Alkenes, double addition

Entries 1 and 2 in Scheme 2.9 are typical of concerted syn addition to alkene double bonds. On treatment with peroxyacetic acid, the Z-alkene affords the cis-oxirane, whereas the -alkene affords only the iraws-oxirane. Similarly, addition of dibromocarbene to Z-2-butene yields exclusively l,l-dibromo-cw-2,3-dimethylcyclopropane, whereas only 1,1-dibromo-/ra 5-2,3-dimethylcyclopropane is formed from -2-butene. There are also numerous stereospecific anti additions. Entiy 3 shows the anti stereochemistry typical of bromination of simple alkenes. 

The ene reaction is a concerted reaction in which addition of an alkene to an electrophilic olefin occurs with migration of a hydrogen and the alkene double bond. For example ... 

The first three members of the olefin series are ethylene, propylene, and butylene (or butene). Structural isomers exist when n > 4, as a consequence of the positioning of the double bond in normal alkenes as a result of branching in branched alkenes. In addition, geometric isomers may be possible owing to restricted rotation of atoms about the C=C bond. For instance, C H (butene) has four possible isomers instead of the expected three ... 

Water adds to alkenes to yield alcohols, a process called hydration. The reaction takes place on treatment of the alkene with water and a strong acid catalyst (HA) by a mechanism similar to that of HX addition. Thus, protonation of an alkene double bond yields a carbocation intermediate, which reacts with water to yield a protonated alcohol product (ROH2+). Loss of H+ from this protonated alcohol gives the neutral alcohol and regenerates the acid catalyst (Figure 7.2). 

The benzylic position of an alkylbcnzene can be brominated by reaction with jV-bromosuccinimide, and the entire side chain can be degraded to a carboxyl group by oxidation with aqueous KMnCfy Although aromatic rings are less reactive than isolated alkene double bonds, they can be reduced to cyclohexanes by hydrogenation over a platinum or rhodium catalyst. In addition, aryl alkyl ketones are reduced to alkylbenzenes by hydrogenation over a platinum catalyst. 

The addition of halocarbons (RX) across alkene double bonds in a radical chain process, the Kharasch reaction (Scheme 9.29),261 has been known to organic chemistry since 1932. The overall process can be catalyzed by transition metal complexes (Mt"-X) it is then called Atom Transfer Radical Addition (ATRA) (Scheme 9.30).262... 

The addition reactions discussed in Sections 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 are initiated by the interaction of a proton with the alkene. Electron density is drawn toward the proton and this causes nucleophilic attack on the double bond. The role of the electrophile can also be played by metal cations, and the mercuric ion is the electrophile in several synthetically valuable procedures.13 The most commonly used reagent is mercuric acetate, but the trifluoroacetate, trifluoromethanesulfonate, or nitrate salts are more reactive and preferable in some applications. A general mechanism depicts a mercurinium ion as an intermediate.14 Such species can be detected by physical measurements when alkenes react with mercuric ions in nonnucleophilic solvents.15 The cation may be predominantly bridged or open, depending on the structure of the particular alkene. The addition is completed by attack of a nucleophile at the more-substituted carbon. The nucleophilic capture is usually the rate- and product-controlling step.13,16... 

The hydration of an alkene double bond under strongly acidic conditions is again a classical reaction that involves a carbocation intermediate, which often leads to various competing reaction products.27 The regiochemistry of the water addition follows the Markovnikov rule.28... 

Bromine readily adds across an alkenic double bond by electrophilic addition (Figure 8.4). The brominated compound is usually colourless, but bromine in solution ( bromine water ) has a red colour. Addition of bromine water to an aikene is accompanied by a loss of the red colour as reaction proceeds. The stoichiometry of reaction is almost always 1 1, with one molecule of bromine reacting per double bond. 

Figure 8.4 The red colour of elemental bromine is lost during addition across an alkenic double bond the brominated compound is usually colourless...

If the double bonds of a polyene are not conjugated with other 7r-systems in the molecule, addition to one of the tt-bonds will proceed in a similar fashion to addition to a simple alkene. Usually addition to one of the bonds is preferred, because it is either more highly substituted and, as a result, has enhanced electron density, or because it has fewer substituents and is less hindered and more accessible to the electrophile. Alternatively, one of the double bonds of a polyene may be activated by the presence of a heteroatom at the allylic position. 

