Ylides alkylidenes

F.N. Tebbe (1978 [footnote 20]) and R.R. Schrock (1976) have shown that electrophilic titanium or tantalum ylides can alkylidenate the carbonyl group of esters. Vinyl ethers are obtained in high yields with Tebbe s reagent, p-chlorobis(ri -2,4-cyclopentadien-l-ylXdime-thylaluminum)- 4-methylenetitanium (S.H. Pine, 1980 A.G.M. Barrett, 1989). 

The reaction of an alkylidene phosphorane 1 (i.e. a phosphorus ylide) with an aldehyde or ketone 2 to yield an alkene 3 (i.e. an olefin) and a phosphine oxide 4, is called the Wittig reaction or Wittig olefination reaction. ... 

Schrock-type carbenes are nucleophilic alkylidene complexes formed by coordination of strong donor ligands such as alkyl or cyclopentadienyl with no 7T-acceptor ligand to metals in high oxidation states. The nucleophilic carbene complexes show Wittig s ylide-type reactivity and it has been discussed whether the structures may be considered as ylides. A tantalum Schrock-type carbene complex was synthesized by deprotonation of a metal alkyl group [38] (Scheme 7). 

These carbene (or alkylidene) complexes are used for various transformations. Known reactions of these complexes are (a) alkene metathesis, (b) alkene cyclopropanation, (c) carbonyl alkenation, (d) insertion into C-H, N-H and O-H bonds, (e) ylide formation and (f) dimerization. The reactivity of these complexes can be tuned by varying the metal, oxidation state or ligands. Nowadays carbene complexes with cumulated double bonds have also been synthesized and investigated [45-49] as well as carbene cluster compounds, which will not be discussed here [50]. 

The cycloaddition of alkynes with the tributylphosphine-carbondisulfide adduct 131 results in the in situ formation of the ylides 132 which react with aldehydes to give the novel 2-arylidene or 2-alkylidene-l,3-dithioles 133 (Scheme 36) [132]. Concerning ylides C-substituted by sulfur we can also mention a publication on the behavior of various keto-stabilized ylides towards acyclic and cyclic a s-disulfides allowing the synthesis of substituted thiazoles, thiols, and dithiols [133]. 

Aside from the methylide and cyclopropylide reagents, the sulfonium ylides are not very stable. A related group of reagents derived from sulfoximines offers greater versatility in alkylidene transfer reactions.286 The preparation and use of this class of ylides is illustrated below. 

Other Carbonyl Compounds. The reaction of alkylidenetriphenylphosphoranes with lactones (Scheme 8) affords betaines (32), which can be thermally decomposed to eliminate triphenylphosphine, giving lactones in which the alkylidene grouping of the starting ylide is incorporated into the ring.34... 

Finally, it should be noted that in contrast to optically labile sulfonium ylides, the oxosulfonium yUdes derived from chiral sulfoximides and related compounds are configurationally stable. Johnson and co-workers (184) have obtained a large number of chiral oxosulfonium ylides having the general structures 161 and 162 and have used them as nucleophilic alkylidene transfer agents for asymmetric synthesis. These results are discussed in the last part of this chapter. 

Electrophilic transition metal complexes can react with organic ylides to yield alkylidene complexes. A possible mechanism would be the initial formation of alkyl complexes, which are converted into the final carbene complexes by electrophilic a-abstraction (Figure 3.18). This process is particularly important for the generation of acceptor-substituted carbene complexes (Section 4.1). 

Alkylidene complexes can be prepared by ligand displacement with phosphorus ylides [513,514] or nucleophilic tantalum carbene complexes [409,515]. This methodology has, however, not found widespread use. Representative examples are given in Figure 3.21. 

Fig. 3.21. Preparations of non-heteroatom-substituted alkylidene complexes from phosphorus ylides [516,517].

In the middle of the 1950s, Knott reported the synthesis of dyesmffs based on benzothiazole derivatives. Alkylation of Al-methylbenzo-l,3-thiazole-2-thione with a-bromoacetophenone and deprotonation of the resulting thiocarbonylium salt 5 yielded, after spontaneous desulfurization of the intermediate thiirane (7), the alkylidene derivative 8 (18) (Scheme 5.1). In order to rationalize the reaction, thiocarbonyl ylide 6 was proposed as the precursor of thiirane 7. To the best of our... 

The thermolysis of bis[(trimethylsilyl)methyl]sulfoxides (27) at 100 °C in hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA) results in the elimination of hexamethyldisi-loxane, and thiocarbonyl ylides appear as reactive intermediates (53). This protocol allows the generation of the parent species la, as well as monosubstituted and alkylidene-substituted representatives such as lb and Ic, which are difficult to obtain by other methods (Scheme 5.9). 

Scheme 1.3.17 Asymmetric synthesis of homopropargyl alcohols via a-elimination of alkylidene aminosulfoxonium ylides.

The methylation of sulfoximines 45 with Me30BF4 proceeded readily and gave the corresponding cyclic aminosulfoxonium salts 46 in quantitative yields. Upon treatment with LiN(H)t-Bu first at-78 °C and then at room temperature, salts 46 delivered the enantio- and diastereomerically pure bicyclic 2,3-dihydrofurans 50 cleanly in high overall yields. It is proposed that the reactions of the aminosulfoxonium salts 40 and 46 with the lithium amide at low temperatures afford the vinyl aminosulfoxonium ylides 41 and 47, respectively. These alkylidene carbenoids eliminate sulfinamide 35 at higher temperatures with formation of the alkylidene carbenes 42 and 48, respectively. Subsequently, the alkylidene... 

The Pummerer reaction of sulfinyl compounds involves the formation of an a-functionalized sulfide [244, 245] from a sulfoxide. Acetic anhydride is commonly used as the electrophile, which adds to the sulfoxide to yield a sulfonium salt, and the rearrangement occurs through successive formations of an ylide (rate-determining step) and an alkylidene sulfonium, trapped by a nucleophile, or stabilized by a proton loss with formation of a vinyl sulfide. 

However, certain phosphonium ylides, such as those with an electron-withdrawing substituent in the alkylidene moiety, are relatively unreac-tive toward certain substrates such as ketones (22, 77, 95). This led us to consider whether arsonium ylides might be preferable to phosphonium ylides in certain reactions (48, 94). The overlap of the p orbitals of carbon with d orbitals of arsenic is less effective than with d orbitals of phosphorus. Therefore the covalent canonical form (la) should make a smaller contribution to the overall structure of arsonium ylides than to that of the corresponding phosphonium ylides. 

Alkylidene triphenylarsoranes (18) which still carry one hydrogen atom on the alkylidene moiety reacted with anhydrides or acyl halides to form stable ylides (19) (20, 32, 35, 36, 56, 58, 68). 

Following Schlosser (ref. 9), we divided the alkylidene phosphoranes (phosphorus ylides) 1. used in Wittig reactions into three groups according to their reactivity. 

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