P r e p a r a t i o n a n d R e a c t i o n s o f A r y l a l u m i n u m R e a g e n t s Abstract: The reaction of various aryl bromides with magnesium turnings, LiCl and R 2 AlCl (R = Et, i-Bu) provides at room temperature arylaluminum reagents in high yields. These organometallic species undergo readily 1,4-additions, acylations, allylations, and Pd-catalyzed cross-couplings with various aryl iodides and bromides.The preparation of main-group organometallics for applications in organic synthesis is one of the most active research areas in organic chemistry since these organometallics readily form new carbon-carbon bonds. Previously unrecognized high chemoselectivity of zinc and magnesium reagents led to an increased research activity in this field. 1 The preparation of organoaluminum derivatives is of special interest due to the potentially broad functionalgroup tolerance of organoalanes, the low cost of aluminum reagents, and their low toxicity. Surprisingly, general preparations of arylaluminum reagents are rare. 2 The most important syntheses of arylaluminum compounds are directed aluminations, 3,4 transmetalation reactions. 5 Most transmetalations from highly reactive organolithium reagents have to be performed at low temperature. 5 Recently, we have found that the insertion of various metals (Zn, 6 In, 7 Mg 8 ) is dramatically accelerated by the addition of LiCl. Also, the use of Barbier reaction conditions allows to generate sensitive organozinc reagents via reactive intermediate magnesium reagents which are trapped in situ with ZnCl 2 . 8 Using a similar approach, we wish to report herein a new preparation method of arylaluminum reagents of type 1 (Scheme 1) which proceeds at room temperature via an in situ generated organomagnesium species of type 2 obtained by the reaction of aryl bromides 3 with magnesium turnings in the presence of LiCl and a dialkylaluminum chloride (R 2 AlCl; 4a: R = Et; 4b: R = iBu).
Scheme 1Thus, the treatment of 4-bromoanisole (1.0 equiv) with magnesium turnings (2.5 equiv) activated with DIBAL-H (1%), 9 LiCl (1.25 equiv), and Et 2 AlCl (1.0 M solution in hexane, 1.1 equiv) at 25°C provides the corresponding arylaluminum reagent 1a within 3 hours as indicated by GC analysis of hydrolyzed reaction aliquots. The crude arylaluminum reagent is cannulated to a solution of CuCN·2LiCl (0.1 equiv) 9 at -10°C followed by cyclohex-2-enone (0.6 equiv) and TMSCl (1.1 equiv). 5b After acidic workup, the 3-arylated cyclohexanone 4a is isolated in 72% yield (entry 1 of Table 1). This Michael addition was extended to arylaluminum reagents bearing a chlorine substituent (1b,c, entries 2 and 3) leading to the 3-substituted cyclohexanones 4b,c in 71-77% yield. The ortho-tolylaluminum species 1d also reacts smoothly with cyclohex-2-enone affording the 1,4-adduct 4d in 76% yield (entry 4). Finally, amino-substituted arylaluminum species such as 1e can be readily prepared with our method providing after the addition to ethyl acrylate the b-arylated ester 4e in 66% yield (entry 5). The competitive tr...