Addition-substitution, radical

For reactions with S, specificity is found to decrease in the series cyanoisopropyl mcthyl Fbutoxy>phcnyl>bcnzoyloxy. Cyanoisopropyl (Scheme 3.3),7 f-bntoxy and methyl radicals give exclusively tail addition. Phenyl radicals afford tail addition and ca l% aromatic substitution. Benzoyloxy radicals give tail addition, head addition, and aromatic substitution (Scheme 3.4). ... 

This is called the SrnI mechanism," and many other examples are known (see 13-3, 13-4,13-6,13-12). The lUPAC designation is T+Dn+An." Note that the last step of the mechanism produces ArT radical ions, so the process is a chain mechanism (see p. 895)." An electron donor is required to initiate the reaction. In the case above it was solvated electrons from KNH2 in NH3. Evidence was that the addition of potassium metal (a good producer of solvated electrons in ammonia) completely suppressed the cine substitution. Further evidence for the SrnI mechanism was that addition of radical scavengers (which would suppress a free-radical mechanism) led to 8 9 ratios much closer to 1.46 1. Numerous other observations of SrnI mechanisms that were stimulated by solvated electrons and inhibited by radical scavengers have also been recorded." Further evidence for the SrnI mechanism in the case above was that some 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene was found among the products. This could easily be formed by abstraction by Ar- of Ft from the solvent NH3. Besides initiation by solvated electrons," " SrnI reactions have been initiated photochemically," electrochemically," and even thermally." ... 

Entry 5 is an example of the use of fra-(trimethylsilyl)silane as the chain carrier. Entries 6 to 11 show additions of radicals from organomercury reagents to substituted alkenes. In general, the stereochemistry of these reactions is determined by reactant conformation and steric approach control. In Entry 9, for example, addition is from the exo face of the norbornyl ring. Entry 12 is an example of addition of an acyl radical from a selenide. These reactions are subject to competition from decarbonylation, but the relatively slow decarbonylation of aroyl radicals (see Part A, Table 11.3) favors addition in this case. 

Despite the enormous importance of dienes as monomers in the polymer field, the use of radical addition reactions to dienes for synthetic purposes has been rather limited. This is in contrast to the significant advances radical based synthetic methodology has witnessed in recent years. The major problems with the synthetic use of radical addition reactions to polyenes are a consequence of the nature of radical processes in general. Most synthetically useful radical reactions are chain reactions. In its most simple form, the radical chain consists of only two chain-carrying steps as shown in Scheme 1 for the addition of reagent R—X to a substituted polyene. In the first of these steps, addition of radical R. (1) to the polyene results in the formation of adduct polyenyl radical 2, in which the unpaired spin density is delocalized over several centers. In the second step, reaction of 2 with reagent R—X leads to the regeneration of radical 1 and the formation of addition products 3a and 3b. Radical 2 can also react with a second molecule of diene which leads to the formation of polyene telomers. 

Based on the data collected in this section, one must conclude that the addition of radicals to dienes is certainly rapid enough to compete against the typical chain-breaking processes and that especially the addition of electrophilic radicals to polyenes appears to bear significant potential. Terminally substituted polyenes are likely to be unsuitable for radical addition reactions due to their lower addition rates and to undesirable side reactions. 

Several reactions of halogen-substituted carbon-centered radicals with silanes have been studied, but limited kinetic information is available for reactions of halogen-substituted radicals with tin hydrides. A rate constant for reaction of the perfluorooctyl radical with Bu3SnH was determined by competition against addition of this radical to styrenes, reactions that were calibrated directly by LFP methods.93 At ambient temperature, the n-C8F17 radical reacts with tin hydride two orders of magnitude faster than does an alkyl radical, consistent with the electron-deficient nature of the perflu-oroalkyl radical and the electron-rich character of the tin hydride. Similar behavior was noted previously for reactions of silanes with perhaloalkyl radicals. 

Some stabilization energies are collected in Table 3. The presentation provides an easy overview of the stabilization in singly and doubly substituted methyl radicals. Values in parentheses for doubly substituted radicals represent the sum of the stabilization energies derived from mono-substituted radicals. By comparing the values calculated directly for the doubly substituted radical, information is obtained on antagonistic, additive or synergetic substituent effects. Apart from methyl and ethyl radicals, all other radicals are stabilized. Some points merit comment. 

Bordwell compares the alkoxy effect with the C—H BDE for dimethyl ether as reported by McMillen and Golden (1982). The latter is lower by 12 kcal mol" than that of methane, and from the comparable magnitude of the effect in the a-alkoxy acetophenonyl radical it is concluded that an additive substituent effect exists. Similar arguments hold for the dimethylamino-substituted radical. It is stated that additivity is more than expected for bis-... 

The experimental result seems to support this model. Table 11 lists values for rotational barriers in some allyl radicals (Sustmann, 1986). It includes the rotational barrier in the isomeric 1-cyano-l-methoxyallyl radicals [32]/ [33] (Korth et al., 1984). In order to see whether the magnitude of the rotational barriers discloses a special captodative effect it is necessary to compare the monocaptor and donor-substituted radicals with disubstituted analogues. As is expected on the basis of the general influence of substituents on radical centres, both captor and donor substituents lower the rotational barrier, the captor substituent to a greater extent. Disubstitution by the same substituent, i.e. dicaptor- and didonor-substituted systems, do not even show additivity in the reduction of the rotational barrier. This phenomenon appears to be a general one and has led to the conclusion that additivity of substituent effects is already a manifestation of a special behaviour, viz., of a captodative effect. The barrier in the 1-cyano-l-methoxyallyl radicals [32]/... 

