Addition reactions oxymercuration

The best characterized of these reactions involve the mercuric ion, Hg ", as the cation. The same process occurs for other transition-metal cations, especially Pd, but the products often go on to react fiirther. Synthetically important reactions involving Pd will be discussed in Section 8.2 of Part B. The mercuration products are stable, and this allows a relatively uncomplicated study of the addition reaction itself The usual nucleophile is the solvent, either water or an alcohol. The tenn oxymercuration is used to refer to reactions in... 

Oxymercuration-reduction of alkenes preparation of alcohols Addition of water to alkenes by oxymercuration-reduction produces alcohols via Markovnikov addition. This addition is similar to the acid-catalysed addition of water. Oxymercuration is regiospecific and auft -stereospecific. In the addition reaction, Hg(OAc) bonds to the less substituted carbon, and the OH to the more substituted carbon of the double bond. For example, propene reacts with mercuric acetate in the presence of an aqueous THF to give a hydroxy-mercurial compound, followed by reduction with sodium borohydride (NaBH4) to yield 2-propanol. 

Oxidative desulfonylation Chlorodimethoxyborane, 73 Oxidative hydrolysis see Hydrolysis) Oxy-Cope rearrangement see Sigma-tropic rearrangements) Oxymercuration see Addition reactions to carbon-carbon multiple bonds)... 

It is clear that the mechanism in Scheme 25 parallels (at least from the qualitative point of view) the mechanism of the addition of bromine to olefins shown in Scheme 11. Kinetic investigations indicate that the oxymercuration reaction involves a series of fast equilibria until the mercuronium ion (53) is formed. The subsequent nucleophilic attack of the solvent is probably the rate-limiting step, as indicated by steric requirements in bulky alkenes111. In the bromine addition, the formation of the bromonium ion is the rate-limiting step (or the rate-limiting equilibrium). However, the olefin reactivities in both reactions (bromination and oxymercuration) are identical when steric effects in the TS of the two addition reactions are taken into account110. 

When predicting the product of a reaction, you have to recall what you know about the kind of reaction being carried out and then apply that knowledge to the specific case you re dealing with. In the present instance, recall that the two methods of hydration—hydroboration/oxidation and oxymercura-tion—give complementary products. Hydroboration/oxidation occurs with syn stereochemi. itiy and gives the non-Markovnikov addition product oxymercuration gives the Markovnikov product. 

Mechanism of the oxymercuration of an alkene to yield an alcohol. Thb electrophilic addition reaction involves a mercurinium ion Mennediate, and its mechanism is similar to that of halohydrin formation. The product of the reaction is the more highly substituted alcohol, corresponding to Markovnikov regiochemistiy. 

In the first step of the oxymercuration mechanism, the electrophilic mercury of mercuric acetate adds to the double bond. (Two of mercury s 5d electrons are shown.) Because carbocation rearrangements do not occur, we can conclude that the product of the addition reaction is a cyclic mercurinium ion rather than a carbocation. The reaction is analogous to the addition of Br2 to an alkene to form a cyclic bromonium ion. 

The overall reaction (oxymercuration-reduction) forms the same product that would be formed from the acid-catalyzed addition of water The hydrogen adds to the sp carbon bonded to the greater number of hydrogens, and OH adds to the other sp carbon. 

Addition reactions that will produce alcohols include acid-catalyzed hydration, oxymercuration-demercuration, and hydroboration-oxidation. 

Cyclobutanes have been formed in a number of other reactions. Oxymercuration of l,2,2-trimethylbicyclo[l,l,0]butane gives a mixture of cyclobutyl- and cyclopropyl-mercurials (90) and (91). Addition of difluorocarbene to the spirocyclic... 

At the same oxidation level, alcohols can be prepared by substitution reactions and addition reactions. Alkali hydroxides will convert appropriate alkyl chlorides, bromides, iodides, and sulfonates to alcohols. Oxymercuration of alkenes gives Markovnikov alcohols, and hydrobora-tion followed by oxidation gives anti-Markovnikov alcohols. Hindered boranes such as 9-BBN are used when selectivity toward one double bond or higher regioselectivity is needed (Eq. 6.41) [66]. 

In addition to the oxymercuration method, which yields the Markovnikov product, a complementary method that yields the non-Markovnikov product is also useful. Discovered in 1959 by H. C. Brown and cailed hydroboration, the reaction involves addition of a B-H bond of borane, BH3, to an alkene to yield an organoborane intermediate, RBH2. Oxidation of the organoborane by reaction with basic hydrogen peroxide, H2O2, then gives an alcohol. For example ... 

One of the features that makes the hydrobora ( ion reaction so useful is the regiochemistry that results when an unsymmetrical alkene is hydroborated. For example, hydroboration/oxidation of 1-methylcyclopentene yields trans-2-methylcydopentanol. Boron and hydrogen both add to the alkene from the same face of the double bond—that is, with syn stereochemistry, the opposite of anti—with boron attaching to the less highly substituted carbon. During the oxidation step, the boron is replaced by an -OH with the same stereochemistry, resulting in an overall syn non-Markovnikov addition of water. This stereochemical result is particularly useful because it is complementary to the Markovnikov regiochemistry observed for oxymercuration. 

Formation of mixtures of products in these reactions can be attributed largely to the properties of the acetate group. The reactions of a number of cycloalkenes with thallium(III) salts have been investigated in some detail and the results obtained have served both to elucidate the stereochemistry of oxythallation and to underline the important role assumed by the anion of the metal salt in these oxidations. The most unambiguous evidence as to the stereochemistry of oxythallation comes from studies by Winstein on the oxythallation of norbornene (VII) and norbornadiene (VIII) with thal-lium(III) acetate in chloroform, in which the adducts (IX) and (X) could be precipitated from the reaction mixture by addition of pentane 128) (Scheme 11). Both by chemical means and by analogy with the oxymercuration... 

Unlike the oxymercuration of acyclic olefins, oxymercuration of bicyclic olefins often gives jy -addition products. Norbornenes 93, for example, show exclusive fvo-oxymercuration. In this reaction, the ratio between the isomers depends on the nature of the fvo-substituent (R1) and tro/o-substituent (R2) (Equation (36)). The presence of electron-withdrawing fvo-substituents always leads to a much greater selectivity in favor of 94a-d over 95a-d.116 117 As indicated by extensive theoretical calculations, the charge distribution in the transition states governs the selectivity of these reactions.118... 

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