Formamide as an efficient nitrogen nucleophile for the Michael addition to nitroalkenes

Secondary acyclic formamide serves as an efficient nucleophile to nitroalkenes to give corresponding Michael adducts in good yields. The nitro group in the adducts was useful for further heterocyclic synthesis.     

Michael addition of phosphorus derivatives on tetraethyl ethylidenediphosphonate

Nucleophilic phosphorus add to tetraethyl ethylidene diphosphonate in protic solvent to yield the product of the Michael reaction. This reaction appeared to be reversible at a temperature upper than 160 °C. To avoid this reverse reaction, alkylation in α position of the two phosphonate functions by activated elecrophile is reported.     

Direct asymmetric Michael addition of phthalide derivatives to chalcones

The Michael addition of phthalides to chalcones employing a quinidine-derived thiourea catalyst Q-1 has been developed. The reported method led to the synthesis of 3,3-disubstituted phthalide derivatives in excellent yields, with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities.     

Organic reactions in frozen water: Michael addition of amines and thiols to the dehydroalanine side chain of nocathiacins

Nocathiacins are densely functionalized cyclic thiazolyl peptide natural products with potent in vitro and in vivo antibacterial activity against a variety of gram-positive bacteria, including a number of multiple drug-resistant strains. Attempts to prepare Michael adducts using known conditions resulted in the formation of complex mixture of products. In order to overcome this problem, we developed unique conditions in which Michael addition of amine and thiol nucleophiles to the dehydroalanine moiety of nocathiacins was successfully achieved in frozen water. Under these conditions, the Michael addition was highly chemoselective, very efficient and provided good isolated yields of the desired products.     

Benzoazabicyclo[4.3.1] derivatives by intramolecular Michael addition of piperidinone enolates to enoates

Piperidinones with a 2-bromobenzyl substituent in the 5-position were subjected to a Heck coupling reaction with ethyl acrylate resulting in the highly functionalized cinnamates 9a-d. A subsequent deprotonation of the piperidinones using NaN(SiM₃)₂ in THF induced an intramolecular Michael addition of the enolate to the cinnamate part. In this way, a range of novel 2,6-methano-4H-4-benzazonines 10-13 were obtained. In each case, a separable mixture of endo/exo-diastereomers was obtained.     

Tandem Michael addition and intramolecular aldol cyclization of 1,2-dideoxy-1-nitroheptitols derived from sugars

The base-catalyzed Michael addition of primary nitro compounds derived from sugars with 2 equiv of methyl vinyl ketone or acrolein was followed, in situ, by an asymmetric intramolecular aldol cyclization, thus yielding 2-acyl-4-glyco-4-nitrocyclohexanol derivatives with high diastereoselectivity.     

Nucleophilicity of Glutathione: A Link to Michael Acceptor Reactivities

Deprotonated glutathione is among the most potent biological nucleophiles and plays an important physiological role in cellular detoxification by forming covalent conjugates with Michael acceptors. The electrophilicity E of various Michael acceptors was characterized recently according to the Patz–Mayr relation lg k₂=s_N(N+E). We now determined the nucleophilic reactivity (N, s_N) of glutathione (GSH) in aqueous solution at 20 °C to connect published GSH reactivities (k_GSH) with Mayr's electrophilicity scale (E). In this way, electrophilicities E of more than 70 Michael acceptors could be estimated, which can now be used to systematically predict novel reactions with the multitude of nucleophiles whose nucleophilicity parameters N/s_N are known.     

Colorimetric and fluorescent detection of biological thiols in aqueous solution

A new colorimetric and fluorescent probe,2-(2,4-dinitrostyryl)-1,3,3-trimethyl-3H-indolium iodide (DTI),for selective and sensitive detection of biological thiols is reported.In aqueous solution at physiological pH 7.4,biological thiols react with DTI via Michael addition to give the brownish red adduct concomitant with fluorescence emission decrease.     

Odorless substitutes for foul-smelling thiols: syntheses and applications

Several alkanethiols and p-alkylphenylmethanethiols were synthesized, and their odors were compared with those of ethanethiol and benzyl mercaptan by human and instrumental sensors. Among the various thiols analyzed, 1-dodecanethiol (1) and p-heptylphenylmethanethiol (3) were revealed to be odorless. 1-Dodecanethiol (1) has been used instead of ethanethiol for dealkylation of ethers, and p-heptylphenylmethanethiol (3) can replace benzyl mercaptan in the preparation of a 1,3-mercapto alcohol from an ,β-unsaturated ketone. These odorless thiols will greatly improve the physical environment of the researcher working with these foul-smelling compounds.     

