Polycyclic systems, carbocations

We saw how Jra/is-annular reactions are common in carbocation chemistry. The close proximity of atoms in polycyclic systems means that, not only carbocation reactions, but also carbanion and free radical are prone to take place across the ring system. Figure 5.41 shows an anionic reaction in a bicyclic monoterpenoid. 

Chiral bromohydrin derivatives reacted under acidic conditions with very high stereoselectivity (essentially stereospecific). This points to a mechanism involving a chiral bromonium ion as the reactive intermediate. The protonation of chloroethane by the carborane superacid H(CHBuClii) proceeds via a shared-proton intermediate that decays by HCl loss to form the carbocation-like ethyl carborane. This reacts with a second EtCl to form the Et2Cl+ cation. The transannular electrophilic bromination of a polycyclic system with two C=C in close proximity was studied by computational methods. The initial bromonium was found to rearrange into more stable carbocations through reaction with the nearby carbon—carbon double bond. 

Strong acids or superacid systems generate stable fluorinated carbocations [40, 42] Treatment of tetrafluorobenzbarrelene with arenesulfonyl chlorides in nitro-methane-lithium perchlorate yields a crystalline salt with a rearranged benzo barrelene skeleton [43] Ionization of polycyclic adducts of difluorocarbene and derivatives of bornadiene with antimony pentafluonde in fluorosulfonyl chloride yields stable cations [44, 45]... 

Many more cyclic and polycyclic equilibrating carbocations have been reported. Some representative examples, namely, the bisadamantyl (499),859 2-norbornyl (500),40 7-perhydropentalenyl (501),188 9-decalyl (502),188 and pentacylopropylethyl (503)860 cations, are given in Scheme 3.19. All these systems again involve hypercoordinate high-lying intermediates or transition states. 

AG <5 kcal/mole, AG 2 >10 kcal/mole). If the rate of reaction is fast with respect to conformational equilibration the relative populations of the conformers will be of major importance (Fig. 6b). This situation is often encountered with conformationally rigid systems (e.g., polycyclic compounds). Obviously, conformational control can also be brought about by increasing the rate of reaction. We have seen (Section 3) that some 1,2 shifts in carbocations are extremely fast (AG <5 kcal/mole). We expect, therefore, that rearrangements of carbocations may be competitive, at least, with conformational equilibration even in acyclic systems. 

Abbreviations PAH, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon DE, diol epoxide PAHDE, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon diol epoxide PAHTC, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon triol carbocation TC, triol carbocation BaP, benzo[a]pyrene BeP, benzo[e]pyrene BA, benz[a]anthracene DBA, dibenz[a,h]anthracene BcPh, benzo[c)phenanthrene Ch, chrysene MCh, methylchrysene MBA, 7-methyl benz[a]anthracene DMBA, 7,12-dimethyl benz[a]anthracene EBA, 7-ethyl benz[a]anthracene DB(a,l)P, dibenzo[a,l]pyrene MSCR, mechanism-based structure-carcinogenicity relationship PMO, Perturbational molecular orbital method dA, deoxyadenosine dC, deoxycytosine dG, deoxyguanosine MOS, monoxygenase enzyme system EH, epoxide hydrolase enzyme system N2(G), exocyclic nitrogen of guanine C, electrophilic centre of PAHTC K, intercalation constant CD, circular dichroism LD, linear dichroism. 

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