Sulfur Carbanions

More recent developments are based on the finding, that the d-orbitals of silicon, sulfur, phosphorus and certain transition metals may also stabilize a negative charge on a carbon atom. This is probably caused by a partial transfer of electron density from the carbanion into empty low-energy d-orbitals of the hetero atom ( backbonding ) or by the formation of ylides , in which a positively charged onium centre is adjacent to the carbanion and stabilization occurs by ylene formation. 

Sulfur ylides contain a carbanion, which is stabilizea oy an adjacent positively-charged sulfur. Ylides derived from alkylsulfonium salts are usually generated and utilized at low temperatures. Oxosulfonium ylides are, however, stable near room temperature. The most common method of ylide formation is deprotonation of a sulfonium salt. What has been said... 

Olefin synthesis starts usually from carbonyl compounds and carbanions with relatively electropositive, redox-active substituents mostly containing phosphorus, sulfur, or silicon. The carbanions add to the carbonyl group and the oxy anion attacks the oxidizable atom Y in-tramolecularly. The oxide Y—O" is then eliminated and a new C—C bond is formed. Such reactions take place because the formation of a Y—0 bond is thermodynamically favored and because Y is able to expand its coordination sphere and to raise its oxidation number. 

The Peterson reaction has two more advantages over the Wittig reaction 1. it is sometimes less vulnerable to sterical hindrance, and 2. groups, which are susceptible to nucleophilic substitution, are not attacked by silylated carbanions. The introduction of a methylene group into a sterically hindered ketone (R.K. Boeckman, Jr., 1973) and the syntheses of olefins with sulfur, selenium, silicon, or tin substituents (D. Seebach, 1973 B.T. Grdbel, 1974, 1977) illustrate useful applications. The reaction is, however, more limited and time consuming than the Wittig reaction, since metallated silicon derivatives are difficult to synthesize and their reactions are rarely stereoselective (T.H. Chan, 1974 ... 

The sulfur atom stabilizes a-carbanions this has been used in the thiazole series to give a new synthetic pathway for various hydrocarbons (113) (Scheme 57) (281). 

The stabilization of the C-5 carbanion by both the carbonyl and the sulfur of the ring in 187 affords a very powerful nucleophilic center... 

Isothiazoles and isothiazolium cations are attacked by carbanions at sulfur and on recyclization can give thiophenes, illustrated by (147) -> (148). 2-Alkyl-3-isothiazolinones e.g. 149) are also vulnerable to nucleophilic attack at sulfur (72AHC 14)1). 

The pA of 1,3-dithiane is 36.5 (Cs" ion pair in THF). The value for 2-phenyl-1,3-dithiane is 30.5. There are several factors which can contribute to the anion-stabilizing effect of sulfur substituents. Bond dipole effects contribute but carmot be the dominant factor because oxygen substituents do not have a comparable stabilizing effect. Polarizability of sulfur can also stabilize the carbanion. Delocalization can be described as involving 3d orbitals on sulfur or hyperconjugation with the a orbital of the C—S bond. MO calculations favor the latter interpretation. An experimental study of the rates of deprotonation of phenylthionitromethane indicates that sulfur polarizability is a major factor. Whatever the structural basis is, there is no question that thio substituents enhance... 

Discuss the relevance of these observations to the structure of sulfur-stabilized carbanions and rationalize your conclusion about the structure of the carbanions in MO terms. 

Enolates of aldehydes, ketones, and esters and the carbanions of nitriles and nitro compounds, as well as phosphorus- and sulfur-stabilized carbanions and ylides, undergo the reaction. The synthetic applications of this group of reactions will be discussed in detail in Chapter 2 of Part B. In this section, we will discuss the fundamental mechanistic aspects of the reaction of ketone enolates with aldehydes md ketones. 

Recently developed trifluoromethylatmg agents capable of transferring the trifluoromethyl group as a cation to strongly nucleophilic compounds such as carbanions and sulfur and phosphorus nucleophiles are prepared from o-biphenyl trifluoromethyl sulfoxide [164] and are shown in equation 141... 

Perfluoroisobutylene and potassium sulfide give 2,4-bis[hexafluoroisopro-pylidene]-l,3-dithietane and a small amount of the bis(perfluoro-tcrr-butyl)trisul-fide. The trisulfide is the result of a reaction of the nascent perfluoro-rerr-butyl carbanion with sulfur. The same products in different yields are obtained with sulfur and cesium fluoride [i] (equation 2). 

It provides electrostatic stabilization of the carbanion formed upon removal of the C-2 proton. (The sf hybridization and the availability of vacant d orbitals on the adjacent sulfur probably also facilitate proton removal at C-2.)... 

An a-halosulfone 1 reacts with a base by deprotonation at the a -position to give a carbanionic species 3. An intramolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction, with the halogen substituent taking the part of the leaving group, then leads to formation of an intermediate episulfone 4 and the halide anion. This mechanism is supported by the fact that the episulfone 4 could be isolated. Subsequent extrusion of sulfur dioxide from 4 yields the alkene 2 ... 

Attachment of a basic amino group to the side chain leads to a compound with antiparkinsonian activity. Alkylation of the carbanion from phenylacetonitrile with 2-chlorotriethylamine affords the product, 36. Conjugate addition of the anion from this to acrylonitrile gives the glutarodinitrile (37). Partial hydrolysis of this in a mixture of sulfuric and acetic acid leads to phenglutarimide (38). ... 

The ylides have been classified on the basis of the heteroalom covalently bonded to the carbanion. Accordingly, they can be differentiated into nitrogen ylide (Scheme 2), sulfur ylide Scheme 3, phosphorus ylide Scheme 4, arsenic ylide Scheme 5, antimony ylide (Scheme 6), bismuth ylide (Scheme 7) and thallium ylide (Scheme 8). 

Various sulfur compounds have been sulfinylated by treatment of the appropriate carbanion with sulfinate ester 19. Compounds 5992,6093,6194 and 6295 were prepared in this way, /i-disulfoxides (63) have also been prepared, as shown earlier by equation (8). 

The nucleophilic attack of strong bases (e.g. hydroxide ion, alkoxide ions and carbanions) on either the a-carbon111 or the sulfur atom of the sulfone group99,113 of the thiirane dioxides is the initial key step that is responsible for the subsequent ring opening and further reaction. The formation of a three-membered a-sulfonyl carbanion is not observed in these cases (equation 11). 

Several studies338,340-342 show that the chlorination does not proceed, as assumed previously343, by proton abstraction followed by reaction of the carbanion thus formed, with electrophilic chlorine. A mechanism involving a chlorooxosulfonium ion formed by attack of a positive chlorine species on sulfur was shown to be more likely344. 

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