Lithium choreography: intramolecular arylations of carbamate-stabilised carbanions and their mechanisms probed by in situ IR spectroscopy and DFT calculations.

Deprotonation of O-allyl, O-propargyl or O-benzyl carbamates in the presence of a lithium counterion leads to carbamate-stabilised organolithium compounds that may be quenched with electrophiles. We now report that when the allylic, propargylic or benzylic carbamate bears an N-aryl substituent, an aryl migration takes place, leading to stereochemical inversion and C-arylation of the carbamate α to oxygen. The aryl migration is an intramolecular S(N) Ar reaction, despite the lack of anion-stabilising aryl substituents. Our in situ IR studies reveal a number of intermediates along the rearrangement pathway, including a "pre-lithiation complex," the deprotonated carbamate, the rearranged anion, and the final arylated carbamate. No evidence was obtained for a dearomatised intermediate during the aryl migration. DFT calculations predict that during the reaction the solvated Li cation moves from the carbanion centre, thus freeing its lone pair for nucleophilic attack on the remote phenyl ring. This charge separation leads to several alternative conformations. The one having Li(+) bound to the carbamate oxygen gives rise to the lowest-energy transition structure, and also leads to inversion of the configuration. In agreement with the IR studies, the DFT calculations fail to locate a dearomatised intermediate.

Intramolecular vinylation of secondary and tertiary organolithiums.

Deprotonation of benzylic ureas, carbamates, and thiocarbamates bearing N'-alkenyl substituents generates carbanions which undergo intramolecular migration of the alkenyl group to the carbanionic center. Solvolysis of the urea products generates α-alkenylated amines. With an enantiomerically pure starting urea, migration proceeds stereospecifically, generating in enantiomerically enriched form products containing allylic quaternary stereogenic centers bearing N. Computational and in situ IR studies suggest that the reaction, formally a nucleophilic substitution at an sp(2) carbon atom, proceeds by a concerted addition-elimination pathway.

Tertiary alcohols by tandem ß-carbolithiation and N→C aryl migration in enol carbamates.

Enol carbamates (O-vinylcarbamates) derived from aromatic or α,ß-unsaturated compounds and bearing an N-aryl substituent undergo carbolithiation by nucleophilic attack at the (nominally nucleophilic) ß position of the enol double bond. The resulting carbamate-stabilized allylic, propargylic, or benzylic organolithium rearranges with N→C migration of the N-aryl substituent, creating a quaternary carbon α to O. The products may be readily hydrolyzed to yield multiply branched tertiary alcohols in a one-pot tandem reaction, effectively a polarity-reversed nucleophilic ß-alkylation-electrophilic α-arylation of an enol equivalent.

Synthesis of (-)-(S,S)-clemastine by invertive N --> C aryl migration in a lithiated carbamate.

The first enantioselective synthesis of the antihistamine agent clemastine, as its (S,S)-stereoisomer, has been achieved by ether formation between a proline-derived chloroethylpyrrolidine and an enantiomerically enriched tertiary alcohol. The tertiary alcohol was formed from the carbamate derivative of alpha-methyl-p-chlorobenzyl alcohol by invertive aryl migration on lithiation. The (S,S)-stereochemistry of the product confirms the invertive nature of the rearrangement.