With vinyl aziridines

Note that the first example bears out the stereochemical prediction made earlier. Only the two isomers shown were formed. In the second example, migration can > continue around the ring. Migrations of this kind are called circumambulatory rearrangements. Such migrations are known for cyclopentadiene, pyrrole, and phosphole derivatives.[1,5] Hydrogen shifts are also known with vinyl aziridines." ... 

Reaction of the quinone (12) with vinyl aziridine affords the dihydroazepinoquinone (14) in good yield <95TL4787>. The reaction proceeds via an aza-Claison rearrangement of the intermediate (13) followed by a sigmatropic rearrangement (Scheme 2). 

Other useful nucleophiles for the ring opening of aziridines include bromide, as shown in the Amberlyst-15 catalyzed reaction of lithium bromide with vinyl aziridine 167 <02TL5867> and hydride, which can be delivered by lithium triethylborohydride. This is illustrated by the conversion of tosyl azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexene 169 to the corresponding protected cyclopentenyl amine (170) in 79% yield <02TL723>. 

It is well known that aziridination with allylic ylides is difficult, due to the low reactivity of imines - relative to carbonyl compounds - towards ylide attack, although imines do react with highly reactive sulfur ylides such as Me2S+-CH2-. Dai and coworkers found aziridination with allylic ylides to be possible when the activated imines 22 were treated with allylic sulfonium salts 23 under phase-transfer conditions (Scheme 2.8) [15]. Although the stereoselectivities of the reaction were low, this was the first example of efficient preparation of vinylaziridines by an ylide route. Similar results were obtained with use of arsonium or telluronium salts [16]. The stereoselectivity of aziridination was improved by use of imines activated by a phosphinoyl group [17]. The same group also reported a catalytic sulfonium ylide-mediated aziridination to produce (2-phenylvinyl)aziridines, by treatment of arylsulfonylimines with cinnamyl bromide in the presence of solid K2C03 and catalytic dimethyl sulfide in MeCN [18]. Recently, the synthesis of 3-alkyl-2-vinyl-aziridines by extension of Dai s work was reported [19]. 

An indirect nucleophilic opening is depicted in Scheme 24. The functionalized vinyl aziridine 37 undergoes a Michael-initiated ring closure (MIRC) reaction upon treatment with suitable nucleophiles to give cyclopropanes with concomitant opening of the aziridine ring [34]. 

Phase-transfer catalytic conditions provide an extremely powerful alternative to the use of alkali metal hydrides for the synthesis of cyclopropanes via the reaction of dimethyloxosulphonium methylides with electron-deficient alkenes [e.g. 54-56] reaction rates are increased ca. 20-fold, while retaining high yields (86-95%). Dimethylphenacylsulphonium bromide reacts in an analogous manner with vinyl-sulphones [57] and with chalcones [58] and trimethylsulphonium iodide reacts with Schiff bases and hydrazones producing aziridines [59]. 

Lin and Kadaba (23) reported the intermolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of aryl azides (110) with vinyl pyridines (111) to give a mixture of pyridyltriazolines (112) and aziridines (113) (Scheme 9.23). 

Vinyltriazolines are unique thermolysis leads to high yields of 1-vinylaziridines. This is true of fused-ring tetracyclic (Scheme 40)199,201 and tricyclic triazolines (Schemes 42 and 43)200 204 with vinylic substitution in the 1-position. 1-Vinyltriazoline with no substituents on the ring carbons furnishes 1-vinylaziridine without formation of pyrrolines.378 Thermal decomposition of vinyl azides in acrylic acid derivatives is a synthetic route for 2-substituted 1-vinylaziridines.470 Similarly, aziridine 1-oximes are the only products of thermolysis of triazoline 1-oximes.107... 

Sodium iodide catalyses a regioselective cycloaddition of cyclopropenes with (g) imines, to give c -vinylic aziridines.66... 

Vinyl aziridines have been prepared trans- and diastereo-selectively by reaction of N -/ - h u tv I sul 1 i n v limin e s with telluronium ylides.75... 

Nal catalyses the regioselective 1 + 2-cycloaddition of cyclopropenes with imines to yield cw-vinylic aziridines.205 The synthesis of a new series of mixed Rh(II)2... 

