Azirine cycloaddition reactions

We became interested in this area of chemistry because we wished to prepare some new and highly electrophilic 2//-azirines with potential for use as dienophiles in the Diels-Alder reaction. Vinyl azides appeared to be the most promising precursors. Previously there had been only one report of the cycloaddition of 2H-azirines to a simple diene (cyclopentadiene) although highly activated dienes such as tetraphenylcyclopentadie-none and 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran had been used to intercept some transient 2H-azirines. Our investigations led to the preparation of several new 2ff-azirines. Cycloaddition reactions with these provided access to some novel fused-ring aziridines. An outline of the results is included in Sections 6.2 and 6.3. 

Nitrile ylides derived from the photolysis of 1-azirines have also been found to undergo a novel intramolecular 1,1-cycloaddition reaction (75JA3862). Irradiation of (65) gave a 1 1 mixture of azabicyclohexenes (67) and (68). On further irradiation (67) was quantitatively isomerized to (68). Photolysis of (65) in the presence of excess dimethyl acetylenedicar-boxylate resulted in the 1,3-dipolar trapping of the normal nitrile ylide. Under these conditions, the formation of azabicyclohexenes (67) and (68) was entirely suppressed. The photoreaction of the closely related methyl-substituted azirine (65b) gave azabicyclohexene (68b) as the primary photoproduct. The formation of the thermodynamically less favored endo isomer, i.e. (68b), corresponds to a complete inversion of stereochemistry about the TT-system in the cycloaddition process. 

Azirine, trans-2-methyl-3-phenyl-racemization, 7, 33, 34 1-Azirine, 2-phenyl-reactions, 7, 69 with carbon disulfide, S, 153 1-Azirine, 3-vinyl-rearrangements, 7, 67 Azirines, 7, 47-93 cycloaddition reactions, 7, 26 fused ring derivatives, 7, 47-93 imidazole synthesis from, 5, 487-488 photochemical addition reactions to carbonyl compounds, 7, 56 photolysis, 5, 780, 7, 28 protonated... 

There has been some investigation of auxiliary-controlled cycloadditions of azir-ines. Thus, camphor-derived azirine esters undergo cycloaddition with dienes, with poor diastereoselectivity [70]. The same azirines were also observed to react unselectively with phenylmagnesium bromide. Better selectivities were obtained when Lewis acids were used in the corresponding cycloaddition reactions of 8-phe-nylmenthyl esters of azirine 2-carboxylates (Scheme 4.48) [71]. The same report also describes the use of asymmetric Lewis acids in similar cycloadditions, but mediocre ees were observed. 

The highly strained and reactive 2iT-azirines have been extensively studied for various synthetic purposes, such as ring expansion reactions, cycloaddition reactions, preparation of functionalized amines and substituted aziridines. The older literature on azirines in synthesis has extensively been reviewed [69]. Concerning azirines with defined chirality only scarce information is available. Practically all reactions of azirines take place at the activated imine bond. Reduction with sodium borohydride leads to cz5-substituted aziridines as is shown in Scheme 48 [26,28]. 

Irradiation of 2,3-diphenyl-2//-azirine in the presence of fullerene leads to the formation of mono- and oligo adducts (98,99). A monoadduct, l,9-(3,4-dihydro-2,5-diphenyl-2//-pyrrolo)fullerene-60 was isolated and characterized. Mechanistic studies showed that under conditions of direct irradiation it was formed by a classic nitrile ylide cycloaddition but in the presence of 1,4-napthalenedicarbonitrile (DCA) it resulted from reaction of the radical cation intermediate 108. Cycloaddition reactions have also been carried out with diaza-phospholes and diazaarsoles (100) to give adducts of the type 189 (A = As,P) and with cyanogen to give 190 and with aryldiazocyanides where addition to both the azo moiety and the cyano group were observed (101). 

Cycloaddition reactions of the C = N bond of azirines are common, e.g. Scheme 31 (71AHC(13)45, B-83MI 101-03, 84CHEC(7)47). Azirines can also participate in [4 + 2] cycloadditions with cyclopentadie-nones, isobenzofurans, triazines, and tetrazines. 

Intermediate three-membered rings have never been detected in the cycloaddition reaction and a direct route to the five-membered rings is probable in most cases. For example, benzoyl nitrene adds to triple bonds and in contrast to the addition to nonpolar double bonds, a five-membered oxazole is obtained (Sch. 22) [21,38]. An azirine intermediate is not detected, however it cannot be excluded that the three-membered ring containing a 7i-bond rearranges rapidly giving rise to the oxazole. 

An interesting application of PET mediated bond cleavage reaction from azirine 63 has been reported by Mattay et al. [67] for synthesizing N-substituted imidazoles (65) via the (3 + 2) cycloaddition reaction of resultant 2-azaallenyl radical cations with imines 64. Synthesis of pyrrolophane 3,4-dimethyl ester (68) has been reported recently [68] by the ring opening of 66 followed by inter-molecular cycloaddition with dimethyl acetylene dicarboxylate (67) as shown in Scheme 13. 

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