Addition to alkene double bonds where the product-determining step usually occurs on the face opposite to the angular methyl groups ( a attack ). 

Addition to alkene double bonds in allylic299 or homoallylic300 alcohols. 

Alkenes undergo addition reactions at the double bond. The tt electrons of alkenes are a nucleophilic site and they react with electrophiles by three mechanisms (see Problem 3.40). 

Now that we re familiar with the structure and preparation of alkenes, let s look at their chemical reactions. The characteristic reaction of alkenes is addition to the double bond according to the general equation ... 

Conjugated dienes, styrenes and electron-rich alkenes are cyclopropanated with ethyl diazoacetate using a triarylamminium salt of appropriate oxidation potential as a cata-lyst/initiator (equation 96)185. These reactions are initiated by electron transfer from the unsaturated substrate to the amminium ion and the double additions of the diazo esters to the conjugated dienes are effectively suppressed. Cyclopropanes geminally bearing two... 

The monoalkylborane, RBH2, and the dialkylborane, R2BH, seldom are isolated because they rapidly add to the alkene. These additions amount to reduction of both carbons of the double bond ... 

The polarity of the carbonyl bond facilitates addition of water and other polar reagents relative to addition of the same reagents to alkene double bonds. This we have seen previously in the addition of organometallic compounds... 

As you can see, the reaction formally amounts to the addition of methanal as H—CHO to the alkene double bond. Because one additional carbon atom is introduced as a formyl CHO group, the reaction often is called hydroformylation, although the older name, oxo reaction, is widely used. 

There are many addition reactions of a,(3-unsaturated aldehydes, ketones, and related compounds that are the same as the carbonyl addition reactions described previously. Others are quite different and result in addition to the alkene double bond. Organometallic compounds are examples of nucleophilic reagents that can add to either the alkene or the carbonyl bonds of conjugated ketones (see Section 14-12D). Hydrogen cyanide behaves likewise and adds to the carbon-carbon double bond of 3-butene-2-one, but to the carbonyl group of 2-butenal ... 

However, the 9,10 bond in phenanthrene is quite reactive in fact it is almost as reactive as an alkene double bond. Addition therefore occurs fairly readily ... 

Recently, several studies have been made of the photolysis of disilanes or polysilanes in the presence of an electron-deficient alkene using a photosensitizer (such as phenanthrene) and acetonitrile as solvent. These conditions result in the addition of silyl groups to one end of the alkene double bond and hydrogen to the other end (equation 18) and evidently involve the reaction of the radical anions of the electron-deficient silene with silyl radicals67 (see also Section VIII.A). 

Interactions between the C=C double bond and halogens deserve particular attention. The importance of these interactions arises from the fact they are the first step of the reactions of addition of halogens to alkenes (and, in general, of the electrophilic addition to the carbon-carbon double bond68), which is a very useful functionalization reaction of the alkene double bond. 

The addition reaction between bromine dissolved in an organic solvent, or water, and alkenes is used as a chemical test for the presence of a double bond between two carbon atoms. When a few drops of this bromine solution are shaken with the hydrocarbon, if it is an alkene, such as ethene, a reaction takes place in which bromine joins to the alkene double bond. This results in the bromine solution losing its red/brown colour. If an alkane, such as hexane, is shaken with a bromine solution of this type, no colour change takes place (Figure 14.13). This is because there are no double bonds between the carbon atoms of alkanes. 

Alkyl substituents on the double bond increase the reactivity of the alkene toward addition of bromine. 

Coulombic forces will determine the regioselectivity of the ortho addition [189], In the charge-transfer complexes of monosubstituted benzenes with alkenes, the charge (positive or negative) on the arene is largely located at the carbon atoms ipso and (to a lesser extent) para to the substituent. The carbon atoms of the alkene double bond will preferentially be located in the neighborhood of either the ipso carbon or (to a lesser extent) the para carbon atom of the monosubstituted benzene. This would explain the 1,2 and 3,4 selectivity in the ortho photocycloaddition. 

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