Adamantyl derivatives rearrangement

One of the most common reasons for lowyields is an incomplete reaction. Rates of organic reactions can vary enormously, some are complete in a few seconds whereas rates of others are measured on a geological timescale. Consequently, to ensure that the problem of low yields is not simply due to low reactivity, reaction conditions should be such that some or all of the starting material does actually react. If none of the desired product is obtained, but similar reactions of related compounds are successful, the mechanistic implications should be considered. This situation has been referred to as Limitation of Reaction, and several examples have been given [32 ] the Hofmann rearrangement, for example, does not proceed for secondary amides (RCONHR ) because the intermediate anion 28 cannot form (Scheme 2.11). Sometimes, a substrate for a mechanistic investigation may be chosen deliberately to exclude particular reaction pathways for example, unimolecular substitution reactions of 1-adamantyl derivatives have been studied in detail in the knowledge that rear-side nucleophilic attack and elimination are not possible and hence not complications (see Section 2.7.1). 

Carbonylation ot 1-adamantyl triflate in the presence of tnflic acid also gives a derivative of homoadamantane as the result of a similar rearrangement with ring expansion [55] (equation 36)... 

A very high degree of asymmetric induction was observed by Trost and Hammen (154) in the [2,3]sigmatropic rearrangement of ylide 285 derived from optically active 1-adamantylallylethylsulfonium tetrafluoroborate 286. They found that the optically active l-adamantyl-2-pent-4-enyl sulfide 287 formed in this process has at... 

The rearrangements of several twistane derivatives to adamantyl cations under the same conditions, on the other hand, appear to involve reversible, random carbonium ion formation, at least to a limited extent. Rearrangement of 2-twistanol-2-d (38) occurs with considerable intermolecular hydrogen scrambling (Eq. (15)) 40T Similar intermolecular rearrangements are observed when a 50 50 mixture of 1-adamantanol and l-adamantanol-3,5,7-d3 in S02 is treated with SbFs 40). 

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