Alkoxylation-carbonylation

The basic mechanism operating in the hot alkaline treatments of cellulose is the beta-alkoxyl carbonyl elimination reaction of Isbell [416] ... 

RXN51 Tandem Intramolecular Amination or Alkoxylation-Carbonylation of Alkenes and Allenes... 

The excited carbonyl groups have radical character at both carbon and oxygen, and the oxygen is rather similar in its reactivity to alkoxyl radicals. The MO diagrams for the n-n and 7t-7t states can be readily depicted ... 

The fragmentation of alkoxyl radicals is especially favorable because the formation of a carbonyl bond makes such reactions exothermic. Rearrangements of radicals frequently occur by a series of addition-fragmentation steps. The following two reactions involve radical rearrangements that proceed through addition-elimination sequences. 

Tertiary alkoxyl radicals are unstable and decomposed into the carbonyl compound and the alkyl radical ... 

The traditional chain oxidation with chain propagation via the reaction RO/ + RH occurs at a sufficiently elevated temperature when chain propagation is more rapid than chain termination (see earlier discussion). The main molecular product of this reaction is hydroperoxide. When tertiary peroxyl radicals react more rapidly in the reaction R02 + R02 with formation of alkoxyl radicals than in the reaction R02 + RH, the mechanism of oxidation changes. Alkoxyl radicals are very reactive. They react with parent hydrocarbon and alcohols formed as primary products of hydrocarbon chain oxidation. As we see, alkoxyl radicals decompose with production of carbonyl compounds. The activation energy of their decomposition is higher than the reaction with hydrocarbons (see earlier discussion). As a result, heating of the system leads to conditions when the alkoxyl radical decomposition occurs more rapidly than the abstraction of the hydrogen atom from the hydrocarbon. The new chain mechanism of the hydrocarbon oxidation occurs under such conditions, with chain... 

The formed alkoxyl macroradical is very unstable and decomposes with the formation of three carbonyl compounds. 

The situation with 7V-acyloxy-/V-alkoxyureas and carbamates is similar although infrared data were mostly determined by liquid film or condensed phase (KBr/nujol mull).52,131 However, the limited data for V-acyloxy-TV-alkoxyureas (Table 2, entries 69-72) give amide carbonyl frequencies ca. 1730 cm-1 that are raised by some 37-40 cm-1 by acyloxylation. Values for carbamates (Table 2, entries 73-77) are higher (mostly 1780 cm-1) but are raised to a lesser extent (10-20 cm-1) relative to their parent carbamates. Clearly, carbonyl vibrational frequencies will be influenced strongly by the adjacent amino or alkoxyl group in both analogues. 

These rearrangement processes are characterised by a transition state in which the alkoxyl group migrates from the amide nitrogen to the carbonyl carbon (Fig. 17a) and therefore involves HEteroatom Rearrangements On Nitrogen the HERON... 

The physical and spectroscopic properties of /V-acyloxy-A-alkoxyamides confirm pyramidality at nitrogen and the disconnection of the nitrogen lone pair from the amide carbonyl. The presence of an acyloxyl and an alkoxyl group at nitrogen also results in an anomeric interaction between the oxygens, which is facilitated by the sp3-hybridised nitrogen. Experimental observations, including X-ray analysis are fully supported by results from computational chemistry. 

The excited states of carbonyl compounds are often considered to be similar to alkoxyl radicals because of the unpaired electron on the oxygen atom. In particular, the benzophenone n—tt triplet mostly reacts in the same manner as and at a similar rate to t-BuO radicals. 

It is worth mentioning that in a few cases the (3-elimination of the silyl radical from the a-silyl alkoxyl radical (47) with the formation of corresponding carbonyl derivative was observed [63,64]. Evidently the fate of a-silyl alkoxyl radical depends on the method of radical generation and/or the nature of the substrate. Two examples that delineate the potentialities of this rearrangements are reported in Reactions (5.33) and (5.34). In the former, the 5-exo cyclization of secondary alkyl radical on the carbonyl moiety followed by the radical Brook rearrangement afforded the cyclopentyl silyl ether [65], whereas Reaction (5.34) shows the treatment of an a-silyl alcohol with lead tetracetate to afford the mixed acetyl silyl acetal under mild conditions [63]. 

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