 and Pd(0) species is generated (Scheme 10). Similarly, the palladium-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloaddition of vinylic oxirane 20a with the N-losylimincs 24 is also known (Scheme 11) [43]. Intermolecular cycloaddition of vinyl epoxides and aziridines with the heterocumulenes such as isocyanates, carbodiimides and isothiocyanates is also known [44,45]. Alper et al. reported the regio- and enatioselective formation of the thiaolidine, oxathiolane, and dithiolane derivatives by the palladium-catalyzed cyclization reaction of 2-vinylthiirane with heterocumulenes [46]. 

Michael addition is a facile reaction between nucleophiles and activated olefins and alkynes in which the nucleophile adds across a carbon-carbon multiple bond [25], For the preparation of hydrogels, the hydroxyl, thiol or amine functionalities have been reacted with vinyl sulfones [26-28], acrylates [29-31], acrylamides [32], and maleimides [33, 34] (Scheme 2). 

In alkenyl- and alkynylcarbene complexes the addition of nucleophiles to the carbene carbon competes with the addition to the 3-carbon of the conjugated C-C multiple bond. [17] The regioselectivity of the addition of amines to alkynylcarbene complexes is temperature dependent 1,2-addition is favoured by lower temperatures. [17c] Enolates turned out to be efficient C-nucleophiles for Michael addition reactions to unsaturated metal carbenes. The product distribution may depend on steric factors as shown in Scheme 7 for the addition of different enolates to alkenylcarbene complex 10. The less bulky acetone enolate 11 adds to the carbene carbon protonation of the primary addition product results in demetalation and in the formation of a mixture of isomeric enones 12. In contrast, the more bulky cyclopentanone enolate 13 adds to the less shielded vinylic position. 

KOMe [93% (all- )]. Notably, /-BuOK does not promote the elimination in this case. The mechanism of this process is different from that with the alkoxysulphones. The initial step is formation of a vinyl sulphone 50. Isomerization of this intermediate to the allylic sulphone 48 via 51 is effected by Michael addition and elimination of methanol. The ineffectiveness of t-BuOK is explained by this mechanism. This bulky reagent cannot abstract the proton from the a-carbon of the sulphonyl group because this is embedded in a sterically highly crowded environment. Moreover, r-BuOK does not participate in the Michael addition because of its weaker nucleophilic character. 

The Michael-type addition reaction of carbon nucleophiles to vinyl sulfone-modified carbohydrates should be considered as an efficient route for the synthesis of branched-chain sugars because almost all carbohydrates in pyranose and furanose form could be converted to their vinyl sulfone derivatives very easily [5, 12-14]. Moreover, the product of the reaction carrying sulfone functionality has the potential to undergo a wide variety of transformations [15]. For a review on desulfonylation reaction, see Ref. [16]. 

A wide variety of carbon nucleophiles have been successfully used in the organocatalytic asymmetric inter- and intramolecular Michael addition to different a,p-unsaturated systems. Among them, the addition of aldehydes to diverse Michael acceptors such as, a,p-unsaturated ketones, alkylidene malonates, P-nitrostyrenes, and vinyl sulfones, is one of the most studied reactions. Enamine catalysis is the most frequently employed chiral activation found in the literature. 

An aqueous NaOH-promoted intramolecular aza-Michael addition of a-carbamoyl,a-(l-chlorovinyl)ketene-S,S-acetals 25 followed by fhe nucleophilic vinylic substitution reaction furnished 1,4,4-frisubstituted 3-alkylidene-2-azetidinones 28 [37], An inframolecular aza-Michael addition of the nitrogen atom to the unsaturated p-carbon of ketene-S,S-acetals 25 under basic conditions generafes a carbanion 26, which subsequenfly rmdergoes profonation in aqueous alcoholic media to afford the intermediate products 27 (Scheme 8). Finally, the displacement of chloride in compounds 27 by alkoxide ion via nucleophilic vinylic substitution reaction leads to the formation of 2-azetidinones 28. In most of the cases, only (E)-isomer was obtained. 

The Michael reaction is the 1,4-conjugate addition of carbon nucleophiles to a,P-unsaturated carbonyl or P-electron-poor vinyl compounds and, as such, represents a useful method for the mild formation of C-C bonds. Similarly to aldol reactions. 

The field of organocatalyzed Michael addition has rapidly evolved to reach its maturity as exemplified by the number of applications of the most classic reactions in total synthesis. It is not surprising that the methodologies first developed with enantioselectivities in a practical range and with broad scope were the first ones widely accepted and used by the synthetic community. The best examples are the addition of aldehydes to methyl vinyl ketone, iminium nucleophilic carbon addition to enals, or phase-transfer-catalyzed addition to vinyl ketones. 

The synthesis of 4-alkyl thioketones is possible by exploiting the stabilizing effect of a sulfur atom upon an adjacent carbanionic center. Ambident allylic anions react so that conjugate addition proceeds exclusively with the a-carbon of the nucleophile,129 243 244 as illustrated in equation (S3) 245 arylsulfinyl and arylsulfonyl groups normally246 behave similarly.247-249 Sulfur-stabilized vinylic carbanions can be prepared and function as Michael donors in difunctionalization sequences.250... 

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