Axially chiral enamides : substituent effects, rotation barriers, and implications for their cyclization reactions

The most important factor in controlling the rate of rotation was the level of alkene substitution, followed by the size of the nitrogen substituent and, finally, the size of the acyl substituent. Tertiary enamides with four alkenyl substituents exhibited half-lives for rotation between 5.5 days and 99 years at 298 K, sufficient to isolate enantiomerically enriched atropisomers.

The radical cyclizations of a subset of N-alkenyl-N-benzyl-α-haloacetamides exhibiting relatively high barriers to rotation round the N-alkenyl bond (ΔG⧧ rotation >20 kcal mol–1) were studied to determine the regiochemistry of cyclization. Those with high barriers (>27 kcal mol–1) did not lead to cyclization, but those with lower values produced highly functionalized γ-lactams via a 5-endo-trig radical–polar crossover process that was terminated by reduction, an unusual cyclopropanation sequence, or trapping with H2O, depending upon the reaction conditions.