And the Stevens rearrangement

The variants with allylic ammonium and sulfonium ylidesl are well known and correspond to the Sommelet-Hauser and the Stevens rearrangement. Two representative examples are shown in Schemes 50 and 51. 

From 5 the formation of alkene 2 is possible through loss of a proton. However, carbenium ions can easily undergo a Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement, and the corresponding rearrangement products may be thus obtained. In case of the Bamford-Stevens reaction under protic conditions, the yield of non-rearranged olefins may be low, which is why this reaction is applied only if other methods (e.g. dehydration of alcohols under acidic conditions) are not practicable. 

Rearrangements closely resembling the Stevens rearrangement have been investigated by applying Grignard reagents or potassium t-butoxide in dimethyl-formamide (low availability of protons) to cis- and trans-2,4-diphenylthietane oxides and dioxides . The main results are summarized in equation 97 and 98. 

Scheme 52). The reaction will proceed via the enolate 292 and the quinodimethide 293 as key intermediates. Basic treatment of 291 did not cause the Stevens rearrangement but gave the Hofmann degradation product 295. 

Kano et al. (161,162) also investigated the Stevens rearrangement of tetrahydroprotoberberine metho salts 302 with dimsylsodium and obtained the spirobenzylisoquinolines 303 in high yield (Scheme 56). Similarly C-homoprotoberberine 304 gave the new spiro compound 305, whereas B-homoprotoberberine 306 afforded only the Hofmann degradation product 307. 

Kametani et al. (163-165) studied the Stevens rearrangement using sodium bis(2-methoxyethoxy)aluminum hydride as the base in dioxane. It became clear from studies using deuterium-labeled or optically active compounds that quasi-axially oriented hydrogens at C-8 and C-14 were independently abstracted by the base, leading to a spirobenzylisoquinoline and an 8-... 

Simple 1,2-shifts of alkyl, from carbon to carbon, that are carbanionic in character are essentially unknown. Examples are known, however, in which alkyl is involved in a 1,2-shift from other atoms such as N and S to a carbanion atom—the Stevens rearrangement ... 

Cleavage of a-aminoketones and their quaternary ammonium salts by sodium amalgam or zinc dust and acid has been used in synthetic procedures. This process was a key step in determining the stereochemistry of the Stevens rearrangement for... 

Nitrogen ylides are also known to undergo [1,2]- (Stevens) and [2,3]-rearrangements. The Stevens rearrangement occurs through a mechanism that involves homolytic cleavage... 

Naidu, B.N. The Stevens Rearrangement of Ammonium Ylides and Its Applications to the Synthesis of Azaheterocycles, a-Amino Add Derivatives and Optically Active (-)-Epilupi-nine Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Utah,... 

Essentially the same mechanism is likely to be involved in an electrochemical version of the Stevens rearrangement. The mechanism of this reaction is not known with certainty however, it is known to be intramolecular and to involve deprotonation of quaternary ammonium salts to give nitrogen ylids which rapidly rearrange. The scheme set out in Scheme 9 is therefore entirety plausible. 

Other heterocyclic tertiary amines show a different behavior. Tertiary amines have been used as catalysts in dichlorocyclopropanation of olefins they probably give an ammonium ylide as the first step in the catalytic cycle.262 These ylides are usually unstable and undergo a variety of transformations such as the Stevens rearrangement and the Hoffmann elimination. 

Although JV-methylisatin and 143 in ethanol gives the expected anil,412 reaction in acid can give 144 and 145.412 A mechanism analogous to the Stevens rearrangement is proposed for the formation of 145. 

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