Carbocations pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement

A methyl group moves from one carbon atom to an adjacent one in order to stabilize an intermediate carbocation. The reaction, also caRed the pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement, j es its name to a class of similar rearrangements. 

The seventh item in Table 8.7 is a transannular (across the ring) pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement in which it can be argued that a carbocation forms and that the hydride ( H, deuteride) shift occurs with participation of the oxygen after the tertiary hydroxyl is lost. As shown in Scheme 8.82, the transannular hydride ( H deuteride can be quite close to the carbocation (or incipient carbocation if loss of water is accompanied by hydride ( H, deuteride) migration. 

Rearrangements may also proceed via intermediates that are essentially cations, anions, or radicals, though those involving carbocations, or other electron-deficient species, are by far the most common. They may involve a major rearrangement of the carbon skeleton of a compound, as during the conversion of 2,3-dimethylbutan-2,3-diol (pinacol, 42) into 2,2-dimethylbutan-3-one (pinacolone, 43, cf. p. 113) ... 

Pinacol rearrangement is a dehydration of a 1,2-diol to form a ketone. 2,3-drmethyl-2,3-butanediol has the common name pinacol (a symmetrical diol). When it is treated with strong acid, e.g. H2SO4, it gives 3,3-dimethyl-2-butanone (methyl r-butyl ketone), also commonly known as pinacolone. The product results from the loss of water and molecular rearrangement. In the rearrangement of pinacol equivalent carbocations are formed no matter which hydroxyl group is protonated and leaves. 

The pinacol rearrangement is a dehydration of an alcohol that results in an unexpected product. When hot sulfuric acid is added to an alcohol, the expected product of dehydration is an alkene. However, if the alcohol is a vicinal diol, the product will be a ketone or aldehyde. The reaction follows the mechanism shown, below. The first hydroxyl group is protonated and removed by the acid to form a carboca-tion in an expected dehydration step. Now, a methyl group may move to fonn an even more stable carbocation. This new carbocation exhibits resonance as shown. Resonance Structure 2 is favored because all tire atoms have an octet of electrons. The water deprotonates Resonance Structure 2, forming pinacolone and regenerating the acid catalyst. 

The pinacol rearrangement is a useful reaction that proceeds via a carbocation rearrangement. Treatment of 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-butanediol, also known as pinacol, with acid results in the formation of a ketone, pinacolone ... 

Of the two OH groups, the one which forms the more stable carbocation is protonated preferentially. This factor takes precedence over the migratory aptitude factor. Further evidence for carbenium ion formation in the pinacol rearrangement has been obtained by oxygen-exchange experiments. Partial rearrangement of pinacol to pinacolone has been carried out in acidic solutions containing H20 (Scheme 2.27). 

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