Alkene Wacker reaction oxidation

The use of H5PV2M010O40 was first described as a co-catalyst in the Wacker reaction [66]. The Wacker reaction oxidation of terminal alkenes is a reaction that epito-... 

The Wacker Reaction and Related Oxidations. An important industrial process based on Pd-alkene complexes is the Wacker reaction, a catalytic method for conversion of ethene to acetaldehyde. The first step is addition of water to the Pd(n)-activated alkene. The addition intermediate undergoes the characteristic elimination of Pd(0) and H+ to generate the enol of acetaldehyde. 

Since nucleophilic addition to a metal-coordinated alkene generates a cr-metal species bonded to an -hybridized carbon, facile 3-H elimination may then ensue. An important example of pertinence to this mechanism is the Wacker reaction, in which alkenes are converted into carbonyl compounds by the oxidative addition of water (Equation (108)), typically in the presence of a Pd(n) catalyst and a stoichiometric reoxidant.399 When an alcohol is employed as the nucleophile instead, the reaction produces a vinyl or allylic ether as the product, thus accomplishing an etherification process. 

The metal-catalysed autoxidation of alkenes to produce ketones (Wacker reaction) is promoted by the presence of quaternary ammonium salts [14]. For example, using copper(II) chloride and palladium(II) chloride in benzene in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, 1-decene is converted into 2-decanone (73%), 1,7-octadiene into 2,7-octadione (77%) and vinylcyclohexane into cyclo-hexylethanone (22%). Benzyltriethylammonium chloride and tetra-n-butylammo-nium hydrogen sulphate are ineffective catalysts. It has been suggested that the process is not micellar, although the catalysts have the characteristics of those which produce micelles. The Wacker reaction is also catalysed by rhodium and ruthenium salts in the presence of a quaternary ammonium salt. Generally, however, the yields are lower than those obtained using the palladium catalyst and, frequently, several oxidation products are obtained from each reaction [15]. 

At present the Wacker reaction should be regarded as a relatively slow process, with only a few hundred turnovers per hour at elevated temperatures and pressures. For internal alkenes the rate is one or two orders of magnitude lower and the reaction affords mixtures of products due to isomerisation. In the absence of isomerisation, the product of the Wacker oxidation of a 1-alkene is a... 

In 1960, Moiseev and coworkers reported that benzoquinone (BQ) serves as an effective stoichiometric oxidant in the Pd-catalyzed acetoxylation of ethylene (Eq. 2) [19,20]. This result coincided with the independent development of the Wacker process (Eq. 1, Scheme 1) [Ij. Subsequently, BQ was found to be effective in a wide range of Pd-catalyzed oxidation reactions. Eor example, BQ was used to achieve Wacker-type oxidation of terminal alkenes to methyl ketones in aqueous DMF (Eq. 3 [21]), dehydrogenation of cyclohexanone (Eq. 4 [22]), and alcohol oxidation (Eq. 5 [23]). In the final example, 1,4-naphthoquinone (NQ) was used as the stoichiometric oxidant. 

Palladium-catalyzed, Wacker-type oxidative cycHzation of alkenes represents an attractive strategy for the synthesis of heterocycles [139]. Early examples of these reactions typically employed stoichiometric Pd and, later, cocat-alytic palladium/copper [140-142]. In the late 1970s, Hegedus and coworkers demonstrated that Pd-catalyzed methods could be used to prepare nitrogen heterocyles from unprotected 2-allylanilines and tosyl-protected amino olefins with BQ as the terminal oxidant (Eqs. 23-24) [143,144]. Concurrently, Hosokawa and Murahashi reported that the cyclization of allylphenol substrates can be accomplished by using a palladium catalyst with dioxygen as the sole stoichiometric reoxidant (Eq. 25) [145]. 

Palladium-catalyzed addition of oxygen nucleophiles to alkenes dates back to the Wacker process and acetoxylation of ethylene (Sects. 1 and 2). In contrast, catalytic methods for intermolecular oxidative amination of alkenes (i.e., aza-Wacker reactions) have been identified only recently. Both O2 and BQ have been used as oxidants in these reactions. 

Takacs, J.M. and Jiang, X.-t. (2003) The Wacker reaction and related alkene oxidation reactions. Curr. Org. Chem., 7, 369. 

