Butadiene ring closure

Electi ocyclic reactions are examples of cases where ic-electiDn bonds transform to sigma ones [32,49,55]. A prototype is the cyclization of butadiene to cyclobutene (Fig. 8, lower panel). In this four electron system, phase inversion occurs if no new nodes are fomred along the reaction coordinate. Therefore, when the ring closure is disrotatory, the system is Hiickel type, and the reaction a phase-inverting one. If, however, the motion is conrotatory, a new node is formed along the reaction coordinate just as in the HCl + H system. The reaction is now Mdbius type, and phase preserving. This result, which is in line with the Woodward-Hoffmann rules and with Zimmerman s Mdbius-Huckel model [20], was obtained without consideration of nuclear symmetry. This conclusion was previously reached by Goddard [22,39]. 

SUBSTITUTED BUTADIENES. The consequences of p-type orbitals rotations, become apparent when substituents are added. Many structural isomers of butadiene can be foiined (Structures VIII-XI), and the electrocylic ring-closure reaction to form cyclobutene can be phase inverting or preserving if the motion is conrotatory or disrotatory, respectively. The four cyclobutene structures XII-XV of cyclobutene may be formed by cyclization. Table I shows the different possibilities for the cyclization of the four isomers VIII-XI. These structmes are shown in Figure 35. 

Thus, to name just a few examples, a nucleophilic aliphatic substitution such as the reaction of the bromide 3.5 with sodium iodide (Figure 3-21a) can lead to a range of stereochemical products, from a l l mbrture of 3.6 and 3.7 (racemization) to only 3.7 (inversion) depending on the groups a, b, and c that are bonded to the central carbon atom. The ring closure of the 1,3-butadiene, 3.8, to cyclobutene... 

A second synthesis of cobyric acid (14) involves photochemical ring closure of an A—D secocorrinoid. Thus, the Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene and /n j -3-methyl-4-oxopentenoic acid was used as starting point for all four ring A—D synthons (15—18). These were combined in the order B + C — BC + D — BCD + A — ABCD. The resultant cadmium complex (19) was photocyclized in buffered acetic acid to give the metal-free corrinoid (20). A number of steps were involved in converting this material to cobyric acid (14). 

The principle of microscopic reversibility requires that the reverse process, ring closure of a butadiene to a cyclobutene, must also be a coiuotatory process. Usually, this is thermodynamically unfavorable, but a case in which the ring closure is energetically favorable is conversion of tra s,cis-2,4-cyclooctadiene (1) to bicyclo[4.2.0]oct-7-ene (2). The ring closure is favorable in this case because of the strain associated with the trans double bond. The ring closure occurs by a coiuotatory process. 

The reaction of 4,4-bis(tnfluoromethyl)-I,3-diaza-1,3-butadienes with certain a,P-unsaturated ketones yields pyrimidine derivatives A two-step mechanism, metathesis-electrocyclic ring closure and metathesis-intramolecular ene reaction, is a plausible explanation for the experimental results (pathway 4, equa-bon 25) [259]... 

Repeat your analysis for ring closure of butadiene to cyelobutene. (Start by examining the HOMO of eis-1,3-butadiene.) What should be the preferred product of ring closure of the dimethylbutadiene shown below ... 

Figure 15.21 Orbital correlation diagram for the disrotatoric ring closure of butadiene...

Within the isolobal formalism, the conversion of 47 to 48 is a symmetry-allowed process, if it were to proceed as a concerted reaction (50). Structure 47 represents a transoid-2-meta.Wa-1,3-butadiene. In the bonding description, complex 48 represents formally a 1-metalla-bicyclo[1.1.0]butane. Therefore, the conversion of 47 to 48 represents a thermally allowed, concerted [ 2a + 2S] ring closure, in analogy to the pericyclic ring opening of bicyclo[1.1.0]butanes to give trans,trans-, 3-butadienes. 

On orbital symmetry grounds, the addition of ethylene to ethylene with ring closure (cycloaddition) should be thermally forbidden. If one compares this reaction with the reaction of trimethylene with approaching ethylene and butadiene (Fig.4), it is readily seen that, the A level being below the S level in trimethylene, the behaviour with respect to cycloaddition to olefins is reversed, that is, trimethylene is essentially an anti-ethylene structure. This principle can be generalized for instance (16) ... 

The [Ni°(CDT)] product complex 8b is formed via reductive elimination under ring closure starting from the dodecatrienediyl-Ni11 complex. The formation of the several isomers of CDT occurs via competing paths for reductive elimination that involves different stereoisomers. Displacement of the cyclotrimer product in subsequent consecutive substitution steps with butadiene, which is supposed to take place without a significant barrier, regenerates the [Ni°( butadiene) J active catalyst thus completing the catalytic cycle. 

The thermal ring-closure of butadienes to cyclobutenes proceeds in a conrotatory fashion (equation 2) but this reaction is only observed in special cases because, in general, the equilibrium lies on the side of the open-chain isomer. 

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