Alkenes ring contraction

Reduction, carboxyl groups, 56,83 Reduction of a,0-unsaturated p-toluene-sulfonyl-hydrazones to alkenes, 59,42 Reductive alkylation, 56,52 Reductive cleavage, 56, 101 Resolution of amines, 55,80, 83 Rexyn 201,55,4 Rhodium(III) oxide, 57, 1 Ring contraction, 56, 107 Ring expansion of cycloalkanones to cycloalkenones, 59, 113... 

Epoxides are ol course as easy to make from un-symmetrical, e.g. (29) as from symmetrical, e.g. (26), alkenes. The more stable carbonlum ion is again formed. Hydride shift is preferred to alkyl shift except in the favourable 6 5 ring contraction. 

Diazomethane is also decomposed by N O)40 -43 and Pd(0) complexes43 . Electron-poor alkenes such as methyl acrylate are cyclopropanated efficiently with Ni(0) catalysts, whereas with Pd(0) yields were much lower (Scheme 1)43). Cyclopropanes derived from styrene, cyclohexene or 1-hexene were formed only in trace yields. In the uncatalyzed reaction between diazomethane and methyl acrylate, methyl 2-pyrazoline-3-carboxylate and methyl crotonate are formed competitively, but the yield of the latter can be largely reduced by adding an appropriate amount of catalyst. It has been verified that cyclopropane formation does not result from metal-catalyzed ring contraction of the 2-pyrazoline, Instead, a nickel(0)-carbene complex is assumed to be involved in the direct cyclopropanation of the olefin. The preference of such an intermediate for an electron-poor alkene is in agreement with the view that nickel carbenoids are nucleophilic 44). 

Diazocarbonyl compounds readily undergo [3 + 2] cycloaddition to electron-poor alkenes 139). The 1-pyrazolines thus formed usually tautomerize to 2-pyrazolines if there is a hydrogen in an a-position to one of the nitrogen atoms otherwise, thermally induced ring contraction with evolution of nitrogen to give cyclopropanes can occur (Scheme 18). 

Ring contraction ofglycals.1 The oxidative ring contraction of cyclic alkenes (4,492-493) can be applied to protected glycals. Thus oxidation of the D-glucal 1 with TTN in CH3CN provides the 2,5-anhydro-D-manose 2, whose structure was established by conversion to the 2,5-anhydro-D-mannitol derivative (3). 

The use of 0(3P) atoms produced by microwave irradiation of He-Oa mixtures has shown that alkenes react with atomic oxygen in solution or neat to give predominantly epoxides. Unlike reactions in the gas phase, at low temperature these produce useful product yields and distributions. Similar yields suggest that epoxide formation and 1,2-H/1,2-C shifts/ring contractions compete. 

The thallium trinitrate-mediated ring contraction of frani-decal-2-ones has opened up a new route to the hydrindane system, and fluorinative ring contraction of cyclic alkenes to afford difluorocycloalkanes has been induced by iodotoluene difluoride and EtsN-HF. A possible mechanism is shown in Scheme 78. The double bond of the cyclohexene ring is attacked by iodotoluene difluoride activated by HF from the axial direction, followed by the addition of a fluoride ion from the trans direction. Reductive elimination of iodotoluene from the resulting adduct, ring contraction and the addition of the fluoride ion to the carbocation stabilized by fluorine then take place to give the ring-contracted difluorinated product. 

The N-acyliminium ion cyclization of glutarimide 78c with terminal alkene does not show the usual selectivity in favor of ring contraction pyridobenzazepine 78d and the isomeric chloromethylquinolizidine are isolated in nearly equal amounts (10OL1696). 

Very highly constrained bicyclic alkenes rearrange via carbene intermediates to ring-contracted products. Thus, bicyclo[3.3.0]oct-2-ene gave 6-methylenebicyclo[3.2.0]heptane (38), and bicy-clo[2.2.1]hept-2-ene gave 5-methylenebicyclo[2.1.1]hexane (39).113... 

This rearrangement has been reviewed,3 so only results published since 1968 will be discussed herein. In addition to ring contraction, it is noteworthy that cyclobutylidenes are also able to undergo 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to 1,1-diethoxyethene,4 tert-butyl fumarate,4 styrenes5 and but-2-yne,6 yielding spiro[2.3]hexane derivatives. Intramolecular trapping of cyclobutylidene by alkenes is also known.7... 

The acid-catalyzed isomerization of cycloalkenes usually involves skeletal rearrangement if strong acids are used. The conditions and the catalysts are very similar to those for the isomerization of acyclic alkenes. Many alkylcyclohexenes undergo reversible isomerization to alkylcyclopentenes. In some cases the isomerization consists of shift of the double bond without ring contraction. Side reactions, in this case, involve hydrogen transfer (disproportionation) to yield cycloalkanes and aromatics. In the presence of activated alumina cyclohexene is converted to a mixture of 1-methyl- and 3-methyl-1-cyclopentene 103... 

The diverse chemistry of carbenes is beyond the scope of this account, but a few typical reactions are shown here to illustrate the usefulness of the photochemical generation of these reactive species. A carbene can insert into a C—H bond, and this finds application in the reaction of an a-diazoamide to produce a P-lactam (5.29). Carbenes derived from o-diazoketones can rearrange to ketenes, and thus a route is opened up to ring-contraction for making more highly strained systems <5.301. Carbenes also react with alkenes, often by cycloaddition to yield cyclopropanes in a process that can be very efficient (5.31) and highly stereoselective (5.321. 

The limitation of the pinacol is the need for symmetry. This section and the next suggest ways of avoiding this problem. Unsymmetrical epoxides are easily made from alkenes and open with Lewis acid catalysis to give the more substituted of the two possible cations.9 Even such a weak Lewis acid as LiBr opens the epoxide 51 to give the tertiary cation 52 which rearranges by ring contraction to the aldehyde 53. The authors prefer to have the bromocompound 54 as an intermediate.10... 

The single stereogenic center of y-silylsubstituted cyclopentenone 12 allowed for an excellent stereocontrol in the [2 + 2]-photocycloaddition to the strained cyclobutene 13, which in turn had been obtained by a [2 + 2]-photocycloaddition-ring contraction sequence (Scheme 6.6) [26]. Alkene 13 dictates the exo-approach of the cyclopentenone, but as a meso-compound is of course not capable of controlling the absolute configuration. Further elaboration of product 14 led to (+)-pentacyclo-anammoxic acid (15). 

The array of dienophiles amenable to these hetero Diels-Alder reactions is not limited to enol ethers and enamines since allylsilanes and simple alkenes have also been successfully employed [370, 371]. More recently, it has been shown that methoxy allenes such as 4-41 undergo formation of 6H-l,2-oxazines 4-43 upon cycloaddition to nitrosoalkenes such as 4-34 and subsequent tauto-merisation of the intermediate exo-methylene compound 4-42 (Fig. 4-9) [372, 373]. In these studies, 4-43 proved to be a versatile synthetical intermediate allowing oxidative demethylation or reductive removal of the methoxy group as well as nucleophilic substitutions after the generation of an azapyrylium ion [372 - 374]. Furthermore, ring contraction reactions of these oxazines leading to pyrroles [373] and y-lactames [375] are known. 

---