Textbook chemistry (297,298) teaches that palladium is the preferred catalyst for aerobic oxidation of olefins. When water is the solvent, nucleophilic water addition to coordinated olefins is the key step in the so-called Wacker cycle. Wacker oxidation occurs regiospecifically because a carbonyl group is formed at that carbon atom of the double bond where the nucleophile in a Markovnikov-like addition would enter. The Wacker reaction thus yields methylketones from primary alkenes ... 

The field of homogeneous palladium catalysis traces its origin to the development of the Wacker process in the late 1950s (Eq. 7) [83]. Since this discovery, palladium-catalyzed reactions have evolved into some of the most versatile reactions for the synthesis of organic molecules [84,85]. Palladium-catalyzed Wacker-type oxidation of alkenes continues to be an active field of research [86-88], and several recent applications of NHC-coordinated Pd catalysts have been reported for such reactions. 

Palladium(II)-promoted oxidative cyclization of alkenes bearing tethered nucleophiles represents an intramolecular variant of the Wacker reaction. These reactions, which typically generate five- and six-membered heterocycles, have been the subject of considerable interest in organic chemistry [89-96]. Contemporary interest centers on the development of enantioselective examples [95,97] and reactions that employ dioxygen as the sole oxidant for the Pd catalyst [92-96]. 

The Pd-catalyzed conversion of terminal alkenes to methyl ketones is a reaction that has found widespread use in organic chemistry [87,88]. These reactions, as well as the industrial Wacker process, typically employ CuCh as a co-catalyst or a stoichiometric oxidant. Recently Cu-free reaction conditions were identified for the Wacker-type oxidation of styrenes using fBuOOH as the oxidant. An NHC-coordinated Pd complex, in-situ-generated (I Pr)Pd(OTf)2, served as the catalyst (Table 5) [101]. These conditions min-... 

The oxidation of terminal alkenes to the corresponding 2-alkanones (Wacker reaction cf. Section 2.4.1) has also been carried out under PTC conditions. This process is catalyzed by a PT agent and PdCl2 in the presence of CUCI2 (reoxidant eq. (6)) [84]. The reaction is very sensitive to the nature of the PT catalyst only quaternary salts of type Me3N" (Ci2-Ci4-alkyl) Br are effective. 

For the oxidation of terminal alkenes to methyl alkyl ketones, RhCl3 and RuCls as well as their complexes may be used instead of PdCl2. In these cases, symmetrical quaternary ammonium salts are also effective. However, under these conditions, the isomerization of alkenes occurs simultaneously with the oxidation [85]. The biphasic Wacker reaction can also be carried out under IPTC conditions using a- or /i-CD as the PT agent [86, 87]. 

With oxo synthesis, Wacker-type oxidations of alkenes is one of the older homogeneous transition-metal-catalyzed reactions [1], The most prominent example of this type of reaction is the manufacture of acetaldehyde from ethylene. This well-known reaction, which has been successfully developed on an industrial scale (Wacker process), combines the stoichiometric oxidation of ethylene by palladium ) in aqueous solution with the in situ reoxidation of palladium(O) by molecular oxygen in the presence of a copper salt (Eqs. 1 -4) [2]. 

The Wacker reaction has also been applied to numerous simple alkenes such a-alkenes or cycloalkenes, or to functionalized alkenes such nitroethylene, acrylonitrile, styrene, allyl alcohol, or maleic acid [3]. The carbonyl group is formed at the carbon atom of the double bond where the nucleophile would add in a Markovni-kov addition (Eq. 5). Among these different alkenes, the oxidation of propene to acetone is the only oxidation which has been developed to an industrial scale. 

The Wacker-type addition is the anti-addition of (most commonly) a heteroatom and a Pd(II) species across a C-C double bond. The Wacker-type oxidations are Pd(II)-catalyzed transformations involving heteroatom nucleophiles and alkenes or alkynes as electrophiles.27 In most of these reactions, the Pd(II) catalyst is converted to an inactive Pd(0) species in the final step of the process, and use of stoichiometric oxidants is required to effect catalytic turnover. For example, the synthesis of furan 33 from a-allyl-p-diketone 32 is achieved via treatment of the substrates with a catalytic amount of Pd(OAc)2 in the presence of a stoichiometric amount of CuCh-28 This transformation proceeds via Pd(II) activation of the alkene to afford 34, which undergoes nucleophilic attack of the enol oxygen onto the alkene double bond to provide alkylpalladium complex 35. p-Hydride elimination of 35 gives 36, which undergoes... 

