Vinyl sulfoxide substrates

To understand the interdependence of the creation of the two chiral centers relative to each other and to the sulfoxide, monosubstituted vinyl sulfoxides (S)-53 and (S)-54 were prepared and reduced with BH3-THF under the same conditions (Scheme 5.19). Both the 2- and 3-phenyl substituted substrates gave the chiral products 54 and 55 with complete stereo specificities dictated by the configuration of the starting sulfoxides. These results again were unexpected and indicated that both hydrogens were delivered solely directed by the chiral sulfoxide. This was not consistent with the mechanism in which the chirality of the initially formed chiral center at the 3-postion dictates the chirality of the subsequently formed chiral center at the 2-position. 

For the addition of ethylene, EtOAc as solvent was particularly advantageous and gave 418 in 60% yield (Scheme 6.86). The monosubstituted ethylenes 1-hexene, vinylcyclohexane, allyltrimethylsilane, allyl alcohol, ethyl vinyl ether, vinyl acetate and N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone furnished [2 + 2]-cycloadducts of the type 419 in yields of 54—100%. Mixtures of [2 + 2]-cycloadducts of the types 419 and 420 were formed with vinylcyclopropane, styrene and derivatives substituted at the phenyl group, acrylonitrile, methyl acrylate and phenyl vinyl thioether (yields of 56-76%), in which the diastereomers 419 predominated up to a ratio of 2.5 1 except in the case of the styrenes, where this ratio was 1 1. The Hammett p value for the addition of the styrenes to 417 turned out to be -0.54, suggesting that there is little charge separation in the transition state [155]. In the case of 6, the p value was determined as +0.79 (see Section 6.3.1) and indicates a slight polarization in the opposite direction. This astounding variety of substrates for 417 is contrasted by only a few monosubstituted ethylenes whose addition products with 417 could not be observed or were formed in only small amounts phenyl vinyl ether, vinyl bromide, (perfluorobutyl)-ethylene, phenyl vinyl sulfoxide and sulfone, methyl vinyl ketone and the vinylpyri-dines. 

Since early investigations about the asymmetric addition of diethyl sodiomalonate to optically active vinylic sulfoxides,100-101 Posner and his coworkers102-117 have developed a highly useful methodology based on the conjugate addition of carbon nucleophiles to homochiral a-arylsulfinyl-a,(J-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. While acyclic derivatives still lead only to moderate results,103 the strength of this method is for cyclic systems. For example, the 2-sulfinyl-2-cycloalkenones (94) and (95), the 2-sulfinyl-2-alkenolides (96) and (97), as well as their respective enantiomers are excellent substrates. All these compounds are quite readily accessible in enantiomeric purities of >98% and are configurationally stable, at least for several months at 0 C. 

These results indicate that the sulfinyl group seems to be much more efficient in the control of the stereoselectivity of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions (endo or exo adducts are exclusively obtained in de> 80%) than in Diels-Alder processes (mixtures of all four possible adducts were formed). Additionally, complete control of the regioselectivity of the reaction was observed. Despite these clearly excellent results, the following paper concerning asymmetric cycloaddition of cyclic nitrones and optically pure vinyl sulfoxides was reported nine years later [154]. (Meanwhile, only one paper [155], related to the synthesis of /1-nicotyri-nes, described the use of reaction of nitrones with racemic vinyl sulfoxides, but these substrates were merely used as a masked equivalent of acetylene dipolaro-phile). In 1991, Koizumi et al. described the reaction of one of the best dipolarophiles, the sulfinyl maleimide 109, with 3,4,5,6-tetrahydropyridine 1-oxide 194 [154]. It proceeded in CH2C12 at -78 °C to afford a 60 20 10 6 mixture of four products in ca. 90 % yield (Scheme 92). 

Discrepancies between different researchers derive from the character inter-or intramolecular of the interactions presumably controlling the reactive conformation. Thus, in most of the cases, the population of the different rotamers in the sulfinylated substrate (only governed by intramolecular interactions) is the only factor considered for explaining the observed 7r-facial selectivity. This explanation (static conformational polarization) was formulated by Koizumi and used by many authors to justify the behavior of vinyl sulfoxides acting as dienophiles and dipolarophiles. A second explanation assumes that the interactions of the two reagents in the transition states determine a different reactivity of the rotamers around the C-S bond. This intermolecular factor can become the most important one in the control of the 7r-facial selectivity of the cycloadditions, and therefore the tendency expected from conformational stability criteria was not observed in those cases where the most reactive conformation is not the most populated one. This dynamic conformational polarization has been used just to explain some of the results obtained for sulfinyl quinones and sulfinyl dienes (unexplainable with the above model) but it can be applied to many other cases. 

