Allenes, oxetanes

Four-membered heterocycles are easily formed via [2-I-2] cycloaddition reac tions [65] These cycloaddmon reactions normally represent multistep processes with dipolar or biradical intermediates The fact that heterocumulenes, like isocyanates, react with electron-deficient C=X systems is well-known [116] Via this route, (1 lactones are formed on addition of ketene derivatives to hexafluoroacetone [117, 118] The presence of a trifluoromethyl group adjacent to the C=N bond in quinoxalines, 1,4-benzoxazin-2-ones, l,2,4-triazm-5-ones, and l,2,4-tnazin-3,5-diones accelerates [2-I-2] photocycloaddition processes with ketenes and allenes [106] to yield the corresponding azetidine derivatives Starting from olefins, fluonnaied oxetanes are formed thermally and photochemically [119, 120] The reaction of 5//-l,2-azaphospholes with fluonnated ketones leads to [2-i-2j cycloadducts [121] (equation 27)... 

Aldehydes and ketones also add to allenes to form oxetanes.ai0,111) Further reaction of the oxetanes produced with excited carbonyls results in dioxaspiro[3.3]heptane derivatives(111) ... 

With conjugated dienes, photocycloaddition of carbonyl compounds occurs at one of the double bonds to give vinyloxetanes. An interesting example is the reaction of acetone with 2-methyl-l,3-butadiene, which gave the two oxetanes (60) and (61) in a ratio of 3 1 and a total yield of about 20% (72JA8761). Other alkenes which have been used for photosynthesis of oxetanes include enol ethers, ketene acetals, enamines, allenes and diketene, with the reaction of the last compound with benzaldehyde illustrated in equation (105) (75CPB365). 

The Paterno-Biichi reaction has been employed in the synthesis, often in high yield, of a large variety of substituted oxetanes. In addition to simple aliphatic and aromatic alkenes, cycloaddition of ketones to, for example, fumaronitrile,284 l,3-diacetylimidazolin-2-one288 [Eq. (73)], and allenes286 has been reported. Allenes yield both 1,5- and l,6-dioxaspiro[3.3]heptanes as well as the 2-alkylidene-oxetane this is illustrated for benzophenone and tetramethylallene in Eq. (74). Cycloaddition of ketones to ketenimines to form 2- and... 

The chemistry of methylene-substituted 2-oxetanones, and in particular diketene, has attracted a vast amount of research over the years, so other alkylene-substituted oxetanes and oxetan-2-ones, including methylene oxetanes, are discussed separately in Section 2.05.7.4. Diketene is also known as 4-methylene-2-oxetanone and a notable difference between this and other 2-oxetanones is that it undergoes thermal decomposition by a cycloreversion reaction to give ketene, rather than forming allene and C02. CHEC-II(1996) refers to a series of comprehensive reviews of the chemistry of this compound <1996CHEC-II(1)721>. 

Cantrell, T. S., Allen, A. C., and ZifFer, H., Photochemical 2-1-2 cycloaddition of arenecarboxylic acid esters to furans and 1,3-dienes 2-1-2 cycloreversion of oxetanes to dienol esters and ketones, /. Org. Chem., 54,140,1989. 

Howell, A. R., Fan, R., and Truong, A., Preparation of 2-alkylidene oxetanes an investigation of the Paternb-Biichi reaction between aliphatic aldehydes and allenes. Tetrahedron Lett., 37, 8651, 1996. 

---