Carbenes, nitrogen extrusion diazo compounds

Photolysis of dlazirines to nitrogen and carbenes is a general reaction and plays a greater role in carbene chemistry than photolysis of linear diazo compounds. Whereas the latter are often obtained only under the conditions of their thermal decomposition from suitable precursors, diazirines are obtainable in a pure state in most cases. Photolysis has the further advantage to permit nitrogen extrusion at atmospheric pressure, even with low-boiling materials. 

Diazo compounds have been extensively used in the preparation of three-membered carbocycles either as carbene sources or as precursors for 1-pyrazolines or 3//-pyrazoles. Nitrogen extrusion from pyrazolines is particularly valuable for the synthesis of alkylcy-clopropanes, since the direct carbene route is impractical, as a matter of fact, owing to rapid intramolecular processes in alkylcarbenes. The cycloaddition of diazo compounds to unsaturated bonds to give 1-pyrazolines and 3/f-pyrazoles usually proceed in a concerted manner, and hence is stereospecific. In the subsequent nitrogen extrusion from the adducts,... 

The Cu(I)-catalyzed decomposition of (alkynyloxysilyl)diazoacetates 119 furnishes the silaheterocycles 120 and/or 121 (equation 30) in modest yield63. In these cases, the photochemical extrusion of nitrogen from 119 does not lead to defined products and the thermal reaction is dominated by the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition ability of these diazo compounds. In mechanistic terms, carbene 122 or more likely a derived copper carbene complex, is transformed into cyclopropene 123 by an intramolecular [1 + 2] cycloaddition to the triple bond. The strained cyclopropene rearranges to a vinylcarbene either with an exo-cyclic (124) or an endocyclic (125) carbene center, and typical carbene reactions then lead to the observed products. Analogous carbene-to-carbene rearrangements are involved in carbenoid transformations of other alkynylcarbenes64. 

As with other diazo compounds, cyclopropanation with 1 or 2 can proceed either via a photo-chemically or thermally generated carbene, in a transition-metal-catalyzed reaction, or by [3 -I- 2] cycloaddition of the diazo function to the C-C double bond followed by nitrogen extrusion from the thermally unstable cycloadduct. 

The cycloaddition of a diazo compound to an alkyne followed by extrusion of nitrogen under various conditions from an isolated pyrazole represents one of the standard routes to cyclopropenes (Section 3.2.1.1.). In certain cases the reaction is carried out under conditions which might involve direct addition of a carbene derived from the diazo species, e.g. formation of 7, 8, and9. For8(R = cyclopropyl), the product rearranged under the reaction conditions to 1-cyclopropyl-1-trimethylsilylallene. ... 

The mechanism of transition metal-catalyzed nitrogen extrusion from diazo compounds is not known in detail, but there is general agreement that metal-carbene complexes are formed in this process (Scheme 3) [6,7,11,28,29,30,31, 32]. Attempts to detect these elusive species in catalytic reactions have not been... 

Diazo compounds decompose with extrusion of nitrogen under the effect of Hght or heat to produce carbenes. Phenylcarbene > as well as diphenylcarbene possess triplet ground states that are in equi-Hbrium with the singlet conhgurations. 

The remaining proposed intermediates involve rearrangement fi om the excited diazirine. This type of explanation was first put forward by Frey and then more recently by Platz and co-workers. - - - In this mechanism, an intermediate is formed from the excited diazirine that leads directly to the rearrangement products (Scheme 5). This second intermediate is not defined in the kinetic scheme, but it has been proposed to be an excited carbene, a biradical, a diazo compound, or the excited diazirine itself AH of these proposed intermediates are thought to allow for concomitant extrusion of nitrogen and rearrangement... 

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