Alkenes as nucleophiles

For use of alkenes as nucleophilic partners in catalytic reductive couplings, see ... 

The most important oxirane syntheses are by addition of an oxygen atom to a carbon-carbon double bond, i.e. by the epoxidation of alkenes, and these are considered in Section 5.05.4.2.2. The closing, by nucleophilic attack of oxygen on carbon, of an OCCX moiety is dealt with in Section 5.05.4.2.1 (this approach often uses alkenes as starting materials). Finally, oxirane synthesis from heterocycles is considered in Section 5.05.4.3 one of these methods, thermal rearrangement of 1,4-peroxides (Section 5.05.4.3.2), has assumed some importance in recent years. The synthesis of oxiranes is reviewed in (B-73MI50500) and (64HC(19-1U). 

The chemical reactivity of these two substituted ethylenes is in agreement with the ideas encompassed by both the MO and resonance descriptions. Enamines, as amino-substituted alkenes are called, are vety reactive toward electrophilic species, and it is the p carbon that is the site of attack. For example, enamines are protonated on the carbon. Acrolein is an electrophilic alkene, as predicted, and the nucleophile attacks the P carbon. 

Before beginning a detailed discussion of alkene reactions, let s review briefly some conclusions from the previous chapter. We said in Section 5.5 that alkenes behave as nucleophiles (Lewis bases) in polar reactions. The carbon-carbon double bond is electron-rich and can donate a pair of electrons to an electrophile (Lewis acid), for example, reaction of 2-methylpropene with HBr yields 2-bromo-2-methylpropane. A careful study of this and similar reactions by Christopher Ingold and others in the 1930s led to the generally accepted mechanism shown in Figure 6.7 for electrophilic addition reactions. 

We saw in the previous section that when Br2 reacts with an alkene, th cyclic bromonium ion intermediate reacts with the only nucleophile presen Br- ion. If the reaction is carried out in the presence of an additional nuclec phile, however, the intermediate bromonium ion can be intercepted by th added nucleophile and diverted to a different product. In the presence of watei for instance, water competes with Br- ion as nucleophile and reacts with th bromonium ion intermediate to yield a broinohydrin. The net effect is additioi of HO-Br to the alkene by the pathway shown in Figure 7.1. 

Reactions of this type are mostly performed with internal nucleophiles attached to the carbon atom adjacent to the iminium nitrogen, thus leading to tropane-like azabicyclic systems. Both allyl- and propargylsilanes, activated and unactivated alkenes, and ketones have been successfully used as nucleophiles. The products 1 and 2 are also obtained via two consecutive C —C bond-forming reactions in a single operation. 

The hydrosi(ly)lations of alkenes and alkynes are very important catalytic processes for the synthesis of alkyl- and alkenyl-silanes, respectively, which can be further transformed into aldehydes, ketones or alcohols by estabhshed stoichiometric organic transformations, or used as nucleophiles in cross-coupling reactions. Hydrosilylation is also used for the derivatisation of Si containing polymers. The drawbacks of the most widespread hydrosilylation catalysts [the Speier s system, H PtCl/PrOH, and Karstedt s complex [Pt2(divinyl-disiloxane)3] include the formation of side-products, in addition to the desired anh-Markovnikov Si-H addition product. In the hydrosilylation of alkynes, formation of di-silanes (by competing further reaction of the product alkenyl-silane) and of geometrical isomers (a-isomer from the Markovnikov addition and Z-p and -P from the anh-Markovnikov addition. Scheme 2.6) are also possible. 

Iodine is a very good electrophile for effecting intramolecular nucleophilic addition to alkenes, as exemplified by the iodolactonization reaction71 Reaction of iodine with carboxylic acids having carbon-carbon double bonds placed to permit intramolecular reaction results in formation of iodolactones. The reaction shows a preference for formation of five- over six-membered72 rings and is a stereospecific anti addition when carried out under basic conditions. 

Carbene reactivity is strongly affected by substituents.117 Various singlet carbenes have been characterized as nucleophilic, ambiphilic, and electrophilic as shown in Table 10.2 This classification is based on relative reactivity toward a series of both nucleophilic alkenes, such as tetramethylethylene, and electrophilic ones, such as acrylonitrile. The principal structural feature that determines the reactivity of the carbene is the ability of the substituent to act as an electron donor. For example, dimethoxycarbene is devoid of electrophilicity toward alkenes because of electron donation by the methoxy groups.118... 

A Cu(OAc)2-catalyzed intramolecular diamination of alkenes using sulfamide substrates such as compound 214 provides a route to fused thiadiazolidines 215 (Equation 48) <2005JA11250>. In this reaction, the transition metal activates the alkene toward nucleophilic attack by the first nitrogen, then becomes displaced by the second nitrogen nucleophile (a net M +z to M reduction). 

