Borane. electrophilicity

Borane is a Lewis acid and attacks electron-rich centres. Thus, the reduction of carbonyl group with borane takes place by addition of the borane (electrophile) to the oxygen atom (nucleophile) (Scheme 6.12). 

Friedel-Crafts substitution using alkyl halides, or nucleophilic substitution by lithium alkyls. The position of substitution reflects the charge distribution within the borane electrophilic substitution for example invariably occurs at the apical (i.e. most negative) positions, nucleophilic substitution at the most positive borons ... 

We can consider the hydroboration step as though it involved borane (BH3) It sim phfies our mechanistic analysis and is at variance with reality only m matters of detail Borane is electrophilic it has a vacant 2p orbital and can accept a pair of electrons into that orbital The source of this electron pair is the rr bond of an alkene It is believed as shown m Figure 6 10 for the example of the hydroboration of 1 methylcyclopentene that the first step produces an unstable intermediate called a tt complex In this rr com plex boron and the two carbon atoms of the double bond are joined by a three center two electron bond by which we mean that three atoms share two electrons Three center two electron bonds are frequently encountered m boron chemistry The tt complex is formed by a transfer of electron density from the tt orbital of the alkene to the 2p orbital... 

Electrophilic Attack. A variety of boranes, heteroboranes, and metaHaboranes undergo electrophilic substitution. SusceptibiUty of boranes to electrophilic attack is often detected by deuteron—proton exchange experiments. Eor example, electrophilic hydrogen—deuterium exchange of occurs at the l-,2-,3-, and 4-positions when exposed to DCl in the presence of AlCl (81). The trend to increasing positive sites in is... 

Experimental results are consistent with this representation nucleophilic reagents always attack B in amine—borane complexes, electrophilic reagents preferentially attack N. 

Hydration of an alkene—the addition of water—is carried out by either of two procedures, depending on the product desired. Oxymercuration involves electrophilic addition of Hg2+ to an alkene, followed by trapping of the cation intermediate with water and subsequent treatment with NaBH4. Hydroboration involves addition of borane (BH3) followed by oxidation of the intermediate organoborane with alkaline H202- The two hydration methods are complementary oxymercuration gives the product of Markovnikov addition, whereas hydroboration/oxidation gives the product with non-Markovnikov syn stereochemistry. 

L3.3.3.3.1.1.1. From Allylic Organometallic Reagents and Electrophilic Boranes (a) Allylboranes and Allylboronates... 

No matter which of the electrophilic methods of double-bond shifting is employed, the thermodynamically most stable alkene is usually formed in the largest amount in most cases, though a few anomalies are known. However, there is another, indirect, method of double-bond isomerization, by means of which migration in the other direction can often be carried out. This involves conversion of the alkene to a borane (15-16), rearrangement of the borane (18-11), oxidation and hydrolysis of the newly formed borane to the alcohol (12-28), and dehydration of the alcohol (17-1) ... 

Treatment of 83 with an electrophile such as methyl sulfate, allyl bromide, or triethyloxonium borofluoride, followed by oxidation of the resulting vinylic borane... 

Similarly to the P-CHj group, secondary phosphine-boranes react smoothly in the presence of a base (BuLi, NaH) under mild conditions to afford other kinds of functionalized phosphine-boranes in good to high yields, without racemi-zation. Yet the success of deprotonation/treatment with an electrophile process to afford substituted phosphine derivatives without any loss in optical purity may depend on the deprotonation agents employed. Use of butyllithium usually provides the products with high enantiomeric excess in good to high yields [73]. 

This solvent is called tetrahydrofuran, or THF for short. Even though it somewhat stabilizes the empty p orbital on the boron atom in BH3, nevertheless the boron atom is very eager to look for any other sources of electron density that it can find. It is an electrophile—it is scavenging for sites of high electron density to fill its empty orbital. A pi bond is a site of high electron density, and therefore, a pi bond can attack borane. In fact, this is the hrst step of our mechanism. A pi bond attacks the empty p orbital of boron, which triggers a simultaneous hydride shift ... 

Hydroboration is highly regioselective and stereospecific. The boron becomes bonded primarily to the less-substituted carbon atom of the alkene. A combination of steric and electronic effects works to favor this orientation. Borane is an electrophilic reagent. The reaction with substituted styrenes exhibits a weakly negative p value (-0.5).156 Compared with bromination (p+ = -4.3),157 this is a small substituent effect, but it does favor addition of the electrophilic boron at the less-substituted end of the double bond. In contrast to the case of addition of protic acids to alkenes, it is the boron, not the hydrogen, that is the more electrophilic atom. This electronic effect is reinforced by steric factors. Hydroboration is usually done under conditions in which the borane eventually reacts with three alkene molecules to give a trialkylborane. The... 

Computational studies of both hydroalumination and carboalumination have indicated a four-center TS for the addition.220 The aluminum reagents, however, have more nucleophilic character than do boranes. Whereas the TS for hydroboration is primarily electrophilic and resembles that for attack of CH3+ on a double bond, the... 

Closely related to, but distinct from, the anionic boron and aluminum hydrides are the neutral boron (borane, BH3) and aluminum (alane, A1H3) hydrides. These molecules also contain hydrogen that can be transferred as hydride. Borane and alane differ from the anionic hydrides in being electrophilic species by virtue of the vacant p orbital and are Lewis acids. Reduction by these molecules occurs by an intramolecular hydride transfer in a Lewis acid-base complex of the reactant and reductant. 

Allylic boranes such as 9-allyl-9-BBN react with aldehydes and ketones to give allylic carbinols. The reaction begins by Lewis acid-base coordination at the carbonyl oxygen, which both increases the electrophilicity of the carbonyl group and weakens the C-B bond to the allyl group. The dipolar adduct then reacts through a cyclic TS. Bond formation takes place at the 7-carbon of the allyl group and the double bond shifts.36 After the reaction is complete, the carbinol product is liberated from the borinate ester by displacement with ethanolamine. Yields for a series of aldehydes and ketones were usually above 90% for 9-allyl-9-BBN. 

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