Palladium catalysts are widely used in liquid phase aerobic oxidations, and numerous examples have been employed for large-scale chemical production (Scheme 8.1). Several industrially important examples are the focus ofdedicated chapters in this book Wacker and Wacker-type oxidation of alkenes into aldehydes, ketones, and acetals (Scheme 8.1a Chapters 9 and 11), 1,4-diacetoxylation of 1,3-butadiene (Scheme 8.1b Chapter 10), and oxidative esterification of methacrolein to methyl methacrylate (Scheme 8.1c Chapter 13). In this introductory chapter, we survey a number of other Pd-catalyzed oxidation reactions that have industrial significance, including acetoxylation of ethylene to vinyl acetate (Scheme 8. Id), oxidative carbonylation of alcohols to dialkyl oxalates and carbonates (Scheme 8.1e), and oxidative coupling of dimethyl phthalate to 3,3, 4,4 -tetramethyl biphenylcarboxy-late (Scheme 8.1f). 

Nitrogen oxide (NO, ) cocatalysts [120] have received industrial interest in Pd-catalyzed aerobic oxidations such as oxidative carbonylation (see Section 8.2.2) [18], alkene oxidation [121], and arene acetoxylation [55]. Recent studies from academic literature have provided new insights into the roles of NO in these reactions. Pd-catalyzed aerobic alkene oxidation (Wacker reaction) typically affords methyl ketones arising from Markovnikov addition of water (or hydroxide) to an... 

The Wacker reaction has found most use for the oxidation of terminal alkenes to give methyl ketones. It is believed to take place by an initial trans hydroxypallada-tion of the alkene to form an unstable complex that undergoes rapid p-elimination to the enol 112 (5.112). Hydropalladation then reductive elimination completes the overall process that involves transfer of hydride ion from one carbon to the other, via the palladium atom. The hydride migration is required to explain the observation that when the reaction is conducted in deuterium oxide, no deuterium is incorporated in the aldehyde produced. 

The Wacker reaction provides a method for the preparation of 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds, by formation of an enolate, allylation with an allyl halide, followed by palladium-catalysed oxidation of the terminal alkene. The product 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds can be treated with base to promote intramolecular aldol reaction (Robinson annulation - see Section 1.1.2) to give cyclopentenones. Thus, in a synthesis of pentalenene, Wacker oxidation of the 2-aUyl ketone 115 gave the 1,4-diketone 116, which was converted to the cyclopentenone 117 (5.115). ... 

The Wacker reaction was chosen as a representative reaction since in this case the conversion of an alkene to a ketone or an aldehyde can be achieved in one step, which is of industrial relevance. The reaction was carried out in a biphasic water/ acetonitrile system at 50-60 °C in an oxygen atmosphere, using the copper/ polyaniline nanocomposite, as well as a bare copper nanocluster. In the system, copper is present in the zero-valent state supported by polyaniline. Although 2-decanone is the only product formed, the yield obtained is still relatively low. It has to be mentioned in this context that the reaction carried out in the presence of bare copper nanoclusters showed no evidence for the presence of 2-decanone, indicating that those copper nanoclusters alone do not bring about the oxidation of 1-decene. 

The oxidation of alkenes by palladium complexes (Wacker reaction) has also been successfully performed in ILs such as the hydrogen peroxide oxidation of styrene to acetophenone by PdGl2 in [G4GiIm]PF6 or [G4GiIm]BF4 (Scheme 25). ... 

As illustrated in Scheme 9.9, the proposed mechanism of forming phthalides and iso-coumarins involves orthopalladation of the carboxylic acid, subsequent alkenylation and nucleophihc cyclization or Wacker-type oxidative cyclization. The observed differences in product distributions from the reactions using n-butyl acrylate and styrene suggest that the electronic nature of the alkene plays an important role in product formation, although the exact origin of the difference remains unclear. 

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