One straightforward route to the aziridine ring system is available through the ring closure of vicinal amino alcohols, an approach which has been used to prepare vinyl N-H aziridines. Thus, 4-amino-l-phenylhex-5-en-3-ol (111) was treated with sulfuryl chloride to provide the sulfamidate 112, which underwent clean thermolysis at 70 °C to form the vinyl aziridine 113 in 97% overall yield <02T5979>. 

Imines can readily serve as aziridine precursors via an aza-Darzens or Darzens-like approach. Vinyl aziridines were synthesized in 57 to 77% yield by reacting ylides generated from substituted allyltetrahydrothiphenium salts with V-(dimethylsulfamoyl)phenyl imine <07SL2879>. Aziridines carrying two or three heteroaryl groups were synthesized on the basis of the Darzens reaction between imines and a-chloroalkyl heterocycles <07EJO5926>. 

The reaction of azides with 1,3-dienes affords vinyl aziridines (through nitrene or azide cycloaddition), which can be converted to dihydropyrroles. It is also possible that dihydropyrroles are directly produced from azidodienes. 

Cyclic and acyclic enol derivatives 480 can be asymmetrically aziridinated with (A -tosylimino)iodobenzene 481 using a chiral copper catalyst prepared in situ from [Cu(MeCN)4]PF6 and the optically active ligand 479. Collapse of the aminal (i.e., 482) leads to the formation of enantiomerically enriched Q-amino carbonyl compounds 483, although ee s to date are modest <2000EJ0557>. Similarly, dienes can be selectively aziridinated using the chiral Mn-salen complex 484 to give vinyl aziridines 486 in scalemic form (Scheme 124) <2000TL7089>. 

In a typical example for aziridine synthesis,, y-allyl tetrahydrothiophenium bromide 618 was smoothly deproto-nated with strong base to provide an ylide which adds to a variety of N-protected imines. For the iV-tosyl aldimine 619 derived from isovaleraldehyde, the corresponding vinyl aziridine 620 is formed in fair yield as a mixture of stereoisomers (Scheme 151) <2004TL1589>. 

Additions of nucleophiles to vinyl aziridines provide the issue of selectivity of 1,2 (Sn2) or 1,4 (Sn2 ) additions. During a very short efficient synthesis of pancratistatin, Hudlicky et al. chose to open a vinylaziridine 156 with an aromatic cuprate 157 <1996JA10752>. Formation of the trans-, Z adduct 158 was accomplished in 75% chemical yield (Equation 42). They found that the addition of simple lower order cuprates or Grignard reagents (aliphatic or aromatic) reacted to give the syn-, A addition, whereas higher-order cuprates gave the trans-, Z product. 

The reaction of simple cyclic vinyl aziridines with organozinc reagents typically provides the 1,4-addition product <2003TL8559>. Several binaphthyl phosphoramidate ligands were examined. In all cases, the /ra r-product 159a was the major product. When no catalyst was used a roughly 1 1 mixture of the trans. cis product was obtained. The use of the chiral phosphoramidate catalyst provided 159a with moderate % ee values (Equation 43). 

Dai and coworkers have investigated the addition of ylides derived from allylic sulfonium salts to IV-sulfonyl imines derived from aromatic aldehydes to produce 2-vinyl aziridines [98]. The general reaction studied is shown in Eq. (69), where a sulfonium salt 285 can be converted to its ylide in situ under either phase transfer conditions, or by use of a strong amides base, and then combined with an N-sulfonyl imine to provide a 2-vinyl aziridine 286. In gene-... 

Synthesis from erythrose An efficient approach for the synthesis of (-l-)-trihy-droxyheliotridane (180) via a chiral erythrose derivative has been reported (Scheme 16). Wittig reaction of 2,3-(9-isopropylidene-L-erythrose (172) with Ph3P=CHCH=CHC02Et produced a 1 5 mixture of the ( , )-173 and (Z,A)-174 isomeric dienes, respectively. The diene 173 could be quantitatively obtained by isomerization of 174 with E. The diene 174 was converted to the azide 177, which upon boiling in benzene gave the vinyl aziridine 176. Pyrolysis of 176 furnished the pyrrolizidine 178. On the other hand, the diene 173 was... 

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