Alkyl hydroperoxides alkene addition

Kharasch called this the peroxide effect and demonstrated that it could occur even if peroxides were not deliberately added to the reaction mixture Unless alkenes are pro tected from atmospheric oxygen they become contaminated with small amounts of alkyl hydroperoxides compounds of the type ROOH These alkyl hydroperoxides act m the same way as deliberately added peroxides promoting addition m the direction opposite to that predicted by Markovmkov s rule... 

An alternative method for dialkyl peroxide synthesis is the nucleophilic addition of an alkyl hydroperoxide to an alkene under acid catalysis reported by Davies and coworkers (Scheme 31, path B) ". A similar reaction is the nucleophilic addition of alkylhy-droperoxides to vinyl ethers under acid catalysis, producing perketals. Perketals can be deprotected under mild conditions (THF/water/acetic acid) and this hydroperoxide protection-deprotection sequence has been used by Dussault and Porter as a means for the resolution of racemic hydroperoxides (see also Section II.A.2) . In this respect more detailed studies were carried out with the perketals 75, which were prepared via reaction of alkyl hydroperoxides with vinyl ethers (Scheme 33). Weissermel and Lederer reported that in the presence of teri-butyl hypochlorite, a-chlorodialkyl peroxides can be formed in yields between 12% and 45% (Scheme 31, path C)". a-Alkoxydialkyl peroxides and diperoxyacetals were prepared by Rieche and coworkers via acid catalyzed reaction of one or two equivalents of alkyl hydroperoxides with acetals, ketals or aldehydes (Scheme 31, path D)" or by methylation of the corresponding a-alkoxy hydroperoxides with diazomethane (yields 11%, 27%)" . The diperoxyacetals 76 were isolated in yields ranging from 39 to 77%. 

Although hydrogen peroxide and alkyl hydroperoxides in general are not sufficiently reactive to epoxidize alkenes, there are some exceptions. Experimental observations show that direct olefin epoxidation by H2O2, which is extremely sluggish otherwise, occurs in fluorinated alcohol (RfOH) solutions under mild conditions requiring no additional... 

Early work on the electrophilic addition of hydrogen peroxide to alkenes was performed in the presence of an acid catalyst, usually sulfuric acid364 or p-toluenesulfonic acid.363 The reaction proceeds via Markovnikov-directed protonation of the double bond (Scheme 3). Subsequent nucleophilic attack of hydrogen peroxide on the carbocation, followed by loss of a proton, furnishes the alkyl hydroperoxide.366... 

Recently, it has been proposed that alkyl hydroperoxides are formed from the Coni-catalyzed Markov-nikov addition of hydrogen peroxide to alkenes.371 The alkyl hydroperoxides thus formed are immediately decomposed into ketones and alcohols under the reaction conditions (equation 237). 

In a manner analogous to the acid-catalyzed addition of hydrogen peroxide, dialkyl peroxides are formed by the addition of alkyl hydroperoxides to alkenes (equation 23S).366... 

The normal synthetic pathway for hydroboration is reaction with an ambiphilic nucleophile of which the simplest example is hydroperoxide ion. This elicits a 1,2-migration of an alkyl group from boron to oxygen with concurrent loss of hydroxide ion. The step occurs with essentially complete retention of configuration. In similar vein, ambiphilic species with the structure NH2X may be used in amination, so that the overall reaction is an addition of ammonia to the alkene with the regio- and chemoselectivity driven by the hydroboration step. A majority of reactions of organoboranes can be rationalized in terms of these ionic mechanistic pathways, or closely related protocols (Scheme 2). 

Oxidation of ]V-MeTTPFenCl (46, 52). Catalytic alkene oxidation by iron N-alkylporphyrins requires that the modified heme center can form an active oxidant, presumably at the HRP compound I level of oxidation. To show that iron N-alkyl porphyrins could form highly oxidized complexes, these reactive species were generated by chemical oxidation and examined by NMR spectroscopy. Reaction of the (N-MeTTP)FenCl with chlorine or bromine at low temperatures results in formation of the corresponding iron(III)-halide complex. Addition of ethyl- or t-butyl-hydroperoxide, or iodosylbenzene, to a solution of N-MeTTPFenCl at low temperatures has no effect on the NMR spectrum. However, addition of m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid (m-CPBA) results in the formation of iron(III) and iron(IV) products as well as porphyrin radical compounds that retain the N-substituent. 

Pb(C2H5)4 is employed as a chain-starter for the alkylation of alkanes or cycloalkanes by alkenes or cycloalkenes [697], and in the liquid-phase oxidation of alkylaromatic hydrocarbons to give hydroperoxides [892]. Pb(C2Hs)4 catalyzes the photochemical addition of HBr [661, 681] or of H2S or mercaptans to alkenes, such as propene [661, 679, 681], and it catalyzes the intermolecular condensation of arylalkanes in sunlight or on heating [684]. 

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