The halogen/magnesium-exchange reaction has opened new perspectives in organic synthesis and has considerably extended the range of available functionalized aryl and heteroaryl magnesium compounds bearing functional groups such as ester, nitrile, iodide, imine, or even sensitive groups like nitro, hydroxy, and boronic esters. The present review summarizes the applications of these functionalized heteroaryl-and arylmagnesium compounds for the synthesis of a wide variety of regiospecifically functionalized five-and six-membered heterocycles.
Ç 1. IntroductionThe selective functionalization of heteroaryl compounds is an important synthetic task. The resulting polyfunctional heteroaryl derivatives are often essential building blocks in the synthesis of natural products, 1 drugs, 2 new materials with defined properties, 3 or for the use in molecular recognition. 4 Although, directed metallation 5 or selective bromine/lithium-exchange 6 has provided a way to prepare a range of lithiated heterocycles, the high polarity of the carbon-lithium bond precludes the presence of sensitive functional groups such as ester and cyano groups in these lithium organometallics due to their too high reactivity. On the other hand, the more covalent character of the carbon-magnesium bond tolerates the presence of more functional groups. The synthesis of these polyfunctional Grignard reagents is, however, a problem, since the insertion of magnesium metal to aryl or heteroaryl halides bearing electron-withdrawing groups is inhibited by the presence of these functionalities. 7 Recently, we have shown that the halogen/magnesium-exchange reaction is a unique method for the preparation of a range of new functionalized aryl, alkenyl, and heteroaryl magnesium compounds, which has considerably extended the range of functionalized Grignard reagents available for synthetic purposes. These functionalized organomagnesium compounds have an excellent reactivity towards a wide range of electrophiles and they readily undergo transmetallation to provide a wide variety of organometallic reagents, particularly organocopper reagents which react especially well with soft electrophiles and display an excellent chemoselectivity. In the present review, we wish to report applications of this halogen/magnesium-exchange reactions for the preparation of a wide range of functionalized heteroaryl Grignard reagents and their reactions, which provide an entry to numerous polyfunctional five and six membered heterocyles.
Ç 2. Synthesis of Functionalized Heterocycles Using Functionalized Heterocyclic Grignard ReagentsA variety of functionalized heterocyclic Grignard reagents can be prepared by using an I/Mg-or Br/Mg-exchange reaction.8 It was found earlier that aryl and heteroaryl iodides bearing electron-withdrawing groups undergo an I/Mg-exchange between À30 and À20C within a few hours, 8 and this exchange was applicable to a variety of heteroaryl iodides. The Br/Mgexchange 8 can also be applied to various heterocycles with electron-withdrawing groups. The elec...