Alkenes stereoselective, mechanism

Bromine azide, prepared by different methods, undergoes addition to alkenes stereoselectively by an ionic mechanism 33- 37 (Table 2). Improved yields are obtained by using azidotrimethyl-silane and A-bromosuccinimide (NBS) in the presence of Nafion-FI as catalyst33. Alternatively, A-bromosuccinimide may be added to the mixture of the alkene and sodium azide in dimeth-oxyethane/water34. Aziridines were prepared stereoselectively by reduction of (i-bromo azides with lithium aluminum hydride34. 

Oxidation to a Vicinal Diol by OsO (Section 6.5/ OsO followed by NaHSOj converts alkenes into vicinal diols with syn stereoselectivity and without rearrangement. The reaction is stereospecific because as-aUcenes give different products than do trans-alkenes. The mechanism involves formation of a cyclic osmate ester. 

Electrophilic attack on the sulfur atom of thiiranes by alkyl halides does not give thiiranium salts but rather products derived from attack of the halide ion on the intermediate cyclic salt (B-81MI50602). Treatment of a s-2,3-dimethylthiirane with methyl iodide yields cis-2-butene by two possible mechanisms (Scheme 31). A stereoselective isomerization of alkenes is accomplished by conversion to a thiirane of opposite stereochemistry followed by desulfurization by methyl iodide (75TL2709). Treatment of thiiranes with alkyl chlorides and bromides gives 2-chloro- or 2-bromo-ethyl sulfides (Scheme 32). Intramolecular alkylation of the sulfur atom of a thiirane may occur if the geometry is favorable the intermediate sulfonium ions are unstable to nucleophilic attack and rearrangement may occur (Scheme 33). 

If the mechanism for nucleophilic addition is the simple carbanion mechanism outlined on page 975, the addition should be nonstereospecific, though it might well be stereoselective (see p. 166 for the distinction). For example, the E) and (Z) forms of an alkene ABC=CDE would give 6 and 7 ... 

The variation of enantioselectivities with temperature and pressure was investigated. The effects of these two factors are very substrate dependent and difficult to generalize even in a single substrate serie. However, it seems that enantioselectivities are shghly better at 25-40 °C than at lower temperatures (0 °C or less). The stereoselectivity can be inverted for specific alkenes (formation of the S or R enantiomer preferentially). For several substrates, the reactions tend to proceed to completion with optimal ee s when performed at lower hydrogen pressure (2 bar) instead of 50 bar (Fig. 13). Pronoimced variation of enantioselectivities with hydrogen concentration in solution may indicate the presence of two (or even more) different mechanisms which happen to give opposite enantiomers for some substrates. 

A crucial issue for these reactions is the stereoselectivity for formation of E- or Z-alkene. This is determined by the mechanisms of the reactions and, as we will see, can be controlled in some cases by the choice of particular reagents and reaction conditions. 

A number of procedures for stereoselective synthesis of alkenes involving alkenylboranes have been developed. For each of the reactions given below, show the structure of the intermediates and outline the mechanism in sufficient detail to account for the observed stereoselectivity. 

Abstract Significant advances have been made in the study of catalytic reductive coupling of alkenes and alkynes over the past 10 years. This work will discuss the progress made in early transition metal and lanthanide series catalytic processes using alkyl metals or silanes as the stoichiometric reductants and the progress made in the use of late transition metals for the same reactions using silanes, stannanes and borohydrides as the reductant. The mechanisms for the reactions are discussed along with stereoselective variants of the reactions. 

The observed stereoselectivity with the alkenes utilized in this particular study led the authors to postulate that the reaction proceeded via a synchronous mechanism. However, there was also the possibility of a stepwise electrophilic mechanism involving carbocationic intermediates, as represented in Scheme 15. 

The most famous mechanism, namely Cossets mechanism, in which the alkene inserts itself directly into the metal-carbon bond (Eq. 5), has been proposed, based on the kinetic study [134-136], This mechanism involves the intermediacy of ethylene coordinated to a metal-alkyl center and the following insertion of ethylene into the metal-carbon bond via a four-centered transition state. The olefin coordination to such a catalytically active metal center in this intermediate must be weak so that the olefin can readily insert itself into the M-C bond without forming any meta-stable intermediate. Similar alkyl-olefin complexes such as Cp2NbR( /2-ethylene) have been easily isolated and found not to be the active catalyst precursor of polymerization [31-33, 137]. In support of this, theoretical calculations recently showed the presence of a weakly ethylene-coordinated intermediate (vide infra) [12,13]. The stereochemistry of ethylene insertion was definitely shown to be cis by the evidence that the polymerization of cis- and trans-dideutero-ethylene afforded stereoselectively deuterated polyethylenes [138]. 

According to the stepwise electrophilic reaction mechanism, the differences in the stereochemistries of the products from the reactions of alkenes with cyclic 49 and acyclic 51 disulfonium dications can be explained by the larger rates of the intramolecular reactions. In the case of a cyclic dication, the carbocationic center in intermediate 94, which is formed as the result of initial attack by a S-S dication on a double C=C bond reacts with nucleophile intramolecularly, thus conserving the configuration of the substituents at the double bond. On the other hand, an acyclic dication undergoes transformation to two separate particles (95 and dimethylsulfide) with a consequent loss of stereoselectivity. Additional experiments with deuteretad alkenes confirm that reaction is not stereoselective, lending further support to the stepwise mechanism (Scheme 36).106... 

The chiral sites which are able to rationalize the isospecific polymerization of 1-alkenes are also able, in the framework of the mechanism of the chiral orientation of the growing polymer chain, to account for the stereoselective behavior observed for chiral alkenes in the presence of isospecific heterogeneous catalysts.104 In particular, the model proved able to explain the experimental results relative to the first insertion of a chiral alkene into an initial Ti-methyl bond,105 that is, the absence of discrimination between si and re monomer enantiofaces and the presence of diastereoselectivity [preference for S(R) enantiomer upon si (re) insertion]. Upon si (re) coordination of the two enantiomers of 3-methyl-l-pentene to the octahedral model site, it was calculated that low-energy minima only occur when the conformation relative to the single C-C bond adjacent to the double bond, referred to the hydrogen atom bonded to the tertiary carbon atom, is nearly anticlinal minus, A- (anticlinal plus, A+). Thus one can postulate the reactivity only of the A- conformations upon si coordination and of the A+ conformations upon re coordination (Figure 1.16). In other words, upon si coordination, only the synperiplanar methyl conformation would be accessible to the S enantiomer and only the (less populated) synperiplanar ethyl conformation to the R enantiomer this would favor the si attack of the S enantiomer with respect to the same attack of the R enantiomer, independent of the chirality of the catalytic site. This result is in agreement with a previous hypothesis of Zambelli and co-workers based only on the experimental reactivity ratios of the different faces of C-3-branched 1-alkenes.105... 

Sulfenyl chlorides and most of the other sulfenyl derivatives react with alkenes to give generally anti addition products with a high stereoselectivity. Although the mechanism of these reactions is still under study, it is usually accepted that sulfenyl transfer from the carrier to nucleophilic double bonds is consistent with the multistep mechanism reported in equation 907b. 

Recently many subtle effects of the ligand structure, concentrations of alkene, and conditions on the polymerisation have been reported to have significant effects on molecular weight, regioselectivity, branching, stereoselectivity or enantioselectivity, incorporation of other monomers, chain transfer, etc. Often these subtle effects can be understood from the mechanism, or they contribute to the understanding of the detailed processes going on. 

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