Cations and Electrophiles

Many reactions in polar solvents involve the production of cations as intermediates. This chapter focuses on electrophiles. These are electron-deficient species that form a covalent bond with a reaction partner (the nucleophile) by accepting both electrons for the bond from the nucleophile (reaction 5.1). The terms Lewis acid and Lewis base are also used to describe electrophiles and nucleophiles, especially in the context of inorganic chemistry. Electrophiles can be positively charged or neutral. If positively charged, they are cations.. Cations centred on carbon are carbocations. All proton acids are electrophiles other electrophiles include the nitronium ion N02+ and the bromine molecule. Some examples of reactions of electrophiles with nucleophiles (which can be negatively charged or neutral) are shown in reactions (5.2)-(5.5). Reactions (5.2) and (5.3) involve positively charged electrophiles, whereas the electrophiles in (5.4) and (5.5) are neutral. 

Electrophiles arc positively charged or neutral Nucleophiles are negatively charged or neutral 

The terf-butyl (2-methylprop-2-yl) cation, which is the electrophile in reaction (5.2), has a vacant orbital which can accept the electron pair from the nucleophile without the need for any further movement of electrons. However, in many reactions a further electron pair movement is needed. The electrophilic proton in H30 +, HBr or H20 (reactions 5.3-5.5) can only support one covalent bond, so as the nucleophile attacks with its electron pair, the bond from the proton to the oxygen or bromine atom has to break, with the electrons from that bond forming a lone pair on the oxygen or bromine atom. 

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Most carbocationic and cationic ring-opening polymerizations are chain processes proceeding with carbocations and/or onium ions as the active species. Nonchain processes which occur via cationic and electrophilic intermediates will be discussed in Chapter 7. 

For a discussion of vinyl cations and electrophilic additions to alkynes, see Stang, P. J. Rappoport, Z. Hanack, M. Subramanian, L. R. Vinyl Cations Academic Press New York, 1979. 

As a Carbon Nucleophile in Uncatalyzed Reactions. Some electrophiles do not need Lewis acids, being already cationic and electrophilic enough to react with allyltrimethylsilane. Examples are the dithianyl cation (eq 20), the tricarbonyl(cyclohexadienyl) iron cation (eq 21), ( r-allyl) tetracarbonyliron cations, and chlorosulfonyl isocyanate (CSI). Other reagents react directly by cycloaddition, but need further steps to achieve an overall electrophilic substitution, as in the reactions with nitrones (eq 22). 

Apart from Bronsted acid activation, the acetyl cation (and other acyl ions) can also be activated by Lewis acids. Although the 1 1 CH3COX-AIX3 Friedel-Crafts complex is inactive for the isomerization of alkanes, a system with two (or more) equivalents of AIX3 was fonnd by Volpin to be extremely reactive, also bringing abont other electrophilic reactions. 

The resulting macrocyclic ligand was then metallated with nickel(II) acetate. Hydride abstraction by the strongly electrophilic trityl cation and proton elimination resulted in the formation of carbon-carbon double bonds (T.J. Truex, 1972). 

The positive charge on carbon and the vacant p orbital combine to make carbo cations strongly electrophilic ( electron loving or electron seeking ) Electrophiles are Lewis acids (Section 117) They are electron pair acceptors and react with Lewis bases (electron pair donors) Step 3 which follows and completes the mechanism is a Lewis... 

Evidence from a variety of sources however indicates that alkenyl cations (also called vinylic cations) are much less stable than simple alkyl cations and their involve ment m these additions has been questioned Eor example although electrophilic addi tion of hydrogen halides to alkynes occurs more slowly than the corresponding additions... 

The electrophilic site of an acyl cation is its acyl carbon An electrostatic poten tial map of the acyl cation from propanoyl chloride (Figure 12 8) illustrates nicely the concentration of positive charge at the acyl carbon as shown by the blue color The mechanism of the reaction between this cation and benzene is analogous to that of other electrophilic reagents (Figure 12 9)... 

