Stereocontrol in synthesis of homoallylic amines. Syn selective direct allylation of hydrazones with allylboronic acids

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ol501699x

Allylboronic acids directly react with acyl hydrazones, affording homoallylic amine derivatives. The reaction proceeds with very high syn selectivity, which is the opposite of the stereochemistry observed for allylboration of imines. The reaction can be c

Full text of DOI:10.1021/ol501699x

Letter
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Stereocontrol in Synthesis of Homoallylic Amines. Syn Selective
Direct Allylation of Hydrazones with Allylboronic Acids
Arindam Das,† Rauful Alam,† Lars Eriksson,‡ and Kalman J. Szabo*,†
́
́
́
‡
†Department of Organic Chemistry, Department of Inorganic and Structural Chemistry, Stockholm University, SE-106 91
Stockholm, Sweden
S
* Supporting Information
ABSTRACT: Allylboronic acids directly react with acyl
hydrazones, affording homoallylic amine derivatives. The
reaction proceeds with very high syn selectivity, which is the
opposite of the stereochemistry observed for allylboration of
imines. The reaction can be carried out with both aromatic and
aliphatic acyl hydrazones. Based on our studies the excellent
syn stereochemistry can be explained by chelation control of the acyl hydrazone and the B(OH)2 moiety.
llylboration is a very important synthetic method,1 which
attracted considerable interest recently because of its high
A
selectivity in allylation of carbonyl compounds2 and imines.1a,3
Allylboration is particularly suitable for creation of adjacent
tertiary and quaternary stereocenters in one step with very high
selectivity. The main application area has been the synthesis of
homoallyl alcohols by allylation of carbonyl compounds.2 In
particular, substituted allylboronates, such as allyl-Bpin
derivatives, react with very high stereoselectivity with
aldehydes. Allylboration of aldehydes usually proceeds with
higher selectivity than the alternative allylation reactions with
allylsilanes and allylstannanes.1 The allylboration does not
require external additives,1a as the activation of the carbonyl
group occurs by the boron atom via a Zimmerman−Traxler
TS.4 Therefore, this process is also called “self-activated”.
Recently, interest has been focused toward the allylboration
of imines.1a,3 Imines are considered to be less reactive than
carbonyl compounds because the carbon atom in an imine is
less electrophilic than in a carbonyl group.1a,5 A further
complication arises from the geometry of the imine group,
which can influence the reactivity and selectivity of the
allylboration. Therefore, application of allylboronic esters, in
particular the easily accessible allyl-Bpin compounds, is limited.
The “self-activated” reactions of allylboronic esters are very
unusual, and they often occur with special imine substrates,
which are generated in situ prior to the allylation.3i,j,6 Thus, the
allylboration of stable imines usually requires catalysts and
especially activated imine components.3d−f,7 Many of these
catalytic processes are developed to spectacular asymmetric
allylation reactions.
Figure 1. Stereoselective synthesis of homoallylamines.
is suitable for only the anti selective synthesis of homoallyl-
amines.
Therefore, we decided to develop a complementary process
for the synthesis of homoallylic amines with syn selectivity. We
turned our attention toward the allylation of N-benzoylhy-
drazones, since these reagents are known for syn selective
allylations using allyl chlorosilane derivatives (Figure 1a)9,10
and related useful reactions affording organo-hydrazines.11
Kobayashi and co-workers12 have shown that allylboronic
esters do not react directly with N-benzoylhydrazones but in
the presence of In and Zn catalysts. These processes are
supposed to proceed via boron to indium or zinc trans-
metallation of the substrate, which also involves allylic
rearrangement under the allylation process. We hypothesized
that acylhydrazones do not undergo E to Z isomerization prior
to the reaction, as do imines (Figure 1c). In addition, we
supposed that formation of the syn stereoisomer (Figure 1d)
In a couple of previous publications we have shown that
ketones and imines can be efficiently allylated by allylboronic
acids.8 This reaction does not require any additives (i.e., “self-
activated”) and the allylation proceeds with a very high level of
anti selectivity (Figure 1c) under mild neutral conditions.8a We
have shown that the allylation of imines proceeds with E to Z
isomerization of the imine, which is catalyzed by the
allylboronic acid or allylboroxine substrate.8a Thus, the process
Received: June 12, 2014
Published: July 8, 2014
© 2014 American Chemical Society
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Letter
a
might be favored by chelation control, which is exerted by the
acylhydrazone group with the B(OH)2 leaving group (see
below). We have previously observed8b a similar chelation
control for the allylation of pyruvic acid derivatives.
