Addition to alkenes and aromatics

Radical additions to alkenes and aromatic systems are well known reactions. The trapping in this manner of radicals obtained by reduction of the aliphatic carbonyl function has proved to be a versatile electrochemical route for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. Such reactions are most frequently carried out in protic solvents so that the reactive species is a o-radical formed by protonation of the carbonyl radical-anion. Tlie cyclization step must be fast in order to compete with further reduction of the radical to a carbanion at the electrode surface followed by protonation. Cyclization can be favoured and further reduction disfavoured by a... 

An alkene is an average electron source, and an aromatic compound is usually worse therefore to get electrophilic addition to alkenes and aromatic compounds to occur one needs a good electron sink. Often a loose association of an electrophile with the pi electron cloud (called a pi-complex) occurs before the actual sigma bond formation step. The best electrophiles, carbocations, add easily. For an overview of electrophilic additions to alkenes, see Section 4.4. 

The authors of this work were concerned chiefly with additions to alkenes, and evidence about the mechanism of aromatic nitration arises by analogy. Certain aspects of their work have been repeated to investigate whether the nitration of aromatic compounds shows the same phenomena ( 5-3-6). It was shown that solutions of acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride were more powerful nitrating media for anisole and biphenyl than the corresponding solutions of nitric acid in which acetyl nitrate had not been formed furthermore, it appeared that the formation of acetyl nitrate was faster when 95-98% nitric acid was used than when 70 % nitric acid was used. 

You knowr the mechanism of HBr addition to alkenes, and you know the effects of various substituent groups on aromatic substitution. Use this knowledge to predict which of the following two alkenes reacts faster with HBr. Explain your answer by drawing resonance structures of the carbocation intermediates. 

We are going to extend this idea now and show that other groups besides the carbonyl group can promote nucleophilic addition to alkenes and then extend the idea further into the reactions of allylic and aromatic compounds. First of all we are going to look at other conjugating electron-withdrawing groups. 

Pd(OAc)2 also activates aromatic hydrogen atoms for non-oxidative addition to alkenes and alkynes [103, 104]. 

Addition of alkenes and aromatic rings has also been realized intramolecularly when the distance between the alkene and phenyl substituent is sufficient to permit bonding. 

Tetralkyl-silanes, -germanes, and -stannanes, as well as disilanes and distannanes, have been successfully used as alkyl radical precursors. The use of alkyl radicals is closely parallel to that presented above starting from ketals for the substitutive alkylation of aromatics and the conjugate addition to alkenes and alkynes (see Equations 4.5 and 4.28). Notice, however, that the final result depends on the sensitizer-trap used. Thus, N-methylacridinium perchlorate is reductively alkylated by hexamethyldisilane but undergoes reductive dimerization with the corresponding digermanes and distannanes. "... 

The Pd—C cr-bond can be prepared from simple, unoxidized alkenes and aromatic compounds by the reaction of Pd(II) compounds. The following are typical examples. The first step of the reaction of a simple alkene with Pd(ll) and a nucleophile X or Y to form 19 is called palladation. Depending on the nucleophile, it is called oxypalladation, aminopalladation, carbopalladation, etc. The subsequent elimination of b-hydrogen produces the nucleophilic substitution product 20. The displacement of Pd with another nucleophile (X) affords the nucleophilic addition product 21 (see Chapter 3, Section 2). As an example, the oxypalladation of 4-pentenol with PdXi to afford furan 22 or 23 is shown. 

The reactions of the second class are carried out by the reaction of oxidized forms[l] of alkenes and aromatic compounds (typically their halides) with Pd(0) complexes, and the reactions proceed catalytically. The oxidative addition of alkenyl and aryl halides to Pd(0) generates Pd(II)—C a-hondi (27 and 28), which undergo several further transformations. 

In addition to benzene and naphthalene derivatives, heteroaromatic compounds such as ferrocene[232, furan, thiophene, selenophene[233,234], and cyclobutadiene iron carbonyl complexpSS] react with alkenes to give vinyl heterocydes. The ease of the reaction of styrene with sub.stituted benzenes to give stilbene derivatives 260 increases in the order benzene < naphthalene < ferrocene < furan. The effect of substituents in this reaction is similar to that in the electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions[236]. 

A substantial portion of fhe gas and vapors emitted to the atmosphere in appreciable quantity from anthropogenic sources tends to be relatively simple in chemical structure carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitric oxide from combustion processes hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen fluoride from industrial processes. The solvents and gasoline fractions that evaporate are alkanes, alkenes, and aromatics with relatively simple structures. In addition, more complex... 

Part B of Table 12.2 gives some addition reaction rates. Comparison of entries 19 and 20 shows that the phenyl radical is much more reactive toward addition than the benzy 1 radical. Comparison of entries 22 and 23 shows that methyl radicals are less reactive than phenyl radicals in additions to an aromatic ring. Note that additions to aromatic rings are much slower than additions to alkenes. 

Our recent studies on effective bromination and oxidation using benzyltrimethylammonium tribromide (BTMA Br3), stable solid, are described. Those involve electrophilic bromination of aromatic compounds such as phenols, aromatic amines, aromatic ethers, acetanilides, arenes, and thiophene, a-bromination of arenes and acetophenones, and also bromo-addition to alkenes by the use of BTMA Br3. Furthermore, oxidation of alcohols, ethers, 1,4-benzenediols, hindered phenols, primary amines, hydrazo compounds, sulfides, and thiols, haloform reaction of methylketones, N-bromination of amides, Hofmann degradation of amides, and preparation of acylureas and carbamates by the use of BTMA Br3 are also presented. 

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