Addition-elimination example mechanism

Although hydrolysis as well as other nucleophilic reactions of A-acylazoles (alcoholysis, aminolysis etc.) most likely follow the addition-elimination (AE) mechanism, there are indications that more complex mechanisms must be taken into account for hydrolysis under specific structural conditions. For example, for neutral hydrolysis of imidazolides with increasing steric shielding of the carbonyl group by one, two, and three... 

This is an example of the first step of an addition-elimination reaction mechanism converting an ester (methyl acetate) to an amide (A - mcth y I acctam ide). For clarity, the anion was repositioned in the scheme. Arrow pushing is illustrated below ... 

The reaction presented in this problem is known as a Friedel-Crafts acylation. Technically, this example belongs to a class of reactions referred to as electrophilic aromatic substitutions. Furthermore, the actual mechanism associated with this reaction, utilizing Lewis acid reagents as catalysts, proceeds through initial formation of an electrophilic acyl cation followed by reaction with an aromatic ring acting as a nucleophile. This mechanism, shown below, reflects distinct parallels to standard addition-elimination reaction mechanisms warranting introduction at this time. 

The second example of a cine-substitution of a thiophene involves the reaction of arylthiolates with 3,4-dinitrothiophene (331) or 3-nitro-4-phenylsul-fonylthiophene (332) to give the 2,4-substituted products 333. Both an elimination-addition mechanism via the aryne (334) or an abnormal addition-elimination (AEa) mechanism (Section II.2.A.e) via the Meisenheimer complex (335) have been considered for these reactions. The former is unlikely for several reasons including the lack of precedence for aryne formation from aryl nitro compounds (Section II. 1) under these reaction conditions and the fact that addition of the nucleophile ArS" to the aryne (334) would have to proceed via the 3-thienyl anion (336) rather than via a more stable 2-thienyl anion such as 320 as would be expected. Contrariwise, cine-substitution by the AEa mechanism is favored by the ability of the complex (335) to stabilize the negative charge by delocalization to both the NO2 group and the a position of the thiophene ring." As in the pyrrole series (Section III.2.B) the actual mechanism appears to be more complex, however, involving several addition and elimination steps via 337, which was recently isolated from the reaction (X = NO2) and shown to go to the product 333 under the reaction conditions. It therefore appears that neither of the cine-substitutions of thiophene described in this Section proceeds via an aryne intermediate. 

Generally, the reactions of halopyrazines and haloquinoxalines with nucleophiles are believed to proceed by way of addition/elimination sequences, although there are clear-cut examples where this is not the case (see Section 2.14.2.2) and, consistent with a mechanism which involves bond forming, rather than bond breaking, reactions in the rate-determining step, fluoro derivatives are considerably more reactive ca. xlO ) than the corresponding chloro derivatives. 

Polynuclear aromatics react with fluoroxy reagents to give high yields of ortho substitution products accompanied by varying yields of geminal difluoro products Thegeminal difluonnation occurs presumably by an addition-elimination mechanism [27 28, 29, 30, 31, 32] Unactivated aromatic systems are fluorinated in lower yield to give monofluonnated products (Table 1, entries 6 and 7) Examples of fluonnation of polynuclear systems [/5, 21, 25, 30, 32, 7 ] are shown m equations 7-10... 

A number of compounds of the general type H2NZ react with aldehydes and ketones in a manner analogous to that of primary fflnines. The carbonyl group (C=0) is converted to C=NZ, and a molecule of water is formed. Table 17.4 presents examples of some of these reactions. The mechanism by which each proceeds is similar to the nucleophilic addition-elimination mechanism described for the reaction of primary fflnines with aldehydes and ketones. 

Other aryl halides that give stabilized anions can undergo nucleophilic aromatic substitution by the addition-elimination mechanism. Two examples are hexafluorobenzene and 2-chloropyridine. 

An alternative to the above mechanism is that acetoxylation is an addition-elimination process involving N02 and OAc , leading to nitro and acetoxy products77, and it follows that this process would be less likely to occur, for example, with mesitylene and significantly perhaps, experiments seeking acetoxylation in mesitylene have failed78 on the other hand, mesitylene is a very reactive substrate so it could be that an alternative nitrating species is involved here. 

