Carbon-centered electrophiles

Electrophilic substitution of thianthrene takes place at C-2. No examples of even minor amounts of 1-mono-substituted product have been reported. Disubstitution gives 2,7- (usually) or 2,8-products. In a few cases, 2,6-derivatives have been claimed. The presence of a sulfoxide or sulfone unit greatly reduces the susceptibility of either ring to electrophilic substitution. Carbon-centered electrophilic addition to sulfur to produce 5-R-thianthrenium salts has been described rarely most examples of the formation of such salts have involved the thianthrene radical ion(l-t-). Treatment of thianthrene with alkyl/aryllithiums produces the 1-lithio-species, and these organometallic derivatives allow the introduction of substituents at this position. 

Carbon-centered electrophiles are compounds or intermediates which are electron poor and thus capable of accepting electrons from electron donors. To be an electron acceptor, an electrophile must have an unfilled orbital on carbon available for overlap with a filled orbital of the donor. Unfilled atomic p orbitals or antibonding orbitals (both a and it ) are the most common types of acceptor orbitals. The most common carbon electrophiles fall into four major categories ... 

The reaction of coordinated amines with carbon-centered electrophiles has been utilized in the synthesis of encapsulating ligands for a number of years, and this topic has recently been reviewed. A novel example making extensive use... 

Utilization of Enders Alkylation with Other Electrophiles Enders hydrazones were also shown to react with other electrophiles than alkyl halides. Indeed, several carbon-centered electrophiles could be used such as aldehydes and ketones through aldolization reactions [22], various Michael acceptors [23], aziridines [24], but also some unconventional electrophiles such as THE in the presence of trialkylsilyl tiifluoromethane sulfonate or cyclopropenes with the zinc azaenolate [25]. 

Sulfones are formally electrophilic carbon reagents as they can dissociate into carbenium ion/sulfinate anion ion/pairs. a,p-Unsaturated sulfones are Michael acceptors as the sul-fonyl group renders their (3-carbon centers electrophilic. P,"y-Unsaturated sulfones can dissociate into relatively stable allyl cationic intermediates under the promotion by an oxyphilic Lewis acid generating electrophilic allylic agents. 

Several recent review articles provide excellent summaries of the stoichiometric and catalytic reactivity of synthetic metal aqua and hydroxide complexes with carbon-centered electrophiles (esters, amides, peptides, CO2, nitriles) [8, 10-13, 82-90] and phosphate derivatives (activated phosphate esters, DNA, RNA) [6, 11-13, 17-20, 82, 83, 85, 91-99]. In particular, these reviews provide insight into how various metal/ligand assemblies influence catalytic hydrolytic reactions. 

The reaction starts with the nucleophilic addition of a tertiary amine 4 to the alkene 2 bearing an electron-withdrawing group. The zwitterionic intermediate 5 thus formed, has an activated carbon center a to the carbonyl group, as represented by the resonance structure 5a. The activated a-carbon acts as a nucleophilic center in a reaction with the electrophilic carbonyl carbon of the aldehyde or ketone 1 ... 

In order to rationalize the orr/zo-selectivity observed in the reaction of sodium phenoxide 1 with carbon dioxide, the formation of a complex 3 is assumed. By that complexation the carbon dioxide becomes polarized, and its electrophilic character is increased. Complex 3 is of suitable geometry for reaction with the activated ort/zo-carbon center " ... 

Another important feature of the Nef reaction is the possible use of a CH-NO2 function as an umpoled carbonyl function. A proton at a carbon a to a nitro group is acidic, and can be abstracted by base. The resulting anionic species has a nucleophilic carbon, and can react at that position with electrophiles. In contrast the carbon center of a carbonyl group is electrophilic, and thus reactive towards nucleophiles. 1,4-Diketones 4 can for example be prepared from a-acidic nitro compounds by a Michael additionfNef reaction sequence " ... 

Recently, Uneyama reported that treatment of (R)-l-tosyl-2-trifTuoromethylazir-idine 76 (Scheme 3.24) with w-BuLi at -100 °C and subsequent trapping of the anion with electrophiles such as chloroformates produced aziridine-2-carboxylates 77 in good to excellent yields [71]. The retention of the configuration of the tri-fluoromethylated quaternary carbon center in the course of the reaction was confirmed by derivatization of the product and by X-ray studies. 

Absolute rate constants for the attack of aryl radicals on a variety of substrates have been reported by Scaiano and Stewart (Ph ) 7 and Citterio at al. (/j-CIPh-).379,384 The reactions are extremely facile in comparison with additions of other carbon-centered radicals [e.g. jfc(S) = 1.1x10s M"1 s"1 at 25 °C].3,7 Relative reactivities are available for a wider range of monomers and other substrates (Tabic 3.b). Phenyl radicals do not show clear cut electrophilic or... 

