Abstract
Free-radical-mediated reactions were studied as a powerful method for constructing
the carbon–carbon bond. The intermolecular carbon radical addition to ketimines has
not been widely studied. The screening of reactive ketimino radical acceptors showed
that ketimines having a 2-phenolic hydroxyl group exhibit good reactivities toward
nucleophilic alkyl radicals. The radical addition of these ketimines took place regioselectively
at the imino carbon, providing a novel method for the construction of all-substituted
sp3-hybridized carbon centers. We also found that the pyruvic hydrazone and isatin hydrazone
show excellent reactivities to afford the corresponding C-alkylated products. Enantio-
or diastereoselective radical addition reaction of ketimines was also tested. The
control of stereochemistry in cyclization reactions has been of great importance to
radical chemistry. As a cyclization that provides highly functionalized cyclic compounds,
the diastereoselective cyclizations of oxime ethers were investigated. The diastereoselective
radical cyclizations proceeded through a conformer that minimizes the A1,3-strain effect, and the configuration of the alkoxyamino group on the products was
highly controlled by the 1,2-stereoinduction. Next, the chiral Lewis acid mediated
enantioselective cyclization reactions were studied. Stereocontrol in the radical
addition–cyclization–trapping reaction was achieved by the new approach, which employs
hydroxamate ester functionality as a chiral Lewis acid coordinating tether between
two radical acceptors. The enantioselective cascade reaction of oxime ethers also
proceeded smoothly with good enantio- and diastereoselectivities. Recently, we have
developed cascade reactions starting from the polarity-mismatched perfluoroalkylation
of an electron-deficient acceptor with electrophilic perfluoroalkyl radicals. These
cascade reactions provide a novel approach to the asymmetric synthesis of various
γ-lactams.
1 Introduction
2 Intermolecular Radical Addition to Imine Derivatives
2.1 Effect of a Phenolic Hydroxyl Group on the Reaction of Aldimine
2.2 Reactivity of Ketimines Having a Phenolic Hydroxyl Group
2.3 Screening of Other Ketimino Radical Acceptors
3 Stereocontrolled Radical Cyclization
3.1 Diastereoselective Cyclization of Oxime Ethers
3.2 Stereocontrol by Using a Chiral Lewis Acid
3.3 Enantioselective Cascade Reaction of Oxime Ethers
3.4 Cyclization Induced by Polarity-Mismatched Perfluoroalkylation
4 Conclusion
Key words
radicals - imines - cyclizations - Lewis acids - enantioselectivity