Wittig reaction without stereoselectivity

The Horner-Wittig reaction of a-phosphoryl sulphoxides 442, which are chemically stable, results in the formation of a, -unsaturated sulphoxides 443 in high yields (equation 264). The reaction has been found to be non-stereoselective, mixtures of E and Z isomers being formed from aldehydes and unsymmetrical ketones . In the case of aromatic aldehydes this reaction can also be advantageously performed in a two-phase catalytic system even without the usual PTC catalysts (Table 24). Intramolecular Horner-Wittig reaction of a-phosphoryl-5-oxosulphoxides 444 leads to a, -unsaturated cyclic sulphoxides 445 (equation 265). Starting from optically active 0,0-... 

A useful application of the silver-mediated additions is 1,3 -diene synthesis by three-carbon elongation of aldehydes [48,51,53]. The bimetallic reagent 3-trimethylsilyl-l-propenylzirco-nocene chloride (A Scheme 8.23) reacts with aldehydes under the influence of a catalytic amount of Ag+ to give the intermediate zirconocene-alkoxide B, which then undergoes a Peterson-type 1,4-elimination of TMS alkoxide to stereoselectively afford ( )-dienes (fc/Z > 96 4) (Scheme 8.23). A Wittig reaction yields the same products without stereoselectivity (ca. 1 1 mixtures of E- and Z-isomers). 

The method of Kim et al.[89-93] starts from the synthesis of the three-carbon phosphonium salt according to the modified method of Corey et alJ94,95] The Wittig reaction of the phosphonium salt with a Z-protected a-amino aldehyde using potassium hexamethyldisilazanide provides the ds-alkene without racemization. Efficient hydrolysis of the orthoester without double bond migration is achieved by acidolytic hydrolysis with aqueous hydrochloric acid in tert-butyl alcohol under reflux conditions. Then, an a-amino acid methyl ester is coupled. The desired epoxide product is obtained by treatment with 3-chloroperoxybenzoic acid. The epoxidation reaction is stereoselective and predominantly provides one isomer (R,S S,R = 4-10 1). The trans-epoxide can also be prepared using a trans-alkene-containing peptide. A representative synthetic procedure to obtain the ds-epoxide isostere is detailed below. 

Aldehydes undergo efficient E-stereoselective Wittig olefination with alkylidene triphenyl phosphoranes in the presence of activated alumina (pre-treated at 200°C) under mild conditions [34] with high yields. The same reactions without... 

A commoner way to make heterocycles by pericyclic reactions is to use 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions. These often occur without catalysis and so are compatible with many other reactions. The starting material 182 for this asymmetric synthesis of swainsonine was derived from a natural sugar (chiral pool strategy, chapter 23). An exceptionally stereoselective Wittig reaction gave the Z-alkene 183 (chapter 15) and the alcohol was converted into the azide 184 with diphenylphos-phoryl azide.24... 

With allylic alcohols, there is the possibility of a [2,3] variant of the Wittig rearrangement that can compete with the [1,2] rearrangement described above (Eq. 22, the indicated electron flow is for the [2,3] rearrangement). The reaction is expected to be a one-step, pericyclic process without a distinct carbanion intermediate. This rearrangement has proven to be useful synthetically because its concerted nature can lead to high stereoselectivity. ... 

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