Alkenes with mercury

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)... 

A mild and highly convenient procedure for the hydration of a carbon-carbon double bond involves the initial reaction of an alkene with mercury(n) acetate in aqueous tetrahydrofuran, the resulting mercurial intermediate is reduced in situ by alkaline sodium borohydride solution. The yields of alcohols which are... 

Reaction of an alkene with mercury(II) nitrate and nitriles, usually acetonitrile, followed by hydrolysis, gave /J-acylamino mercury(II) salts, which were isolated in good yield as the corresponding chlorides after treatment with sodium chloride (Table 2)29 32. 

Table 2. Equilibrium Constants for the Oxymercuration of Alkenes with Mercury(II) T rifluoroacetate...

An alternative method of Markovnikov addition of water to alkenes involves an intermediate rather similar to the bromonium ion. This is a mercurinium ion, formed by the reaction of an alkene with mercury (II) acetate (check out the sizes of mercury and bromine, and you will see why these are so similar). This is often preferred to acid-catalyzed hydration, as conditions... 

In the laboratory, alkenes are often hydrated by the oxymercuration procedure. When an alkene is treated with mercury(II) acetate Hg(02CCH3)2, usually abbreviated Hg(OAc)2l in aqueous tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent, electrophilic addition of Hg2+ to the double bond rapidly occurs. The intermediate orgnnomercury compound is then treated with sodium borohydride, NaBH4, and an alcohol is produced. For example ... 

Free radical cyclization of alkenes with tin or mercury halides... 

Intermolecular photocycloadditions of alkenes can be carried out by photosensitization with mercury or directly with short-wavelength light.179 Relatively little preparative use has been made of this reaction for simple alkenes. Dienes can be photosensitized using benzophenone, butane-2,3-dione, and acetophenone.180 The photodimerization of derivatives of cinnamic acid was among the earliest photochemical reactions to be studied.181 Good yields of dimers are obtained when irradiation is carried out in the crystalline state. In solution, cis-trans isomerization is the dominant reaction. 

Perlmutter used an oxymercuration/demercuration of a y-hydroxy alkene as the key transformation in an enantioselective synthesis of the C(8 ) epimeric smaller fragment of lb (and many more pamamycin homologs cf. Fig. 1) [36]. Preparation of substrate 164 for the crucial cyclization event commenced with silylation and reduction of hydroxy ester 158 (85-89% ee) [37] to give aldehyde 159, which was converted to alkenal 162 by (Z)-selective olefination with ylide 160 (dr=89 l 1) and another diisobutylaluminum hydride reduction (Scheme 22). An Oppolzer aldol reaction with boron enolate 163 then provided 164 as the major product. Upon successive treatment of 164 with mercury(II) acetate and sodium chloride, organomercurial compound 165 and a second minor diastereomer (dr=6 l) were formed, which could be easily separated. Reductive demercuration, hydrolytic cleavage of the chiral auxiliary, methyl ester formation, and desilylation eventually led to 166, the C(8 ) epimer of the... 

Hydrolysis of the dithiane groups with mercury(II) chloride/cadmium carbonate followed by deoxymercuration of the alkene with potassium iodide yielded the diketone... 

Enol lactones with a halogen at the vinylic position have been synthesized as potential mechanism-based inactivators of serine hydrolyases <81JA5459). 5-Hexynoic acids (181) can be cyclized with mercury(II) ion catalysis to y-methylenebutyrolactones (182) (Scheme 41). Cyclization of the 6-bromo and 6-chloro analogues leads stereospecifically to the (Z)-haloenol lactones (trans addition) but is quite slow. Cyclization of unsubstituted or 6-methyl or 6-trimethylsilyl substituted 5-hexynoic acids is more rapid but alkene isomerization occurs during the reaction. Direct halolactonization of the 5-hexynoic acids with bromine or iodine in a two-phase system with phase transfer catalysis was successful in the preparation of various 5-halomethylene- or 5-haloethylidene-2-phenylbutyrolactones and 6-bromo-and iodo-methylenevalerolactones (Scheme 42). 

The effect of the nature of the electrophile on the stereoselectivity of reactions with substrates containing a terminal alkene and an allylic substituent is dramatically illustrated by some recent results with palladium electrophiles.124 Cyclizations of 3-methyl- or 3-phenyl-5-hydroxyalkenes with palladium catalysts proceed with high selectivity (>9 1) for the 2,3-trans isomer (equation 41).50-124 It is suggested that the steric interactions of the palladium-alkene complex affects the stereochemistry of these cyclizations. In some related cyclizations to form tetrahydropyran products (equation 42 and Table 10), reaction with iodine in the presence of sodium bicarbonate gives a different major diastereomer from cyclization with mercury(II) trifluoroacetate or palladium chloride.123... 

