New Entries toward 3,3-Difluoropiperidines
SCHEME 1
luorination of suitable 3-piperidinones using DAST ((diethy-
lamino)sulfur trifluoride) or Deoxofluor ((bis(2-methoxyethyl)-
amino)sulfur trifluoride).14,15,18 Another strategy makes use of
ethyl bromodifluoroacetate as the starting material to synthesize
3,3-difluoro-2-piperidinones, which can be reduced to 3,3-
difluoropiperidines.19 3,3-Difluorinated azasugars have been
synthesized via [2,3]-Wittig rearrangements of difluoroallylic
ethers, which were synthesized from trifluoroethanol.20 3,3-
Difluoropipecolic acid is a particularly interesting difluoropip-
eridine but has never been synthesized before, in contrast to
4,4- or 5,5-difluoropipecolic acid.21,22 In the viewpoint of the
various applications of the latter amino acids in medicinal
chemistry, also 3,3-difluoropipecolic acid derivatives are con-
sidered as promising compounds. Despite the interest in
substituted 3,3-difluorinated piperidines, their synthesis remains
often problematic. Halogenated imines are good substrates for
the synthesis of a variety of azaheterocyclic compounds,23,24
and hence a study was performed recently to synthesize
fluorinated imines as starting materials for the synthesis of new
fluorinated azaheterocyclic compounds.25 The present research
focuses on the use of R,R-difluorinated imines in the synthesis
of new 2-aryl-3,3-difluoropiperidines and the application of the
methodology in the first synthesis of 3,3-difluoropipecolic acid.
SCHEME 2
Results and Discussion
In a first strategy toward new N-substituted 2-aryl-3,3-difluo-
ropiperidines, N-(2,2-difluoro-1-phenylethylidene)alkylamines 2
were used as starting materials for further R-functionalization.
Difluoroimines 2 were synthesized from R,R-difluoroacetophenone
1 by reaction with primary amines and titanium(IV) chloride
(Scheme 1). Subsequently, fluorinated imines 2 were deprotonated
at the R-position using LDA at -100 °C, giving rise to the
(14) Castro Pineiro, J. L.; Dinnell, K.; Elliot, J. M.; Hollingworth, G. J.;
Shaw, D. E.; Swain, C. J. PCT Int. Appl. WO 2001087838 A1 20011122, 2001;
Chem. Abstr. 2001, 136, 5907.
(15) Li, Y.; Zhou, J.; Burns, D.; Yao, W. PCT Int. Appl. WO 2005037826
A1 20050428, 2005; Chem. Abstr. 2005, 142, 430307.
(16) Nagase, T.; Sato, N.; Kanatani, A.; Tokita, S. US Patent. US 2005182045
A1 20050818, 2005; Chem. Abstr. 2006, 143, 211923.
(17) Collins, I. J.; Cooper, L. C.; Harrison, T.; Keown, L. E.; Madin, A.;
Ridgill, M. P. PCT Int. Appl. WO 2003093252 A1 20031113, 2003; Chem. Abstr.
2003, 139, 381490.
corresponding difluorinated 1-azaallylic anions, which were im-
mediately brought into reaction with 1-chloro-3-iodopropane. While
this reaction resulted in the formation of δ-chloroimine 3a when
R,R-difluoroimine 2a was used, the same procedure using 2b only
gave complex reaction mixtures. When an inverse procedure was
used, in which a solution of LDA in THF was added to a mixture
of imine 2b and 1-chloro-3-iodopropane, δ-chloro-R,R-difluor-
oimine 3b could be isolated, albeit in low yield. The formed imines
3a,b were successfully reduced using sodium cyanoborohydride
in methanol in the presence of acetic acid toward the respective
trihalogenated amines, which cyclized spontaneously under the used
reaction conditions, i.e., reflux for 4 h. This short reaction sequence
directly provided new N-alkylated 3,3-difluorinated piperidines 4.
