Cationic carbon

Concerning my research during my Dow years, as I discuss iu Chapter 4, my search for cationic carbon intermediates started back in Hungary, while 1 was studying Friedel-Crafts-type reactions with acyl and subsequently alkyl fluorides catalyzed by boron trifluoride. In the course of these studies I observed (and, in some cases, isolated) intermediate complexes of either donor-acceptor or ionic nature. 

Up to this point in our discussion, we have considered only carbocations in which the cationic carbon can be 5p -hybridized and planar. When this hybridization cannot be achieved, die carbocations are of higher energy. In a classic experiment, Bartlett and Knox demonstrated that the tertiary chloride 1-chloroapocamphane was inert to nucleophilic substitution. Starting material was recovered unchanged even after refluxing for 48 h in ethanolic silver nitrate. The umeactivity of this compound is attributed to the structure of... 

Figure 8.2 The structure of a secondary vinylic carbocation. The cationic carbon atom is sp-hybridized and has a vacant p orbital perpendicular to the plane of the tt bond orbitals. Only one R group is attached to the positively charged carbon rather than two, as in a secondary alkyl carbocation. The electrostatic potential map shows that the most positive (blue) regions coincide with lobes of the vacant p orbital and are perpendicular to the most negative (red) regions associated with the ir bond.

Fig. 9. Atomic charges of the cationic carbon atoms as a function of distance between CH3+ and different counterions...

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. 

Another example of migration of a group, in the original case Me, to a cationic carbon atom occurs in the acid-catalysed rearrangement of 1,2-diols, e.g. pinacol (cf. p. 218) Me2C(OH)C(OH)Me2 (34) to ketones, e.g. pinacolone, MeCOCMe3 (35) ... 

A water molecule acting as a Lewis base donates an electron pair to the carbocation (a Lewis acid). This gives the cationic carbon eight electrons. 

The 1.8 kcal mol 1 less favorable change in Gibbs free energy for the addition of water to [18+] to give [18]-OH in 50/50 (v/v) trifluoroethanol/water (p/CR = -11.3)104 than for addition of water to Me-[6+] in the same solvent (pATR = -12.6)13 shows that the former carbocation is stabilized relative to the alcohol. This stabilization may be the result of the smaller entropic price paid to restrict the / —CH bonds in the five-membered ring at [18+] to conformations that are favorable for hyperconjugation with the cationic carbon. 

This increased stability has been explained between the bent orbitals of cyclopropyl rings and the vacant p orbital of the cation carbon. The vacant p orbital lies parallel to C2-C3 bond of the cyclopropane ring and not perpendicular to it. Thus the geometry becomes similar to that of a cyclopropane ring conjugated with an oblefinic bond. 

The destabilizing effect of a silyl group compared with an alkyl group in trivalent carbocations was explained by the weaker hyperconjugation of the Si-R a-bond (R = alkyl) relative to a C-R cr-bond (R = H or alkyl) and by electrostatic repulsion between the adjacent positively charged cationic carbon and the electropositive silicon (10). 

The cation pool method is based on the irreversible oxidative generation of organic cations. In the first step, the cation precursor is oxidized via an electrochemical method. An organic cation thus generated is accumulated in the solution in the absence of a nucleophile that we want to introduce onto the cationic carbon. Counter anions which are normally considered to be very weak nucleophiles are used to avoid the nucleophilic attack on the cationic center. In order to avoid thermal decomposition of the cation, electrolysis should be carried out at low temperatures such as -78 °C. After electrolysis is complete, the nucleophile is then added to obtain the desired product. The use of a carbon nucleophile results the direct carbon-carbon bond formation. 

Bianco A, Hoebeke J, Godefroy S, Chaloin O, Pantarotto D, Briand JP, Muller S, Prato M, Partidos CD (2005a) Cationic carbon nanotubes bind to CpG oligodeoxynucleotides and enhance their immunostimulatory properties. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127 58-59. 

An unusual combination between a coordination mode III complex and doubly ortho metalation (see below) is found in the unique complex 36 in Fig. 25. If we consider the coordination of the CHP2 unit as a cationic carbon donor, like the cation (HCjPPhs (2) in Fig. 24 for the metal the oxidation state Pt(II) is more likely rather than Pt(IV) [135]. 

Supplementary studies of the mechanism were conducted. The dependence of the reaction rate on the nature of environment at the cationic carbon has shown that the concurrent formation of the protic acid proceeds, if the substituents can undergo the isomerization (Scheme 61), and thus the carbenium catalysis is utterly negligible. It was shown that the reaction was still catalyzed, even when a base was added in order to rule out a TfOH catalyzed reaction. Obviously, the protonated base was then a catalyst. 

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