Cyclizations with nitrogen nucleophiles involving alkynes and allenes have received little attention until recently. The cyclizations of several a-aminoallenes to 3-pyrrolines with silver tetrafluoroborate was reported by Claesson and coworkers (equation 133).264 A similar cyclization to form A -carba-penems has been reported (equation 134).265 Diastereomeric allenes (R1 R2) were shown to cyclize with complete stereocontrol. Cyclization with palladium chloride in the presence of allyl bromide or electrophilic alkenes allowed for the intermediate vinylpalladium species to be trapped by the electrophile.2651 A related product was obtained by cyclization of an alkynic substrate (equation 13S).265 Other examples of 5-endo cyclization of p-aminoalkynes50 include the formation of indoles by cyclization of 2-alkynylanilines with mercury salts200 or palladium chloride,266a,266b,266c formation of 1-pyrrolines with catalytic palladium chloride (equation 136)198 and formation of pyrroles by cyclization of hydroxy-substituted p-aminoalkynes.198,2666... 

The electrochemical generation of hydrogen in aqueous acid or alkaline solutions reduces unactivated alkynes 46 a b). This process is similar to catalytic hydrogenation, however, and does not involve electron transfer to the substrate. The electrochemical generation of solvated electrons in amine solvents or HMPA has also been effective in reducing these compounds 29). The focus of this section, however, is the electrolysis of these difficult to reduce alkynes and alkenes at mercury cathodes with tetraalkyl-ammonium salts as electrolytes. Specific attention is also given to competitive reductions of benzenoid aromatics and alkynes or alkenes. 

From the limited data available, it seems that terminal alkynes can be efficiently reduced to the corresponding alkenes at mercury cathodes in (C4H9)4N+ electrolyte solutions. The cathodic reduction can be carried out in an organic-aqueous medium in which base related complications, associated with other electron-transfer reductions, can be avoided. Efficient reduction of alkenes has not proven possible. In competition, both benzenoid and alkyne functionalities are reduced. Selectivity can be improved by controlling the water content of the medium so that a terminal alkyne can be converted to an alkene in the presence of a benzenoid aromatic functionality. 

Over the last two decades Russian workers have uncovered a host of interesting SE reactions with retention at an alkene center (Reutov, 1967b). These have involved exchanges with mercury, lead, tin, thallium, etc. attached to an alkene carbon ... 

Sometimes the reaction conditions used in this reaction are too harsh since heating is involved and rearrangement reactions can occur. A milder method that gives better results is to treat the alkene with mercuric acetate [Hg(OAc)2] then sodium borohydride. The reaction involves electrophilic addition of the mercury reagent to form an intermediate mercuronium ion. This reacts with water to give an organomercury intermediate. Reduction with sodium... 

In general, though, it is very difficult to predict whether aqueous acid will hydrate the alkene or dehydrate the alcohol. The method we are about to introduce is much more reliable. The key is to use a transition metal to help you out. Alkenes are soft nucleophiles (p. 237) and interact well with soft electrophiles such as transition metal cations. Here, for example, is the complex formed between an alkene and mercury(II) cation. Don t be too concerned about the weird bond growing from the middle of the alkene this is a shorthand way of expressing the rather complex bonding interaction between the alkene and mercury. An alternative, and more useful, representation is the three-mem-bered ring on the right. 

Vinyl selenides have been lithiated at the a-position by LDA983,984 at —78 °C in THF to give a-(arylselanyl)vinyllithiums 680, a-(methylselanyl)vinyllithiums 681 being obtained by selenium-lithium transmetallation from l,l-bis(methylselanyl)alkenes with n-BuLi in THF or t-BuLi in ether at —78 °C985 986. These intermediates reacted with alkyl halides, epoxides, carbonyl compounds and DMF985, the final deprotection being performed by mercury(II) salts986. 

In contrast to lead tetraacetate, simple addition to the double bond does not occur as a side re-action. While allylic rearrangement is common and mixtures of products are frequently obtained, the reaction often proceeds in very high yield and is simple to carry out the alkene is simply heated in an appropriate solvent with mercury(II) acetate until reaction is complete. Mercury(II) acetate has also been us for dehydrogenation, particularly in the steroid field. One interesting example incorporating simultaneous dehydrogenation and allylic oxidative rearrangement is seen in the reaction of abietic acid (37 equation 16). ... 

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