Nucleophilic substitution at a vinylic carbon is difficult (see p. 433), but many examples are known. The most common mechanisms are the tetrahedral mechanism and the closely related addition-elimination mechanism. Both of these mechanisms are impossible at a saturated substrate. The addition-elimination mechanism has... 

Ion 21 can either lose a proton or combine with chloride ion. If it loses a proton, the product is an unsaturated ketone the mechanism is similar to the tetrahedral mechanism of Chapter 10, but with the charges reversed. If it combines with chloride, the product is a 3-halo ketone, which can be isolated, so that the result is addition to the double bond (see 15-45). On the other hand, the p-halo ketone may, under the conditions of the reaction, lose HCl to give the unsaturated ketone, this time by an addition-elimination mechanism. In the case of unsymmetrical alkenes, the attacking ion prefers the position at which there are more hydrogens, following Markovnikov s rule (p. 984). Anhydrides and carboxylic acids (the latter with a proton acid such as anhydrous HF, H2SO4, or polyphosphoric acid as a catalyst) are sometimes used instead of acyl halides. With some substrates and catalysts double-bond migrations are occasionally encountered so that, for example, when 1 -methylcyclohexene was acylated with acetic anhydride and zinc chloride, the major product was 6-acetyl-1-methylcyclohexene. ... 

The evidence is in accord with an addition-elimination mechanism (addition of ArPdX followed by elimination of HPdX) in most cases. The reactions are stereospecific, yielding products expected from syn addition followed by syn elimination. Because the product is formed by an elimination step, with suitable substrates the double bond can go the other way, resulting in allylic rearrangement, for example, ... 

In the modified procedure one of several heteroaromatic sulfones is used. The crucial role of the heterocyclic ring is to provide a nonreductive mechanism for the elimination step, which occurs by an addition-elimination mechanism that results in fragmentation to the alkene. The original example used a benzothiazole ring,279 but more recently tetrazoles have been developed for this purpose.280... 

The addition-elimination mechanism has been used primarily for arylation of oxygen and nitrogen nucleophiles. There are not many successful examples of arylation of carbanions by this mechanism. A major limitation is the fact that aromatic nitro... 

Although the high reactivity of metal-chalcogen double bonds of isolated heavy ketones is somewhat suppressed by the steric protecting groups, Tbt-substituted heavy ketones allow the examination of their intermolecular reactions with relatively small substrates. The most important feature in the reactivity of a carbonyl functionality is reversibility in reactions across its carbon-oxygen double bond (addition-elimination mechanism via a tetracoordinate intermediate) as is observed, for example, in reactions with water and alcohols. The energetic basis... 

Some experimental evidences are in agreement with this proposed mechanism. For example, coordinating solvents like diethyl ether show a deactivating effect certainly due to competition with a Lewis base (149). For the same reason, poor reactivity has been observed for the substrates carrying heteroatoms when an aluminum-based Lewis acid is used. Less efficient hydrovinylation of electron-deficient vinylarenes can be explained by their weaker coordination to the nickel hydride 144, hence metal hydride addition to form key intermediate 146. Isomerization of the final product can be catalyzed by metal hydride through sequential addition/elimination, affording the more stable compound. Finally, chelating phosphines inhibit the hydrovinylation reaction. 

With the above-mentioned variety of addition reactions based on the addition-elimination mechanism almost any functional group or molecule can be attached to CgQ. Some examples are acetylenes [43, 52], peptides [53], DNA-fragments [53], polymers [54], macrocycles [55, 56], porphyrins [56, 57], dendrimers [58-60] or ligands for complex formation [56], Cjq can be turned into hybrids that are biologically active, water soluble, amphiphilic or mixable with polymers [53-55, 58, 61-69],... 

A mechanism for heteroaromatic nucleophilic substitution which is under considerable active study at the present time is the SRN process, which often competes with the addition-elimination pathway. Srn reactions are radical chain processes, and are usually photochemi-cally promoted. An example is shown in Scheme 22, where (60) is formed by the SrnI pathway and (61) via an initial addition reaction (82JOC1036). 

Schemes 24 and 34. Not all specific examples follow these generalized pathways. Although 78h does decompose predominately into 99 (Scheme 44) at neutral pH, evidence suggests that it may not do so via an addition-elimination mechanism. This intermediate is detectable in reaction mixtures, but it has never been isolated due to its high reactivity. The N-benzoyl analogue 78h has been prepared by anodic oxidation of N-benzoyl-2-aminofluorene and has been shown by labeling experiments to generate 99 by an intramolecular pathway presumably involving the intermediate 100. ...

