Radical-anionic sequences

Molander recognised the potential of the Sml2-mediated Barbier addition to esters for the initiation of sequential processes (Chapter 5, Section 5.4). Two types of cascade have been developed that involve nucleophilic acyl substitution the first type involves double intramolecular Barbier addition to an ester group (anionic-anionic sequences),17 and the second type consists of a Barbier addition to an ester followed by a carbonyl-alkene/alkyne cyclisation of the resultant ketone (anionic-radical sequences) (Scheme 6.12).18,19... 

These anionic-radical sequences can even be extended further and Molander has shown that anionic-radical-anionic sequences are possible.18 Treatment of... 

With the site-selective hole injection and the hole trapping device established, the efficiency of the hole transport between the hole donor and acceptor, especially with respect to the distance and sequence dependence, were examined. Our experiments showed that hole transport between two guanines was extremely inefficient when the intervening sequence consisted of more than 5 A-T base pairs [1]. Hole injection into the DNA n-stack using photoexcited dCNBPU was accompanied by the formation of dCNBPU anion radical. Therefore, hole transport would always compete with the back electron transfer (BET). To minimize the effect of BET, we opted for hole transport between G triplets, that are still lower in oxidation potential than G doublet. With this experimental system, we researched the effect of the bridging sequence between two G triplets on the efficiency of hole transport [2]. 

Besides the numerous examples of anionic/anionic processes, anionic/pericydic domino reactions have become increasingly important and present the second largest group of anionically induced sequences. In contrast, there are only a few examples of anionic/radical, anionic/transition metal-mediated, as well as anionic/re-ductive or anionic/oxidative domino reactions. Anionic/photochemically induced and anionic/enzyme-mediated domino sequences have not been found in the literature during the past few decades. It should be noted that, as a consequence of our definition, anionic/cationic domino processes are not listed, as already stated for cationic/anionic domino processes. Thus, these reactions would require an oxidative and reductive step, respectively, which would be discussed under oxidative or reductive processes. 

Another anionic/radical one-pot sequence was developed by Guindon and coworkers for the stereoselective synthesis of substituted pentanoates 2-718 (Scheme 2.158) [365]. Such structures are found in polyketides and are, therefore, of great interest. The described approach offers a diastereoselective access to all four possible stereoisomers of 2-718 through a Mukaiyama aldol/radical defunctionalization sequence starting from 2-716 and 2-717 with addition of Bu3SnH after completion of the first step. 

Because of the precise control of the redox steps by means of the electrode potential and the facile measurement of the kinetics through the current, the electrochemical approach to. S rn I reactions is particularly well suited to assessing the validity of the. S rn I mechanism and identifying the side reactions (termination steps of the chain process). It also allows full kinetic characterization of the reaction sequence. The two key steps of the reaction are the cleavage of the initial anion radical, ArX -, and conversely, formation of the product anion radical, ArNu -. Modeling these reactions as concerted intramolecular electron transfer/bond-breaking and bond-forming processes, respectively, allows the establishment of reactivity-structure relationships as shown in Section 3.5. 

The resulting halide anion radical undergoes a fast follow-up reaction. The whole reaction sequence is as follows ... 

As to the further fate of the formed radical R, it may be trapped with the reactant ion, say Z, and transformed into (RZ) anion-radical. The latter will pass an unpaired electron to RX to start a new reaction sequence. Therefore, the starting compound must have a greater electron affinity than the substitution product. This is necessary to develop the described chain process. Another pathway to stabilize the radical R is its dimerization—R -I- R —> R—R. 

Principally the same, but chemically simpler, sequence was used to prepare arylnitro anion-radicals from arylamines, in high yields. For instance, aqueous sodium nitrite solution was added to a mixture of ascorbic acid and sodium 3,5-dibromo-4-aminobenzenesulfonate in water. After addition of aqueous sodium hydroxide solution, the cation-radical of sodium 3,5-dibromo-4-nitro-benzenesulfonate was formed in the solution. The latter was completely characterized by its ESR spectrum. Double functions of the nitrite and ascorbic acid in the reaction should be underlined. Nitrite takes part in diazotization of the starting amine and trapping of the phenyl a-radical formed after one-electron reduction of the intermediary diazo compound. Ascorbic acid produces acidity to the reaction solution (needed for diazotization) and plays the role of a reductant when the medium becomes alkaline. The method described was proposed for ESR analytical determination of nitrite ions in water solutions (Lagercrantz 1998). 

Snbsequent detailed kinetic stndies revealed that the reaction mechanism for the hydroxy-lation of arenes is mnch more complicated than that indicated above Furthermore, the active intermediate is likely an anion radical species formed upon interaction of two molecules of the vanadium peroxo complex. The sequence of the various steps is indicated in equations 17-24. The steps indicated in equations 17-21 refer to a radical chain which accounts for decomposition of the peroxo complex to form dioxygen, whereas the subsequent steps are those required for the functionalization of the substrate. 

