Carbocation from alkynes

The stability of vinyl carbocations generated from alkynes parallels that of the carbocations generated from alkenes secondary vinyl carbocation 96 is more stable than secondary carbocation 97 because there are more groups attached to the C=C unit, and 97 is more stable than primary vinyl carbocation 98. As with alkenes, the reaction of unsymmetrical alkynes with an acid will preferentially give the more stable carbocation, which reacts with the nucleophile to give the alkene product. 

It was previously observed that with a catalytic amount of FeCls, benzylic alcohols were rapidly converted to dimeric ethers by eliminating water (Scheme 14). In the presence of an alkyne this ether is polarized by FeCls and generates an incipient benzylic carbocation. The nucleophilic attack of the alkyne moiety onto the resulting benzyl carbocation generated a stable alkenyl cation, which suffer the nucleophilic attack of water (generated in the process and/or from the hydrated... 

Alkenyl sulfoxides 177 and 178, which can be readily prepared from l-alkynes provide synthones for the carbocations 179 and 180. These synthones are useful for the simple construction of cyclopentenones and also in providing an electrophilic precursor for the -side-chain on prostanoids ". ... 

The presence of a transition metal is not necessarily required for hydrocarbon insertion. Alkyne incorporation has been reported for boracyclobutenes, as well as metallacyclobutene complexes of the transition elements. Boracyclobutene 51, a reactive intermediate prepared in situ (Section 2.12.9.2.1), inserts an additional equivalent of trimethylsilylacetylene into the B-C(sp2) bond to yield boracyclohexadiene 52 (Scheme 7). This isomerizes to the interesting bridged compound 53, an analogue of a nonclassical carbocation <1994AGE2306>. The related boracyclobutene 7 inserts the alkyne to yield a persistent boracyclohexadiene 54, but this product clearly arises from insertion into the boracyclobutene carbon-carbon bond rather than a boron-carbon bond <1994AGE1487>. 

Chapter 8 begins the treatment of organic reactions with a discussion of nucleophilic substitution reactions. Elimination reactions are treated separately in Chapter 9 to make each chapter more manageable. Chapter 10 discusses synthetic uses of substitution and elimination reactions and introduces retrosynthetic analysis. Although this chapter contains many reactions, students have learned to identify the electrophile, leaving group, and nucleophile or base from Chapters 8 and 9. so they do not have to rely as much on memorization. Chapter 11 covers electrophilic additions to alkenes and alkynes. The behavior of carbocations, presented in Chapter 8, is very useful here. An additional section on synthesis has been added to this chapter as well. 

Reduction of the propargylic cation is observed upon reaction of y-benzylprotected-a -hydroxy complexes. A hydride shift from the benzyl group to the intermediately formed carbocation is observed. For example, deuterium-labeled complex (151) gave alkyne (152) with a deuterium in the a-position (Scheme 220). Benzaldehyde is observed as the side product. 

Evidence from a variety of sources, however, indicates that alkenyl cations (also called vinylic cations) are much less stable than simple alkyl cations, and their involvement in these additions has been questioned. For example, although electrophilic addition of hydrogen halides to alkynes occurs more slowly than the corresponding additions to alkenes, the difference is not nearly as great as the difference in carbocation stabilities would suggest. 

Starting from tetrahydrocyclopenta[f)]furan-2-one 342, enyne 343, the substrate for the domino reaction, was prepared in 12 steps and with an overall yield of 45%. Exposure of 343 to the electron-rich gold(I) complex (t-Bu)2P(o-biphenyl)AuCl at room temperature afforded cis-hydrindanone 344 in 78% yield as a single stereoisomer (Scheme 14.54). The postulated mechanism involved Au(I) activation of the alkyne to initiate the cationic olefin cyclization of 346 to give carbocation 347, which then underwent a pinacol rearrangement to the final product 344. An originally attempted Lewis acid-catalyzed domino Prins/pinacol rearrangement of... 

