Alkylidene, formation mechanism

A Mechanism for Alkylidene Formation. There is no unambiguous example of free-carbene capture by a metal substrate, and the mild reaction conditions used in the generation of these carbene complexes from diazoalkanes suggests that such a mechanism is highly unlikely here. Transition metal diazoalkane complexes, then, are almost certainly implicated as intermediates in these reactions. 

The mechanism of alkylidene formation and thus chain initiation, in systems that contain no alkyl ligands either on the metal or cocatalyst still remains unknown. 

While diene metathesis or diyne metathesis are driven by the loss of a (volatile) alkene or alkyne by-product, enyne metathesis (Fig. 2) cannot benefit from this contributing feature to the AS term of the reaction, since the event is entirely atom economic. Instead, the reaction is driven by the formation of conjugated dienes, which ensures that once these dienes have been formed, the process is no longer a reversible one. Enyne metathesis can also be considered as an alkylidene migration reaction, because the alkylidene unit migrates from the alkene part to one of the alkyne carbons. The mechanism of enyne metathesis is not well described, as two possible complexation sites (alkene or alkyne) exist for the ruthenium carbene, leading to different reaction pathways, and the situation is further complicated when the reaction is conducted under an atmosphere of ethylene. Despite its enormous potential to form mul-... 

A new domino lithium acetylide addition/rearrangement procedure on trans-1,2-dibenzoyl-3,5-cyclohexadiene furnished 3-alkylidene-2,3-dihydrofurans via an intriguing mechanism involving three bond formations and two bond cleavages in one single operation <06SL1230>. The reaction of dimedone with meso-diacetoxycyclohexene in the presence of a palladium catalyst led to the formation of the tricyclic product as depicted below <06S865>. 

E.O. Fischer s discovery of (CO)sW[C(Ph)(OMe)D in 1964 marks the beginning of the development of the chemistry of metal-carbon double bonds (1). At about this same time the olefin metathesis reaction was discovered (2), but It was not until about five years later that Chauvln proposed (3) that the catalyst contained an alkylidene ligand and that the mechanism consisted of the random reversible formation of all possible metallacyclobutane rings. Yet low oxidation state Fischer-type carbene complexes were found not to be catalysts for the metathesis of simple olefins. It is now... 

There are distinct correlations between the mechanism of formation of compound 43, the eliminations frequently observed with derivatives of aldaric acids, and the reducing power of alkyl D-glucofuranosidurono- and l,2-0-alkylidene-a-D-glucofuranurono-6,3-lactones toward complexed copper(II) solutions. These phenomena are discussed in Section VII. 

Cyclization of 2-(l-alkynyl)XV-alkylidene anilines is catalyzed by palladium to give indoles (Equation (114)).471 Two mechanisms are proposed the regioselective insersion of an H-Pd-OAc species to the alkyne moiety (formation of a vinylpalladium species) followed by (i) carbopalladation of the imine moiety and /3-hydride elimination or (ii) oxidative addition to the imino C-H bond and reductive coupling. 

Electrophilic transition metal complexes can react with organic ylides to yield alkylidene complexes. A possible mechanism would be the initial formation of alkyl complexes, which are converted into the final carbene complexes by electrophilic a-abstraction (Figure 3.18). This process is particularly important for the generation of acceptor-substituted carbene complexes (Section 4.1). 

Alkylidene derivatives of phthalic thioanhydride are formed as shown in Scheme 160. Reaction of phthalic thioanhydride with hot triethyl phosphite produces trafts-S -bithioph-thalide (457), probably via the carbene and phosphorane (Scheme 161) (72AHC(14)331>. Support for this mechanism stems from the fact that brief treatment of phthalic thioanhydride with triethyl phosphite in the presence of phthalic anhydride gives (458) in the presence of benzaldehyde the same reaction leads to the benzylidene derivative (456). An alternative mechanism has also been suggested, in which the penultimate step is the formation of an epoxide, which is deoxygenated to yield the product (72AHC(14)331>. 

The reaction of iV-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)amino acids with base in aqueous dioxane has been shown to give benzimidazole iV-oxides (7). The rate-determining step is likely to be formation of an iV-alkylidene-2-nitrosoaniline intermediate (6), which is followed by rapid cyclization and decarboxylation.19 The loss of carbon dioxide from perbenzoate anions has been investigated by mass spectrometry and electronic structure calculations. The results, including isotopic labelling experiments, support a mechanism involving initial intramolecular nucleophilic attack at either the ortho- or ipso-ring positions. They also indicate that epoxides may be intermediates en route to the phenoxide products.20 There has also been a theoretical study of the formation of trichlorinated dibenzo-/ -dioxins by reaction of 2,4,5-trichlorophenolate ions with 2,4-dichlorophenol.21... 

The domino carbonylation and Diels-Alder reaction proceed only as an intramolecular version. Attempted carbonylation and intermolecular Diels-Alder reaction of conjugated 2-yne-4-enyl carbonates 101 in the presence of various alkenes as dienophiles give entirely different carbocyclization products without undergoing the intermolecular Diels-Alder reaction. The 5-alkylidene-2-cyclopenten-4-onecarboxy-lates 102 were obtained unexpectedly by the incorporation of two molecules of CO in 82% yield from 101 at 50 °C under 1 atm [25], The use of bidentate ligands such as DPPP or DPPE is important. The following mechanism of the carbocyclization of 103 has been proposed. The formation of palladacyclopentene 105 from 104 (oxidative cyclization) is proposed as an intermediate of 108. Then CO insertion to the palladacycle 105 generates acylpalladium 106. Subsequent reductive elimination affords the cyclopentenone 107, which isomerizes to the cyclopentenone 108 as the final product. 

This mechanism allows the alkylidene groups to change partners back and forth with the catalytic metal until a thermodynamic equilibrium is reached. As we saw earlier, good yields of products result if there is an effective driving force (such as formation of a gaseous by-product or release of ring strain) to push the equilibrium toward the desired products. 

The mechanism of all metathesis reactions consists of three basic steps. The first step is the formation of metal-alkylidene complexes. The second step is the formation of metallocyclobutanes. The third step is the opening of the metallocyclobutane rings, which leads to product formation. The catalytic cycle... 

Alkylidenes are proposed as intermediates in some mechanisms of Rscher-Tropscli processes. For example, Olive s [45, 46] mechanism is based on the formation of such entities which are formed by dehydration of hydroxy intermediates ... 

Metathesis, which is reversible and can be catalyzed by a variety of organometallic complexes, has been the subject of considerable investigation, and many reviews on this topic have been published.In 1970, Herisson and Chauvin proposed that these reactions are catalyzed by carbene (alkylidene) complexes that react with alkenes via the formation of metallacyclobutane intermediates, as shown in Figure 14-20. This mechanism, now known as the Chauvin mechanism, has received considerable support and is believed to be the pathway of the majority of transition metal-catalyzed olefin metathesis reactions. 

Reduction of alkylidene malonates (60) in MeOH in an undivided cell using alkali metal halides as supporting electrolytes results in the unusual formation of 3,4-disubsti-tuted 1,1,2,2-cyclobutanetetracarboxylates, 61 [141]. Cyclobutane formation requires 4-7 F and is not a radical anion-catalyzed cycloaddition. The process was explained by the mechanism in Scheme 11, where the cyclization takes place by chemical oxidation of the... 

---