Acceleration, of the Diels-Alder

Comparison of the water-induced acceleration of the reaction of 2.4a with the corresponding effect on 2.4g is interesting, since 2.4g contains an ionic group remote from the reaction centre. The question arises whether this group has an influence on the acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction by water. Comparison of the data in Table 2.1 demonstrates that this is not the case. The acceleration upon going from ethanol to water amounts a factor 105 ( 10) for 2.4a versus 110 ( 11) for 2.4g. Apparently, the introduction of a hydrophilic group remote from the reaction centre has no effect on the aqueous acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction. 

In organic solvents Lewis-acid catalysis also leads to large accelerations of the Diels-Alder reaction. Table 2.2 shows the rate constants for the Cu -catalysed Diels-Alder reaction between 2.4a and 2.5 in different solvents. 

From 1928 when Otto Diels and Kurt Alder [1] made their extraordinary discovery until 1960 when Yates and Eaton [2] reported the acceleration of the Diels-Alder cycloadditions by Lewis acid catalysts, these reactions were essentially carried out under thermal conditions owing to the simplicity of the accomplishing thermal process. Since then a variety of methods have been developed to accelerate the reactions. The reaction between 1,3-butadiene and ethylene (Equation 2.1) is a typical example of a thermal Diels-Alder cycloaddition. 

Acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction by clays suspended in organic solvents [7]... 

Whereas maleic anhydride can react with furan (139a) at ambient pressure, citraconic anhydride (140) reacts only at high pressures due to the strong deactivating effect of the methyl group (Schemes 5.21 and 5.22). The two-step synthesis [53] of the palasonin (141), in an overall yield of 96 %, is a good example of the acceleration of the Diels-Alder by high pressure (Scheme 5.21). Previous synthesis [54] based on the thermal Diels-Alder reaction of furan with methoxy carbonyl maleic anhydride required 12 steps. 

The Diels-Alder reaction is one of the most important methods used to form cyclic structures and is one of the earliest examples of carbon-carbon bond formation reactions in aqueous media.21 Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous media were in fact first carried out in the 1930s, when the reaction was discovered,22 but no particular attention was paid to this fact until 1980, when Breslow23 made the dramatic observation that the reaction of cyclopentadiene with butenone in water (Eq. 12.1) was more than 700 times faster than the same reaction in isooctane, whereas the reaction rate in methanol is comparable to that in a hydrocarbon solvent. Such an unusual acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction by water was attributed to the hydrophobic effect, 24 in which the hydrophobic interactions brought together the two nonpolar groups in the transition state. 

TABLE 1. Pressure-induced rate acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction of isoprene with acrylonitrile at 21 °C (AV = -35.4 cm3 mol-1, AV = -37.0 cm3 mol-1)28... 

TABLE 1. Pressure-induced rate acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction of isoprene with acryloni-... 

Yates P, Eaton P (1960) Acceleration of the Diels-Alder Reaction by Aluminum Chloride. J Am Chem Soc 82 4436... 

Yates, P., and P. Eaton Acceleration of the Diels-Alder Reaction by Aluminium Chloride. J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 82, 4436 (1960). 

Another interesting coupled system between Lewis acid and micellar catalysis was developed by Engberts et al. with a million-fold acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction. It was shown that if in the absence of Lewis acids, the reaction is retarded by micelles of CTAB or SDS—because of the different binding locations between the diene and the dienophile—the addition of copper dodecylsulfate leads to dramatic rate accelerations due to the complexation of the dienophile to the catalytically active copper ions, and to the high local concentration of both species at the micellar surface. ... 

Diels-Alderase ribozymes (DAR), isolated from a combinatorial RNA library, cause a (2 X 10 )-fold acceleration of the Diels-Alder cycloaddition of anthracene covalently tethered to ribozyme and a biotinylated maleimide in aqueous-buffered medium (Scheme 5.15). Jaschke recently reported the action of Diels-Alderase ribozymes as true catalysts, in the sense that they catalyze the cycloaddition of anthracene that is not covalently tethered to RNA and biotin maleimide in aqueous-buffered medium. 

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