Attack by Nucleophiles

The reaction of TH with nucleophiles has been recently reviewed [10]. Consequently, only the new developments published subsequent to that review will be presented here. However, because of the importance of the mechanistic possibilities, this section will begin with a brief discussion of these possibilities. 

The mechanisms for the reaction of TH presented here have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere [31,63]. The disproportionation mechanism was discussed above and is shown in Eqs. (11-13). The complexation mechanism shown in Eqs. (14-16) is the generally accepted mechanism for the reaction of nucleophiles with THX 

The half-regeneration mechanism shown in Eqs. (17-19) is similar to the complexation mechanism except that a covalent bond is formed between TH and the nucleophile in the half-regeneration mechanism but only a complex, devoid of a covalent bond, is formed between these species in the complexation mechanism. This raises the interesting issue of how reactive radical cations are toward nucleophiles. Low reactivity of some aromatic radical cations with nucleophiles, compared with even-electron species of the same charge, had been noted experimentally [64]. 

Reaction of alcohols with TH has been studied [72]. The overall reaction is shown in Eq. (20)  

Alkoxysulfonium salt 30, R=cyclohexyl, is isolable and has been fully characterized [73]. Decomposition of these salts in acetonitrile leads to alkenes, ethers, and AT-alkylacetamides. Notably absent from this list of decomposition products are aldehydes and ketones which are typically formed by the decomposition of alkoxysulfonium salts 31 derived from dimethylsulfoxide [74,75]. The lack of formation of aldehydes and ketones from 30 is consistent with the known mechanism [76-78], shown in Eq. (21), for formation of these compounds from 31  

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The carbocations formed as intermediates when allylic halides undergo Stvfl reactions have their positive charge shared by the two end carbons of the allylic system and may be attacked by nucleophiles at either site Products may be formed with the same pattern of bonds as the starting allylic halide or with allylic rearrangement... 

The structural features especially the very polar nature of the carbonyl group point clearly to the kind of chemistry we will see for aldehydes and ketones in this chapter The partially positive carbon of C=0 has carbocation character and is electrophilic The planar arrangement of its bonds make this carbon relatively uncrowded and susceptible to attack by nucleophiles Oxygen is partially negative and weakly basic... 

Normally carbon-carbon double bonds are attacked by electrophiles a carbon-carbon double bond that is conjugated to a carbonyl group is attacked by nucleophiles... 

Hydantoins can react with electrophiles at both nitrogen atoms and at C-5. The electrophilic carbonyl groups can be attacked by nucleophiles, leading to hydrolysis of the ring or to partial or total reduction of the carbonyl system. Other reactions are possible, including photochemical cleavage of the ring. 

Protonated pyridazine is attacked by nucleophilic acyl radicals at positions 4 and 5 to give 4,5-diacylpyridazines. When acyl radicals with a hydrogen atom at the a-position to the carbonyl group are used, the diacylpyridazines are mainly converted into cyclo-penta[ f]pyridazines by intramolecular aldol reactions (Scheme 43). 

In this section three main aspects will be considered. Firstly, the basic strengths of the principal heterocyclic systems under review and the effects of structural modification on this parameter will be discussed. For reference some pK values are collected in Table 3. Secondly, the position of protonation in these carbon-protonating systems will be considered. Thirdly, the reactivity aspects of protonation are mentioned. Protonation yields in most cases highly reactive electrophilic species. Under conditions in which both protonated and non-protonated base co-exist, polymerization frequently occurs. Further ipso protonation of substituted derivatives may induce rearrangement, and also the protonated heterocycles are found to be subject to ring-opening attack by nucleophilic reagents. 

The carbon atoms of azole rings can be attacked by nucleophilic (Section 4.02.1.6 electrophilic (Section 4.02.1.4) and free radical reagents (Section 4.02.1.8.2). Some system for example the thiazole, imidazole and pyrazole nuclei, show a high degree of aromati character and usually revert to type if the aromatic sextet is involved in a reaction. Othei such as the isoxazole and oxazole nuclei are less aromatic, and hence more prone to additio reactions. 

Because of the increased importance of inductive electron withdrawal, nucleophilic attack on uncharged azole rings generally occurs under milder conditions than those required for analogous reactions with pyridines or pyridones. Azolium rings are very easily attacked by nucleophilic reagents reactions similar to those of pyridinium and pyrylium compounds are known azolium rings open particularly readily. 