Table 1. Syn Selective Allylboration of Hydrazones
We have now found that cinnamylboronic acid 2a reacts with
N-benzoylhydrazone 1a in DMSO at room temperature to give
3a with excellent regio- and stereoselectivity (Table 1, entry 1).
The X-ray structure determination of 3a showed that the
relative configuration of the amino and phenyl groups is syn.
Thus, the allylation proceeds with syn selectivity. The reaction
of 2a with the imine analog of 1a gives8a the homoallylamine
product with opposite relative stereoselectivity in an anti
selective reaction. Aromatic and heteroaromatic hydrazones
1b−e also reacted with very high regio- and stereoselectivity,
giving only a single diastereomeric product (entries 2−5). The
selectivity and reactivity with aliphatic allylboronic acid 2b is as
high as with cinnamylboronic acid 2a, when aromatic
hydrazone 1a was used (entry 6).
As we have reported, the reaction of aliphatic imines with
allylboronic acids is problematic.8a As allylboronic acids catalyze
the hydrolysis of aliphatic imines, their allylation had a very
limited synthetic scoop. As alkyl hydrazones are more stable for
hydrolysis than the imine analogs, allylation of these substrates
could easily be realized for a broad range of substrates (1f−l).
Thus, isopropyl hydrazone 1f could easily be allylated with 2a,
affording syn product 3g (entry 7). The stereochemistry of 3g
was also determined by X-ray diffraction. When sp2 (entry 8) or
sp (entry 9) hybridized carbons are attached to the hydrazone
group, the reactions were still fast and very selective.
Ethyl glyoxalate derivative 1i was also reacted with high syn
selectivity with 2a to give α-amino acid derivative 3j.
Conversely, the imine analog of 1i reacted with clean anti
selectivity.8a The reaction of aliphatic allylboronic acids with
aliphatic imine derivatives is particularly challenging. These
reactions could also be easily performed (entries 11−13), but
the stereoselectivity was slightly lower. While most of the other
reactions (entries 1−10) gave only a single stereoisomer, the
reaction of aliphatic boronic acid 1b with aliphatic hydrazones
afforded a mixture of diastereomers in a ratio of 4:1 (entries
11−13). Keto-hydrazones have a more limited synthetic scope
than hydrazones derived from aldehydes. Yet, cyclohexanone
based hydrazone 1l undergoes allylation with 2a affording 3n.
We believe that more sterically demanding keto hydrazones
(which do not react in the self-activated process) can be
excellent substrates for asymmetric allylation by allylboronic
acids (2). In these reactions the unreactive hydrazones can
probably be activated by chiral additives.3a
As expected, the stereoselectivity is dependent on the
structure of the alkene. Thus, geranylboronic acid 2c reacted
with excellent syn selectivity with 1a to give 3o (Figure 2). On
the other hand, the isomeric nerylboronic acid 2d reacted with
1a with clean anti selectivity, affording 3p. Both epimeric
products have an adjacent quaternary and tertiary carbon
center.
The very high stereoselectivity of the allylation is a
remarkable property of the hydrazones. It is particularly
interesting that the corresponding imines react with opposite
stereoselectivity. Probably all main structural elements of an
acyl hydrazone functional group are important for the high level
of syn stereoselectivity.
a
A mixture of 1 (0.20 mmol), 2 (0.30 mmol), and MS (4 Å) were
b
stirred in DMSO (0.8 mL) at rt. Isolated yield for a single
diastereomer. The structure determination is based on X-ray. dr =
4:1.
c
d
As mentioned above, 1a reacted smoothly and with very high
syn selectivity with 2a, affording 3a (entry 1). However, when
under the same conditions 1a was replaced with N-Me
derivative 4, we could not observe any reaction (Figure 3).
Similarly, the presence of a carbonyl group is important for the
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Letter
Figure 5. Syn selectivity in allylation of hydrazones.
Figure 2. Dependence of the stereochemistry on the structure of
alkene.
water elimination to give 10. The water elimination requires the
presence of a proton on one of the nitrogen atoms of 1a. When
this hydrogen is replaced by a methyl group (4), the allylation
reaction cannot be performed (Figure 3). Furthermore, the
absence of the carbonyl group (as in 5) also leads to an inactive
substrate.
