Acetate nucleophilic attack

No reaction of soft carbon nucleophiles takes place with propargylic acet-ates[37], but soft carbon nucleophiles, such as / -keto esters and malonates, react with propargylic carbonates under neutral conditions using dppe as a ligand. The carbon nucleophile attacks the central carbon of the cr-allenylpal-ladium complex 81 to form the rr-allylpalladium complex 82, which reacts further with the carbon nucleophile to give the alkene 83. Thus two molecules of the a-monosubstituted /3-keto ester 84, which has one active proton, are... 

A related but distinct rhodium-catalyzed methyl acetate carbonylation to acetic anhydride (134) was commercialized by Eastman in 1983. Anhydrous conditions necessary to the Eastman acetic anhydride process require important modifications (24) to the process, including introduction of hydrogen to maintain the active [Rhl2(CO)2] catalyst and addition of lithium cation to activate the alkyl methyl group of methyl acetate toward nucleophilic attack by iodide. 

Bromine in chloroform and bromine in acetic acid are the reagents used most often to brominate pyrazole. When nitric acid is used as a solvent, both bromine and chlorine transform pyrazoles into pyrazolones (Scheme 24). Thus 3-methyl-l-(2,4-dinitrophe-nyOpyrazole is brominated at the 4-position (309). The product reacts with chlorine and nitric acid to give the pyrazolone (310). The same product results from the action of bromine and nitric acid on (311). The electrophilic attack of halogen at C-4 is followed by the nucleophilic attack of water at C-5 and subsequent oxidation by nitric acid. 

The reactions of ketenes or ketene equivalents with imines, discussed above, all involve the imine acting as nucleophile. Azetidin-2-ones can also be produced by nucleophilic attack of enolate anions derived from the acetic acid derivative on the electrophilic carbon of the imine followed by cyclization. The reaction of Reformatsky reagents, for example... 

Scheme 6 depicts a typical penicillin sulfoxide rearrangement (69JA1401). The mechanism probably involves an initial thermal formation of a sulfenic acid which is trapped by the acetic anhydride as the mixed sulfenic-acetic anhydride. Nucleophilic attack by the double bond on the sulfur leads to an episulfonium ion which, depending on the site of acetate attack, can afford either the penam (19) or the cepham (20). Product ratios are dependent on reaction conditions. For example, in another related study acetic anhydride gave predominantly the penam product, while chloroacetic anhydride gave the cepham product (7lJCS(O3540). The rearrangement can also be effected by acid in this case the principal products are the cepham (21) and the cephem (22 Scheme 7). Since these early studies a wide variety of reagents have been found to catalyze the conversion of a penicillin sulfoxide to the cepham/cephem ring system (e.g. 77JOC2887).

The effect of conformation on reactivity is intimately associated with the details of the mechanism of a reaction. The examples of Scheme 3.2 illustrate some of the w s in which substituent orientation can affect reactivity. It has been shown that oxidation of cis-A-t-butylcyclohexanol is faster than oxidation of the trans isomer, but the rates of acetylation are in the opposite order. Let us consider the acetylation first. The rate of the reaction will depend on the fiee energy of activation for the rate-determining step. For acetylation, this step involves nucleophilic attack by the hydroxyl group on the acetic anhydride carbonyl... 

We should distinguish between the phrases nucleophilic attack and nucleophilic catalysis. Nucleophilic attack means the bond-forming approach by an electron pair of the nucleophile to an electron-deficient site on the substrate. In nucleophilic catalysis this results in an increase in the rate of reaction relative to the rate in the absence of the catalyst. However, nucleophilic attack may not result in catalysis. Thus, if methylamine is reacted with a phenyl acetate, the reaction observed is amide formation, not hydrolysis, because the product of the nucleophilic attack is more stable than is the ester to hydrolysis. 

LUMO of methyl acetate reveals the likely site of nucleophilic attack. 

Kinetic reactivity can be assessed by examining the lowest-unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO). This is the orbital into which the nucleophile s pair of electrons will go. Compare the LUMO for acetic anhydride and ethyl acetate. For each, determine on which atom(s) the orbital has the largest lobes Do both reagents appear to be susceptible to nucleophilic attack at the carbonyl carbon ... 

The diastereoselectivity of the reaction may be rationalized by assuming a chelation model, which has been developed in the addition of Grignard reagents to enantiomerically pure a-keto acetals7,8. Cerium metal is fixed by chelation between the N-atom, the methoxy O-atom and one of the acetal O-atoms leading to a rigid structure in the transition state of the reaction (see below). Hence, nucleophilic attack from the Si-face of the C-N double bond is favored4. 

Alkylation of allylic acetates (formates or chlorides) with the dimethyl malonate anion is catalyzed by sodium tricarbonyl(nitroso)iron90. The nucleophile attacks the less hindered site... 

