TETRAHEDRON
LETTERS
Pergamon
Tetrahedron Letters 44 (2003) 3459–3462
Catalyzed double Michael addition of anilines to vinyl sulfone
Jiong Jack Chen,* Cuong V. Lu and Rebecca N. Brockman†
Early Process Research and Development, Pharmacia Corporation, Kalamazoo, MI 49001, USA
Received 16 December 2002; revised 12 March 2003; accepted 13 March 2003
Abstract—Substituted anilines and vinyl sulfone undergo a facile double Michael addition to form substituted phenylthiomorpho-
line dioxide, catalyzed with AlCl3 or H3PO4. Scope and conditions were explored. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
In the preparation of an active pharmaceutical interme-
diate, we needed a large quantity of compound 3. Since
2,6-difluoroaniline (1) and vinyl sulfone (2) are both
readily available, we sought to prepare compound 3
using these two starting materials, based on a literature
procedure reported by Ford-Moore1 and later in a
patent by Straley and Fisher.2 Under the neat condi-
tions reported by Ford-Moore, the reaction between
aniline and vinyl sulfone produced 56% of the desired
double-Michael addition product, 4-phenylthiomorpho-
line 1,1-dioxide.3 However, applying Ford-Moore’s
conditions to the reaction between 2,6-difluoroaniline
(1) and vinyl sulfone (2) only resulted in mostly starting
materials and some uncyclized mono-Michael adduct
(4) after extensive heating. The double Michael addi-
tion did not proceed, presumably because 2,6-
placement of the resulting alkyl chloride rather than a
Michael addition? To test this hypothesis, 2,6-
difluoroaniline was heated with bis(2-chloroethyl)-
sulfone under neat conditions. This reaction gave no
conversion, thus disproving this hypothesis. Interest-
ingly, when AlCl3 was added, the reaction produced
trace amounts of desired product (3) along with some
vinyl sulfone. It was postulated that initially AlCl3
catalyzed the formation of vinyl sulfone from bis(2-
chloroethyl)sulfone. Subsequently, the vinyl sulfone
underwent a catalyzed double Michael addition to gen-
erate the desired product. This observation further sup-
ported that the reaction proceeds via the Michael
addition mechanism (Scheme 1).
Various Lewis acids (i.e. FeCl3, BiCl3, ZnCl2, and
SnCl2) were then screened, and some were found to
effect the double Michael addition. However, only
AlCl3 gave a complete conversion within an adequate
timeframe (i.e. less than 24 h). By screening the various
reaction conditions using AlCl3, we defined some key
parameters. The reaction proceeds well within an ade-
quate timeframe at 90–110°C at a concentration
between 0.5–1.0 M. By using the optimized conditions
(i.e. AlCl3 in chlorobenzene or toluene at 1 M concen-
tration at 110°C for 24 h) a yield of 68% was obtained
upon work-up. The low recovery was most likely the
result of a Lewis-acid promoted polymerization of vinyl
sulfone.
difluoroaniline is
a
poor Michael donor (two
electron-withdrawing fluorine atoms). Interestingly,
when 1 equivalent of AlCl3 was added to the toluene
solution of starting materials, the reaction proceeded
smoothly to give desired compound 3. To our knowl-
edge, the use of a Lewis acid to activate vinyl sulfone as
a Michael acceptor is unprecedented.4 With this new
finding, we decided to explore the mechanism and
define the scope of this interesting reaction.
When a strong base, KOtBu, was added to the mixture
of 2,6-difluoroaniline (1) and vinyl sulfone (2), the vinyl
sulfone (2) polymerized instantaneously with a strong
exotherm. Thus, the activation of the Michael donor
does not facilitate this reaction. As the chloride ion in
AlCl3 may add to the double bond in vinyl sulfone, is it
possible that the reaction mechanism involved the dis-
To minimize the competing side reactions and to sim-
plify the work-up, zeolites and protic acids were also
screened as the catalysts. Fourteen common zeolites
were first tried, none of them gave >5% of conversion
based on GLC. The use of triflic acid was more promis-
ing. The reaction under neat conditions provided
mostly product within 40 h. However, the work-up was
problematic because the reaction mixture solidified
Keywords: Michael addition; vinyl sulfone; thiomorpholine; catalysis.
† Currently a graduate student at University of California, Berkerley.
0040-4039/03/$ - see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0040-4039(03)00702-0