Alkenes from cyclic ethers

PdCl2(PhCN)2-catalysed Claisen rearrangement of the allyl vinyl ether 474 derived from cyclic ketone at room temperature affords the syn product 475 with high diastereoselectivity [203]. In contrast to thermal Claisen rearrangement, the Pd(II)-catalysed Claisen rearrangement is always stereoselective, irrespective of the geometry of allylic alkenes. The anti product is obtained by the thermal rearrangement in the presence of 2,6-dimethylphenol at 100 °C for lOh. 

Oxypalladation of vinyl ether, followed by alkene insertion, is an interesting synthetic route to functionalized cyclic ethers. In prostaglandin synthesis, the oxypalladation of ethyl vinyl ether (40) with the protected cyclopentenediol 39 generates 41 and its intramolecular alkene insertion generates 42. The intermolecular insertion of the alkene 43, and /1-elimination of 44 occurred as one-pot reaction at room temperature, giving the final product 45 in 72% yield [46], The stereochemistry of the product shows that the alkene insertion (carbopalladation of 41) is syn. It should be noted that the elimination of /1-hydrogen from the intermediate 42 is not possible, because there is no /1-hydrogen syn coplanar to the Pd and, instead, the insertion of alkene 43 occurs. 

Epoxides (oxiranes) are three-membered cyclic ethers. The simplest and commercially most important example is ethylene oxide, manufactured from ethylene, air, and a silver catalyst. In the laboratory, epoxides are most commonly prepared from alkenes and organic peroxy acids. 

Translation of these results into compound I leads to structure X. Unraveling of the strained zwitterion XI derived from this would yield keto aldehyde XII, a structure that plays a central role in the various possible reaction mechanisms that branch off from the starting material I. Furthermore, under photo-lytic conditions, some alkenes react with carbonyl compounds to form four-membered cyclic ethers, namely, oxetanes, by way of a [2-1-2] cycloaddition reaction known as the Patemo-Buchi process. Such a reaction would be all that is necessary to convert XII into the bicyclic cyclopropanone XIII required for the Favorskii-type rearrangement (see Scheme 42.3). Splitting by methanol attack would directly yield compound II. 

In an earlier report Mazzocchi and his coworkers reported that the photo-reaction of A) methylnaphthalimide (325) with phenyIcyclopropane involved the production of a radical cation/radical anion pair. The product from the reaction was the cyclic ether (326). - A study of the mechanism of this reaction using suitably deuteriated compounds has demonstrated that the reaction is not concerted and takes place via the biradical (327). - Other systems related to these have been studied. In the present paper the photoreactivity of the naphthalimide (328) with alkenes in methanol was examined. Thus, with 1-methylstyrene cycloaddition occurs to the naphthalene moiety to afford the adducts (329) and (330). The mechanism proposed for the addition involves an electron transfer process whereby the radical cation of the styrene is trapped by methanol as the radical (331). This adds to the radical anion (332) ultimately to afford the observed products. Several examples of the reaction were descr ibed. 

Problem 17.15 The unsaturated cyclic ether furan can readily be made from substances isolated from oat hulls and corncobs one of its important uses involves its conversion into (a) tetrahydrojiiran, and (b) 1,4-dichlorobutanc. Using your knowledge of alkene chemistry and ether chemistry, show ho N these conversions can be carried out. 

Epoxides are three-membered cyclic ethers. The simplest, ethylene oxide is prepared from ethylene and oxygen. Epoxides are prepared more generally from alkenes using a peroxycarboxylic acid. 

Stereodectronic Effects. The conformation of a ring effects the reactivity of cyclic ethers and we have already described the evidence for such processes in the literature 10). Here, however, we demonstrate that stereoelectronic effects may influence the reactivity of amines in free radical processes. Using a series of cyclic amines [15], radical addition to a fluorinated alkene may occur but then a choice is possible (a) the intermediate radical could react with amine to give the 1 1 adduct [16] (ki) or (b), a 1,5-shift of hydrogen can occur (k2) which ultimately leads to the 2 1 adduct [171. We anticipate that k2 would vary little with the amine but, of course, ki will vary with the ease of hydrogen—atom abstraction from the amine. Correspondingly, we find that the ratio of the 2 1 adduct [17] increases substantially in the series... 

Addition to ketones. Participation of the cyclic ether moiety in Cp2ZrCl2-catalyzed carbomagnesiation of terminal alkenes, e.g., (1), has been observed. Grignard reagents resulting from the transformation contain rather special structures. 

Enyne metathesis RCM can be performed in tandem with RCM using appropriately spaced diene-yne substrates. Many examples of this reaction featuring various degrees of complexity have been reported. Representative examples of tandem enyne metathesis-RCM are depicted in Scheme 30 and include (i) formation of the fused bicyclic compound 257 from dienyne 255 for securinine total synthesis/ (ii) synthesis of cyclic ethers (e.g., 261 and 262) from diene-alkynes (e.g, 258) and control of the product distribution through alkene substitution pattern,and (iii) double tandem RCM-enyne metatheses (conversion of 263 into 266) of appropriate polyene-polyyne systems. 

In 1990, Cabri el al. [40a] reported that the precursor Pd(OAc>2 associated with a biden-tate P P ligand as dppp (1,3-bis-diphenylphosphinopropane) appeared to be more efficient than PPhs in Mizoroki-Heck reactions performed from aryl Inflates and enol ethers (electron-rich alkenes) moreover, the regioselectivity in favour of the a-arylated alkenes was improved to 100%. Since that time, dppp associated with Pd(OAc)2 has been used extensively to catalyse Mizoroki-Heck reactions and to investigate the factors that control the regioselectivity [Ig, 40]. The chiral bidentate (7 )-Binap (2,2 -bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1-binaphthyl) associated with Pd(OAc)2 has also been used by Shibasaki and coworkers [2b,d,41a] and Overman andPoon [41b] in intramolecular enantioselective Mizoroki-Heck reactions (also, see Link [2f] for an authorative review on the Overman-Shibasaki chemistry), as well as by Hayashi and coworkers [2a, 41c,d] to control the regioselectivity and enantioselectivity of intermolecular Mizoroki-Heck reactions performed from cyclic alkenes (see Schemes 1.3 and 1.2 (Z = O) respectively). 

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