Iodine-catalyzed Michael addition of mercaptans to α,β-unsaturated ketones under solvent-free conditions

A simple and efficient method for the Michael reaction between various mercaptans and α,β-unsaturated ketones using a catalytic amount of iodine (5 mol %) to generate the 1,4-adduct has been reported. The significant features of the iodine catalyzed Michael addition are (a) operational simplicity, (b) inexpensive reagents, (c) high yields of products, (d) the use of relatively low or nontoxic reagents and (e) solvent-free conditions.     

Fluorapatite: efficient catalyst for the Michael addition

A Michael addition assisted by fluorapatite in heterogeneous media is described. Reaction between mercaptans and chalcone derivatives was studied at room temperature in methanol as solvent. By-products of usual undesirable reactions in Michael addition such as 1,2-addition, bis-addition and polymerisation are not observed. The yields obtained are good to excellent.     

Reaction on Water: A Greener Approach for the Thia Michael Addition on N-Aryl Maleimides

A greener, economical, and efficient methodology for the Michael addition of thiols to N-aryl maleimides has been developed.     

Michael addition of Grignard reagents to tetraethyl ethenylidenebisphosphonate

Tetraethyl ethenylidenebisphosphonate can undergo facile Michael type addition reaction with simple Grignard reagents to give alkyl, arylalkyl, aryl C-substituted methylene bisphosphonates. This addition easily occurs even if funtionalised Grignard reagents are used.     

Catalyzed double Michael addition of anilines to vinyl sulfone

Substituted anilines and vinyl sulfone undergo a facile double Michael addition to form substituted phenylthiomorpholine dioxide, catalyzed with AlCl₃ or H₃PO₄. Scope and conditions were explored.     

Highly Functionalized Cyclopentane Derivatives by Tandem Michael Addition/Radical Cyclization/Oxygenation Reactions

Densely functionalized cyclopentane derivatives with up to four consecutive stereocenters are assembled by a tandem Michael addition/single‐electron transfer oxidation/radical cyclization/oxygenation strategy mediated by ferrocenium hexafluorophosphate, a recyclable, less toxic single‐electron transfer oxidant. Ester enolates were coupled with α‐benzylidene and α‐alkylidene β‐dicarbonyl compounds with switchable diastereoselectivity. This pivotal steering element subsequently controls the diastereoselectivity of the radical cyclization step. The substitution pattern of the radical cyclization acceptor enables a switch of the cyclization mode from a 5‐exo pattern for terminally substituted olefin units to a 6‐endo mode for internally substituted acceptors. The oxidative anionic/radical strategy also allows efficient termination by oxygenation with the free radical 2,2,6,6‐tetramethyl‐1‐piperidinoxyl, and two C?C bonds and one C?O bond are thus formed in the sequence. A stereochemical model is proposed that accounts for all of the experimental results and allows the prediction of the stereochemical outcome. Further transformations of the synthesized cyclopentanes are reported.     

A modified and convenient method for the preparation of N-phenylpyrazoline derivatives

Ten new N-phenylpyrazoline derivatives have been synthesized in high yields by condensation of chalcones with phenylhydrazine in the presence of potassium carbonate in reflux conditions. The workup is simple and involves treatment with ice-cold water. As compared with the previous method a considerable increase in the reaction rate with better yields has been observed. Published in Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 7, pp. 1032–1036, July, 2006.     

Sodium borohydride or potassium carbonate-mediated intramolecular Michael addition: a general method for the synthesis of fused dihydrofuran and furan derivatives

A simple and convenient method for the synthesis of fused dihydrofuran derivatives using NaBH₄-mediated reductive cyclization and fused furan derivatives by K₂CO₃-mediated intramolecular Michael addition followed by acid-catalyzed methanol elimination has been developed.     

The furan approach to carbocyclic systems. Synthesis of cyclohexane derivatives from butenolides through an intramolecular Michael addition

We describe an efficient new approach for the synthesis of highly substituted cyclohexane derivatives that is based on the oxidation of a furan ring with singlet oxygen followed by an intramolecular Michael addition of the resulting butenolide containing an acidic methine group.     

Phospha‐Michael addition to enone‐containing triglyceride derivatives as an efficient route to flame retardant renewable thermosets

A novel phosphorus‐containing vegetable oil (PETR) was prepared through phospha‐Michael addition of a diphenyl phosphine oxide to the enone derivative of high‐oleic sunflower oil (ETR). The reaction was investigated using the enone derivative of methyl oleate under conventional thermal heating and microwave irradiation. The kinetic study showed a great enhancement of reaction rate for the microwave‐initiated addition. The crosslinking of ETR with diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) via aza‐Michael addition was also investigated under microwave irradiation, showing a noticeable acceleration of the curing. The new phosphorus‐containing triglyceride was crosslinked with DDM to obtain phosphorus‐containing vegetable oil‐based thermosets of different phosphorus contents. Limiting oxygen index values from 26.4 to 35.0 for the final materials were obtained, demonstrating that the flame retardant properties of vegetable oil‐based thermosets can be improved by adding covalently bonded phosphorus to the polymer. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012