Carbocations simple

One of the major contemporary chemical controversies in which I was inadvertently involved developed in the 1950s, surprisingly over the structnre of a deceptively simple seven carbon-containing bicyclic carbocation, the 2-norbornyl (bicyclo[2.2.1]heptyl) cation. The in-... 

A substantial body of evidence indicates that allylic carbocations are more stable than simple alkyl cations For example the rate of solvolysis of a chlonde that is both tertiary and allylic is much faster than that of a typical tertiary alkyl chloride... 

Although there is no simple quantitative relationship between the stability of a carbocation intermediate and the rate of its formation, there is an intuitive relationship. It s generally true when comparing two similar reactions that the more stable intermediate forms faster than the less stable one. The situation is shown graphically in Figure 6.13, where the reaction energy profile in part (a) represents the typical situation rather than the profile in part (b). That is, the curves for two similar reactions don t cross one another. 

ThomsonNOW Click Organic Interactive to use a web-based palette to predict products from simple carbocation rearrangements. 

Alkenyl sulfoxides 177 and 178, which can be readily prepared from 1-alkynes222, 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 jS-side-chain on prostanoids223,224. 

Carboxylic acids can be converted by anodic oxidation into radicals and/or carbo-cations. The procedure is simple, an undivided beaker-type cell to perform the reaction, current control, and usually methanol as solvent is sufficient. A scale up is fairly easy and the yields are generally good. The pathway towards either radicals or carbocations can be efficiently controlled by the reaction conditions (electrode material, solvent, additives) and the structure of the carboxylic acids. A broad variety of starting compounds is easily and inexpensively available from natural and petrochemical sources, or by highly developed procedures for the synthesis of carboxylic acids. 

Since the central carbon of tricoordinated carbocations has only three bonds and no other valence electrons, the bonds are sp and should be planar. Raman, IR, and NMR spectroscopic data on simple alkyl cations show this to be so. In methylcycohexyl cations there are two chair conformations where the carbon bearing the positive charge is planar (9 and 10), and there is evidence that difference is hyperconjugation make 10 more stable. Other evidence is that carbocations are difficult to form at bridgehead atoms in [2.2.1] systems, where they cannot be planar (see p. 397). ° Bridgehead carbocations are known, however, as in [2.1.1]... 

This species may be OH , halide ion, or any other negative ion, or it may be a neutral species with a pair to donate, in which case, of course, the immediate product must bear a positive charge (see Chapters 10, 13, 15, 16). These reactions are very fast. A recent study measured (the rate constant for reaction of a simple tertiary carbocation) to be 3.5 x 10 s . ... 

Unfortunately, it is not easy to measure acid strengths of very weak acids like the conjugate acids of simple unsubstituted carbanions. There is little doubt that these carbanions are very unstable in solution, and in contrast to the situation with carbocations, efforts to prepare solutions in which carbanions such as ethyl or isopropyl exist in a relatively free state have not yet been successful. Nor has it been possible to form these carbanions in the gas phase. Indeed, there is evidence that simple carbanions such as ethyl and isopropyl are unstable toward loss of an electron, which converts them to radicals. Nevertheless, there have been several approaches to the problem. Applequist and O Brien studied the position of equilibrium for the reaction... 

A free radical (often simply called a radical) may be defined as a species that contains one or more unpaired electrons. Note that this definition includes certain stable inorganic molecules such as NO and NO2, as well as many individual atoms, such as Na and Cl. As with carbocations and carbanions, simple alkyl radicals are very reactive. Their lifetimes are extremely short in solution, but they can be kept for relatively long periods frozen within the crystal lattices of other molecules. Many spectral measurements have been made on radicals trapped in this manner. Even under these conditions, the methyl radical decomposes with a half-life of 10-15 min in a methanol lattice at 77 K. Since the lifetime of a radical depends not only on its inherent stabihty, but also on the conditions under which it is generated, the terms persistent and stable are usually used for the different senses. A stable radical is inherently stable a persistent radical has a relatively long lifetime under the conditions at which it is generated, though it may not be very stable. 

The SnI reactions do not proceed at bridgehead carbons in [2.2.1] bicyclic systems (p. 397) because planar carbocations cannot form at these carbons. However, carbanions not stabilized by resonance are probably not planar SeI reactions should readily occur with this type of substrate. This is the case. Indeed, the question of carbanion stracture is intimately tied into the problem of the stereochemistry of the SeI reaction. If a carbanion is planar, racemization should occur. If it is pyramidal and can hold its structure, the result should be retention of configuration. On the other hand, even a pyramidal carbanion will give racemization if it cannot hold its structure, that is, if there is pyramidal inversion as with amines (p. 129). Unfortunately, the only carbanions that can be studied easily are those stabilized by resonance, which makes them planar, as expected (p. 233). For simple alkyl carbanions, the main approach to determining structure has been to study the stereochemistry of SeI reactions rather than the other way around. What is found is almost always racemization. Whether this is caused by planar carbanions or by oscillating pyramidal carbanions is not known. In either case, racemization occurs whenever a carbanion is completely free or is symmetrically solvated. 

The mechanism involves a simple 1,2 shift. The ion (52, where all four R groups are Me) has been trapped by the addition of tetrahydrothiophene. It may seem odd that a migration takes place when the positive charge is already at a tertiary position, but carbocations stabilized by an oxygen atom are even more stable than tertiary alkyl cations (p. 323). There is also the driving force supplied by the fact that the new carbocation can immediately stabilize itself by losing a proton. 

