Amine pyramidal inversion

Trigonal pyramidal molecules are chiral if the central atom bears three different groups If one is to resolve substances of this type however the pyramidal inversion that mterconverts enantiomers must be slow at room temperature Pyramidal inversion at nitrogen is so fast that attempts to resolve chiral amines fail because of their rapid racemization... 

Phosphorus is m the same group of the periodic table as nitrogen and tricoordi nate phosphorus compounds (phosphines) like amines are trigonal pyramidal Phos phmes however undergo pyramidal inversion much more slowly than amines and a number of optically active phosphines have been prepared... 

Although unsynunetrically substituted amines are chiral, the configuration is not stable because of rapid inversion at nitrogen. The activation energy for pyramidal inversion at phosphorus is much higher than at nitrogen, and many optically active phosphines have been prepared. The barrier to inversion is usually in the range of 30-3S kcal/mol so that enantiomerically pure phosphines are stable at room temperature but racemize by inversion at elevated tempeiatuies. Asymmetrically substituted tetracoordinate phosphorus compounds such as phosphonium salts and phosphine oxides are also chiral. Scheme 2.1 includes some examples of chiral phosphorus compounds. 

One consequence of tetrahedral geometry is that an amine with three different substituents on nitrogen is chiral, as we saw in Section 9.12. Unlike chiral carbon compounds, however, chiral amines can t usually be resolved because the two enantiomeric forms rapidly interconvert by a pyramidal inversion, much as an alkyl halide inverts in an Sfg2 reaction. Pyramidal inversion occurs by a momentary rehybridization of the nitrogen atom to planar, sp2 geometry, followed by rehybridization of the planar intermediate to tetrahedral, 5p3 geometry... 

Figure 24.1 Pyramidal inversion rapidly interconverts the two mirror-image (enantiomeric) forms of an amine.

Compounds With Tervalent Chiral Atoms. Atoms with pyramidal bonding might be expected to give rise to optical activity if the atom is connected to three different groups, since the unshared pair of electrons is analogous to a fourth group, necessarily different from the others. For example, a secondary or tertiary amine where X, Y, and Z are different would be expected to be chiral and thus resolvable. Many attempts have been made to resolve such compounds, but until 1968 all of them failed because of pyramidal inversion, which is a rapid oscillation of the unshared pair from one side of the XYZ... 

The SnI reactions do not proceed at bridgehead carbons in [2.2.1] bicyclic systems (p. 397) because planar carbocations cannot form at these carbons. However, carbanions not stabilized by resonance are probably not planar SeI reactions should readily occur with this type of substrate. This is the case. Indeed, the question of carbanion stracture is intimately tied into the problem of the stereochemistry of the SeI reaction. If a carbanion is planar, racemization should occur. If it is pyramidal and can hold its structure, the result should be retention of configuration. On the other hand, even a pyramidal carbanion will give racemization if it cannot hold its structure, that is, if there is pyramidal inversion as with amines (p. 129). Unfortunately, the only carbanions that can be studied easily are those stabilized by resonance, which makes them planar, as expected (p. 233). For simple alkyl carbanions, the main approach to determining structure has been to study the stereochemistry of SeI reactions rather than the other way around. What is found is almost always racemization. Whether this is caused by planar carbanions or by oscillating pyramidal carbanions is not known. In either case, racemization occurs whenever a carbanion is completely free or is symmetrically solvated. 

An effect observed with a number of compounds which have apparent chiral centers on elements other than carbon. Eor example, secondary and tertiary amines have a pyramidal structure in which the unshared pair of electrons is at the top of the pyramid. If the three substituents hnked to the nitrogen are all different, one might suspect that the tertiary amine would give rise to optical activity and be resolvable. However, rapid oscillation of the unshared pair of electrons on one side of the nitrogen to the other (hence, pyramidal inversion) in effect causes interconversion of the two enantiomers and prevents resolution. If the nitrogen is at a bridgehead, this umbrella effect is inhibited and optical isomers can be isolated. 

In the absence of a kinetically stable M—N bond the asymmetry is lost due to rapid pyramidal inversion of the free amine (AG<25 kj mol-1), unless the asymmetrically substituted nitrogen... 

With ammonia, inversion of this type occurs about 4 x ]010 times per second at room temperature, which corresponds to the planar state being less stable than the pyramidal state by about 6 kcal mole-1. With aliphatic tertiary amines, the inversion rate is more on the order of 103 to 105 times per second. Such rates of inversion are much too great to permit resolution of an amine into its enantiomers by presently available techniques. 

The metal ion does, however, introduce a new subtlety into these reductions. The reduction of the two imine groups in the nickel(n) complex 4.10 is readily achieved with Na[BH4], The free tetraamine ligand would be expected to exhibit a facile pyramidal inversion at each nitrogen atom, whereas in the nickel(n) complex this inversion is not possible without significant weakening (or breaking) of the Ni-N bonds. In macrocyclic complexes it is very often found that the complex obtained by the reduction of a co-ordinated imine does not possess the same stereochemistry as that obtained by the direct reaction of the free amine with metal ion. 

Because amines are tetrahedral so they are chiral if they have three different substituents. However, it is not possible to separate the enantiomers of a chiral amine because amines can easily undergo pyramidal inversion. This process interconverts the enantiomers. The inversion involves a change of hybridisation where the nitrogen becomes sp2 hybridised rather than sp3 hybridised. Because of this, the molecule becomes planar and the lone pair of electrons occupy a p orbital. Once the hybridisation reverts back to sp3, the molecule can either revert back to its original shape or invert. 

Although the enantiomers of chiral amines cannot be separated, such amines can be alkylated to form quaternary ammonium salts where the enantiomers can be separated. Once the lone pair of electrons is locked up in a a bond, pyramidal inversion becomes impossible and the enantiomers can no longer interconvert. 

The bonding in amines is similar to that in ammonia. The nitrogen atom is sp -hybridized, the three substituents are directed to three corners of a tetrahedron, and the lone pair of nonbonding electrons occupies the fourth corner of the tetrahedron. An interesting feature of this tetrahedral structure is that amines undergo a rapid pyramidal inversion, which interconverts mirror-image structures. 

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