Alkenes with electrophilic carbon

There are, however, serious problems that must be overcome in the application of this reaction to synthesis. The product is a new carbocation that can react further. Repetitive addition to alkene molecules leads to polymerization. Indeed, this is the mechanism of acid-catalyzed polymerization of alkenes. There is also the possibility of rearrangement. A key requirement for adapting the reaction of carbocations with alkenes to the synthesis of small molecules is control of the reactivity of the newly formed carbocation intermediate. Synthetically useful carbocation-alkene reactions require a suitable termination step. We have already encountered one successful strategy in the reaction of alkenyl and allylic silanes and stannanes with electrophilic carbon (see Chapter 9). In those reactions, the silyl or stannyl substituent is eliminated and a stable alkene is formed. The increased reactivity of the silyl- and stannyl-substituted alkenes is also favorable to the synthetic utility of carbocation-alkene reactions because the reactants are more nucleophilic than the product alkenes. 

Also known as Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction, and occasionally known as Rauhut-Currier reaction. It is a carbon—carbon bond-forming transformation of an electron-poor alkene with a carbon electrophile. Electron-poor alkenes include acrylic esters, acrylonitriles, vinyl ketones, vinyl sulfones, and acroleins. On the other hand, carbon electrophiles may be aldehydes, a-alkoxycarbonyl ketones, aldimines, and Michael acceptors. 

This reactivity series and the stereochemistry of the cyclopropane adducts. Contrasting with that observed in the case of pentacarbonyldiphenyl carbene, indicate that the reaction first involves an electrophilic attack of the alkylidene complex on the alkene without prior formation of an alkene-metal complex. A transition state (see Fig. 1) involves the formation of a bond from the alkylidene carbon atom to the less substituted end of the alkene and interaction of the positively polarized, more substituted end of the alkene with the carbon atom of the phenyl group. 

Aqueous work-up of the vinyllithium leads to protonation of the anion and an alkene with the same carbon skeleton as the original carbonyl compound (or hydrazone). On the other hand, quenching with electrophiles such as alkyl halides and aldehydes leads to alkenes with extended carbon skeletons (see reaction 5A.47). 

One group of alkenes which react efficiently with electrophilic carbon species are the allylsilanes. The carbon-silicon bond is broken as the reaction proceeds, thus providing a low-energy product.Among the electrophilic carbon species... 

Thus with dihalocarbenes we have the interesting case of a species that resem bles both a carbanion (unshared pair of electrons on carbon) and a carbocation (empty p orbital) Which structural feature controls its reactivity s Does its empty p orbital cause It to react as an electrophile s Does its unshared pair make it nucleophilic s By compar mg the rate of reaction of CBi2 toward a series of alkenes with that of typical electrophiles toward the same alkenes (Table 14 4) we see that the reactivity of CBi2... 

The diminished rr electron density m the double bond makes a p unsaturated aide hydes and ketones less reactive than alkenes toward electrophilic addition Electrophilic reagents—bromine and peroxy acids for example—react more slowly with the carbon-carbon double bond of a p unsaturated carbonyl compounds than with simple alkenes... 

Electron deficient carbon-carbon double bonds are resistant to attack by the electrophilic reagents of Section 5.05.4.2.2(t), and are usually converted to oxiranes by nucleophilic oxidants. The most widely used of these is the hydroperoxide ion (Scheme 79). Since epoxidation by hydroperoxide ion proceeds through an intermediate ct-carbonyl anion, the reaction of acyclic alkenes is not necessarily stereospecific (Scheme 80) (unlike the case of epoxidation with electrophilic agents (Section 5.05.4.2.2(f)) the stereochemical aspects of this and other epoxidations are reviewed at length in (B-73MI50500)). 

Mercury(II) trifluoroacetate is a good electrophile that is highly reactive toward carbon-carbon double bonds [52, 53, 54] When reacting with olefins in nucleophilic solvents, it usually gives exclusively mercurated solvoadducts, but never products of skeletal rearrangement Solvomercuration-demercuratton of alkenes with mercury(II) trifluoroacetate is a remarkably effective procedure for the preparation of esters and alcohols with Markovnikov s regiochemistry [52, 5J] (equation 24)... 

Aikene chemistry is dominated by electrophilic addition reactions. When HX reacts with an unsymmetrically substituted aikene, Markovnikov s rule predicts that the H will add to the carbon having fewer alky) substituents and the X group will add to the carbon having more alkyl substituents. Electrophilic additions to alkenes take place through carbocation intermediates formed by reaction of the nucleophilic aikene tt bond with electrophilic H+. Carbocation stability follows the order... 