Furthermore, the authors were the first to gamer evidence that the back electron-transfer (BET) from the CO2 anion-radical to the cation-radical of the ACT, leading to the formation of the activator s excited singlet state. The AG bet values were calculated on the basis of the CIEEL sequence (Scheme 44), so this finding contributes further to confirm this mechanism. However, data obtained on two less commonly used activators 9,10-dimethoxyanthracene and, particularly, 9,10-dicyanoanthracene do not fit into the correlations obtained for the other activators, implying that details of this mechanism still require clarification. A putative explanation for the fact that 9,10-dimethoxyanthracene and 9,10-dicyanoanthracene do not correlate as predicted by CIEEL is the involvement of an alternative pathway, in which CO2 cation radical and the anion radical of the activator are formed by initial electron transfer from the peroxide to the activator (Scheme 45). ... 

A remarkable number of organic compounds luminesce when subjected to consecutive oxidation-reduction (or reduction-oxidation) in aprotic solvents1-17 under conditions where anion radicals are oxidized or cation radicals are reduced. In many instances, the emission is identical with that of the normal solution fluorescence of the compound employed. In these instances the redox process has served to produce neutral molecules in an excited electronic state. These consecutive processes which result in emission are not special examples of oxidative chemiluminescence, but are more properly classified as electron transfer luminescence in solution since the sequence oxidation-reduction can be as effective as reduction-oxidation.8,10,12 A simple molecular orbital diagram, although it is a zeroth-order approximation of what might be involved under some conditions, provides a useful starting... 

When estimating the energetics of excess electron transfer in DNA via differences of electron affinities (EA) of nucleobases B in WCP trimers 5 -XBY-3 [92], we found the EA values of bases to decrease in the order C T A>G. The destabihzing effect of the subsequent base Y is more pronounced than that of the preceding base X. As strongest electron traps, we predicted the sequences 5 -XCY-3 and 5 -XTY-3, where X and Y are pyrimidines C and T. These triads exhibit very similar EA values, and therefore, the corresponding anion radical states should be approximately in resonance, favoring efficient transport of excess electrons in DNA [92]. 

One of the earliest applications of combined EPR and electrochemical measurements was the study of nitroalkane reductions [48]. Cyclic voltammetry revealed irreversible reduction waves, but some anodic peaks were observed on the reverse scan and were attributed to reaction intermediates. In situ generation produced an initial spectrum attributable to the nitroalkane anion radical, but after some time, the dialkylnitroxide spectrum was detected. This information, combined with analysis of the products formed during bulk electrolysis, suggested the following reaction sequence ... 

The carbon dioxide anion radical was used for one-electron reductions of nitrobenzene diazonium cations, nitrobenzene itself, quinones, aliphatic nitro compounds, acetaldehyde, acetone and other carbonyl compounds, maleimide, riboflavin, and certain dyes (Morkovnik Okhlobystin 1979). This anion radical reduces organic complexes of Com and Rum into appropriate complexes of the metals in the valence 2 state (Morkovnik Okhlobystin 1979). In the case of the pentammino-p-nitrobenzoato-cobalt(III) complex, the electron-transfer reaction passes a stage of the formation of the Co(III) complex with the p-nitrophenyl anion radical fragment. This intermediate complex transforms into the final Co(II) complex with the p-nitrobenzoate ligand as a result of an intramolecular electron transfer. Scheme 1-89 illustrates this sequence of transformations ... 

Sometimes, anion radicals are formed indirectly, by means of special chemical reactions. Photoionization of hydrazine in a mixture of liquid ammonia with THF in the presence of potassium l-butoxide leads to the formation of the diazene anion radical by the sequence of the following reactions (Brand et al. 1985) ... 

In most cases, the coupling reaction between the radical and nucleophile species is the rate-determining step in the dark (see, for example, Tamura et al. 1991 Azuma et al. 1992). This step leads to RNu, the product of real substitution. The chain process is completed by a reaction in which one electron is transferred from the product anion radical to the substrate. A neutral substitution product is formed the propagation loop is closed. This sequence of steps has been mentioned in Chapters 4 and 5. 

A nice extension of this chemistry to sequential anionic/radical/anionic sequence was also provided [5, 9]. Normally after acyl addition and radical cyclization onto a C = C bond, the newly formed carbon radical is reduced to an organosamarium intermediate which is subsequently protonated. However, as depicted in Scheme 5, this organosamarium may be trapped in the presence of a ketone substrate, thus terminating this three-step process. In another demonstration of how such anions may be further exploited, substrates possessing vinyl ethers as the radical acceptor were found to under-... 

At present, the accepted mechanism of 1,4-addition involves the formation of either a charge-transfer complex or an anion-radical species by partial or complete electron transfer, respectively [Eq. (92)]. Collapse of the charge-transfer complex or transfer of an organic group from the copper(II) species which results from the second process, completes the addition sequence 139). Supporting evidence for this view of the... 

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