The absolute rate constants for a variety of cyclizafions have been measured. In particular, the rates of decarbonylafion of a variety of alkoxycarbonyl radicals have been obtained by LFP studies on PTOC oxalates." From these data, rate constants for the reduction of alkoxycarbonyl radicals with BusSnH and their 5-exo cyclizafions were determined. Whereas cyclizations were slightly faster than the analogous alkyl radical 5-exo cyclizations, their reactions with BusSnH were 10 times slower, indicating that cyclization processes should be synthetically useful. The rate constants for the cyclization of a number of variously substituted a-amide radicals have been determined together with their relative reactivities towards reduction using BusSnH (Scheme 16). Cyclizations of secondary-based radicals were found to be similar to the corresponding alkyl-substituted radicals. In addition, the rate constants were subject to minor electronic... 

The yields of reaction products from thermal nucleophilic substitution reactions in DMSO of 0- and p-nitrohalobenzenes (Zhang et al. 1993) or p-dinitrobenzene (Liu et al. 2002) with the sodium salt of ethyl a-cyanoacetate were found to be markedly diminished from the addition of small amounts of strong electron acceptors such as nitrobenzenes. At the same time, little or no diminution effects on the yields of the reaction products were observed from the addition of radical traps such as nitroxyls. These results are consistent with the conclusion that such reactions proceed via a nonchain radical nucleophilic substitution mechanism (Scheme 4.26). 

Because the addition steps are generally fast and consequently exothermic chain steps, their transition states should occur early on the reaction coordinate and therefore resemble the starting alkene. This was recently confirmed by ab initio calculations for the attack at ethylene by methyl radicals and fluorene atoms. The relative stability of the adduct radicals therefore should have little influence on reacti-vity 2 ). The analysis of reactivity and regioselectivity for radical addition reactions, however, is even more complex, because polar effects seem to have an important influence. It has been known for some time that electronegative radicals X-prefer to react with ordinary alkenes while nucleophilic alkyl or acyl radicals rather attack electron deficient olefins e.g., cyano or carbonyl substituted olefins The best known example for this behavior is copolymerization This view was supported by different MO-calculation procedures and in particular by the successful FMO-treatment of the regioselectivity and relative reactivity of additions of radicals to a series of alkenes An excellent review of most of the more recent experimental data and their interpretation was published recently by Tedder and... 

Alkanes can be prepared by the addition of carbon radicals to C=C double bonds (Figure 5.4). The highest yields are usually obtained when electron-rich radicals (e.g. alkyl radicals or heteroatom-substituted radicals) add to acceptor-substituted alkenes, or when electron-poor radicals add to electron-rich double bonds. These reactions have also been performed on solid phase, and polystyrene-based supports seem to be particularly well suited for radical-mediated processes [39,40]. 

Redox and homolytic substitution reactions almost never directly form C—C, C—N and C—O bonds. Such bonds are generated in radical addition reactions (Scheme 14). Intermolecular addition reactions are presented in this chapter. Cyclization reactions have important similarities with, and differences from, bimolecular additions, and they are presented in Chapter 4.2 of this volume. Falling under the umbrella of addition reactions are radical eliminations (the reverse of addition) and radical migrations (which are usually, but not always, comprised of an addition and an elimination). 

Most synthetically useful radical addition reactions pair nucleophilic radicals with electron poor alkenes. In this pairing, the most important FMO interaction is that of the SOMO of the radical with the LUMO of the alkene.36 Thus, many radicals are nucleophilic (despite being electron deficient) because they have relatively high-lying SOMOs. Several important classes of nucleophilic radicals are shown in Scheme IS. These include heteroatom-substituted radicals, vinyl, aryl and acyl radicals, and most importantly, alkyl radicals. 

From the Fischer rate study, it appears that primaiy ester-substituted radicals are not electrophilic but ambiphilic and the borderline between ambiphilic and electrophilic radicals is not at all clear. Consider our results68 (Scheme 16) on the atom transfer additions of ester-substituted radicals to alkynes (with the caution that it may be dangerous to compare yields in place of rate constants). The primary ester-substituted radical adds more efficiently to 1-heptyne but the tertiary ester-substituted radical prefers ethyl propiolate. 

Because of the centrality of the carbonyl group in synthesis, carbonyl-substituted radicals are especially useful. The above results indicate that, if planned addition or cyclization reaction of a carbonyl-substituted radical fails due to lack of reactivity of the acceptor, one should consider activation of the alkene not only with electron donors but also with electron acceptors. 

There are several examples of the addition reactions of caibonyl-substituted radicals to alkenes by the tin hydride method. The first reaction cited in Scheme 32 is a clear-cut example of reversed electronic requirement an electrophilic radical pairing with a nucleophilic alkene.60 Because enol ethers are not easily hydrostannylated, the use of a chloride precursor (which is activated by the esters) is possible. Indeed, the use of a bromomalonate results in a completely different product (Section 4.1.6.1.4). The second example is more intriguing (especially in light of die recent proposals on the existence of ambiphilic radicals) because it appears to go against conventional wisdom in the pairing of radicals and acceptors.118,119... 

A study of die addition reactions of radicals to fiillerenes (C60/C70) by EPR has appeared and die dynamic effects in the EPR spectra of fidlerenyl radicals due to hindered rotation and the multi-addition of radicals to fidlerenes are described.9 Other review articles which have appeared this year include recent advances in the radical substitution reactions of alkyl, aryl, and vinyl halides10 and the substitution and photochemical reactions of heterocyclic A -oxidcs.11 The mechanisms for the oxidation of hydrocarbons, lipids, and low-density lipoproteins have been reviewed.12... 

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