Alkenes early mechanistic studies

Early mechanistic studies have indicated that the oxypalladation step in the Wacker process proceeds through an <37z/z-pathway,399 although recent deuterium-labeling experiments have shown the viability of a yy/z-mechanism involving insertion of a metal-coordinated oxygen into the alkene.400,401 For example, with excess chloride ion present, the Wacker-type cyclization of a deuterated phenol system occurred in a primarily //-pathway, whereas the oxypalladation step favored a yy/z-mode in the absence of excess chloride ion (Scheme 16). Thus, either mechanism may be operative under a given set of experimental conditions. 

VI. THE EPOXIDATION OF ALKENES WITH PERACIDS A. Early Mechanistic Studies... 

Steroids represent rigid chiral systems which are convenient substrates for mechanistic studies of geometric details. Early studies on the difacial selectivity of ketene to steroidal alkene cycloadditions led to the preparation of optically pure cyclobutanones. The addition of dichloroketene to 2- or 3-methyl-5a-cholcst-2-ene (1) generates the cyclobutanones 2 and 3 with regio- and stereoselectivity. The cycloadditions proceed to give the adducts resulting from ketene approach to the a-face.4... 

Alkanes and Strong Solid Acids. Since the early reports by Nenizetscu and Dragan67 on alkane isomerization on wet aluminum chloride in 1933, all mechanistic studies have led to a general agreement on the carbenium-ion-type nature of the reaction intermediates involved in acid-catalyzed hydrocarbon conversions. In contrast with this statement, the nature of the initial step is still under discussion and a variety of suggestions can be found in the literature among which direct protolysis of C—H and C—C bonds, protonation of alkenes present as traces, and oxidative activation are the most often quoted.54,55... 

Zwitterions [32] and biradicals [33] have been also proposed as intermediates. These mechanistic possibilities were insufficient for rationalizing the lack of correlation between the reaction rates and solvent polarity [14,31], An early theoretical study by Goddard [33] favored a biradical intermediate. However, isotope effect studies [34], the lack of Markovnikov-type directing effects [14,31], and the fact that radical scavengers have no effect on the reaction eliminated a biradical mechanism for the singlet-oxygen-alkene ene reaction. 

Although many early synthetic studies employed HMPA as a cosolvent, its mechanistic role remained unclear. Its role was later clarified by Molander, who studied the influence of HMPA concentration on the product distributions from the Sml2-mediated reductive cyclisations of unactivated olefinic ketones.16 The addition of HMPA was required to promote efficient ketyl-alkene cyclisation, and correlations between the concentration of HMPA, product ratios and diastereoselectivities were apparent (Scheme 2.6). In the absence of HMPA, attempted cyclisations led to the recovery of starting material 1, reduced side-product 3 and desired cyclisation product 2. Addition of 2 equiv of HMPA provided 2 and only a small fraction of 3. Further addition of HMPA (3-8 equiv) provided 2 exclusively (Scheme 2.6). 

Free-Radical-lnitiated Hydrosilylation. In early reports, it was suggested that addition of hydrosilanes to multiple bonds could proceed as free-radical chain process because of a relatively low energy of the Si—H bond in comparison with that of the C—H bond. For this reason, many synthetic and mechanistic studies have been devoted to the hydrosilylation of carbon-carbon (C=C, CM])) bond initiated by free radicals generated in the reaction mixture (3,6,10,16). Free-radical addition of hydrosilanes resembles the addition of hydrogen bromide to alkenes and always occurs according to the anti-Markownikov rule (3). 

There exist early examples of this transformation [507, 508], but due to the symmetric structure of the alkene part, only isotope labeling, etc., allowed the exclusion of a prototropic rearrangement. Furthermore, due to the high reaction temperatures of 340 °C and above, several different products are formed. A low-temperature version (77 K) of this reaction via the radical cation has been reported [509]. The chirality transfer has been studied and a detailed mechanistic investigation has been conducted [510] typical experiments in that context were the reactions of substrates such as 155 and 157 (Scheme 1.70). 

