Carbanions rearrangement intermediates

The [1,2]-Wittig Rearrangement is a carbanion rearrangement that proceeds via a radical dissociation-recombination mechanism. The lithiated intermediate forms a ketyl radical and a carbon radical, which give an alcoholate after fast recombination within the solvent cage ... 

This result was confirmed when semibullvalene 71 was reacted with potassium or Na/K alloy. Even at —78 °C this reaction resulted only in the rearranged 73 56 c>. A common intermediate should be the dipotassium compound 72 (and/or its dimers 74). The different behavior of the lithium and potassium species 72 (and/or 74) illustrates again the problem of carbanion rearrangements changing the gegenion from lithium to potassium leads to species with rather different properties. 

It is generally felt that other Kharasch reactions involve radical intermediates, since 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-diphenylbutane is formed when cumene is present, and rearrangement products are observed in the neophyl chloride system, although some of the latter might arise from the carbanion rearrangement reactions described in Section II, D. 

Perfluoropolyenes also can rearrange to four-membered ring products upon fluoride ron or Lewis acid catalysis [112, II3, 114] (equations 46 and 47) These intramolecular cycloadditions are multistep processes involving carbanion or carbocation intermediates... 

The rearrangement of an ether 1 when treated with a strong base, e.g. an organo-lithium compound RLi, to give an alcohol 3 via the intermediate a-metallated ether 2, is called the Wittig rearrangement. The product obtained is a secondary or tertiary alcohol. R R can be alkyl, aryl and vinyl. Especially suitable substrates are ethers where the intermediate carbanion can be stabilized by one of the substituents R R e.g. benzyl or allyl ethers. 

Rearrangement of polyhalobenzenes can also be catalyzed by very strong bases for example, 1,2,4-tribromobenzene is converted to 1,3,5-tribromobenzene by treatment with PhNHK." This reaction, which involves aryl carbanion intermediates (Sgl mechanism), has been called the halogen dance. 

Thia-[2,3]-Wittig sigmatropic rearrangement of lithiated carbanions 47, obtained by deprotonation of the S-allylic sulfides 46, affords the thiols 48 or their alkylated derivatives 49. The corresponding sulfonium ylides 51, prepared by deprotonation of the sulfonium salts 50 also undergoes a [2,3]-sigmatropic shift leading to the same sulfides 49 [36,38] (Scheme 13). As far as stereochemistry is concerned, with crotyl (R R =H,R =Me) and cinnamyl (R, R =H,R =Ph) derivatives, it has been shown that the diastereoselectivity depends on the nature of the R substituent and on the use of a carbanion or an ylide as intermediate. 

Finally, the most significant mechanistic feature of the Ramberg-Backlund rearrangement is the stereoselective formation of ds-olefin products, as a result of the preferential cis-positioning of the pair of R groups in the episulfone-forming transition state, variously attributed to London forces , to diastereoselectivity in carbanion formation and to steric attraction . However, with the use of stronger bases such as potassium t-butoxide °, the trans-olefin predominates (equation 52), apparently due to prior epimerization of the kinetically favoured cts-episulfone, and subsequent loss of the sulfur dioxide. Similarly, when the episulfone intermediates possess unusually acidic... 

Carbanions can take part in most of the main reaction types, e.g. addition, elimination, displacement, rearrangement, etc. They are also involved in reactions, such as oxidation, that do not fit entirely satisfactorily into this classification, and as specific—ad hoc—intermediates in a number of other processes as well. A selection of the reactions in which they participate will now be considered many are of particular synthetic utility, because they result in the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. 

The cyclopropanone intermediate (81) undergoes subsequent addition of eOH, followed by ring-opening to yield the more stable of the two possible carbanions (83, benzyl > primary), followed by proton exchange to yield the rearranged carboxylate anion end-product (84). 

Elimination reactions (Figure 5.7) often result in the formation of carbon-carbon double bonds, isomerizations involve intramolecular shifts of hydrogen atoms to change the position of a double bond, as in the aldose-ketose isomerization involving an enediolate anion intermediate, while rearrangements break and reform carbon-carbon bonds, as illustrated for the side-chain displacement involved in the biosynthesis of the branched chain amino acids valine and isoleucine. Finally, we have reactions that involve generation of resonance-stabilized nucleophilic carbanions (enolate anions), followed by their addition to an electrophilic carbon (such as the carbonyl carbon atoms... 

The intermediate product 162, formed from the nudeophilic addition of 1,2-alle-nic phosphonate or 1,2-allenic phosphine oxide with allylic alcohol, would also undergo a Claisen rearrangement to form 2-oxo-5-alkenyl phosphonate or phosphine oxide 163 [85], The rearrangement is accelerated by the carbanionic nature of the intermediate 162. For the conjugate addition step, the reaction temperature is crucial since the reaction at 0 °C afforded mainly /i,y-unsaturated product whereas a,/8-unsaturated products were formed at 20 °C. 

A carbon labelling study has elucidated the rearrangement mechanism for formation of chalcone (97) which accompanies formation of (91) by the expected vicinyl elimination of trimethylsilyl and benzotriazolyl groups from 2-benzotriazolyl-2-aryl-3-ketopropylsilanes, on reaction with fluoride ion in DMF. ° Thus, it has been possible to distinguish between the two alternative mechanisms depicted in Scheme 11 (via intermediates (93) or (95), respectively, by determining the fate of the labelled quaternary carbon of substrate (89). The results are consistent with the formation of a cyclopropane intermediate (95) which subsequently ring opens, with relief of strain, to form delocalized carbanion (96), from which the chalcone (97) is obtained (labelled... 

Rearrangement of a-silyl oxyanions to a-silyloxy carbanions via a reversible process involving a pentacoordinate silicon intermediate is known as the [l,2]-Brook rearrangement, or [l,2]-silyl migration. 

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