Zinc homoenolates, reactivity

A few further general examples of zinc catalytic activity or reactivity include the following. Other zinc-containing systems include a zinc phenoxide/nickel(0) catalytic system that can be used to carry out the chemo- and regioselective cyclotrimerization of monoynes.934 Zinc homoenolates have been used as novel nucleophiles in acylation and addition reactions and shown to have general utility.935,936 Iron/zinc species have been used in the oxidation of hydrocarbons, and the selectivity and conditions examined.362 There are implications for the mechanism of metal-catalyzed iodosylbenzene reactions with olefins from the observation that zinc triflate and a dizinc complex catalyze these reactions.937... 

TMS-Cl or TMS-I, formed in situ, worics as the promoter in addition reactions of zinc homoenolates ((3-metallocarbonyl compounds), generated from 1-alkoxy-l-siloxycyclopropanes and ZnXz (equation 7). No reaction t es place with the purified zinc homoenolates. In contrast, titanium homoenolates are reactive enough to add to aldehydes in the absence of the Lewis acid promoter.Related reactions of zinc esters with aldehydes in the presence of (lVO)3TiCl have been reported (equation 8). ... 

Internal nucleophilic cyclization is one of the most typical reactions of reactive metal homoenolates (equation 3 and Scheme and provides a convenient route to silyloxycyclopropanes (e.g. 8) through cyclization of 3-halo esters. Zinc homoenolates (9) also cyclize to cyclopropanes under suitable conditions. Treatment of the zinc homoenolate in CHCb with an acid chloride at room temperature gives an 0-acylation product (Scheme 6), instead of a 4-keto ester (see Section 1.14.7.1). The reaction of the zinc homoenolate wifo MesSiCl in a polar solvent gives a silyloxycyclopropane (Scheme 6), providing a very mild route to silyloxycyclopropanes. ... 

Homoenolate Reactivity. Since the previous e-EROS report, a number of examples have been described using the cyclopropanone acetals. Thus, the zinc homoenolate, known to undergo a highly regioselective and stereoselective Sn2 allylation reaction (eq 6), is used in the synthesis of moenomycin analogues. The activated titanium homoenolate reacts with aldehydes or ketones to give y-hydroxy esters that serve as precursors to y-lactones. ... 

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