DOI: 10.1002/chem.201404990
Communication
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Organic Chemistry |Hot Paper|
Diazo- and Transition-Metal-Free CÀH Insertion: A Direct
Synthesis of b-Lactams
Luis F. R. Gomes,[a] Luꢀs F. Veiros,[b] Nuno Maulide,*[c] and Carlos A. M. Afonso*[a]
Efforts to circumvent these hazards include the use of latent
Abstract: Carbene intermediates are very useful species
for a range of reactions including CÀH insertions and cy-
cloadditions. They are most commonly generated by
metal-catalyzed release of nitrogen gas from diazo precur-
sors. Herein, we present a novel CÀH insertion of simple
b-ketoamide substrates, through reaction with (diacet-
oxyiodo)benzene (DIB) in the presence of a base. This un-
precedented transformation bypasses the use of either
diazo precursors or metal catalysts and directly delivers b-
lactam products by an iodonium ylide, in a single step
under mild conditions. Mechanistic studies support the in-
termediacy of a free singlet carbene of unique reactivity
and selectivity.
diazo compounds,[10b,13] sulfur,[14] or iodonium ylides[15] and,
more recently, cyclopropenes[16] among others.[17] Nevertheless,
examples of CÀH insertion employing these surrogates remain
limited,[18] including for alkylidenecarbenes derived from
a-elimination of the corresponding iodonium tetrafluorobor-
ates.[18d]
In line with our prior efforts on intramolecular CÀH insertion
and functionalization reactions,[19] we became interested in
methods that circumvent the use of the diazo moiety for CÀH
insertion. Upon focusing on iodonium ylides we unexpectedly
discovered a direct and unprecedented one-step synthesis of
b-lactams by a formal dehydrogenative coupling[20] of simple
ketoamides that neither requires a metal catalyst nor a diazo
precursor[21,22] and which proceeds under very mild conditions
(below or at room temperature; Scheme 1).
Diazo compounds are often used as carbene precur-
sors due to the ease of nitrogen gas release.[1] This
reaction is usually induced by transition-metal cata-
lysts (e.g. Rh, Cu, Ru, Pd),[2] but photochemical[3] and
thermal[4] decompositions are also known. The result-
ing carbenes[5] undergo many synthetically useful re-
actions such as cyclopropanation,[6] CÀH insertion[7]
and ylide formation.[8,9] The CÀH insertion/CÀC bond
formation reactivity mode is particularly attractive as
it effectively amounts to the activation of an other-
wise unreactive, remote C(sp3)ÀH bond. Nevertheless,
the notorious toxicity and carcinogenicity of diazo
compounds, compounded with their explosive be-
Scheme 1. Known CÀH insertion with diazo compounds as commonly employed (top)
havior[10] limits most developments to laboratory
scale with few known industrial applications.[11,12]
and herein reported method (bottom).
While attempting to prepare the iodonium ylide derived
from the simple ketoamide 1a, following a literature procedure
for a similar substrate,[23] we accidentally found that, in THF,
the b-lactam 1b was directly formed in 38% yield (Table 1,
entry 1).
[a] Dr. L. F. R. Gomes, Prof. Dr. C. A. M. Afonso
Instituto de Investigażo do Medicamento (iMed.ULisboa)
Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon
Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 1649-019 (Portugal)
This surprising result led us to explore the transformation in
more detail and after a thorough base-, solvent-, and iodane-
screening we settled for the use of NaH as base in THF with
PhI(OAc)2 (Table 1, entries 2–7).[24] The reaction temperature
was found to exert a considerable effect, and carrying out the
reaction at 08C for a certain amount of time followed by rising
to ambient temperature provided the best results. This ena-
bled preparation of the b-lactam 1b in a respectable 68–69%
yield (entries 12 and 13) that was reproducible (71%) on
a larger scale (5-fold increase; Scheme 2).
[b] Prof. Dr. L. F. Veiros
Centro de Quꢀmica Estrutural, Complexo I
Instituto Superior Tꢁcnico, Universidade de Lisboa
Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon (Portugal)
[c] Prof. Dr. N. Maulide
University of Vienna, Faculty of Chemistry
Institute of Organic Chemistry
Wꢂhringer Strasse 38, 1090 Vienna (Austria)
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201404990.
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 1 – 6
1
ꢁ 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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