Nucleophilic attack carbonyl compounds

But the best El eliminations of all are with tertiary alcohols. The alcohols can be made using the methods of Chapter 9 nucleophilic attack by an organometallic on a carbonyl compound. Nucleophilic addition, followed by El elimination, is the best way of making this substituted cyclohexene, for example. Note that the the proton required in the first step is recovered in the last—the reaction requires only catalytic amounts of acid. 

Oxygen, nitrogen, or sulfur multiply bonded to carbon can accept the whole of a pair of electrons 4 and thus allow a nucleophilic reagent to attack the carbon atom, as in many common reactions of carbonyl compounds. The attack by a nucleophilic reagent is easier when the heteroatom carries a positive charge 5. 

It is, of course, the carbonyl group that makes acyl compounds more reactive than alkyl compounds. Nucleophilic attack (Sn2) on a tetrahedral alkyl carbon involves a badly crowded transition state containing pentavalent carbon a bond must be partly broken to permit the attachment of the nucleophile ... 

The mechanism involves a bimolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction (SN2) of the hydrogen atom or tosylate group by DMSO to give an alkoxysulfonium intermediate (21), which is subsequently converted to the carbonyl compound by attack of the base (B ) by two possible routes (Scheme 12). 

Another stereoelectronic effect induced by electronegative substituents is the "Anh-Eisenstein effect [44] (Scheme 4.17) which can be of particular importance to the stereochemical outcome of enzymatic reactions involving fluorinated substrates [45]. In a-fluorocarbonyl compounds nucleophilic attack of the carbonyl group occurs preferentially anti to the fluorine substituent [46]. The resulting, unusually high stereospecificity, e.g. in some enzymatic reactions of fluorinated substrates [45], cannot be explained by the slightly different steric demands of hydrogen and fluorine alone. 

Formation of carboxylic acids ami their derivatives. Aryl and alkenyl halides undergo Pd-catalyzed carbonylation under mild conditions, offering useful synthetic methods for carbonyl compounds. The facile CO insertion into aryl- or alkenylpalladium complexes, followed by the nucleophilic attack of alcohol or water affords esters or carboxylic acids. Aromatic and a,/ -unsaturated carboxylic acids or esters are prepared by the carbonylation of aryl and alkenyl halides in water or alcohols[30l-305]. 

In the alcohol oxidations, the sulfonium intermediate (2, nucleophile = R2C(OH)) loses a proton and dimethyl sulfide to give the carbonyl compound (42). The most common mechanism for the decomposition of (2) is attack by a mild base to remove a proton from one of the methyl groups. Subsequent cycHc coUapse leads to the carbonyl compound and dimethyl sulfide (eq. 9) ... 

The stereoselectivity of organometallic additions with carbonyl compounds fits into the general pattern for nucleophilic attack discussed in Chapter 3. With 4-r-butylcyclohex-anone, there is a preference for equatorial approach but the selectivity is low. Enhanced steric factors promote stereoselective addition. 

Polyfluoroalkyl- andperfluoroalkyl-substituted CO and CN multiple bonds as dipolarophiles. Dmzo alkanes are well known to react with carbonyl compounds, usually under very mild conditions, to give oxiranes and ketones The reaction has been interpreted as a nucleophilic attack of the diazo alkane on the carbonyl group to yield diazonium betaines or 1,2,3 oxadiazol 2 ines as reaction intermediates, which generally are too unstable to be isolated Aromatic diazo compounds react readily with partially fluorinated and perfluorinated ketones to give l,3,4-oxadiazol-3-ines m high yield At 25 °C and above, the aryloxa-diazolines lose nitrogen to give epoxides [111]... 

The reactivity of aldehydes and ketones toward cyanide may be influenced by the steric and/or electronic properties of the carbonyl substituents, X. Examine spacefilling models of formaldehyde (X=H), acetone (X=Me), and benzophenone (X=Ph). Which compound offers the least steric hindrance to nucleophilic attack The most ... 

The mechanism of the cycloaddition reaction of benzaldehyde 2a with Danishefsky s diene 3a catalyzed by aluminum complexes has been investigated theoretically using semi-empirical calculations [14]. It was found that the reaction proceeds as a step-wise cycloaddition reaction with the first step being a nucleophilic-like attack of Danishefsky s diene 2a on the coordinated carbonyl compound leading to an aldol-like intermediate which is stabilized by interaction of the cation with the oxygen atom of the Lewis acid. The next step is the ring-closure step, giving the cycloaddition product. 

In the presence of strong bases, carbonyl compounds form enolate ions, which may be employed as nucleophilic reagents to attack alkyl halides or other suitably electron-deficient substrates giving carbon-carbon bonds. (The aldol and Claisen condensations... 

Nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction (Section 21.2) A reaction in which a nucleophile attacks a carbonyl compound and substitutes for a leaving group bonded to the carbonyl carbon. 

A 6-endo cyclization by a y-epoxy alcohol can be accomplished through the presence of an appropriately disposed electron-withdrawing group, as found in the total synthesis of (+)-phonomactin. Treatment of the hydroxy-epoxy ketone 30 (R = H) with HC1 afforded the bicyclic compound 31, containing a pyran-4-one ring, in which nucleophilic attack of the y-OH group occurred at the oxirane carbon distal from the unfavorable electronic effect of the carbonyl group (Scheme 8.7) [20a]. 

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