Carbenes addition, alkenes

Facial selectivity in electrophilic additions (carbene addition, mercuration, epoxi-dation, and hydroboration) to 4-substituted 9-methylenenorsnoutanes (1) as model alkenes has been elucidated and the observed preference for yyn-attack (Table 1)... 

At that time, however, it was not possible to measure the absolute rates of carbene additions to alkenes, which were too rapid. Accordingly, relative reactivities... 

Extreme cases were reactions of the least stabilized, most reactive carbene (Y = CF3, X = Br) with the more reactive alkene (CH3)2C=C(CH3)2, and the most stabilized, least reactive carbene (Y = CH3O, X = F) with the less reactive alkene (1-hexene). The rate constants, as measured by LFP, were 1.7 x 10 and 5.0 X lO M s, respectively, spanning an interval of 34,000. In agreement with Houk s ideas,the reactions were entropy dominated (A5 —22 to —29e.u.). The AG barriers were 5.0 kcal/mol for the faster reaction and 11 kcal/ mol for the slower reaction, mainly because of entropic contributions the AH components were only —1.6 and +2.5 kcal/mol, respectively. Despite the dominance of entropy in these reactive carbene addition reactions, a kind of de facto enthalpic control operates. The entropies of activation are all very similar, so that in any comparison of the reactivities of alkene pairs (i.e., ferei)> the rate constant ratios reflect differences in AA//t, which ultimately appear in AAG. Thus, car-benic philicity, which is the pattern created by carbenic reactivity, behaves in accord with our qualitative ideas about structure-reactivity relations, as modulated by substiment effects in both the carbene and alkene partners of the addition reactions. " Finally, volumes of activation were measured for the additions of CgHsCCl to (CH3)2C=C(CH3)2 and frani-pentene in both methylcyclohexane and acetonitrile. The measured absolute rate constants increased with increasing pressure Ayf ranged from —10 to —18 cm /mol and were independent of solvent. These results were consistent with an early, and not very polar transition state for the addition reaction. 

Problem 9.29 (a) Use the following observations to discuss stereospecificity of carbene addition, (b) Suggest mechanisms for addition of (i) singlet and (ii) triplet carbenes to alkenes. 

Quite a wide variety of alkenes have been subjected to this carbene addition [148] the products are multifunctional small ring molecules which may not only be reduced to simple vinylcyclopropanes, but to various substituted cyclopropyl-acetylenes and cyclopropylideneacetates which are particularly useful and versatile building blocks for organic synthesis [155],... 

Azirines are also made by carbene addition to nitriles (89 — 90) and by thermal or photochemical (68JA2869) elimination of N2 from vinyl azides (e.g. 91 — 92). Vinyl azides are prepared by the Hassner reaction (68JOC2686, 71ACR9), where iodine azide is first added to an alkene and the resultant (3-iodoazide is dehydrohalogenated with base (Scheme 37) (86RTC456). 

Some organic reactions can be accomplished by using two-layer systems in which phase-transfer catalysts play an important role (34). The phase-transfer reaction proceeds via ion pairs, and asymmetric induction is expected to emerge when chiral quaternary ammonium salts are used. The ion-pair interaction, however, is usually not strong enough to control the absolute stereochemistry of the reaction (35). Numerous trials have resulted in low or only moderate stereoselectivity, probably because of the loose orientation of the ion-paired intermediates or transition states. These reactions include, but are not limited to, carbene addition to alkenes, reaction of sulfur ylides and aldehydes, nucleophilic substitution of secondary alkyl halides, Darzens reaction, chlorination... 

The most generally employed approach for the formation of cyclopropanes is the addition of a carbene or carbenoid to an alkene. In many cases, a free carbene is not involved as an actual intermediate, but instead the net, overall transformation of an alkene to a cyclopropane corresponds, in at least a formal sense, to carbene addition. In turn, the most traditional method for effecting these reactions is to employ diazo compounds, R R2 —N2, as precursors. Thermal, photochemical and metal-catalyzed reactions of these diazo compounds have been studied thoroughly and are treated separately in the discussion below. These reactions have been subjects of several comprehensive reviews,8 to which the reader is referred for further details and literature citations. Emphasis in the present chapter is placed on recent examples. 

