Anti-addition of Dimethylsulfoxonium Methylide to Acyclic α,β-Unsaturated Ketones and Its Application in Formal Synthesis of an Eicosanoid

ACS Omega. 2017 Aug 1;2(8):4088-4099. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.7b00663. eCollection 2017 Aug 31.

Abstract

Cyclopropanation using dimethylsulfoxonium methylide (Corey-Chaykovsky reaction) was examined with a series of linear α,β-unsaturated ketones, and the results showed that the major trajectory for the addition of the sulfur ylide to the enones is anti, related to the γ-substituent. The stereochemical assignment for the generated cyclopropanes was achieved by X-ray crystallography or comparing with the reported spectroscopic data. We found that the diastereoselectivity was influenced by several factors, including the protecting groups, solvents, and temperatures, and good anti/syn ratios (>10:1) were often obtained using the tert-butyldimethylsilyl and tert-butyldiphenylsilyl-protected substrates. The method was applied to a formal synthesis of a natural eicosanoid with good efficiency.