Zinc reagents catalyzed reactions

Most of the described procedures of forming tetrazoles (catalyzed and uncatalyzed) suffer from some disadvantages hke the use of both toxic metals and expensive reagents, drastic reaction conditions, water sensitivity, and the presence of dangerous hydrazoic acids. The zinc(II)-catalyzed reactions to form tetrazoles by Sharpless and coworkers [212,224,225] are safe, but in the case of stericaUy hindered aromatic or alkyl inactivated nitriles, high temperatures (140-170 °C) are required. Amantini et aL reported TBAF to be an efficient catalyst in the synthesis of 5-substituted IH-tetrazoles by using TMSN3 without solvents (Scheme 65) [226]. 

These zinc reagents are useful precursors for stereocontrolled palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, as illustrated in equations 73-80 [100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108] This methodology has been used to prepare new fluorinated analogues of codlemone [I09. ... 

Phenylcyclopropane has been prepared by the base catalyzed decomposition of 5-phenylpyrazoline (33 %),2 by the reaction of 1,3-dibromo-l phenylpropane with magnesium (68%),3 and by the reaction of 3-phenylpropyltrimethylammomum iodide with sodium amide in liquid ammonia (80%)4 However, the method frequently used at present is the reaction of styrene with the methylene iodide-zinc reagent (32%)5... 

Fluoral hydrate and hemiacetals are industrial products. They are stable liquids that are easy to handle, and they react as fluoral itself in many reactions. Thus, in the presence of Lewis acids, they react in Friedel-Crafts reactions. They also react very well with organometallics (indium and zinc derivatives) and with silyl enol ethers.Proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric aldol reaction of fluoral ethyl hemiac-etal with ketones produced jS-hydroxy-jS-trifluoromethylated ketones with good to excellent diastereo- (up to 96% de) and enantioselectivities. With imine reagents, the reaction proceeds without Lewis acid activation. The use of chiral imines affords the corresponding 8-hydroxy ketones with a 60-80% de (Figure 2.49). ° ... 

Conditions for controlling the regiochemistry of the addition reactions between benzyl zinc reagents and 2,4-dichloroquinoline under palladium-catalyzed conditions were developed <99JOC453>. Similarly, the regiochemistry of the palladium-catalyzed carbonylation of 4,7-dichloroquinoline was evaluated <99TL3719>. 

Representative results are shown in Fig. 2.1.2.1. Both reactions with mixtures of diphenylzinc and diethylzinc and those with pure diphenylzinc are catalyzed by ferrocene 9 as indicated by the comparisons between curves A and C as well as B and D, respectively. Apparently the reaction becomes slower when the mixture of the zinc reagents is applied (curve A versus curve B). We presume that this effect is - as hoped - due to a less pronounced background reaction as well as to a modification of the aryl source (potentially PhZnEt or complexes thereof). Consequently, a better control of the enantioselectivity at the expense of the reaction rate is observed. 

Trifluoro-2-propenyl zinc reagent can undergo palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction with aryl or vinyl halides [169,170], which provides a novel method for the introduction of the trifluoromethyl group into organic molecules (Scheme 59). The trifluoro analogue of Naproxen has been prepared by this method [169] (Scheme 60). 

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