Alkene also concerted mechanism

Several other types of addition reactions of alkenes are also of importance and these are discussed elsewhere. Nucleophilic additions to electrophilic alkenes are covered in Section 2.6 and cycloadditions involving concerted mechanisms are encountered in Sections 6.1 to 6.3. Free radical addition reaction are considered in Chapter 11. 

Af-Acyliminium ions are known to serve as electron-deficient 4n components and undergo [4+2] cycloaddition with alkenes and alkynes.15 The reaction has been utilized as a useftil method for the construction of heterocycles and acyclic amino alcohols. The reaction can be explained in terms of an inverse electron demand Diels-Alder type process that involves an electron-deficient hetero-diene with an electron-rich dienophile. Af-Acyliminium ions generated by the cation pool method were also found to undergo [4+2] cycloaddition reaction to give adduct 7 as shown in Scheme 7.16 The reaction with an aliphatic olefin seems to proceed by a concerted mechanism, whereas the reaction with styrene derivatives seems to proceed by a stepwise mechanism. In the latter case, significant amounts of polymeric products were obtained as byproducts. The formation of polymeric byproducts can be suppressed by micromixing. 

The addition of singlet oxygen to alkenes also gives dioxetanes. A number of mechanisms have been proposed and the literature abounds with theoretical and experimental results supporting one or more possible intermediates (a) 1,4-diradicals, (b) 1,4-dipolar, (c) perepoxides, or (d) concerted (Scheme 95). Both ab initio and semi-empirical calculations have been done and to date the controversy is still not resolved. These mechanisms have been reviewed extensively (77AHC(21)437, 80JA439, 81MI51500 and references therein) and will not be discussed here, except to point out that any one mechanism does not satisfactorily account for the stereospecificity, solvent effects, isotope effects and trapped intermediates observed. The reaction is undoubtedly substrate-dependent and what holds for one system does not always hold for another. 

Various new observations, including the higher reactivity of cis-alkenes, isotope effects, and syn stereospecificity, confirm a concerted mechanism with a transition state of spiro geometry. Theoretical studies provided support to this view.1184-1188 Radical pathways were shown by computational methods and experiments to also be possible.1189,1190... 

The metallacycle mechanism can also be considered a concerted mechanism. It is analogous to the one proposed for metal peroxo complexes and is based on the assumed formation of a cyclic intermediate that includes the peroxo group, the reactant molecule, and the metal ion (Mimoun, 1982, 1987 Huybrechts et al., 1992). For alkene epoxidation, the sequence of events would be represented as follows [Eq. (31)] ... 

Traylor (38) has also shown that biomimetic iron N-alkylporphyrins themselves are competent catalysts for epoxidation of alkenes with a rate constant of about 104 M-1 s-1. On the basis of these observations and rearrangement reactions of specific alkenes, Traylor has proposed the reaction sequence outlined in Scheme 3 as representative of the oxidation and N-alkylation reactions of the P-450 model systems. In this scheme, the epoxide and the N-alkylated heme are derived from a common, electron-transfer intermediate (caged ferrylporphyrin-alkene cation radical). Collman and co-workers (28, 29) prefer a concerted mechanism (or a short-lived, acyclic intermediate) for epoxidation and N-alkylation reactions. Both authors note that the reactions catalyzed by cytochrome P-450 (and biomimetic reactions) probably can not be ascribed to any single mechanism. 

The first splitting of a phosphirane derivative into an alkene and a phosphinidene fragment was described by Quast and Heuschmann <82CB90i>, and involved an oxide (29) (Scheme 11). The retention of the stereochemistry of the alkenic fragment suggests a concerted mechanism. A clean thermal splitting has also been observed for several phosphirane complexes (Schemes 12 and 13)... 

The addition of reagents X-Y to carbon-carbon ir-bonds may also proceed via a concerted mechanism in which each new a-bond is formed simultaneously on the same face of the ir-bond. The stereochemistry of such reactions is necessarily syn. For example, the reaction of potassium permanganate, which is purple, with an alkene such as cyclohexene proceeds via si/H-addition of permanganate ion across the ir-bond to give 39, which is colorless. Subsequent decomposition of 39 gives a ds-l,2-diol and manganese dioxide, the brown precipitate that is observed as the other product of the reaction (Eq. 10.19). This decoloration of potassium permanganate by alkenes forms the basis of the Baeyer qualitative test for the presence of carbon-carbon ir-bonds (Sec. 25.8B). 

If there is only one step, the reaction has to be second order first order in the peracid and first order in the alkene. The reaction rate has very little dependence upon the solvent, supporting a concerted mechanism with little charge developing at the transition state. The small charge development is also supported by the fact that the rates correlate with a Hammett parameter a ), but the p value is only -1.1 for p-XArCH=CH2. There are only small primary kinetic isotope effects. Values of Ath/Ato around 1.1 to 1.2 are found for the peracid [ROiHfD)]. This means that the hydrogen atom transfer shown in the electron pushing of Scheme 10.5 has to be either minimal at the transition state or almost complete (see Section 8.1.2). Secondary deuterium isotope effects on the alkene carbons are inverse, as may be expected for an sp- to sp transformation. 

The observed stereospecificity for hydroboration-oxidation is consistent with the first step of the proposed mechanism, in which H and BH2 are simultaneously added across the it bond of the alkene. The concerted nature of this step requires that both groups add across the same face of the alkene, giving a syn addition. In this way, the proposed mechanism explains not only the regiochemistry but also the stereochemistry. 

Acyl chlorides containing an a hydrogen are smoothly converted to alkenes, with loss of HCI and CO, on heating with chlorotris(triphenylphosphine)rhodium, with metallic platinum, or with certain other catalysts. The mechanism probably involves conversion of RCH2CH2COCI to RCH2CH2—RhCO(Ph3P)2Cl2 followed by a concerted syn elimination of Rh and H. See also 14-39 and 19-12. 

Nickel(O) reacts with the olefin to form a nickel(0)-olefin complex, which can also coordinate the alkyl aluminum compound via a multicenter bond between the nickel, the aluminum and the a carbon atom of the trialkylaluminum. In a concerted reaction the aluminum and the hydride are transferred to the olefin. In this mechanistic hypothesis the nickel thus mostly serves as a template to bring the olefin and the aluminum compound into close proximity. No free Al-H or Ni-H species is ever formed in the course of the reaction. The adduct of an amine-stabihzed dimethylaluminum hydride and (cyclododecatriene)nickel, whose structure was determined by X-ray crystallography, was considered to serve as a model for this type of mechanism since it shows the hydride bridging the aluminum and alkene-coordinated nickel center [31]. 

---