With regard to isomerizations of double bonds, sulfinyl enynes gave unexpected results when submitted to PKR. These chiral substrates were thought to give high asymmetric inductions due to the proximity of the chiral sulfur atoms to the reaction centers. Surprisingly, both cis and trans ferf-butyl vinyl sulfoxides (237-238) were transformed into the same PK diastereoisomer 239 with high ee and moderate yields (Scheme 67) [103,104]. 

An interesting application of the chiral cyclopalladated complexes is palladium-promoted asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions of l-phenyl-3,4-dimethylphosphole (Scheme 4). In the original report on the Diels-Alder reaction of the phosphole reported by Nelson and co-workers, the dichloropalladium species was employed as a promoter.f In 1994, Leung showed that a chiral cyclopalladated complex was capable of promoting the Diels-Alder reaction. In this reaction, the chiral palladacycle worked as a chiral auxihary and showed almost perfect diastereoselectivity. It has been revealed that simultaneous precoordination of a diene and a dienophile to the palladium center is essential for the reaction. Thus, both dienes and dienophiles should possess Lewis basic functionahty. The diene l-phenyl-3,4-dimethylphosphole has been the only substrate examined so far, while a variety of dienophiles, such as vinylphosphine, vinyl-sulfoxide, vinylsulfide, acrylamide, vinylarsine, vinylpyridine, vinyl-pyrrole, or methylenequinuchdinone, have successfully been applied to this asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction. 

As the nucleophilic epoxidation using /-BuOOM as oxidative reagents showed a substrate-dependent stereochemical outcome, de la Pradilla further investigated the metal-catalyzed electrophilic epoxidations of a -hydroxy vinyl sulfoxides. Upon treatment with the t-BuOOH/VO(acac)2 oxidative system, a tz-198 or syn-199 was obtained exclusively when the R group of the substrates was alkyl or Ph group, respectively (Scheme 4.59). 

The synthesis of nonracemic a,P-unsaturated sulfoxides bearing an electron-withdrawing group at the a-position has received attention [28-30] because these types of substrates have proved useful as chiral dienophiles (see Section 5.5) [28,29]. These methods suffered from the disadvantage that several steps were involved. Maignan and coworkers [31] have recently described a one-pot synthesis of nonracemic a-acyl- and a-hydroxyalkyl-a,P-unsaturated sulfoxides from 2-ethoxyethyl p-tolyl sulfoxide (16), readily prepared from (/ )-p-tolyl vinyl sulfoxide by addition of sodium ethoxide in ethanol. Thus, treatment of (16) with LDA in THF, followed by the addition of ethyl acetate, gave enantiomerically pure a-acyl-a,P-unsaturated sulfoxide (18) in 69% yield via the intermediate (17) (Scheme 5.6). 

Scheme 18.SO Vinyl sulfoxide fails as Claisen rearrangement substrate in joubertinamine and mesembrine synthesis.—...

With cyclopentenone derivatives, 1,4-addition is observed for the ester enolates of methyl and f-butyl trimethylsilylacetate, although 1,2-addition occurs with acyclic conjugated enals. With a steroidal cyclopentenone substrate, both 1,2- and 1,4-addition were observed. Conjugate addition is observed for the methyl ester with chiral vinyl sulfoxides. High enantioselectivity can be attained (eq 7). ... 

VV -values for bromoform and pyrrole, acidic liquids, against poly(vinyl chloride), an acidic polymer, and dimethyl sulfoxide, a predominantly basic liquid, against polyfmethyl methacrylate), a basic polymer, but large values for the acidic liquids against PMMA and the basic liquid against PVC. 2-Iodoethanol, a bifunctional liquid, showed appreciable -values with both polymers. Despite these results in line with expectations, other results based on wettability measurements are not so clear-cut. For example, Vrbanac [94] found significant apparent acid-base interactions of various aromatic liquids against poly(ethylene), presumably a neutral substrate. 

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