Allylic ylides

Concerted [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements of allyl and benzyl ammonium ylides, allyl sulfonium ylides, allyl sulfoxides, selenoxides, amine oxides and anions of allyl ethers have been reported. These are illustrated by die following general examples ... 

Stockman has reported the preparation of alkyl-, aryl-, and vinyl-disubstituted aziridines with good diastereoselectivities and in good yields through treatment of tert-butylsulfmylimines with the ylide 119, derived from S-allyl tetrahydrothio-phenium bromide (Scheme 1.39) [64]. A range of substrates were tolerated, including heterocyclic, aromatic, and aliphatic substrates (Table 1.16). 

Addition of Allylic Ylides and Related Reagents to Imines... 

Scheme 2.8 Reactions between N-sulfonylimines and allylic ylides.

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]. 

Scheme 2.9 Mechanism of aziridination with allylic ylides.

The Stockman group has also studied reactions between the same imines and allyl sulfonium ylides (first reported by Hou and Dai [45]) [46], N-Sulfinyl vinylazir-... 

Metzner and co-workers reported a one-pot epoxidation reaction in which a chiral sulfide, an allyl halide, and an aromatic aldehyde were allowed to react to give a trons-vinylepoxide (Scheme 9.16c) [77]. This is an efficient approach, as the sulfonium salt is formed in situ and deprotonated to afford the corresponding ylide, and then reacts with the aldehyde. The sulfide was still required in stoichiometric amounts, however, as the catalytic process was too slow for synthetic purposes. The yields were good and the transxis ratios were high when Ri H, but the enantioselectivities were lower than with the sulfur ylides discussed above. 

Since electron-donating substituents at the phosphorus atom favor addition reactions over olefination reactions, addition of 9 to aldehydes leads to the exclusive formation of the silyl-pro-tected allylic alcohols 10. No reaction products arising from Wittig alkenylation could be detected. The ylides (R,S)-9 and (S.S)-9 and their enantiomers were prepared from the corresponding optically pure l-[2-(diphenylphosphino)ferrocenyl]-A,A -dimethylethanamine diastereomers 7 via the phosphonium salts 8. 

The premier example of this process in an ylide transformation designed for [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement is reported in Eq. 15 [107]. The threo product 47 is dominant with the use of the chiral Rh2(MEOX)4 catalysts but is the minor product with Rh2(OAc)4. That this process occurs through the metal-stabilized ylide rather than a chiral free ylide was shown from asymmetric induction using allyl iodide and ethyl diazoacetate [107]. Somewhat lower enantioselectivities have been observed in other systems [108]. 

Previous syntheses of terminal alkynes from aldehydes employed Wittig methodology with phosphonium ylides and phosphonates. 6 7 The DuPont procedure circumvents the use of phosphorus compounds by using lithiated dichloromethane as the source of the terminal carbon. The intermediate lithioalkyne 4 can be quenched with water to provide the terminal alkyne or with various electrophiles, as in the present case, to yield propargylic alcohols, alkynylsilanes, or internal alkynes. Enantioenriched terminal alkynylcarbinols can also be prepared from allylic alcohols by Sharpless epoxidation and subsequent basic elimination of the derived chloro- or bromomethyl epoxide (eq 5). A related method entails Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation of an allylic chloride and base treatment of the acetonide derivative.8 In these approaches the product and starting material contain the same number of carbons. 

The reaction of the stabilized yUde 46 (a-vinyl substituted) with the cycloocta-dienyl Pd(II) allows the synthesis of a novel complex, the (rj -allyl)palladium 47, in which the olefmic double bond participates in the coordination (Scheme 20) [83]. The coordination of the bis-yUde 48 with the same starting Cl2Pd(COD) leads to the formation of another new palladium complex 49 via COD exchange reactions. A C-coordination mode takes place between the carbanionic centers of the bis-ylide and the soft palladium and two stereogenic centers of the same configuration are thus created [83]. In contrast to the example described in Scheme 19, the Cl2M(COD) (M=Pd or Pt), in presence of a slightly different car-... 

Thia-[2,3]-Wittig sigmatropic rearrangement of lithiated carbanions 47, obtained by deprotonation of the S-allylic sulfides 46, affords the thiols 48 or their alkylated derivatives 49. The corresponding sulfonium ylides 51, prepared by deprotonation of the sulfonium salts 50 also undergoes a [2,3]-sigmatropic shift leading to the same sulfides 49 [36,38] (Scheme 13). As far as stereochemistry is concerned, with crotyl (R R =H,R =Me) and cinnamyl (R, R =H,R =Ph) derivatives, it has been shown that the diastereoselectivity depends on the nature of the R substituent and on the use of a carbanion or an ylide as intermediate. 

A more direct access to the unstable and non isolated sulfonium ylides 58a- c is the reaction of diisopropyl diazomethylphosphonate 57 with allylic sulfides, catalyzed by Cu(II), Rh(II) [39], or ruthenium porphyrins.[40] For example, the a-phosphorylated y,d-unsaturated sulfides 59-61 are obtained through the [2,3] -sigmatropic rearrangement of 58a-c. This method allows the use of a greater variety of starting allylic sulfide substrates, such as 2-vinyl tetrahydrothiophene, or propargylic sulfides (Scheme 15). 

The 1,5-diene (19) was obtained from the salt (18) by alkylation of the ylide with allyl bromide and reduction of the resulting salt with lithium in ethylamine. 

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