Carbonyl carbon centers, nucleophilic reactions

The initial step of olefin formation is a nucleophilic addition of the negatively polarized ylide carbon center (see the resonance structure 1 above) to the carbonyl carbon center of an aldehyde or ketone. A betain 8 is thus formed, which can cyclize to give the oxaphosphetane 9 as an intermediate. The latter decomposes to yield a trisubstituted phosphine oxide 4—e.g. triphenylphosphine oxide (with R = Ph) and an alkene 3. The driving force for that reaction is the formation of the strong double bond between phosphorus and oxygen ... 

For substitution at a carbonyl carbon, the nucleophilicity order is not the same as it is at a saturated carbon, but follows the basicity order more closely. The reason is presumably that the carbonyl carbon, with its partial positive charge, resembles a proton more than does the carbon at a saturated center. That is, a carbonyl carbon is a much harder acid than a saturated carbon. The following nucleophilicity order for these substrates has been de-termmined 321 Me2C=NO- > EtO" > MeO > OH" > OAr- > N-f > F" > H20 > Br" I". Soft bases are ineffective at a carbonyl carbon.322 In a reaction carried out in the gas phase with alkoxide nucleophiles OR solvated by only one molecule of an alcohol R OH, it was found that both RO and R O" attacked the formate substrate (HCOOR") about equally, though in the unsolvated case, the more basic alkoxide is the better nucleophile.323 In this study, the product ion R"0 was also solvated by one molecule of ROH or R OH. 

The following gas-phase reactions of anions have been studied and will be briefly reviewed in the next sections proton transfer reactions, nucleophilic displacement reactions at both aliphatic and aromatic carbon centers, elimination reactions, electron transfer (ET) reactions, reactions with carbon-carbon double bonds and carbonyl functions, and association or complex (cluster)-forming reactions of various types. 

Up to now, the discussion of carbonyl compounds has centered on their reactions with nucleophiles at the electrophilic carbonyl carbon. Two general reactions are observed, depending on the structure of the carbonyl starting material. 

When living poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) prepared by group transfer polymerization (GTP) is used as a macroinitiator for the ROP of cyclic carbonates, a site transformation from the silyl ketene acetal (GTP-mechanism) to an alcoholate (anionic ROP-mechanism) with a metal-free counterion occurs (Scheme 12.5). The GTP of PMMA was initiated with l-methoxy-l-trimethylsilyloxy-2-methyl-l-propene (MTS) in combination with catalytic amounts of tetrabutyl ammonium cyanide in THF as solvent. Towards the end of the reaction, DTC is dissolved in the reaction mixture and lequiv. of fluoride anions (e.g. tris(dimethylamino) sulfonium difluorotrimethylsilicate TASF), with respect to the active species, is added. In this way, good yields of the respective block copolymers were obtained. A model experiment for this site transformation is the polymerization of DTC with MTS as the initiator and TASF as the desilylating agent. The fluoride anion promotes desilylation of the silyl ketene acetal with formation of an enolate, which reacts as a carbon-centered nucleophile with the carbonyl carbon of DTC, thereby... 

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 ... 

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 " ... 

Alternatively, unreactive mixtures of organosilicon hydrides and carbonyl compounds react by hydride transfer from the silicon center to the carbon center when certain nucleophilic species with a high affinity for silicon are added to the mixture.76 94 This outcome likely results from the formation of valence-expanded, pentacoordinate hydrosilanide anion reaction intermediates that have stronger hydride-donating capabilities than their tetravalent precursors (Eq. 6).22,95 101... 

Base catalysis of ligand substitutional processes of metal carbonyl complexes in the presence of oxygen donor bases may be apportioned into two distinct classifications. The first category of reactions involves nucleophilic addition of oxygen bases at the carbon center in metal carbonyls with subsequent oxidation of CO to C02, eqns. 1 and 2 (l, 2). Secondly, there are... 

The two reaction modes of the Michael adducts 145 demonstrate two general principles for the possible preparation of ordinary size heterocyclic compounds from the chlorocyclopropylideneacetates 1,2. Thus, either the heterocycles 153 can be formed by Michael addition of a bidentate nucleophile 150 onto the chloro ester 1-Me and subsequent ring closure of the intermediate 151 [26] by nucleophilic substitution of the chlorine atom at the newly formed sp carbon center adjacent to both the carbonyl and the cyclopropyl group (Route B in Scheme 48). Alternatively, the intermediate 151 can cyclize by nucleophilic attack on the ester moiety to give heterocycles of type 152 (Route A in Scheme 48) [26]. 

A side-chain carboxylate anion of glutamic acid 270 is so situated with respect to the reaction center that it could well function as a nucleophile by attacking the glycine carbonyl carbon. 

The known C02 insertion reactions involving metal-carbon bonds have all resulted in carbor. -carbon bond formation with possibly one exception. Infrared spectral and chemical evidence has been presented for the formation of the metallocarboxylate ester Co(C03) (COOEt)(PPh3), n = 0.5-1.0 from the reaction of Co(CO)(C2H5XPPh3)2 with carbon dioxide from Vol-pin s laboratory (68). Although these studies are not conclusive for abnormal C02 insertion, metallocarboxylate esters are well-known compounds which result from the nucleophilic addition of alkoxides on the carbon center in metal carbonyls (69). 

The carbonyl- 14C KIEs in the title reaction system (equation 225), which gives a nearly 50 50 mixture of cis-trans isomers, depends very much on the ylide used430, and indicate that the reactions proceed via cycloaddition TS of considerable nucleophilic character, inferred also from the substituent effects studied. Positive p values indicate that the Wittig reaction is nucleophilic in nature. Assuming as before the four-centered TS, the authors430 conclude that the C—C bond formation is much advanced of the P—O bond formation in the TS and that the carbonyl-carbon KIE are expected to be larger for later TS salt-free reaction410 (more reactant-like for Li salt present in reaction). 

The Morita-Baylis-Hillman (MBH) reaction is the formation of a-methylene-/ -hydroxycarbonyl compounds X by addition of aldehydes IX to a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds VIII, for example vinyl ketones, acrylonitriles or acrylic esters (Scheme 6.58) [143-148]. For the reaction to occur the presence of catalytically active nucleophiles ( Nu , Scheme 6.58) is required. It is now commonly accepted that the MBH reaction is initiated by addition of the catalytically active nucleophile to the enone/enoate VIII. The resulting enolate adds to the aldehyde IX, establishing the new stereogenic center at the aldehydic carbonyl carbon atom. Formation of the product X is completed by proton transfer from the a-position of the carbonyl moiety to the alcoholate oxygen atom with concomitant elimination of the nucleophile. Thus Nu is available for the next catalytic cycle. 

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