The absolute rate constants for attack of carbon-centered radicals on p-benzoquinone (38) and other quinones have been determined to be in the range I0M08 M 1 s 1.1 -04 This rate shows a strong dependence on the electrophilicity of the attacking radical and there is some correlation between the efficiency of various quinones as inhibitors of polymerization and the redox potential of the quinone. The complexity of the mechanism means that the stoichiometry of inhibition by these compounds is often not straightforward. Measurements of moles of inhibitor consumed for each chain terminated for common inhibitors of this class give values in the range 0.05-2.0.176... 

The mixed lithium aminophosphonium azadiylides 7 [47] are known to be involved in reaction with various electrophiles specifically at the carbon center. The reaction with carbonyl known to form betaine adducts was recently used for the first time in Wittig type reactions for the synthesis of di-, tri-, and tetrasubsti-tuted alkenes 8 [52]. 

They demonstrated that electron-deficient R groups and electron-rich R substituents at S accelerated the reductive elimination. They proposed 123 (Lj = DPPE, R = Ph, R = Ar) as a transition state, where R acts as an electrophile and thiolate as a nucleophile. The Hammet plot for the reductive elimination showed that the resonance effect of the substituent in R determines the inductive effect of the R group, and the effect in SR showed an acceptable linear relationship with the standard o-values. The relative rate for sulfide elimination as a function of the hybrid valence configuration of the carbon center bonded to palladium followed the trend sp > sp spl... 

The alternative electrophilic mechanism for the nitration of ESE with TNM requires a close approach of a hindered ESE to a N02 group on the quaternary carbon center of TNM. However, this transition state is sterically very demanding, and it will not readily account for the observed reactivity. Furthermore, the observed lack of regioselectivity in the nitration of the isomeric enol silyl ethers of 2-methylcyclohexanone that leads to the same 2-methyl-2-nitrocyclohexanone (in thermal as well as photochemical nitration) is not readily reconciled by a concerted (electrophilic) mechanism (equation 18). 

It is well known that strong electrophiles such as carbocations are reduced by organosilicon hydrides (Eq. 1).3,70,71 On the other hand, simple mixtures of organosilicon hydrides and compounds with weakly electrophilic carbon centers such as ketones and aldehydes are normally unreactive unless the electrophilicity of the carbon center is enhanced by complexation of the carbonyl oxygen with Brpnsted acids3,70 73 or certain Lewis acids (Eq. 2).1,70,71,74,75 Using these acids, hydride transfer from the silicon center to carbon may then occur to give either alcohol-related or hydrocarbon products. 

All reactions of benzotriazole derivatives of the type Bt-CR RbS discussed above are based on electrophilic or nucleophilic substitutions at the ot-carbon, but radical reactions are also possible. Thus, the first report on unsubstituted carbon-centered (benzotriazol-l-yl)methyl radical 841 involves derivatives of (benzotriazol-l-yl)methyl mercaptan. 3 -(Benzotriazol-l-yl)methyl-0-ethyl xanthate 840 is readily prepared in a reaction of l-(chloromethyl)-benzotriazole with commercially available potassium 0-ethyl xanthate. Upon treatment with radical initiators (lauroyl peroxide), the C-S bond is cleaved to generate radical 841 that can be trapped by alkenes to generate new radicals 842. By taking the xanthate moiety from the starting material, radicals 842 are converted to final products 843 with regeneration of radicals 841 allowing repetition of the process (Scheme 134). Maleinimides are also satisfactorily used as radical traps in these reactions <2001H(54)301>. 

Another mode of carbon-based activation of hemiacetals relies on carbonyl-centered electrophiles 89 (Scheme 3.14). These reagents have demonstrated the highest efficiency for disaccharide synthesis among electrophilic carbon activating agents. In the event, the hemiacetal 1 is activated with electrophile 89 for in situ... 

A similar reaction pathway was found for the Sn2 substitution of an epoxide with a lithium cuprate cluster [124]. In contrast to that in the MeBr reaction, the stereochemistry of the electrophilic carbon center is already inverted in the transition state, providing the reason for the preferred trans-diaxial epoxide-opening widely observed in synthetic studies. The TS for the Sn2 reaction of cyclohexene oxide is shown in Eq. 10.12. 

Besides the classical additions of carbon-centered nucleophiles to the electrophilic sites of the cumulenic chain, transition-metal allenyhdenes are able to promote... 

Enantioselective -Functionalization of Aldehydes and Ketones The direct and enantiosective functionalization of enolates or enolate equivalents with carbon-, nitrogen-, oxygen-, sulfur- or halogen-centered electrophiles represents a powerful transformation of chemical synthesis and of fundamental importance to modem practitioners of asymmetric molecule constmction. Independent studies from List, J0rgensen, Cordova, Hayashi, and MacMiUan have demonstrated the power of enamine catalysis, developing catalytic enantioselective reactions such as... 

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