LEWIS ACID MEDIATED ALDOL CONDENSATIONS USING THIOESTER SILYL KETENE ACETALS

BF3-OEt2 mediated thioester silylketene acetal additions to aldehydes are stereoconvergent and give high anti-syn ratios and good chemical yields. An acyclic transition state model was hypothesized in order to account for the observed selectivity. Theoretical methods (MNDO) were used to evaluate the ground-state conformations of thioester silylketene acetals and to model the acyclic transition states. Lewis acid mediated additions of thioester silylketene acetals to 2-phenylpropion-aldehyde (BF3-OEt2), O-benzyl lactic aldehyde (SnCl4), 2,3-0,O-dibenzyl glyceraldehyde (SnCl4), and 3-benzyloxy-2-methylpropionaldehyde (TiCl4) were found to be highly diastereoface selective so that three contiguous stereocenters could be established. With α-, β- , or α,β-alkoxy aldehydes, relative stereoselection (chelation) effectively controls internal stereolection. The ground state conformations of the chiral aldehydes were studied using molecular mechanics (MM2).