Radical Hydroxymethylation of Alkyl Iodides Using Formaldehyde As a C1 Synthon† Cite This: Chem
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Chemical Science View Article Online EDGE ARTICLE View Journal | View Issue Radical hydroxymethylation of alkyl iodides using formaldehyde as a C1 synthon† Cite this: Chem. Sci.,2021,12, 10448 a a a b All publication charges for this article Lewis Caiger, Conar Sinton, Timothee´ Constantin, James J. Douglas, have been paid for by the Royal Society Nadeem S. Sheikh,c Fabio Julia a and Daniele Leonori *a of Chemistry ´ Radical hydroxymethylation using formaldehyde as a C1 synthon is challenging due to the reversible and endothermic nature of the addition process. Here we report a strategy that couples alkyl iodide building blocks with formaldehyde through the use of photocatalysis and a phosphine additive. Halogen-atom Received 7th June 2021 transfer (XAT) from a-aminoalkyl radicals is leveraged to convert the iodide into the corresponding Accepted 6th July 2021 open-shell species, while its following addition to formaldehyde is rendered irreversible by trapping the DOI: 10.1039/d1sc03083c transient O-radical with PPh3. This event delivers a phosphoranyl radical that re-generates the alkyl rsc.li/chemical-science radical and provides the hydroxymethylated product. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. Introduction thus requires a subsequent stoichiometric hydride reduction step (Scheme 1B, path b).9 Hydroxymethyl motifs are frequently encountered in the core The difficulties in using formaldehyde as a C1 synthon for structure of natural products and drugs and commonly used as radical hydroxymethylation (Scheme 1B, path c) come from the 9a,10 handles for further derivatisation (Scheme 1A).1 This structural reversible nature of the addition process. According to our and practical relevance makes the development of methods able computational studies, the reaction between cyclohexyl radicals B to introduce the “CH2OH” fragment onto advanced building and HCHO ( ) is kinetically accelerated compared to the reac- blocks impactful to the discovery and development of high- tion with CO (A) but, crucially, endothermic with a later tran- value materials.2 sition state character (as determined by comparison of the This article is licensed under a 11 Retrosynthetically, the most direct approach to achieve respective d(C–C) values) (Scheme 1C). This means that the programmable small-molecule hydroxymethylation is through back reaction, involving b-scission of the primary O-radical C,is 3 3 Open Access Article. Published on 06 2021. Downloaded 2021/9/30 7:01:08. the formation of a sp –sp C–C bond with an oxygenated C1 a fast process which hampers reaction development. Overall, synthon.3 Within the realm of radical chemistry, a-hydrox- this mechanistic challenge has impacted the practical ways we ymethyl radicals, which are easily generated from MeOH via conduct hydroxymethylation with HCHO, which is generally HAT (H-atom transfer), have been successfully applied to the achieved using Grignard or organolithium reagents that might 12 functionalisation of Giese4 and Minisci5 acceptors (Scheme 1B, limit functional group compatibility (Scheme 1B, path d). path a). A signicantly less explored avenue is the development We have recently demonstrated that alkyl radicals can be of methodologies where C-radicals react with C1 SOMOphiles.6 conveniently accessed from the corresponding halides using Considering the three most atom-economic and abundant halogen-atom transfer (XAT) with a-aminoalkyl radicals 13 oxygenated C1 synthons – CO2, CO and HCHO – CO is the (Scheme 1D). These open-shell species can be generated from most used in radical strategies. Indeed, while radical the corresponding amines by SET (single-electron transfer) 7 14 15 addition to CO2 is endothermic, reaction with CO is both oxidation and deprotonation and display an abstracting kinetically and thermodynamically facile and, as demonstrated prole similar to that of tin radicals in the homolytic activation by the pioneering work of Ryu, also compatible for application of organic halides. This reactivity mode benets from a polar- 13,16 in radical chain propagations.8 This approach however, ised transition state with signicant charge-transfer char- provides the aldehyde as the product of the radical process and acter and can be used in redox-neutral photoredox manifolds and also as an initiation mechanism in transformation based on radical-chain propagations.13b aDepartment of Chemistry, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. We recently became interested in benchmarking XAT reac- E-mail: [email protected]; Web: https://leonorigroup.com bEarly Chemical Development, Pharmaceuticals Sciences, R&D, AstraZeneca, tivity with the aim of enabling radical couplings between alkyl Maccleseld, UK halides and HCHO. Here we demonstrate the realisation of this cDepartment of Chemistry, College of Science, King Faisal University, P. O. Box 400, Al- goal and report the development of a practical approach for Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia direct radical hydroxymethylation (Scheme 1E). The process † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: sequentially exploits XAT to generate an alkyl radical and then 10.1039/d1sc03083c 10448 | Chem. Sci.,2021,12,10448–10454 © 2021 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry View Article Online Edge Article Chemical Science Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. Scheme 1 (A) Examples of natural products and therapeutic agents containing the hydroxymethyl motif. (B) Overview of the main methods to install a hydroxymethyl motif using radical chemistry. (C) Radical addition to CO is possible while addition to HCHO is difficult due to reversibility. (D) a-Aminoalkyl radicals enable XAT activation of alkyl iodides and bromides and the corresponding carbon radicals can be engaged in several This article is licensed under a transformations. (E) This work shows the utilisation of XAT and phosphoranyl radical chemistry for the direct coupling of unactivated alkyl iodides with HCHO. Open Access Article. Published on 06 2021. Downloaded 2021/9/30 7:01:08. harnesses the ability of PPh3 to trap the resulting O-radical. This transfer) with the amine D. Since O-radicals undergo related À À approach effectively renders the radical addition to HCHO an HAT reactions at fast rates (108 M 1 s 1)17 and the amine irreversible process. Crucially, the ensuing phosphoranyl would be used in excess, this step should provide 2 whilst radical is able to sustain a radical chain propagation based on regenerating the chain-carrying a-aminoalkyl radical E. XAT to give the hydroxymethylated product. We started our investigations using 1 as the iodide, 4CzIPN as the photocatalyst and paraformaldehyde in CH3CN–H2O (10 : 1) solvent under blue light irradiation at room temperature Results and discussion 2 (Scheme 2B). Pleasingly, using Et3N as the amine, alcohol was Mechanistic considerations and reaction optimization formed in moderate yield which was improved by using i-Pr2NEt In approaching the development of a radical hydrox- (entries 1 and 2). In accordance with our mechanistic picture, ffi ymethylation reaction using HCHO as a C1 synthon, we initially evaluation of amines that can act as e cient electron donors for * a considered the utilisation of a reductive quenching photoredox 4CzIPN but cannot lead to the formation of an -aminoalkyl cycle (Scheme 2A). In principle, this manifold would enable the radical (by either oxidation and deprotonation or HAT) led to no ¼ generation of the key a-aminoalkyl radical (D / E) for XAT with product formation [compare entries 3 (TMP tetramethylpi- the alkyl iodide (e.g. 4-iodo-N-Boc-piperidine 1). According to peridine) and 4 (Ph3N) with 2 (i-Pr2NEt)]. Unfortunately, evalu- 11 our previous work, this step should be facile and provide radical ation of the other reaction parameters did not further improve ffi F along with the iminium iodide G. Addition of F to HCHO is the e ciency of the process which likely underscores the chal- reversible making a potential SET reduction (followed by lenges in overcoming the reversibility of the radical addition F $ H protonation) of the O-radical H with the reduced photocatalyst process ( + HCHO ). b challenging. However, our interest was drawn by the fact that We therefore proposed to overcome the unwanted -frag- H this mechanism could potentially benet from radical-chain mentation by trapping the transient O-radical with an reactivity where H undergoes polarity matched HAT (H-atom immediate reaction. Speci cally, we were interested by the well- © 2021 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry Chem. Sci.,2021,12,10448–10454 | 10449 View Article Online Chemical Science Edge Article Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. This article is licensed under a Open Access Article. Published on 06 2021. Downloaded 2021/9/30 7:01:08. Scheme 2 (A) Mechanistic proposal for the coupling of alkyl iodides with HCHO using XAT and phosphoranyl radical chemistry. (B) Optimisation of the radical coupling between iodide 1 and HCHO. (C) Literature rate constants for the reaction of O-radical with P(III) compounds to give phosphoranyl radicals. (D) Experimental and calculated properties of phosphoranyl radicals suggest XAT as the alkyl iodide activation mechanism. (E) “Reductant-free” reaction for hydroxymethylation of alkyl iodides via phosphoranyl radicals. known ability of phosphines to trap O-radicals at diffusion- halides has not been reported before,21 we speculated that their controlled rates leading to the corresponding phosphoranyl high nucleophilic character22 should lead to polar effects related radicals (Scheme 2C).18 These open-shell intermediates can still to those demonstrated in abstraction reactions with tin, silicon undergo b-scission across the sp3 C–O bond but the feasibility and a-aminoalkyl radicals.13a of this process depends on the nature of the ensuing C-radical, This mechanistic proposal was validated by the addition of ffi and it is only e cient when tertiary or stabilised (e.g. benzylic) PPh3 to the reaction mixture, which immediately led to species are generated.19 In our case this fragmentation would a dramatic increase in the process yield (Scheme 2B, entry 6).