Inspection of 92 shows that the chlorine is attached to the more substituted sp carbon, so the reaction with HCl may be termed a Markovnikov addition to the triple bond. If the alk5me reacts as a Brpnsted-Lowry base with HCl in a manner similar to alkenes from Section 10.2, the intermediate will be a carbocation. There are two 7i-bonds in an alkyne, and if only one Ji-bond reacts with HCl, the second 7i-bond of the C=C unit should remain, meaning that a C=C+ intermediate must be formed. When the cationic center is on an sp carbon, it is called a vinyl carbocation. In a vinyl carbocation, the positive charge resides on a carbon atom that is part of a C=C unit a vinyl unit. The two possible vinyl carbocations are secondary vinyl carbocation 93 and primary vinyl carbocation 94. As with any other carbocation, the secondary vinyl carbocation 93 is more stable than the primary vinyl carbocation 94, and the more stable carbocation is formed preferentially. 

When 1-hexyne is treated with a catalytic amount of sulfuric acid in an aqueous solvent, initial reaction with the acid gives the expected secondary vinyl carbocation 103, and the most readily available nucleophile in this reaction is water (from the aqueous solvent). Nucleophilic addition of water to 103 leads to the vinyl oxonium ion 104. Loss of a proton in an acid-base reaction (the water solvent is the base) generates a product (105) where the OH unit is attached to the C=C unit, an enol. Enols are unstable and an internal proton transfer converts enols to a carbonyl derivative, an aldehyde, or a ketone. This process is called keto-enol tautomerization and, in this case, the keto form of 105 is the ketone 2-hexanone (106). (Enols are discussed in more detail in Chapter 18, Section 18.5.) Note that the oxygen of the OH resides on the secondary carbon due to preferential formation of the more stable secondary carbocation followed by reaction with water, and tautomerization places the carbonyl oxygen on that same carbon, so the product is a ketone. When a disubstituted alkyne reacts with water and an acid catalyst, the intermediate secondary vinyl cations are of equal stability and a mixture of isomeric enols is expected each will tautomerize, so a mixture of isomeric ketones will form. 

Oxymercuration occurs with an alkyne as with an alkene, but differences in reactivity lead to a modification in the procedure. For reasons that will not be discussed, a mixture of mercuric sulfate (HgS04) and mercuric acetate [Hg(OAc)2] is used. When 1-heptyne is treated with this mixture in aqueous solvent, the initially formed enol (107) tautomerizes to 2-heptanone (108), which is isolated in 80% yield. Note that the ketone product mentioned in connection with vinyl chloride 92 in Section 10.4.5 results from formation of an enol. There is an important difference in the oxymercuration of alkynes and alkenes that is notable in this transformation. The mercury reacts with the alkyne, but the mercury is lost when the enol is formed and there is no need to add NaBH in a second step. This observation is general for oxymercuration of alkynes under these conditions. The more stable secondary vinyl carbocation is an intermediate, but the vinyl-mercury compound formed by reaction with the carbocation is unstable in the presence of water, so the enol is the product. 

Alkynes are considerably less reactive toward most electrophilic additions than are alkenes. The major reason for this difference is the instability of the sp-hybrid-ized vinylic carbocation intermediate formed from an alkyne compared with the ip -hybridized alkyl carbocation formed from an alkene. 

A similar Nicolas-Pauson-Khand combination was used in a synthesis of the ketone analogue of biotin 7.98, required for biochemical studies (Scheme 7.25). In this case, the Nicholas reaction was intermolecular, between allyl thiol as the nucleophile and carbocation 7.94 generated from alcohol 7.93. The Pauson-Khand reaction was then between the dicobalt complexed alkyne 7.95 and the double bond from the thiol moiety. The Pauson-Khand reaction proceeded with no stereoselectivity, and the diastereoisomers had to be chromatographically separated at a later stage. The synthesis was completed by reduction of the alkene of cyclopentenone 7.96, without using palladium-catalysed hydrogenation due to the sulfide moiety, and ester hydrolysis. 

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