An Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Mechanism of Stannylcupration of α,β-Acetylenic Ketones and Esters

The title reaction has been investigated by experimental and computational (DFT) techniques, and subsequently compared to the corresponding carbocupration reaction, with particular emphasis on the stereoselectivity. For stannylcupration of an ynone substrate, only the anti-addition product is observed, whereas for the corresponding ynoate substrate, the stereoselectivity can be affected by the reaction conditions: in the presence of methanol as proton donor, the initial syn-addition product can be trapped, whereas a syn/anti mixture is obtained in a non-protic solvent.

This is in sharp contrast to the carbocupration of the same ynone substrate with a cyanocuprate (RCu(CN)Li), which is highly selective for syn-addition. The product selectivities can be understood from a detailed computational characterization of the reaction paths, and in particular from the relative stabilities of the vinyl cuprate and allenolate intermediates.

It is suggested that the stereodetermining step is protonation of vinyl cuprate intermediates.