Electrophilic halogenation processes can involve conventional mechanisms with a carbocation intermediate, or pathways that are of the addition-elimination type. Sometimes the process does not go beyond the addition stage there are also examples of halodehalogenation in which the displaced halogen attaches elsewhere in the ring, as in the chlorination of 3-bromobenzo[fe]thiophene to give 2-bromo-3-chlorobenzo[6]thiophene as one of the products (73IJS233). 

Unactivated aryl halides also undergo nucleophilic displacement via electron transfer in the initial step the so-called SRN1 mechanism. It is now clear that in the case of heteroaromatic compounds, nucleophilic substitution by the Srn process often competes with the addition-elimination pathway. The SRN reactions are radical chain processes, and are usually photochemically promoted. For example, ketone (895) is formed by the SRN1 pathway from 2-chloroquinoxaline (894) (82JOC1036). 

Intramolecular nucleophilic substitution by the anions of o-haloanilides is another viable oxindole synthesis. This is a special example of the category Ic process described in Section 3.06.2.3. The reaction is photo-stimulated and the mechanism is believed to be of the electron-transfer type SRN1 rather than a classical addition-elimination mechanism. The reaction is effective when R = H if 2 equivalents of the base are used to generate the dianion (equation 202) (80JA3646). 

Nevertheless, substitution of the halogen does occur under some circumstances. In such cases, the nucleophile first adds to the multiple bond, and in a subsequent step the halogen leaves as halide ion. This is an addition-elimination mechanism, of which we will have more examples later ... 

An important example of this type of reaction is the formation of esters, which was discussed previously in connection with the reactions of alcohols in Section 15-4D. Similar addition-elimination mechanisms occur in many reactions at the carbonyl groups of acid derivatives. A less obvious example of addition to carboxyl groups involves hydride ion (H 0) and takes place in lithium aluminum hydride reduction of carboxylic acids (Sections 16-4E and 18-3C). 

Typical examples are unsaturated fatty acids (Ferreri et al. 1999 Sprinz et al. 2000, 2001 Adhikari et al. 2001). The equilibrium constants for the oleic and linoleic systems are in the order of 10 dm3 mol1 and the reverse reaction in the order of 106 s"1 (Sprinz et al. 2000 and Sprinz, pers. comm.). In polyunsaturated fatty acids, such isomerizations could, in principle, also occur by an H-abstrac-tion/H-donation mechanism as discussed above. However, the rate of H-dona-tion of RSH to the pentadienylic radicals must be verylow (see above), and isomerization has been considered to occur only by the addition/elimination pathway (Sprinz et al. 2000). With the nucleobases, any thiyl addition can only be detected when the short-lived adduct is trapped by a fast reaction (Chap. 10.10). 

Ito T, Shinohara H, Hatta H, Nishimoto S-l (1999) Radiation-induced and photosensitized splitting of C5-C5 -linked dihydrothymine dimers product and laser flash photolysis studies on the oxidative splitting mechanism. J Phys Chem A 103 8413-8420 ItoT, Shinohara H, Hatta H, Fujita S-l, Nishimoto S-l (2000) Radiation-induced and photosensitized splitting of C5-C5 -linked dihydrothymine dimers. 2. Conformational effects on the reductive splitting mechanism. J Phys Chem A 104 2886-2893 ItoT, Shinohara H, Hatta H, Nishimoto S-l (2002) Stereoisomeric C5-C5 -linked dehydrothymine dimers produced by radiolytic one-electron reduction of thymine derivatives in anoxic solution structural characteristics in reference to cyclobutane photodimers. J Org Chem 64 5100-5108 Jagannadham V, Steenken S (1984) One-electron reduction of nitrobenzenes by a-hydroxyalkyl radicals via addition/elimination. An example of an organic inner-sphere electron-transfer reaction. J Am Chem Soc 106 6542-6551... 

Alkenyl(phenyl)iodonium salts are highly reactive in vinylic nucleophilic substitution reactions because of the excellent leaving group ability of the phenyliodonium moiety. Only a few examples of non-catalytic alkenylation of carbon nucleophiles are known [50,51]. In most cases these reactions proceed with predominant retention of configuration via the addition-elimination mechanism or ligand coupling on the iodine [42,50]. 

---