An efficient and general method for resolving cyclopropene carboxylic acids

Enantioselective, Facially Selective Carbomagnesation of Cyclopropenes

Described is the facially selective and enantioselective addition of carbon nucleophiles to prochiral 3-hydroxymethylcyclopropenes. The process creates up to four stereocenters in a tandem addition/capture sequence that combines three simple materials to give complex and diverse products. The asymmetry is induced by the inexpensive and recoverable ligand (S)-N-methylprolinol. The enantioselectivity (90-98% ee with MeMgCl) is high for a range of cyclopropenes and electrophiles. Importantly, the diastereoselectivity is complementary to that obtained by enantioselective cyclopropanation with aryldiazoacetates. High enantioselectivities are obtained only when methoxide is included in the reaction. Evidence is provided that at least two chiral ligands are involved in the enantioselectivity-determining step.

Diastereoselective Intermolecular Pauson−Khand Reactions of Chiral Cyclopropenes

In this Letter, it is demonstrated that the unusual reactivity of cyclopropenes can increase the scope and utility of intermolecular Pauson-Khand reactions. The well-defined chiral environment of cyclopropenes has a powerful influence on the diastereoselectivity of the reactions and leads to the production of a single cyclopentenone in each of the described cases. The cyclopropane ring strongly influences the stereochemistry of reactions at the enone, and the three-membered ring can subsequently be cleaved under mild conditions. [reaction: see text]

Computational studies of nucleophilic substitution at carbonyl carbon: the S(N)2 mechanism versus the tetrahedral intermediate in organic synthesis

A theoretical study specifically addresses the question of whether nucleophilic addition to the carbonyl groups of acid chlorides, esters, and anhydrides involves an addition-elimination pathway or proceeds by a concerted S(N)2-like mechanism in the absence of the generally assumed tetrahedral intermediate. Density functional calculations [B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p)] establish that chloride ion exchange reactions with both formyl and acetyl chloride proceed by a pi attack on the C=O bond. No discernible tetrahedral intermediate typical of an addition-elimination pathway was found in either case. While a tetrahedral intermediate does exist for the addition of fluoride ion to (Cl)(2)C=O, halide exchange of LiCl with both ClFC=O and (Cl)(2)C=O also proceeds by a concerted S(N)2-like pathway. The formation of a tetrahedral intermediate from the addition of methanol to acetyl chloride is slightly exothermic (4.4 kcal/mol). The ion-dipole complex of methanol weakly bonded to the carbonyl carbon of protonated acetyl chloride is stabilized by 13.8 kcal/mol but does not collapse to a tetrahedral intermediate. When four CH(3)OH molecules are H-bonded to protonated acetyl chloride, a tetrahedral intermediate is not completely formed and this solvated complex more closely resembles the precursor to an S(N)1-type ionization of Cl(-). With six H-bonding methanol molecules, a methanol adds to the carbonyl carbon and a proton relay occurs with formation of a tetrahedral-like structure that immediately loses chloride ion in an S(N)1-like solvolysis. These results corroborate earlier suggestions (Bentley et al. J. Org. Chem. 1996, 61, 7927) that the methanolysis of acetyl chloride does not proceed through the generally assumed addition-elimination pathway with a discrete tetrahedral intermediate but is consistent with ionization of Cl(-). The reaction of methoxide ion with methyl acetate proceeds via a multiple-well energy surface and involves the intermediacy of an asymmetrical species with differing C-OMe bond lengths. Models of synthetic applications of acyl transfer reactions involving anhydrides that form N-acyloxazolidinones also proceed by a concerted S(N)2-type pathway even with the carboxylate leaving group. Concerted transition states were observed for the reactions of each enantiomer of a 1,3-diphenylcycloprop-2-ene carboxylic anhydride by S-3-lithio-4-phenyloxazolidinone. Despite close structural similarities between the diastereomeric transition states, the relative energies correlated closely with the experimental results.

Dianion Approach to Chiral Cyclopropene Carboxylic Acids

[reaction: see text] In this Letter, we describe a general method for preparing the dianions of cyclopropene carboxylic acids, and we show that their subsequent reactions with electrophiles provide a general means for selectively introducing diverse types of functional groups. This provides a general method for the synthesis of chiral 1,2-disubstituted cyclopropenes, and opens new avenues for the enantioselective preparation of cyclopropenes.

A Reactivity/Affinity Switch for Parallel Kinetic Resolution: α-Amino Acid Quasienantiomers and the Resolution of Cyclopropene Carboxylic Acids

A new type of parallel kinetic resolution (PKR) is reported in which quasienantiomers with very similar reactivities give products whose chromatographic properties diverge upon the addition of fluoride. This concept of a reactivity/affinity switch is applied to the PKR of cyclopropene carboxylic acids with all-carbon quaternary centers. This is the first application of alpha-amino acid quasienantiomers in PKR, and it is a complementary approach for acyltransfer systems where the asymmetry is induced by the nucleophile rather than the leaving group. Excellent diastereoselectivities (ranging from 90:10 to 99.5:5) and good yields were obtained for both quasienantiomeric products, and the reactions can be run on significant scale because the separation is trivial. High-level DFT calculations (B3LYP functional with the 6-31+G(d,p) basis set) provided transition-state structures with relative energies that are in accord with the experimental observations.