M. Elena Cucciolito et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 54 (2013) 1503–1506
1505
Figure 3. Partial packing of compound 1 (left) and 2 (right) showing the NHꢀ ꢀ ꢀ
p
interactions, the aromatic face-to-edge and the T-shape contacts. The intramolecular OHꢀ ꢀ ꢀN
hydrogen bonds in 2 are drawn as dotted lines.
2. (a) Herbert, J. M.; Woodgate, P. D.; Denny, W. A. J. Med. Chem. 1987, 30, 2081–
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Bychowski, R. A.; Dhanoa, D. S.; May, J. M. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 1999, 9, 765–
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3. (a) Undheim, K.; Benneche, C. In Comprehensive Heterocyclic Chemistry;
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The extent of reduction was calculated by the integrals of suited
signals in the 1H NMR of the crude reduced product depleted of so-
lid residues and excess i-propanol. The efficiency of the catalytic
system resulted to be similar to that displayed by comparable
catalysts.11d
An attempt to understand the nature of the pre-catalyst was
performed by adapting the procedure reported11d for a mononu-
4. (a) Nyulászi, L.; Pasinszki, T.; Réffy, J.; Veszprémi, T.; Fabian, J.; Thiel, W. Struct.
Chem. 1990, 1, 367–370; (b) Varsha, G.; Arun, V.; Robinson, P. P.; Sebastian, M.;
clear related species, starting from [(g
6-p-cymene)RuCl2]2, 2, and
Varghese, D.; Leeju, P.; Iayachandran, V. P.; Yusuff, K. K. M. Tetrahedron Lett.
2010, 51, 2174–2177; (c) Chou, C.-C.; Liu, H.-S.; Chao, L. H.-C. Chem. Commun.
2009, 6382–6384.
sodium carbonate in dichloromethane. The crude product dis-
played a 1H NMR pattern25 with largely prevailing signals in keep-
ing with
a mononuclear species where [(g
6-p-cymene)RuCl]
5. Bazinet, P.; Ong, T.-G.; O’Brien, J. S.; Lavoie, N.; Bell, E.; Yap, G. P. A.; Korobkov,
I.; Richeson, D. S. Organometallics 2007, 26, 2885–2895.
6. Enomoto, K.; Nishimura, K. Jpn. Kokai Tokkyo Koho 2003, JP 2003086378.
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O. Yu.; Borodkin, G. S.; Korobov, M. S.; Sergienko, V. S.; Kharabaev, N. N.;
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3239.
9. Jung, I. G.; Son, S. U.; Park, K. H.; Chung, K.-C.; Lee, J. W.; Chung, Y. K.
Organometallics 2003, 22, 4715–4720.
fragments are chelated by ligand 2. However, both the spectrum
and elemental analyses show the presence of other species. At-
tempts to obtain the predominant complex in pure form by frac-
tional crystallization of the crude material from solutions in
methanol or chlorinated solvents, by concentration or by addition
of hydrocarbons, were unsuccessful.
In conclusion, these results show that suitably substituted
dihydroperimidines offer a useful coordination environment. Fur-
ther work is in progress, aiming to introduce donors of different
nature along with chiral substituents in the coordinating
framework.
10. Sachs, F. Justus Lieb. Ann. der Chem. 1909, 365, 135–166.
11. In fact, active species with metals clamped by the sequence C6H4(o-OH)-C-NH-
C
are involved in catalytic reactions. For cyanosilylation of carbonyl
compounds catalysed by scandium(III) derivatives, see: (a) Karimi, B.;
Ma’Mani, L. Org. Lett. 2004, 6, 4813–4815; For tungsten promotion of
catalytic methathesis of alkenes, see: (b) Hänninen, M. M.; Sillanpää, R.;
Kivelä, H.; Lehtonen, A. Dalton Trans. 2011, 40, 2868–2874; For chromium
catalysis of ethylene polymerization, see: (c) Gibson, V. C.; Norton, C.;
Redshaw, C.; Solan, G. A.; White, A. J. P.; Williams, D. J. J. Chem. Soc., Dalton
Trans. 1999, 11, 827–829; For ruthenium promoted transfer hydrogenation of
ketones, see: (d) Rath, R. K.; Nethaji, M.; Chakravarty, A. R. Polyhedron 2001, 20,
2735–2739.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the CIMCF (Università di Napoli ‘Federico II’)
for NMR and X-ray facilities. The authors also thank the Polo delle
Scienze e Tecnologie (Università di Napoli ‘Federico II’) for funding
(Progetto FARO).
12. Cimarelli, C.; Palmieri, G.; Volpini, E. Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 2002, 13, 2417–
2426.
13. Zhang, S.-L.; Zhang, J.-M. Chin. J. Chem. 2008, 26, 185–189.
14. A4 molecular sieves were activated at 443 K and 18 Torr for 72 h. After cooling in
nitrogen, 1,8-diaminonaphtalene (1.58 g, 10 mmol) and acetophenone (2.40 g,
20 mmol), were added and the mixture was magnetically stirred at 65 °C during
24 h and at 80 °C for further 30 h. The mixture was extracted with 300 mL of n-
hexane (in portions of 30 mL). Most of the product could be recovered as large well
formed crystalsthat precipitated onstandingofthehexane phase. Concentration of
the filtered liquid afforded two other fractions, raising the total yield of the isolated
productto92%. 1HNMR(CDCl3): d7.58 (d, 2H, J = 7.2 Hz), 7.10–7.35 (m, 7H), 6.54(d,
2H, J = 7.2 Hz), 4.72 (s, 2H, NH), 1.82 (s, 3H, CH3).
15. On molecular sieves: To a stirred solution of 1,8-diaminonaphtalene (0.590 g,
3.73 mmol), 20,60-dihydroxyacetophenone (0.568 g, 3.73 mmol) and p-
toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate (0.071 g, 0.37 mmol) in toluene (10 mL)
were added freshly activated A4 molecular sieves (1.16 g), and stirring of the
mixture was continued 24 h at 378 K (36 h a 373 K). The liquid phase was
Supplementary data
CCDC 900749 (compound 1) and CCDC 900750 (compound 2)
contain the supplementary crystallographic data for this Letter.
Data Centre, 12 Union Road, Cambridge CB2 1EZ, UK; fax: (inter-
net) +44 1223/336 033.
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
separated and the sieves were washed with
3 portions (5 mL each) of
methylene chloride. These were added to the mother liquor, the liquid was
washed with water and the solvents were removed in vacuo. The dark gummy
residue was dissolved in ethanol, and the dark red liquid was filtered through a
pad of Celite. To the filtrate was added n-propanol (5 mL). Slow concentration
afforded several solid fractions, including two small crops of colorless
elongated crystals of the product (0.065 g in total, 6% yield).
References and notes
1. de Aguiar, A. Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1874, 7, 309–319.