The synthetic procedures for isolation of the salt appear to be rather simple. First, one prepares a solution in which the carbocation and carbanion coexist free from any combination reactions. Then, the hydrocarbon cation-anion salt is isolated after separation of the concomitant inorganic salt and evaporation of the solvent. For the purification of the crude salt recrystallization or reprecipitation with proper solvents is used. 

The difference between carbonyl chemistry and (simple) carbocation chemistry is a result of much greater stability of the carbonyl group relative to a simple carbenium... 

There are some special cases where tetrahedral intermediates are unusually stable there are three phenomena which lead to this stability enhancement. The first is an unusually reactive carbonyl (or imine) compound which is very prone to addition. An example of such a compound is trichoroacetaldehyde or chloral, for which the covalent hydrate can be isolated. A simple way to recognize such compounds is to think of the carbonyl group as a (very) stabilized carbocation, bearing an substituent. 

Alternatively one can make use of No Barrier Theory (NBT), which allows calculation of the free energy of activation for such reactions with no need for an empirical intrinsic barrier. This approach treats a real chemical reaction as a result of several simple processes for each of which the energy would be a quadratic function of a suitable reaction coordinate. This allows interpolation of the reaction hypersurface a search for the lowest saddle point gives the free energy of activation. This method has been applied to enolate formation, ketene hydration, carbonyl hydration, decarboxylation, and the addition of water to carbocations. ... 

Replacing an a-alkyl snbstituent by an a-aryl group is expected to stabilize the cationic center by the p-Jt resonance that characterizes the benzyl carbocations. In order to analyze such interaction in detail, the cumyl cation was crystallized with hexafluoroantimonate by Laube et al. (Fig. 13) A simple analysis of cumyl cation suggests the potential contributions of aromatic delocalization (Scheme 7.3), which should be manifested in the X-ray structure in terms of a shortened cationic carbon—aromatic carbon bond distance (C Cat). Similarly, one should also consider the potential role of o-CH hyperconjugation, primarily observable in terms of shortened CH3 distances. Notably, it was found experimentally that the Cai distance is indeed shortened to a value of 1.41 A, which is between those of typical sp -sp single bonds (1.51 A) and sp -sp double bonds (1.32 A). In the meantime, a C -CH3 distance of 1.49 A is longer than that observed in the tert-butyl cation 1 (1.44 A), and very close to the normal value for an sp -sp single bond. 

Richard, J. P. Amyes, T. L. Bei, L. Stubblefield, V. The effect of beta-fluorine substituents on the rate and equilibrium-constants for the reactions of alpha-substituted 4-methoxybenzyl carbocations and on the reactivity of a simple quinone methide. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990, 112, 9513-9519. 

The simple alkyl carbocations have already been seen (p. 83) to follow the stability sequence,... 

An essential requirement for such stabilisation is that the carbocation should be planar, for it is only in this configuration that effective delocalisation can occur. Quantum mechanical calculations for simple alkyl cations do indeed suggest that the planar (sp2) configuration is more stable than the pyramidal (sp3) by = 84 kJ (20 kcal) mol-1. As planarity is departed from, or its attainment inhibited, instability of the cation and consequent difficulty in its formation increases very rapidly. This has already been seen in the extreme inertness of 1-bromotriptycene (p. 87) to SN1 attack, due to inability to assume the planar configuration preventing formation of the carbocation. The expected planar structure of even simple cations has been confirmed by analysis of the n.m.r. and i.r. spectra of species such as Me3C SbF6e they thus parallel the trialkyl borons, R3B, with which they are isoelectronic. 

With simple aliphatic amines, the initial diazonium cations (56) will break down extremely readily to yield carbocations (cf. p. 107) which are, for reasons that are not wholly clear, markedly more reactive than those obtained from other fission processes, e.g. RBr- R Bre. Where the prime purpose is the formation of carbocations, the nitrosation is better carried out on a derivative of the amine (to avoid formation of H20) under anhydrous conditions ... 

As with carbocations (p. 104) and carbanions (p. 276), the question arises of whether simple radicals—of the type R3C—accommodate... 

Simple tertiary carbocations represent a benchmark against which to compare the reactivity of other a-methyl carbocations. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with complex questions about the mechanism for substitution and elimination reactions at tertiary aliphatic carbon in order to evaluate the rate constant... 

There are two lines of evidence that the reactions of simple tertiary derivatives such as [1]-C1 to give solvent adducts proceed through the corresponding tertiary carbocation intermediates (1) There is a large steric barrier to the... 

Fig. 1 Free energy reaction coordinate profiles for hydration and isomerization of the alkene [2] through the simple tertiary carbocation [1+], The rate constants for partitioning of [1 ] to form [l]-OSolv and [3] are limited by solvent reorganization (ks = kteorg) and proton transfer (kp), respectively. For simplicity, the solvent reorganization step is not shown for the conversion of [1+] to [3], but the barrier for this step is smaller than the chemical barrier to deprotonation of [1 ] (kTtOTg > kp).

Our analysis of literature data will focus on two closely related questions about the influence of changes in the relative thermodynamic driving force and Marcus intrinsic barrier for the reaction of simple carbocations with Bronsted bases (alkene formation) and Lewis bases (nucleophile addition) on the values of ks/kp determined by experiment. 

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