Selenoaldehydes 104, like thioaldehydes, have also been generated in situ from acetals and then directly trapped with dienes, thus offering a useful one-pot procedure for preparing cyclic seleno-compounds [103,104], The construction of a carbon-selenium double bond was achieved by reacting acetal derivatives with dimethylaluminum selenide (Equation 2.30). Cycloadditions of seleno aldehydes occur even at 0 °C. In these reactions, however, the carbon-selenium bond formed by the nucleophilic attack of the electronegative selenium atom in 105 to the aluminum-coordinated acetal carbon, may require a high reaction temperature [103], The cycloaddition with cyclopentadiene preferentially gave the kinetically favorable endo isomer. 

For those substrates more susceptible to nucleophilic attack (e.g., polyhalo alkenes and alkenes of the type C=C—Z), it is better to carry out the reaction in basic solution, where the attacking species is RO . The reactions with C=C—Z are of the Michael type, and OR goes to the side away from the Z. Since triple bonds are more susceptible to nucleophilic attack than double bonds, it might be expected that bases would catalyze addition to triple bonds particularly well. This is the case, and enol ethers and acetals can be produced by this reaction. Because enol ethers are more susceptible than triple bonds to electrophilic attack, the addition of alcohols to enol ethers can also be catalyzed by acids. " One utilization of this reaction involves the compound dihydropyran... 

The postulated mechanism for the reaction involves activation of the alkyne by jt-coordination to the cationic (IPr)Au% followed by direct nucleophilic attack by the electron-rich aromatic ring to form product 111. Alternatively, two 1,2-acetate migrations give the activated aUene complex, which can be cyclised to product 110 by nucleophilic attack of the aromatic ring on the activated aUene (Scheme 2.21) [92]. 

The Mukaiyama aldol reaction refers to Lewis acid-catalyzed aldol addition reactions of silyl enol ethers, silyl ketene acetals, and similar enolate equivalents,48 Silyl enol ethers are not sufficiently nucleophilic to react directly with aldehydes or ketones. However, Lewis acids cause reaction to occur by coordination at the carbonyl oxygen, activating the carbonyl group to nucleophilic attack. 

The addition reactions discussed in Sections 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 are initiated by the interaction of a proton with the alkene. Electron density is drawn toward the proton and this causes nucleophilic attack on the double bond. The role of the electrophile can also be played by metal cations, and the mercuric ion is the electrophile in several synthetically valuable procedures.13 The most commonly used reagent is mercuric acetate, but the trifluoroacetate, trifluoromethanesulfonate, or nitrate salts are more reactive and preferable in some applications. A general mechanism depicts a mercurinium ion as an intermediate.14 Such species can be detected by physical measurements when alkenes react with mercuric ions in nonnucleophilic solvents.15 The cation may be predominantly bridged or open, depending on the structure of the particular alkene. The addition is completed by attack of a nucleophile at the more-substituted carbon. The nucleophilic capture is usually the rate- and product-controlling step.13,16... 

The most synthetically valuable method for converting alkynes to ketones is by mercuric ion-catalyzed hydration. Terminal alkynes give methyl ketones, in accordance with the Markovnikov rule. Internal alkynes give mixtures of ketones unless some structural feature promotes regioselectivity. Reactions with Hg(OAc)2 in other nucleophilic solvents such as acetic acid or methanol proceed to (3-acetoxy- or (3-methoxyalkenylmercury intermediates,152 which can be reduced or solvolyzed to ketones. The regiochemistry is indicative of a mercurinium ion intermediate that is opened by nucleophilic attack at the more positive carbon, that is, the additions follow the Markovnikov rule. Scheme 4.8 gives some examples of alkyne hydration reactions. 

As a simple model for the enzyme penicillinase, Tutt and Schwartz (1970, 1971) investigated the effect of cycloheptaamylose on the hydrolysis of a series of penicillins. As illustrated in Scheme III, the alkaline hydrolysis of penicillins is first-order in both substrate and hydroxide ion and proceeds with cleavage of the /3-lactam ring to produce penicilloic acid. In the presence of an excess of cycloheptaamylose, the rate of disappearance of penicillin follows saturation kinetics as the cycloheptaamylose concentration is varied. By analogy to the hydrolysis of the phenyl acetates, this saturation behavior may be explained by inclusion of the penicillin side chain (the R group) within the cycloheptaamylose cavity prior to nucleophilic attack by a cycloheptaamylose alkoxide ion at the /3-lactam carbonyl. The presence of a covalent intermediate on the reaction pathway, although not isolated, was implicated by the observation that the rate of disappearance of penicillin is always greater than the rate of appearance of free penicilloic acid. 

---