Deacylations are known. C-Acyl groups in 1,3,4-thiadiazoles are cleaved by sodium ethoxide in ethanol (68AHC(9)165). Imidazole-2-carbaldehyde behaves similarly, yielding imidazole and ethyl formate this reaction involves an ylide intermediate. 3-Acylisoxazoles (405) are attacked by nucleophiles in a reaction which involves ring opening (79AHC(25)147). 

Isoxazoles are susceptible to attack by nucleophiles, the reactions involving displacement of a substituent, addition to the ring, or proton abstraction with subsequent ring-opening. Isoxazolium salts are even more susceptible to attack by a variety of nucleophiles, providing useful applications of the isoxazole nucleus in organic synthesis. Especially useful is the reductive cleavage of isoxazoles, which may be considered as masked 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds or enaminoketones. 

Extrapolation from the known reactivity of cyclobutadiene would suggest that azetes should be highly reactive towards dimerization and as dienes and dienophiles in cycloaddition reactions and the presence of a polar C=N should impart additional reactivity towards attack by nucleophiles. Isolation of formal dimers of azetes has been claimed as evidence for the intermediacy of such species, but no clear reports of their interception in inter-molecular cycloaddition reactions or by nucleophiles have yet appeared. 

Although this is a secondary substrate, complete shielding from backside attack by nucleophiles leads to S l solvolysis without solvent participation. The correspond-... 

A2. A fast preequilibrium protonation followed by a slow rate-determining attack by nucleophile. 

The iminium salts are of course especially Subject to attack by nucleophiles, and reactions of this type are discussed in Chapter 5. See also Section V.H. 

A common property of coordinated alkenes is their susceptibility to attack by nucleophiles such as OH , OMe , MeC02, and Cl , and it has long been known that Zeise s salt is slowly attacked by non-acidic water to give MeCHO and Pt metal, while corresponding Pd complexes are even more reactive. This forms the basis of the Wacker process (developed by J. Smidt and his colleagues at Wacker Chemie, 1959-60) for converting ethene (ethylene) into ethanal (acetaldehyde) — see Panel overleaf. 

AT-heterocyclic carbenes show a pure donor nature. Comparing them to other monodentate ligands such as phosphines and amines on several metal-carbonyl complexes showed the significantly increased donor capacity relative to phosphines, even to trialkylphosphines, while the 7r-acceptor capability of the NHCs is in the order of those of nitriles and pyridine [29]. This was used to synthesize the metathesis catalysts discussed in the next section. Experimental evidence comes from the fact that it has been shown for several metals that an exchange of phosphines versus NHCs proceeds rapidly and without the need of an excess quantity of the NHC. X-ray structures of the NHC complexes show exceptionally long metal-carbon bonds indicating a different type of bond compared to the Schrock-type carbene double bond. As a result, the reactivity of these NHC complexes is also unique. They are relatively resistant towards an attack by nucleophiles and electrophiles at the divalent carbon atom. 

A much faster reaction for bromides than chlorides usually suggests attack on halogen, since bromine is more readily attacked by nucleophilic phosphorus. However, for phenyl acetylenes (82 = Ph) these rates... 

To summarize in contrast to the observed nucleophilic attack of strongly basic nucleophiles on the sulfonyl and sulfoxy sulfur of the three-membered ring sulfones and sulfoxides, the acyclic sulfone and sulfoxide groups are attacked by nucleophiles only with difficulty Although the precise reason for this difference is as yet not clear, it is most probably associated with the geometry, electronic structure, bonding and strain energy of the cyclic compounds. 

In a, P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds and related electron-deficient alkenes and alkynes, there exist two electrophilic sites and both are prone to be attacked by nucleophiles. However, the conjugated site is considerably softer compared with the unconjugated site, based on the Frontier Molecular Orbital analysis.27 Consequently, softer nucleophiles predominantly react with a, (i-unsaturated carbonyl compounds through conjugate addition (or Michael addition). Water is a hard solvent. This property of water has two significant implications for conjugate addition reactions (1) Such reactions can tolerate water since the nucleophiles and the electrophiles are softer whereas water is hard and (2) water will not compete with nucleophiles significantly in such... 

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