Wolff* rearrangement of a-diazo ketones

The use of copper as a catalyst in carbenoid transfer has its roots in the Amdt-Eistert reaction, Eq. 1 (3). Although the original 1935 paper describes the Wolff rearrangement of a-diazo ketones to homologous carboxylic acids using silver, the authors mention that copper may be substituted in this reaction. In 1952, Yates (4) demonstrated that copper bronze induces insertion of diazo compounds into the X-H bond of alcohols, amines, and phenols without rearrangement, Eq. 2. Yates proposal of a distinct metal carbenoid intermediate formed the basis of the currently accepted mechanistic construct for the cyclopropanation reaction using diazo compounds. 

The unique electrocatalytic role of benzoic acid-protected silver nanoclusters in the Wolff rearrangement of a-diazo ketones has been disclosed. The presence of a Agn°/Agn+ redox couple facilitates a non-classical electron-transfer process, involving chemical reactions interposed between two electron-transfer steps occurring in opposite directions.32... 

Using Ph3P to induce Staudinger reaction of a-azidocinnamic esters as well as Wolff rearrangement of a-diazo ketones, two types of mutually reactive molecules are formed. The natural course for aza-Wittig reaction is pursued to produce cyclization-prone ketene imines. ... 

From Diazo-compounds. The Wolff rearrangement of a-diazo-ketones has been reviewed and a discussion of the Bamford-Stevens reaction and its associated mechanisms has appeared. The details of a cryochemical synthesis of cyclo-propanone from keten and diazomethane have been described, as have syntheses of cyclopropanone and cyclopropanone acetal. The photolysis of 1-diazobutane, resulting in methylcyclopropane, has been subjected to physico-chemical study. 

The Dauben-Walker approach has yielded the smallest and most strained fenestrane known to date Following the intramolecular Wadsworth-Enunons cyclization of 443 which also epimerizes the butenyl sidechain to the more stable exo configuration, intramolecular photocycloaddition was smoothly accomplished to provide 444. Wolff-ELishner reduction of this ketone afforded the Cj-symmetric hydrocarbon 445. Application of the photochemical Wolff rearrangement to a-diazo ketone 446 p,ve 447. 

Wolff rearrangement Thermal or photochemical rearrangement of a-diazo ketones to form ketenes. 494... 

Wolff rearrangement The rearrangement of a diazo ketone, RCOCHN2, via the keto carbene, RCOCH, to the ketene, RCHCO, which may then be hydrated to a carboxylic acid, RCH2C02H, as in the Arndt-Eistert synthesis. 

Photochemical Wolff rearrangement of 2-diazo-3-ketones, though not widely used as a source of A-norsteroids, is discussed in section V in connection with the mechanism of the important photochemical synthesis of D-norsteroids. Photochemical rearrangement of epoxy ketones is a source of A-nosteroids these rearrangements are discussed in chapter 13. Other photochemical routes to A-norsteroids are known." " ... 

There are several reactions that are conceptually related to carbene reactions but do not involve carbene, or even carbenoid, intermediates. Usually, these are reactions in which the generation of a carbene is circumvented by a concerted rearrangement process. Important examples of this type are the thermal and photochemical reactions of a-diazo ketones. When a-diazo ketones are decomposed thermally or photochemically, they usually rearrange to ketenes, in a reaction known as the Wolff rearrangement.232... 

The Wolff and Amdt-Eistert rearrangements are probably among the earliest known reactions promoted by silver ions.2,3 Discovered at the turn of the nineteenth/ twentieth century, the Wolff rearrangement allows the transformation of a-diazo-ketones to carboxylic acids,4 while the Arndt-Eistert rearrangement is a similar sequence also leading to carboxylic acids, but including the preparation of a-dia-zoketones from a shorter acid chloride (Scheme 3.1).5... 

RCH=C=0, except when these are generated in situ by decomposition of a diazo ketone (the Wolff rearrangement, 18-8) in the presence of the imine. It has been done with ketene, but the more usual course with this reagent is an addition to the enamine tautomer of the substrate. Thioketenes ° (R2C=C=S) give p-thio-Imines also form p-lactams when treated with (i) zinc (or another... 

The stereoselective total synthesis of tt)-campherenone was accomplished by T. Uyehara and co-workers based on a photochemical Wolff rearrangement. The bicyclic ketone was treated with 2,4,6-triisopropylbenzenesulfonyl azide (trisyl azide) under homogeneous basic conditions and the a-diazo ketone was obtained in excellent yield. The photochemical rearrangement of the diazo ketone was conducted in a THF-water mixture using a high-pressure 100 W mercury lamp. The ring-contracted acid was isolated as a 4 1 mixture of endo and exo products. 

The natural product (-)-oxetanocin is an unprecedented oxetanosyl-A/-glycoside that inhibits the in vitro replication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In order to prepare multigram quantities of the compound, D.W. Norbeck et al. devised a short and efficient synthetic strategy. The cornerstone of the strategy was the Wolff rearrangement of a five-membered diazo ketone. The diazo transfer was achieved by first converting the ketone to an enamino ketone followed by treatment with triflyl azide. Upon irradiation with a 450 W Pyrex filtered Hanovia lamp, the isomeric oxetanes (a 3 = 2 1) were obtained in 36% yield. 

The transition metal catalyzed decomposition of a-diazo ketones in the presence of alkenes gives access to a variety of cyclopropyl ketones. In contrast to the thermal or photochemical methods, Wolff rearrangement resulting in ketenes is normally not competitive. 

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