1,3-Dipolar Cycloaddition of Azomethine Ylides Generated from Aziridines in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Paulo J
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Tetrahedron Letters 47 (2006) 5475–5479 1,3-Dipolar cycloaddition of azomethine ylides generated from aziridines in supercritical carbon dioxide Paulo J. S. Gomes, Cla´udio M. Nunes, Alberto A. C. C. Pais, Teresa M. V. D. Pinho e Melo* and Luis G. Arnaut Department of Chemistry, Coimbra University, 3004-535 Coimbra, Portugal Received 8 March 2006; revised 26 May 2006; accepted 30 May 2006 Abstract—The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azomethine ylides with DMAD in supercritical carbon dioxide is reported. The photo- lysis reaction conditions were optimized with a suitable adjustment of pressure, temperature, irradiation time and co-solvent concen- tration leading to a more efficient reaction than in neat acetonitrile. Similar results were observed using thermal reaction conditions. Supercritical carbon dioxide with a minute co-solvent addition is shown to be a very efficient medium for promoting this type of cycloadditions. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Over the last decade, supercritical fluids (SCF) received ology for the synthesis of nitrogen-heterocyclic significant attention as a new class of environmentally compounds. We chose the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition friendly solvents for organic synthesis. Supercritical flu- of azomethine ylides generated from aziridines as the ids have properties intermediate between the gas and the model reaction. Aziridines (1) undergo electrocyclic ring liquid phases that can be tuned simply by changing the opening in a disrotatory manner upon irradiation and pressure and temperature. In particular, changes of pres- conrotatory ring opening upon thermolysis, giving sure close to the critical point enable drastic changes in azomethine ylides (2), which participate in 1,3-dipolar density and viscosity. Supercritical carbon dioxide cycloadditions (Scheme 1). (scCO2) has received special attention since it is readily accessible with low critical temperature (Tc =31°C) As the first objective we decided to study the photolysis and moderate critical pressure (Pc = 75.8 bar). Super- of aziridine 3 in the presence of dimethyl acetylene- critical carbon dioxide is also a desirable organic solvent dicarboxylate (DMAD) using conventional reaction replacement because it is abundant, inexpensive, non- conditions (Scheme 2). Ethyl 3-phenylaziridine-2- toxic, non-flammable and easily separated from the carboxylate 3 was prepared as described in the litera- reaction mixture.1 ture.4 We found that irradiation of a solution of 3 and DMAD in acetonitrile using a Hg lamp (20 °C, The study of model reactions is an efficient strategy to k = 254 nm, 1 h) affords 5-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-pyr- 5 get knowledge on the chemical reactivity in scCO2. That role-2,3,4-tricarboxylate 4 in 69% yield. Thus, the ini- is the case of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, an important tially formed 1,3-dipolar cycloadduct isomerizes giving and general route to the construction of five-membered the final product. A 42 min irradiation in acetonitrile heterocyclic ring systems.2 However, 1,3-dipolar cyclo- with the fourth harmonic (266 nm) of the Nd:YAG laser addition in scCO2 is an area almost unexplored and only also gave 4 in 69% yield. Dicyano-sensitized photoreac- reports on the cycloaddition of mesonitrile oxide and of tion of aziridine 3 with DMAD was also carried out 3-phenylsydnone are known.3 The cycloaddition of leading to compound 4 in 68% (20 °C, k = 380 nm, azomethine ylides is a particularly powerful method- 25 min). Keywords: Supercritical carbon dioxide; 1,3-Dipolar cycloaddition; The optimization of the cycloaddition reaction in scCO2 Azomethine ylides; Aziridines. requires the control of one additional variable, pressure, * Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 239 854475; fax: +351 239 in addition to temperature and irradiation time. Cursory 826068; e-mail: [email protected] experiments revealed that the maximum efficiency 0040-4039/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tetlet.2006.05.179 5476 P. J. S. Gomes et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 47 (2006) 5475–5479 3 R3 R R3 R1 N H ΔνN h R1 N R2 1 2 R2 R R H 2b 1 2a Scheme 1. MeO C CO Me MeO2C CO2Me 2 2 H MeO2C CO2Me N MeO2C CO2Me Ph CO2Et hν 380 nm ν Ph N CO2Et N Ph CO Et h 254 nm H MeCN, 25 min 2 MeCN, 1 h H 4 68% DCB 3 4 69% Scheme 2. approached 43% at 110 bar, 45 °C