(18) Golubev, A. S.; Schedel, H.; Radics, G.; Fioroni, M.; Thust, S.; Burger,
K. Tetrahedron Lett. 2004, 45, 1445.
(19) Beeler, A. B.; Gadepalli, R. S. V. S.; Steyn, S.; Castagnoli, N., Jr.;
Rimoldi, J. M. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2003, 11, 5229.
(20) (a) Wang, R.-W.; Qing, F.-L. Org. Lett. 2005, 7, 2189. (b) Wang, R.-
W.; Qing, F.-L. J. Med. Chem. 2006, 49, 2989.
(21) Golubev, A. S.; Schedel, H.; Radics, G.; Sieler, J.; Burger, K.
Tetrahedron Lett. 2001, 42, 7941.
(22) Golubev, A. S.; Schedel, H.; Radics, G.; Fioroni, M.; Thust, S.; Burger,
K. Tetrahedron Lett. 2004, 45, 1445.
The above-described methodology was extended toward the
synthesis of N-unsubstituted 3,3-difluoropiperidine 7 (Scheme 2).
For this purpose, imine 2a was transformed into δ-azidoimine 5
via deprotonation and reaction with 1-azido-3-iodopropane. Treat-
ment of the azide 5 with tin(II) chloride in methanol yielded a
new 3,3-difluorotetrahydropyridine 6 in 22% isolated yield over
two steps. Finally, this cyclic imine was easily reduced toward the
envisaged 3,3-difluoropiperidine 7 in nearly quantitative yield.
Although the synthetic pathways described above yielded new
3,3-difluoropiperidines (4 and 7), the reactions of the 1-azaallylic
anions derived from imines 2 with electrophiles proceeded rather
sluggishly and were difficult to scale up to gram scale. To
overcome the problems associated with the reduced stability of
fluorinated azaallylic anions, a second synthetic strategy was
(23) (a) Abbaspour Tehrani, K.; De Kimpe, N. Sci. Synth. 2004, 27, 245.
(b) De Kimpe, N.; Schamp, N.; Verhe´, R. Synth. Commun. 1975, 5, 403. (c) De
Kimpe, N.; Verhe´, R.; De Buyck, L.; Schamp, N. Synth. Commun. 1975, 5,
269. (d) De Kimpe, N.; Sulmon, P.; Verhe´, R.; De Buyck, L.; Schamp, N. J.
Org. Chem. 1983, 48, 4320. (e) De Kimpe, N.; Keppens, M.; Fonck, G. J. Chem.
Soc., Chem. Commun. 1996, 635. (f) De Kimpe, N.; Abbaspour Tehrani, K.;
Stevens, C.; De Cooman, P. Tetrahedron 1997, 53, 3693. (g) De Kimpe, N.;
Aelterman, W.; De Geyter, K.; Declercq, J.-P. J. Org. Chem. 1997, 62, 5138.
(h) Aelterman, W.; De Kimpe, N.; Tyvorskii, V.; Kulinkovich, O. J. Org. Chem.
2001, 66, 53. (i) Stevens, C.; De Kimpe, N. J. Org. Chem. 1996, 61, 2174. (j)
Mangelinckx, S.; Giubellina, N.; De Kimpe, N. Chem. ReV. 2004, 104, 2353.
(24) (a) Van Hende, E.; Verniest, G.; Surmont, R.; De Kimpe, N. Org. Lett.
2007, 9, 2935. (b) Guo, Y.; Fujiwara, K.; Amii, H.; Uneyama, K. J. Org. Chem.
2007, 72, 8523. (c) Chaume, G.; Van Severen, M.-C.; Marinkovic, S.; Brigaud,
T. Org. Lett. 2006, 8, 6123. (d) Suzuki, A.; Mae, M.; Amii, H.; Uneyama, K. J.
Org. Chem. 2004, 69, 5132. (e) Osipov, S. N.; Tsouker, P.; Hennig, L.; Burger,
K. Tetrahedron 2004, 60, 271.
(25) Verniest, G.; Van Hende, E.; Surmont, R.; De Kimpe, N. Org. Lett.
2006, 8, 4767.
J. Org. Chem. Vol. 73, No. 14, 2008 5459