The photocycloaddition of a carbonyl compound to an alkene was discovered as early as 1909 by Paterno and Chiefifi [78] who employed sunlight as the irradiation source. In the 1950s the reaction was more intensively investigated by Biichi et al. [79] using artificial light sources. The Paterno-Biichi reaction has been studied mechanistically [80] and some important aspects are summarized in Scheme 37. Upon n r -excitation (1=280-350 nm), aldehydes... 

On the basis of theoretical studies by Bach and co-workers,17 it was found that the nucleophilic 71-bond of the alkene attacks the 0-0 cr-bond in an Sn2 fashion with displacement of a neutral carboxylic acid. There are, however, some mechanistic anomalies. For example, a protonated peracid should be a much more effective oxygen transfer agent over its neutral counterpart, but experiments have shown only modest rate enhancements for acid catalysed epoxidation. Early attempts to effect acid catalysis in alkene epoxidation where relatively weak acids such as benzoic acid were employed proved unsuccessful.18 The picture is further complicated by contradictory data concerning the influence of addition of acids on epoxidation rates.19 Trichloroacetic acid catalyses the rate of epoxidation of stilbene with perbenzoic acid, but retards the rate of a double bond containing an ester constituent such as ethyl crotonate.20 Recent work has shown that a seven-fold increase in the rate of epoxidation of Z-cyclooctene with m-chloroperbenzoic acid is observed upon addition of the catalyst trifluoroacetic acid.21 Kinetic and theoretical studies suggest that the rate increase is due to complexation of the peroxy acid with the undissociated acid catalyst (HA) rather than protonation of the peroxy acid. Ab initio calculations have shown that the free energy of ethylene with peroxy-formic acid is lowered by about 3 kcal mol-1 upon complexation with the catalyst.21... 

Chalk and Harrod provided the first mechanistic explanation for the transition metal catalyzed hydrosilation as early as in 1965. Their mechanism was derived from studies with Speier s catalyst and provided a general scheme, which could be used also for other transition metals. The catalytic cycle consists of an initial oxidative addition (see Oxidative Addition) of the Si-H bond, followed by coordination of the unsaturated molecule, a subsequent migratory insertion (see Insertion) into the metal-hydride bond and eventually a reductive elimination (see Reductive Elimination) (Scheme 3 lower cycle). The scheme provides an explanation for the observed Z-geometry in the hydrosilation of alkynes, which is a consequence of the syn-addition mechanism. The observation of silated alkenes as by-products in the hydrosilation of alkenes along with the lack of well-established stoichiometric examples of reductive elimination of aUcylsilanes from alkyl silyl metal complexes... 

O-Stannyl ketyls have been proposed as intermediates for almost 30 years. Much of the early work came from the laboratories of Davies [9a], Pereyre [3, 9b, 9c] and Beckwith [6a, 10] and provided a framework for a modern understanding of O-stannyl ketyls. These seminal studies were often focussed on mechanistic aspects of tin ketyls in a-cyclopropyl- and a-epoxy-ketone ring openings. In one of the first carbonyl-alkene cyclizations, it was determined that the tributyltin radical added to a ketone in a somewhat sluggish manner and that excess amounts of tin hydride were needed to drive the reaction to completion [6a]. It was also understood that a ketyl radical anion is more stable than a simple carbon-centered radical, likely attributed to more effective delocalization. Ketyl reactive intermediates are now being utilized in new strained-ring cleavage-recyclization sequences (see below) and are... 

Although the mechanism shown in Scheme 2 was satisfactory to explain the radical cation mediated dimerization of a variety of arylalkenes and vinyl ethers, other studies provided mechanistic evidence for additional reaction pathways. For example, early studies reported the formation of a [2 + 4] dimer, 1,1,4-triphenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene, in the ET-sensitized dimerization of 1,1-diphenylethylene and postulated a mechanism involving 1,6-cyclization of an initial 1,4-acyclic radical cation. Later work demonstrated that dimerization of this alkene... 

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