Carbenes ring expansion with aromatic

Ring expansion of aromatic compounds by carbene, carbethoxycarbene, chlorocarbene, and carbenoid is well known 256, 336, 351-356). Muller and co-workers reported the reaction of aromatic compounds with carbene generated from a catalytic decomposition of diazomethane with copper salts, and proposed a bimolecular two-step mechanism involving an inverse ylid for the reaction. Miller (336) proposed another bimolecular two-step mechanism for the reaction of benzene with alkylcarbenoids of aluminum. Baldwin and Smith (25) proposed a concerted mechanism for the reaction of aromatic compounds with carbethoxycarbene. Reaction of alkylbenzene with diethylzinc and ethylidene iodide gives 7-methylcyclohepta-l,3,5-triene derivatives in yield 369). The... 

The highly reactive species methylene inserts into C—H bonds,both aliphatic and aromatic,though with aromatic compounds ring expansion is also possible (see 15-62). This version of the reaction is useless for synthetic purposes because of its nonselectivity (see p. 248). This contrasts with the metal carbene insertion reaction, which can be highly selective, and is very useful in synthesis. Alkylcarbenes usually rearrange rather than give insertion (p. 249), but, when this is impossible. 

Carbenes are so reactive that they add to the double bonds of aromatic rings. The products are usually not stable and rearrange to give ring expansion. Carbene reacts with benzene to give cycloheptatriene ... 

Addition of carbenes to Jt-electron excessive aromatic compounds, or those which possess a high degree of bond fixation, is well established. Dihalocarbenes react with naphthalenes with ring expansion to produce benztropylium systems (Scheme 7.8). Loss of hydrogen halide from the initially formed product leads to an alkene which reacts with a second equivalent of the carbene to yield the spirocyclopropyl derivatives in high yield (>95%) [14, 50]. Insertion into the alkyl side chain (see Section 7.2) also occurs, but to a lesser extent [14]. Not unexpectedly, dichlorocarbene adds to phenanthrenes across the 9,10-bond [9, 10, 14], but it is remarkable that the three possible isomeric spiro compounds could be isolated (in an overall yield of 0.05% ) from the corresponding reaction with toluene [14]. 

In addition, a proline- or phenylalanine-based Rh(II) can catalyze intramolecular asymmetric carbene reactions such as aromatic ring expansion and C—H insertion with moderate selectivity (Scheme 95) (229). Rh(II) carboxamides are also effective catalysts for asymmetric C—H or N—H insertion (228c). 

As with other diazoalkanes, diazomethane reacts with alkenes to form cyclopropane derivatives (sec. 13.9.C.i).272 Reaction with aromatic derivatives leads to ring expansion to cycloheptatriene derivatives.223 Both of these reactions (addition to an alkene or arene insertion) involve generation of an intermediate carbene and addition to a jt bond they will be discussed below. Many of the reactions of diazomethane tend to be ionic in nature and are, therefore, set aside from the other diazoalkane chemistry in this section. One of the commonest uses of diazomethane itself is esterification of small quantities of acids, especially acids that are precious for one reason or another. The reaction is quantitative and gives good yields of a single product, as in Tadano s conversion of 338 to the methyl ester of 339224 in a synthesis of (-)-verrucarol. 

D.ii. Addition to Aromatic Derivatives. Aromatic compounds also react with carbenes, but ring expansion usually follows the initial cyclopropanation. In a typical example, 2-methoxynaphthalene (373) reacted with dichlorocarbene to give 374, and subsequent ring expansion gave 375, 99 which is a general reaction of enol ethers, which give either unsaturated acetals or unsaturated carbonyls. oo... 

The reaction of carbenes with aromatic hydrocarbons is related to that with alkenes. Doering and Knox (1950, 1953) investigated this reaction using benzene as substrate even before their work with cyclohexene. They observed, however, ring expansion to give cycloheptatriene besides toluene (8-3, X = H). Norcaradiene as an intermediate was isolated only much later in the addition of dicyanomethylene... 

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