Alkyne hydrations

In general ketones are more stable than their enol precursors and are the products actually isolated when alkynes undergo acid catalyzed hydration The standard method for alkyne hydration employs aqueous sulfuric acid as the reaction medium and mer cury(II) sulfate or mercury(II) oxide as a catalyst... 

Because of the regioselectivity of alkyne hydration acetylene is the only alkyne structurally capable of yielding an aldehyde under these conditions... 

Interestingly, the product actually isolated from alkyne hydration is not the vinylic alcohol, or enol (ene + ol), but is instead a ketone. Although the enol is an intermediate in the reaction, it immediately rearranges to a ketone by a process called keto-enol tautomerisni. The individual keto and enol forms are said to be tautomers, a word used to describe constitutional isomers that interconvert rapidly. With few exceptions, the keto-enol tautomeric equilibrium lies on the side of the ketone enols are almost never isolated. We ll look more closely... 

Reaction of acetone with D30+ yields hexadeuterioacetone. That is. all the hydrogens in acetone are exchanged for deuterium. Review the mechanism of mercuric ion-catalyzed alkyne hydration, and then propose a mechanism for this deuterium incorporation. 

Experiments with terminal acetylenes, isolation of an intermediate acetal, alkyne hydratation studies, and ab initio calculations provide substantiation of a unified mechanism that rationalizes the reactions in which the complex formation between the alkyne and the iron(III) halides is the activating step (Scheme 12) [27]. 

The catalyst reported by Grotjahn and Lev (11-13) for alkyne hydration (2) is capable of isomerizing alkenes, but veiy slowly. Because we knew that the rate of alkyne hydration was unchanged in the presence of excess phosphine ligand, we thought that like alkyne hydration, alkene isomerization would require loss of acetonitrile ligand (14) and alkene binding. Subsequent deprotonation at an allylic position would make an q -allyl intermediate which when reprotonated at the other... 

The most synthetically valuable method for converting alkynes to ketones is by mercuric ion-catalyzed hydration. Terminal alkynes give methyl ketones, in accordance with the Markovnikov rule. Internal alkynes give mixtures of ketones unless some structural feature promotes regioselectivity. Reactions with Hg(OAc)2 in other nucleophilic solvents such as acetic acid or methanol proceed to (3-acetoxy- or (3-methoxyalkenylmercury intermediates,152 which can be reduced or solvolyzed to ketones. The regiochemistry is indicative of a mercurinium ion intermediate that is opened by nucleophilic attack at the more positive carbon, that is, the additions follow the Markovnikov rule. Scheme 4.8 gives some examples of alkyne hydration reactions. 

We are applying the principles of enzyme mechanism to organometallic catalysis of the reactions of nonpolar and polar molecules for our early work using heterocyclic phosphines, please see ref. 1.(1) Here we report that whereas uncatalyzed alkyne hydration by water has a half-life measured in thousands of years, we have created improved catalysts which reduce the half-life to minutes, even at neutral pH. These data correspond to enzyme-like rate accelerations of >3.4 x 109, which is 12.8 times faster than our previously reported catalyst and 1170 times faster than the best catalyst known in the literature without a heterocyclic phosphine. In some cases, practical hydration can now be conducted at room temperature. Moreover, our improved catalysts favor anti-Markovnikov hydration over traditional Markovnikov hydration in ratios of over 1000 to 1, with aldehyde yields above 99% in many cases. In addition, we find that very active hydration catalysts can be created in situ by adding heterocyclic phosphines to otherwise inactive catalysts. The scope, limitations, and development of these reactions will be described in detail. 

These results prompted us to ask how do these catalysts compare with enzymes What is the rate of uncatalyzed alkyne hydration Our search of the literature thus far has not revealed a study of the uncatalyzed reaction. 

Table 1 Selected examples of transition metal-catalyzed alkyne hydration reactions...

A most significant advance in the alkyne hydration area during the past decade has been the development of Ru(n) catalyst systems that have enabled the anti-Markovnikov hydration of terminal alkynes (entries 6 and 7). These reactions involve the addition of water to the a-carbon of a ruthenium vinylidene complex, followed by reductive elimination of the resulting hydridoruthenium acyl intermediate (path C).392-395 While the use of GpRuGl(dppm) in aqueous dioxane (entry 6)393-396 and an indenylruthenium catalyst in an aqueous medium including surfactants has proved to be effective (entry 7),397 an Ru(n)/P,N-ligand system (entry 8) has recently been reported that displays enzyme-like rate acceleration (>2.4 x 1011) (dppm = bis(diphenylphosphino)methane).398... 