and an irradiation Table 1. The four factors in the 24 factorial design and the respective time of 42 min with the fourth harmonic (266 nm) of yield the Nd:YAG laser. Clearly, the maximum yield in MeO C CO Me H 2 2 scCO2 is much less than in acetonitrile. Further DMAD improvement of the yield required the use of acetonitrile N hν scCO 2 Ph N CO2Et as co-solvent, which introduces a fourth variable in the Ph CO2Et optimization procedure. This optimization was con- H ducted, as a first approach, resorting to a full 2k factorial 3 4 a 6 planning, with k = 4 factors. These comprise pressure It/min V/mL T/°C P/bar Yield/% (P), temperature (T), irradiation time (It) and the vol- 20 0.1 35 110 42 ume of acetonitrile (V) as co-solvent. The initial objec- 20 0.1 45 110 63 tive function has the form 40 0.1 35 140 43 20 0.2 45 110 54 yield ð%Þ¼cte þ aIt It þ aV V þ aT T þ aP P 20 0.2 35 110 31 20 0.1 35 140 35 þ aItV ItV þÁÁÁþaItVT ItVT þÁÁÁ 40 0.2 35 140 21 þ a I VTP ð1Þ 40 0.1 45 110 21 ItVTP t 40 0.2 45 140 27 20 0.1 45 140 18 A summary of factor levels and yields can be found in 40 0.2 35 110 28 Table 1, while Table 2 summarizes the values of coeffi- 40 0.2 45 110 34 cients determined using a standard approach7,8 in which 20 0.2 35 140 44 20 0.2 45 140 28 a normalization to À1 and +1 of the lower and upper 40 0.1 45 140 27 level values was performed. Results in Table 2 suggest 40 0.1 35 110 32 a discrimination of effects based on the interaction a terms. In fact, all power 1 coefficients are negative, but Volume of acetonitrile. interaction terms vary signal. Also, a significant number of interaction terms are, for the ranges used, of the same 4 order of magnitude as the direct effect of each factor. Table 2. Values of coefficients for a full 2 factorial design (Eq. 1) One of the most substantial terms reveals a strong inter- (cte = 0.3425) action between pressure and temperature. Conse- iai ij aij ijk aijk quently, pressure and temperature were transformed It À0.053 ItÆV À0.0071 ItÆVÆT 0.0223 into density, and this variable was taken as the most sig- V À0.0096 VÆT 0.0261 VÆTÆP 0.003 nificant one to characterize scCO2. The original 16 T À0.003 TÆP À0.0511 ItÆVÆP 0.0446 experiments were then transformed in a corresponding P À0.0385 ItÆT À0.0155 ItÆTÆP 0.0443 3 2 full factorial planning, without conducting further ItÆP 0.0422 experiments. The results indicate that the reaction yield VÆP 0.0055 is higher for low density values of the reactant mixture. This allows the use of an additionally simplified form of Eq. 1, which includes only the irradiation time and the volumes. A direct search for It > 34 min lead to yields as volume of added acetonitrile. Again, for normalized val- high as 75% (t = 42 min and V =25lL; Fig. 2). The ues of the levels, we obtain Eq. 2 that can be used to accuracy of the model was tested conducting experi- maximize yield. This function is represented in Figure ments in conditions anticipated to be less than ideal, 1 imposing a yield of 100%. It possesses a singularity and in all cases the yield was less than for the combina- for 15 min irradiation time; also, on the right branch, tion of parameters recommended by the model. The the zone It < 34 min corresponds to unphysical negative actual search along the set of variables anticipated to P. J. S. Gomes et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 47 (2006) 5475–5479 5477 yield ð%Þ¼0:6511 þ 0:0002It þ 0:0157 V À 0:0345ItV ð2Þ The model leads to the unexpected prediction that the maximum yield of the cycloaddition should be observed at low scCO2 densities and minute co-solvent concentra- tions. This was entirely verified experimentally. In par- ticular, the yield is maximized when 23 mol of acetonitrile are present for 1 mol of aziridine and 2.3 mol of DMAD.9 This shows that only a thin solva- tation layer is required to maximize the yield, and addi- tional acetonitrile molecules are not necessary. The work was extended to the study of the reactivity of aziridine 510 towards photolysis and thermolysis, in the presence of DMAD (Scheme 3). The irradiation of azi- ridine 5 in acetonitrile using a Hg lamp (20 C, Figure 1. ° k = 254 nm, 5 h) gave pyrrole 6 (38%) and pyrrole 7 (19%), together with unreacted aziridine 5 (15%). On the other hand, the cycloaddition of azomethine ylide generated by the thermolysis of aziridine 5 with DMAD produced pyrrole 6 in 42% yield as the only product. The irradiation with the fourth harmonic (266 nm) of the Nd:YAG laser of aziridine 5 in the presence of DMAD in scCO2 led to pyrrole 6 in poor yield (3–5%) and no improvement was observed using acetonitrile as co-solvent (Table 3).