Carbon secondary formation

It IS often necessary to prepare ketones by processes involving carbon-carbon bond formation In such cases the standard method combines addition of a Gngnard reagent to an aldehyde with oxidation of the resulting secondary alcohol... 

The important observation is that all of the isotope effects are large and inverse. Therefore, the transition states in these reactions must be very crowded, i.e. the Ca—H(D) out-of-plane bending vibrations in the transition state must be high energy (Poirier et al., 1994). As a result, these workers concluded that nitrogen-a-carbon bond formation is more advanced than a-carbon-iodine bond rupture in the transition state. It is interesting, however, that in spite of the small secondary a-deuterium KIEs, these authors concluded that the N—C bond formation is only approximately 30% complete in the transition state. 

Other workers have concluded that the transition state for the Menshutkin reaction is late with more nitrogen-alpha carbon bond formation than alpha carbon-leaving group bond rupture. For instance, Harris and coworkers51 found that the secondary alpha deuterium kinetic isotope effects (Table 8) decreased when a poorer nucleophile was used in the S v 2 reactions between 3,5-disubstituted pyridines and methyl iodide in 2-nitropropane at 25 °C (equation 38, Table 8). 

In this paper we have shown that there is no simple answer to the question posed in the title of this paper. Primary carbon particles dominate the carbonaceous aerosol under certain conditions while substantial secondary carbon may be present at other times. However, the importance of secondary carbon contributions is much less obvious when 24-h samples are examined. With shorter time averaged samples (e.g. 6-h or less) the increase in secondary carbon formation can be more easily detected. Secondary carbon appears to be more important in the summer rather than winter, in the afternoon father than the early morning, and in LA rather than St. Louis. It should be noted that these conditions of increased secondary carbon aerosol formation are also more favorable conditions for photochemical reactions. Our detailed emission inventory Indicates that much more primary carbon exists in the urban aerosol than was thought previously. This is in agreement with the data. Our analysis shows that even on the very smoggy days in the ACHEX study there were times when primary carbon dominated the carbonaceous aerosol. 

Other reagents have also been used to effect carbon-carbon bond formation. For example, chiral monosubstituted epoxides (93) can be regioselectively carbomethoxylated under relatively mild conditions with CO/H, in the presence of the salen complex 69. The reaction proceeds with retention of chirality about the secondary epoxide carbon and represents a new route to chiral hydroxy esters 94 <99JOC2164>. 

Activated aziridines should be as useful as epoxides for carbon-carbon bond formation, with the advantage that the product will already incorporated the desired secondary aminated stercocentcr. To date, a general enantioselective method for the aziridination of alkcncs has not been developed. Eric Jacobsen of Harvard University (Angew. Chem. hit. Ed. 2004,43, 3952) has explored an interim solution, based on the resolution of racemic epoxides such as I. The cobalt catalyst that selectively hydrolyzes one enantiomer of the epoxide also promotes the addition of the imidc to the remaining enantiomerically-enriched epoxide. As expected, the aziridine 4 is opened smoothly with dialkyl cuprates. 

When stabilized (and consequently less reactive) anions are employed as the nucleophile, more reactive electrophiles are needed for successful carbon-carbon bond formation. Nitronate anions, which are highly resonance stabilized, fail to react widi simple alkyl hahde electrophiles. On the other hand, /3-dicarbonyl compounds react effectively with primary and some secondary alkyl bromides and iodides to give monoalkylated products. 

Recently, Bode et al. were able to demonstrate that the products formed after generation of the homoenolate equivalents 67 are determined by the catalytic base [64]. Strong bases such as KOt-Bu led to carbon-carbon bond-formation (y-butyrolactones), while weaker bases such as diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA) allowed for protonation of the homoenolate and the subsequent generation of activated carboxylates. The combination of triazolium catalyst 72 and DIPEA in THF as solvent required no additional additives and enabled milder reaction conditions (60 °C), accompanied by still high conversions in the formation of saturated esters out of unsaturated aldehydes (Scheme 9.21). Aliphatic and aromatic enals 62, as well as primary alcohols, secondary alcohols and phenols, are suitable substrates. a-Substituted unsaturated aldehydes did not yield the desired products 73. 

Unfortunately, attempts to perform this substitution reaction on cyclohexenol and geraniol led to the exclusive formation of the corresponding silyl ethers. It thus would seem that one requirement for effective carbon-carbon bond formation is that allylic alcohols be secondary and have possess y,y-disubstitution. Pearson, however, discovered a method with less restriction on the natiue of the substrate he used allylic acetates with y-mono-substitution or primary alcohols [96]. Not only ketene silyl acetals but also a diverse set of nucleophiles including aUyl silane, indoles, MOM vinyl ether, trimethylsilyl azide, trimethylsilyl cyanide, and propargyl silane participate in the substitution of y-aryl allylic alcohol 90 to give allylated 91 (Sch. 45). Further experimental evidence suggests that these reactions proceed via ionization to allylic carboca-tions—alcohols 90 and 92 both afforded the identical product 93. 

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