8646
J . Org. Chem. 2001, 66, 8646-8649
a stoichiometric amount or even an excess of the Lewis
Th e Ca ta lytic Sa k u r a i Rea ction
acid to obtain reasonable reaction rates and acceptable
yields of products. Although a few examples of catalytic
Sakurai reactions have been reported,4j,k herein we dis-
close a novel and catalytic Sakurai reaction using cata-
lytic amounts of InCl3 in the presence of trimethylsilyl
chloride (TMSCl).
Phil Ho Lee,*,† Kooyeon Lee,† Sun-young Sung,† and
Sukbok Chang‡
Department of Chemistry, Kangwon National University,
Chunchon 200-701, Republic of Korea, and
Department of Chemistry, Ewha Womans University,
Seoul 120-750, Republic of Korea
Resu lts a n d Discu ssion
phlee@kangwon.ac.kr
Received J une 4, 2001
During the course of our studies of indium-mediated
organic transformation,5 we observed an interesting
result of Lewis acidity of InCl3. When InCl3 was added
in a stoichiometric amount to a solution of 2-cyclohexen-
1-one (1) in CDCl3, the 1H NMR spectrum of the resulting
solution exhibited two peaks at 6.16 and 7.13 ppm, which
correspond to the R- and â-protons, respectively (Scheme
1). Although chemical shifts of the R- and â-protons were
shifted downfield relative to those of 1, the enone moiety
of 1 was maintained. In contrast, the enone moiety of 1
was entirely consumed to produce allylic carbocation
species 3 in the presence of stoichiometric amounts of
TiCl4 indicating that the Ti complex coordinates to the
enone irreversibly. These results strongly imply that
although InCl3 activates 2-cyclohexen-1-one, the extent
of the activation is weak enough to have a reversible
coordination; thus, InCl3 may act as a catalyst in Sakurai
reactions.
In tr od u ction
Sakurai reactions, Lewis acid additions of allyltrim-
ethylsilane with conjugated enones to form δ,ꢀ-enones,1
have been extensively applied in organic synthesis, in
natural product synthesis,2 and in the preparation of
some heterocyclic compounds.3 They are now considered
to be one of the most efficient means of C-C bond
formation, and examples of both inter- and intramolecu-
lar reactions4 have been reported. Sakurai reactions are
regiospecific with regard to the newly formed C-C bond.
The range of Lewis acids employed in Sakurai reac-
tions is extensive, among which TiCl4, AlCl3, and
BF3:OEt2 are in general the most effective for the
allylations. In all cases, however, the procedures require
Representative results are summarized in Table 1. The
choice of the solvent was important in this reaction, and
of the solvents tested CH2Cl2, CHCl3, THF, DMF and
H2O, CH2Cl2 and CHCl3 were the only choices. When R,â-
enone 1 was treated with allyltrimethylsilane in the
presence of a stoichiometric amount of InCl3 in dichlo-
romethane, 1,4-addition product 4 was produced in a 62%
yield (entry 1). When this reaction was carried out with
0.5 equiv of InCl3, 4 was isolated in a 52% yield (entry
2). However, 4 was not obtained with 0.25 equiv of InCl3
(entry 3). Thus, we next examined the effects of some
additives on the reaction and found that the reaction
could indeed be catalytic with InCl3 in the presence of
TMSCl. Of the catalytic systems examined, the best
results were obtained with the combination of 0.1 equiv
of InCl3 and 5 equiv of TMSCl (entry 6). The use of less
than 5 equivalents of TMSCl gave lower yields as well
as longer reaction times (entry 5). Surprisingly, 1,4-
addition product 4 was not produced at all with a
catalytic amount of TiCl4 and AlCl3 regardless of the
presence of TMSCl (entries 13-15). Even when InF3 and
In(OTf)3, which are stronger Lewis acids than InCl3, were
used, the desired product was obtained in lower yield
(entries 8-11).
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
† Kangwon National University.
‡ Ewha Womans University.
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To demonstrate the efficiency and scope of the present
method, we applied this catalytic system to a variety of
R,â-enones. The results are summarized in Table 2.
Under the optimized conditions, methyl vinyl ketone was
reacted to allyltrimethylsilane to afford 6-hepten-2-one
in a 62% yield (entry 1). It should be noted that other
acyclic R,â-enones (entries 2-6) containing a â-substitu-
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2000, 41, 7521. (b) Lee, P. H.; Ahn, H.; Lee, K.; Sung, S.-Y.; Kim, S.
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10.1021/jo0105641 CCC: $20.00 © 2001 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 11/10/2001