An alternative mode of reaction for a carbene intermediate is suggested by Schrock s work (97, 99). He has demonstrated that the carbene ligands in 30 and in the related species 34, in which R = CH2C(CH3)3, behave as nucleophiles. Thus 34, where R = CH2C(CH3)3, readily reacts with ketones, giving alkenes of type 35 in high yield (99) ... 

A majority of radical addition occurs with electron-poor alkenes using alkyl halides in the presence of BusSnH. These reactions are feasible due to a proper matching between the radical acceptor and the donor. However, when the alkene is electron-rich and since simple alkyl radicals are considered as nucleophilic, the reaction is not a practical method for carbon-carbon bond formation. By applying the concept of polarity-reversal catalysis, an additional reagent is introduced which alleviates the mismatch between the partners and makes the reaction feasible. A few examples illustrating this concept have been described in this review. 

S.3 Cytochrome P450 Model Compounds Functional. Ferric-peroxo species are part of the cytochrome P450 catalytic cycle as discussed previously in Section 7.4.4. For instance, these ferric-peroxo moieties are known to act as nucleophiles attacking aldehydic carbon atoms in oxidative deformylations to produce aromatic species.An example of this work, establishing the nucleophilic nature of [(porphyrin)Fe (02)] complexes, was achieved for alkene epoxidation reactions by J. S. Valentine and co-workers. The electron-deficient compound menadione (see Figure 7.18) yielded menadione epoxide when reacted with a [(porphyrin)Fe X02)] complex. 

Activation of alkenes towards nucleophilic attack by a variety of nucleophiles employing A-phenylselenophthalimide or A-phenylselenosuccinimide as an electrophilic source of the phenylseleno group. 

Phosphines, as nucleophiles, add to many unsaturated substrates giving metal-lated ylides. Scheme 17 collects some representative examples of the addition of phosphines to carbyne complexes, giving (57) [132], to allenylidenes (58) [133], a-alkenyls (59) [134], or a-alkynyls (60) [135]. Moreover, reaction of phosphines with 7i-alkenes [136] and 71-aIkynes (61)-(64) [137-140] have also been reported. It is not possible to explain in depth each reaction, but the variety of resulting products provides an adequate perspective about the synthetic possibihties of this type of reactions. 

Compounds with multiple bonds, e.g. alkenes, alkynes, aromatics, can also act as nucleophiles in so-called electrophilic reactions (see Chapter 8). 

Being aware of the fact that a hetero-substituted carbon-carbon double bond is convertible into a carbonyl group, one can use a-hetero-substituted lithio-alkenes 2 as nucleophilic acylation reagents 142 and 143, which display the umpoled d reactivity, provided that the carbanionic character is effective. Depending on the hetero-snbstitnent X, the conversion of the vinyl moiety into a carbonyl gronp can be effected either by hydrolysis or by ozonolysis. The former procednre has been applied preferentially in the case of lithiated vinyl ethers, whereas the latter has been nsed in particnlar for cleavage of the double bond in such products that result from the reaction of hthiated vinyl bromides with electrophiles (Scheme 17). 

The major factor in determining which mechanism is followed is the stability of the carbocation intermediate. Alkenes that can give rise to a particularly stable carbocation are likely to react via the ion-pair mechanism. The ion-pair mechanism would not be expected to be stereospecific, because the carbocation intermediate permits loss of stereochemistry relative to the reactant alkene. It might be expected that the ion-pair mechanism would lead to a preference for syn addition, since at the instant of formation of the ion pair, the halide is on the same side of the alkene as the proton being added. Rapid collapse of the ion-pair intermediate leads to syn addition. If the lifetime of the ion pair is longer and the ion pair dissociates, a mixture of syn and anti addition products is formed. The termolecular mechanism is expected to give anti addition. Attack by the nucleophile occurs at the opposite side of the double bond from proton addition. 

On the basis of previous results, the Rueping group started to study alkylations with activated alkenes and nucleophiles other than arenes. Recently, Lewis- and Brpnsted-acid-catalyzed hydroalkylation procedures with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds as nucleophiles have been developed [69, 70]. These reactions primarily utilized Pd... 

The synthetically most valuable intermediate in heterofullerene chemistry so far has been the aza[60]fulleronium ion C59N (28). It can be generated in situ by the thermally induced homolytic cleavage of 2 and subsequent oxidation, for example, with O2 or chloranil [20-24]. The reaction intermediate 28 can subsequently be trapped with various nucleophiles such as electron-rich aromatics, enolizable carbonyl compounds, alkenes and alcohols to form functionalized heterofullerenes 29 (Scheme 12.8). Treatment of 2 with electron-rich aromatics as nucleophilic reagent NuH in the presence of air and excess of p-TsOH leads to arylated aza[60]fullerene derivatives 30 in yields up to 90% (Scheme 12.9). A large variety of arylated derivatives 30 have been synthesized, including those containing cor-annulene, coronene and pyrene addends [20, 22-25]. 

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