As with the Aratani catalysts, enantioselectivities for cyclopropane formation with 4 and 5 are responsive to the steric bulk of the diazo ester, are higher for the trans isomer than for the cis form, and are influenced by the absolute configuration of a chiral diazo ester (d- and 1-menthyl diazoacetate), although not to the same degree as reported for 2 in Tables 5.1 and 5.2. 1,3-Butadiene and 4-methyl- 1,3-pentadiene, whose higher reactivities for metal carbene addition result in higher product yields than do terminal alkenes, form cyclopropane products with 97% ee in reactions with d-men thy 1 diazoacetate (Eq. 5.8). Regiocontrol is complete, but diastereocontrol (trans cis selectivity) is only moderate. 

What was evident for macrocyclization involving metal carbene addition to alkenes is even more so for addition to alkynes [110]. However, here the chiral dirhodium(II) catalyst Rh2(4.S -IBAZ)4 exhibits the highest degree of enantiocontrol, superior even to Cu(MeCN)4PF6 (Eq. 5.22). 

The differences in deuterium and carbon isotope effects indicate the asymmetric transition state with more advanced carbon-carbon bond formation to the terminal Cl atom. The difference between deuterium isotope effects for HCI-S and Htmns hydrogens probably originates from experimental uncertainty. Theoretical calculations (B3LYP/6-31G, B3LYP/6-311+G ) for carbene addition to 1-butene were carried out for two modes with carbene approaching carbon atom Cl or C2. The best agreement for experimental isotope effects is for carbene attack on terminal carbon atom and the carbene-alkene separation in the transition state of 2.5 A. 

Overall, the transformations are equivalent to carbene additions to the styrenes. However, a carbene mechanism can be ruled out since the only alkenes which are successful are those carrying anion-stabilising groups. 

Because 1,1-dihalocyclopropanes are so readily available by carbene addition to alkenes, their dehydrohalogenation to 1-halocyclopropenes provides, in principle, one of the most attractive routes to functionalised cyclopropenes. However, most early studies of the reaction did not lead to the cyclopropenes themselves, but to products of their further reaction. The main problems arise when the 1-halocyclopropene (9) can undergo prototropic shifts by removal of a proton from C 2 or C3, or when the base used is also a good nucleophile and addition to the cyclopropene can occur ... 

Metal-catalyzed cyclopropanation of an alkene by a diazo compound, reaction 7.33, is another reaction where new C-C bonds are formed. This reaction finds use in the industrial manufacture of synthetic pyrethroids. The precatalysts for carbene addition reactions are coordination complexes of copper or rhodium. It should be noted that reaction 7.33 gives a mixture of isomers (syn plus anti) of the cyclopropane derivative. However, with some chiral catalysts, only one optical isomer with good enantioselectivity is obtained (see Section 9.5). 

In a very different area of organic chemistry Ken produced a series of landmark theoretical papers on carbene reactions. He developed a general theory, showing how orbital interactions influence reactivity and selectivity in carbene additions to alkenes. Ken also showed how entropy control of reactivity and negative activation barriers in carbene addition reactions could both be explained by a new, unified model. 

IS the most popular, one-step method for m ag fluorinated cyclopropanes and cyclopropenes a-Fluorocarbenes are particularly well behaved, because they all have singlet ground states [/, 2] and therefore usually add stereospecifically to alkenes and do not insert into C-H bonds competitively with addition Moreover, quantitative competition studies of carbene additions to alkenes near room temperature show that a-fluorocarbenes are more selective than other a-halocarbenes, with difluorocarbene being the most selective electrophihc carbene known [3, 4] The relative selectivities, however, can be quite temperature dependent [5, d] The numerous preparations and cycloaddmons of fluorocarbenes have been reviewed thoroughly [7, 8 9,10 ... 

Carbene addition occurs in a syn fashion from either side of the planar double bond. The relative position of substituents in the alkene reactant is retained in the cyclopropane product. Carbene addition is thus a stereospecific reaction, since cis and trans alkenes yield different stereoisomers as products, as illustrated in Sample Problem 26.4. 

The cyclopropanation of alkenes with dihalocarbenes, CX2 or CX X, except for CF2, can be efficiently executed by the PTC procedures (CHX3/strong aqueous base/catalyst), which are well-documented in books and reviews . The dichloro- and dibromo-carbene additions by the PTC procedure have successfully been applied for many alkenes, conjugated polyolefins and allenes. Satisfactory results are also reported for the reactions of sterically hindered olefins as well as electronically deactivated olefins, which frequently... 

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