Before seeing how electrophilic aromatic substitutions occur, let s briefly recall what we said in Chapler 6 about electrophilic alkene additions. When a reagent such as HCl adds to an alkene, the electrophilic hydrogen approaches the p orbitals of the double bond and forms a bond to one carbon, leaving a positive charge at the other carbon. This carbocation intermediate then reacts with the nucleophilic Cl- ion to yield the addition product. 

If the carbanion has even a short lifetime, 6 and 7 will assume the most favorable conformation before the attack of W. This is of course the same for both, and when W attacks, the same product will result from each. This will be one of two possible diastereomers, so the reaction will be stereoselective but since the cis and trans isomers do not give rise to different isomers, it will not be stereospecific. Unfortunately, this prediction has not been tested on open-chain alkenes. Except for Michael-type substrates, the stereochemistry of nucleophilic addition to double bonds has been studied only in cyclic systems, where only the cis isomer exists. In these cases, the reaction has been shown to be stereoselective with syn addition reported in some cases and anti addition in others." When the reaction is performed on a Michael-type substrate, C=C—Z, the hydrogen does not arrive at the carbon directly but only through a tautomeric equilibrium. The product naturally assumes the most thermodynamically stable configuration, without relation to the direction of original attack of Y. In one such case (the addition of EtOD and of Me3CSD to tra -MeCH=CHCOOEt) predominant anti addition was found there is evidence that the stereoselectivity here results from the final protonation of the enolate, and not from the initial attack. For obvious reasons, additions to triple bonds cannot be stereospecific. As with electrophilic additions, nucleophilic additions to triple bonds are usually stereoselective and anti, though syn addition and nonstereoselective addition have also been reported. 

Other kinds of nucleophiles such as amines, alkoxides, and sulfide anions also react with electrophilic alkenes, but we focus on the carbon-carbon bond forming reactions. 

The influence of electronic factors on the regioselective cycloadditions of nitrones (551), and (583) to (585) to acrylates has been demonstrated by using dipolarophiles with electrophilic substituents at the P-carbon of the alkene in y-bromo a, 3-unsaturated esters and lactones (774) and in ethyl 2-hydroperfluoro-2-alkenoates (586) (775). The reactions of enoates (586) with nitrones are regio-specific and afford isoxazolidines with the CC>2Et and R/, groups in C-4 and C-5... 

We have already reviewed the activation of alkenes, alkynes, and carbon monoxide towards nucleophilic attack. The heterolytic splitting of dihydrogen is also an example of this activation it will be discussed in Section 2.10. The reaction of nucleophiles with silanes co-ordinated to an electrophilic metal can be regarded as an example of activation towards nucleophilic attack (Figure 2.28). Complexes of Ir(III) and Pd(II) give t.o.f. for this reaction as high as 300,000 mol.mol. fh"1. 

Calculations [28] on the formation of cyclopropanes from electrophilic Fischer-type carbene complexes and alkenes suggest that this reaction does not generally proceed via metallacyclobutane intermediates. The least-energy pathway for this process starts with electrophilic addition of the carbene carbon atom to the alkene (Figure 1.9). Ring closure occurs by electrophilic attack of the second carbon atom... 

Being aware of the fact that a hetero-substituted carbon-carbon double bond is convertible into a carbonyl group, one can use a-hetero-substituted lithio-alkenes 2 as nucleophilic acylation reagents 142 and 143, which display the umpoled d reactivity, provided that the carbanionic character is effective. Depending on the hetero-snbstitnent X, the conversion of the vinyl moiety into a carbonyl gronp can be effected either by hydrolysis or by ozonolysis. The former procednre has been applied preferentially in the case of lithiated vinyl ethers, whereas the latter has been nsed in particnlar for cleavage of the double bond in such products that result from the reaction of hthiated vinyl bromides with electrophiles (Scheme 17). 

Certain electrophilic carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen double bonds can undergo an addition reaction with alkenes in which an allylic hydrogen is transferred to the... 

Alternatively, boranes can be prepared in solution and then coupled with support-bound carbon electrophiles. The Suzuki coupling of alkylboranes, generated in situ from 9-BBN and alkenes, with brominated cross-linked polystyrene has been used to link substituted alkyl chains directly to the polymer (Entry 4, Table 5.3). Alkylboranes have also been used to alkylate polystyrene-bound aryl iodides (Entries 3 and 5, Table 5.3). 

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