By the example of 34 different alkynes, it was convincingly demonstrated that the product of the treatment of [PtCLJ with CO at 40-110 °C is a very powerful alkyne hydration catalyst some of the reactions are shown on Scheme 9.7 [25], The best medium for this transformation is THF containing 5 % H2O. The reaction can also be performed in a water-organic solvent two-phase system (e.g. with 1,2-dichloroethane), however in this case addition of a tetralkylammonium salt, such as Aliquat 336, is required to facilitate mass transfer between the phases. After the reaction with CO, the major part of platinum is present as H2[ Pt3(CO)6 n], but the catalytic effect was assigned to a putative mononuclear Pt-hydride, [PtHCl(CO)2], presumably formed from the cluster and some HCl (supplied by the reduction of [PtCU]). The hydration of terminal acetylenes follows Markovnikov s mle leading exclusively to aldehyde-free ketones. 

However, the enzymology of alkene and alkyne hydration is not well known. Recently, Meckenstock et al. (1999) discovered that the enzyme responsible for anaerobic hydration of acetylene contains a tungsten atom and an [Fe-S] cluster. This may hint that the enzyme uses the tungsten as a Lewis acid to activate the double bond. Possibly, the [Fe-S] cluster then serves to deliver a hydroxide as known in many common metabolite hydrations (Flint and Allen, 1996). Having introduced an oxygen moiety in an initial hydration, anaerobic bacteria may now be able to continue the biodegradation of such compounds. 

Hydration reactions of alkynes and nitriles were studied over various zeolites in liquid phase, with ethanol as solvent. Alkyne hydration led to expected carbonyl compounds whereas the formation of the amide and of the corresponding ester was observed during nitrile hydration. 

We have already shown that Y zeolites are efficient catalysts for alkyne hydration (ref. 15). Such zeolites can also be used for nitrile hydration, but, in this case, the occurence of ester formation in alcoholic medium constitutes a new and interesting result. 

As part of our programme on mechanistic studies over zeolite catalysts, the present paper deals with the confirmation of the activity of various structure zeolites in the alkyne hydration, and with the results obtained in the case of nitrile behaviour over the same zeolites. 

Moreover, contrary to alkyne hydration where no adsorption of the carbonyl compound was detected, the problem is complicated here by the saturation of the strong acidic sites by the formed amide, the concentration of which shows a rapid stabilization against time (Fig.3). Consequently the reaction selectivity greatly depends on the ester percentage. The behaviour of the amide itself over the studied zeolites confirms this observation the conversion of the amide into ester goes faster on the HY2 g zeolite than on the Hg and on the HMg zeolites. This later point, together with the comprehension of the different mechanisms in relation with the zeolite properties, will be discussed in a further paper. 

C-M bond addition, for C-C bond formation, 10, 403-491 iridium additions, 10, 456 nickel additions, 10, 463 niobium additions, 10, 427 osmium additions, 10, 445 palladium additions, 10, 468 rhodium additions, 10, 455 ruthenium additions, 10, 444 Sc and Y additions, 10, 405 tantalum additions, 10, 429 titanium additions, 10, 421 vanadium additions, 10, 426 zirconium additions, 10, 424 Carbon-oxygen bond formation via alkyne hydration, 10, 678 for aryl and alkenyl ethers, 10, 650 via cobalt-mediated propargylic etherification, 10, 665 Cu-mediated, with borons, 9, 219 cycloetherification, 10, 673 etherification, 10, 669, 10, 685 via hydro- and alkylative alkoxylation, 10, 683 via inter- andd intramolecular hydroalkoxylation, 10, 672 via metal vinylidenes, 10, 676 via SnI and S Z processes, 10, 684 via transition metal rc-arene complexes, 10, 685 via transition metal-mediated etherification, overview,... 

Anhydrous iron(III) halides catalyse coupling of alkynes and aldehydes.211 Simple terminal alkynes, R CH, react with aldehydes, R2CHO, to give ( ,Z)-1,5-dihalo-1,4-dienes (55). In contrast, non-terminal arylalkynes give ( ,)-o, /3-unsaturated ketones. The catalysts also promote standard Prins cyclization of homoallylic alcohols. Studies of intermediates and of alkyne hydration - together with calculations - all support FeX3 complex formation with alkyne as the activating step. 

This alkyne hydration reaction can occur without added Hg2+. Show all the steps in the mechanism. 

The anthracyciinone class of anticancer compounds (which includes daunomycin and adriamycin) can be made using a mercury (I I )-promoted alkyne hydration. You saw the synthesis of alkynes in this class on Chapter 9 where we discussed additions of metallated alkynes to ketones. Here is the final step in a synthesis of the anticancer compound deoxydaunomycinone the alkyne is hydrated using Hg2+ in dilute sulfuric acid the sulfuric acid also catalyses the hydrolysis of the phenolic acetate to give the final product. 

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