Lithiation of prochiral 2,2'-dichloro-5,5'-dibromo-4,4'-bipyridine as a tool for the synthesis of chiral polyhalogenated 4,4'-bipyridines

Lithiation of the achiral tetrahalogenated 4,4'- bipyridine 1 with alkyllithiums was investigated. n-BuLi was found to induce either the chlorine-directed deprotolithiation reaction alone or with a concomitant halogen-lithium exchange furnishing after iodine trapping chiral 4,4'- bipyridines 2 and 6, respectively. The role of n-BuLi in the deprotolithiation process of 1 was elucidated on the basis of isolated secondary derivatives. After deprotolithiation, the lithiated species could be trapped by different electrophiles such as MeI, TMSCl, MeSSMe, R3SnCl (R = Me or n-Bu), and PPh2Cl. Moreover, 4,4'-bipyridine 2 was submitted to cross-coupling reactions (Suzuki and Sonogashira) which occurred selectively at the carbon-iodine bond. All compounds of this new family of atropisomeric 4,4'-bipyridines were separated by chiral HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography), and the absolute configurations of obtained enantiomers were mainly assigned by XRD (X-ray diffraction) using anomalous dispersion.