It is interesting to point out that the syn selectivity in the
allylation of hydrazones by allylchlorosilanes was also explained
by a similar chelation control process.9,10 In addition, Leighton
and Huber14 demonstrated that allylchlorosilanes and imines
may also react with anti selectivity due to the in situ E to Z
isomerization of the imine. Apparently, there is a remarkable
similarity between the reactivity and selectivity in the allylation
with allylchlorosilanes and allylboronic acids. A possible
advantage of the synthetic use of allylboronic acids is their
high stability against hydrolysis and their simple synthesis8c by
palladium- catalyzed borylation of allylic alcohols
In summary, we have shown that acylhydrazones react with
high regio- and stereoselectivity with allylboronic acids in a self-
activated process. The reaction proceeds with a high level of
syn selectivity with γ-substituted E-allylboronic acids and with
anti selectivity with Z-allylboronic acids. This is exactly the
opposite of the stereoselectivity observed for the allylation of
imines (cf., Figure 1c and d). Thus, using allylboronic acids (2),
full control of the relative configuration can be achieved with
minor changes of the reaction conditions. The reaction of γ-
substituted E-allylboronic acids (e.g., 2a−c) with E- or Z-imines
(such as 8 and its cyclic analog) give an anti product. While the
same E-allylboronic acids with E-acyl hydrazones analogs (such
as 1a−e and i) give the corresponding syn products. In several
reactions (entry 14 and Figure 2) adjacent tertiary and
quaternary stereocenters are created with excellent selectivity.
The synthetic scope of the application of acylhydrazones is
broader than the imines, as aliphatic acylhydrazones are more
stable for hydrolysis than imines. Therefore, aliphatic
acylhydrazones can also be easily allylborated with allylboronic
acids. The high level of stereocontrol of the reaction of
allylboronic acids with imines and acyl hydrazones broadens the
synthetic routes to stereodefined homoallylic amines, which are
important synthetic motifs in advanced organic synthesi-
s.3a,c−f,15
Figure 3. Hydrazone 1a and its analogs in the allylation reactions.
successful allylation, as 5 did not react. The acyl hydrazone
functional group cannot be replaced with a tosyl functional
group (6) either. Under our standard conditions acyloxime
derivative 7 underwent decomposition without any formation
of the expected product. However, as reported previously8a
8
reacts readily with 2a under basically the same conditions13 as
1a, but the reaction proceeds with opposite stereoselectivity,
affording the epimer of 3a.
As we have shown,8a imine 8 undergoes E to Z isomerization
prior to the allylation, and it reacts with anti selectivity with 2a
(Figure 4).
Figure 4. Anti selectivity in allylation of imines.
The E to Z isomerization of 8 was even catalyzed by
arylboronic acid derivatives. Conversely, our studies indicate
that under similar reaction conditions13 1a did not undergo E
to Z isomerization. Thus, 1a reacts with allylboronic acid, such
as 2a, in a syn configuration (Figure 5). However, this would
lead to unfavorable 1,3-diaxial repulsions involving the phenyl
group of 1a in the Zimmerman−Traxler TS 11 of the reaction.
This thermodynamically unfavorable diaxial interaction can
probably be compensated by chelation of the nitrogen and
oxygen atoms of the hydrazone functional group to the
B(OH)2 group, such as in 9. The chelation can be reinforced by
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
* Supporting Information
■
S
Experimental procedures, compound characterization and
crystallographic data (.cif files) are given. This material is
available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
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(11) (a) Friestad, G. K.; Ji, A. Org. Lett. 2008, 10, 2311. (b) Ding, H.;
Friestad, G. K. Synthesis 2004, 2004, 2216.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
■
Corresponding Author
(12) (a) Schneider, U.; Chen, I. H.; Kobayashi, S. Org. Lett. 2008, 10,
737. (b) Kobayashi, S.; Konishi, H.; Schneider, U. Chem. Commun.
2008, 2313. (c) Cui, Y.; Li, W.; Sato, T.; Yamashita, Y.; Kobayashi, S.
Adv. Synth. Catal. 2013, 355, 1193. (d) Cui, Y.; Yamashita, Y.;
Kobayashi, S. Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 10319.
*E-mail: kalman@organ.su.se.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
(13) As most of the acylhydrazones (1) were insoluble in CH2Cl2
(which was the solvent for allyboration of imines 8; see ref 8a) we
used DMSO as the solvent.
(14) Huber, J. D.; Leighton, J. L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 14552.
(15) (a) Ding, H.; Friestad, G. K. Synthesis 2005, 2815. (b) Yus, M.;
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
■
The authors are thankful for the financial support from the
Swedish Research Council (VR) and the Knut och Alice
Wallenbergs Foundation.
Gonzal
́
ez-Gom
́
ez, J. C.; Foubelo, F. Chem. Rev. 2013, 113, 5595.
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