If the transition state resembles the intermediate n-complex, the structure involved is a substituted cyclohexadienyl cation. The electrophile has localized one pair of electrons to form the new a bond. The Hiickel orbitals are those shown for the pentadienyl system in Fig. 10.1. A substituent can stabilize the cation by electron donation. The LUMO is 1/13. This orbital has its highest coefficients at carbons 1, 3, and 5 of the pentadienyl system. These are the positions which are ortho and para to the position occupied by the electrophile. Electron-donor substituents at the 2- and 4-positions will stabilize the system much less because of the nodes at these carbons in the LUMO. 

The pyrylium cation possesses, according to the substituents in positions 2, 4, and 6, a more or less pronounced electrophilic reactivity which enables it to add nucleophiles in these positions. According to the nucleophilic reactivity and the carbon basicity " of the anions, an ion pair (a substituted pyrylium cation and an anion halide, perchlorate, sulfate, fluoroborate, chloroferrate, etc.), or a covalently bonded 2H- or 4//-pyran may be formed. With the more basic anions... 

When an alkene reacts with an electrophile, such as HC1, initial addition of H+ gives an intermediate cation and subsequent reaction with Cl" yields an addition product (Section 6.7). When an enol reacts with an electrophile, however, only the initial addition step is the same. Instead of reading with Cl- to give an addition product, the intermediate cation loses the -OH proton to give an cr-substituted carbonyl compound. The general mechanism is showm in Figure 22.3. 

Mechanistically there is ample evidence that the Balz-Schiemann reaction is heterolytic. This is shown by arylation trapping experiments. The added arene substrates are found to be arylated in isomer ratios which are typical for an electrophilic aromatic substitution by the aryl cation and not for a homolytic substitution by the aryl radical (Makarova et al., 1958). Swain and Rogers (1975) showed that the reaction takes place in the ion pair with the tetrafluoroborate, and not, as one might imagine, with a fluoride ion originating from the dissociation of the tetrafluoroborate into boron trifluoride and fluoride ions. This is demonstrated by the insensitivity of the ratio of products ArF/ArCl in methylene chloride solution at 25 °C to excess BF3 concentration. 

Furthermore, gallium compounds can serve as model systems for aluminum congeners. Cationic gallium alkyls are of interest in synthesis and catalytic applications involving polar substituents because of the relative stability of the Ga—R bond toward hydrolysis and electrophilic cleavage compared to the otherwise superior Al-R species [11]. 

Once again, a large amount of diverse evidence indicates the intermediacy of a vinyl cation in electrophilic additions to arylacetylenes. As in the case of the hydration of alkynyl ethers and thioethers, the vinyl cation formed is especially stable because of resonance interaction and charge delocalization with the adjacent rr center of the aromatic system. 

It is also difficult to determine exactly the relative stabilities of vinyl cations and the analogous saturated carbonium ions. The relative rates of solvolysis of vinyl substrates and their analogous saturated derivatives have been estimated to be 10 to 10 (131, 134, 140, 154) in favor of the saturated substrates. These rate differences, however, do not accurately reflect the inherent differences in stability between vinyl cations and the analogous carbonium ions, for they include effects that result from the differences in ground states between reactants, as well as possible differences between the intermediate ions resulting from differences in solvation, counter-ion effects, etc. The same difficulties apply in the attempt to estimate relative ion stabilities from relative rates of electrophilic additions to acetylenes and olefins, (218), or from relative rates of homopropargylic and homoallylic solvolysis. 

The addition reactions discussed in Sections 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 are initiated by the interaction of a proton with the alkene. Electron density is drawn toward the proton and this causes nucleophilic attack on the double bond. The role of the electrophile can also be played by metal cations, and the mercuric ion is the electrophile in several synthetically valuable procedures.13 The most commonly used reagent is mercuric acetate, but the trifluoroacetate, trifluoromethanesulfonate, or nitrate salts are more reactive and preferable in some applications. A general mechanism depicts a mercurinium ion as an intermediate.14 Such species can be detected by physical measurements when alkenes react with mercuric ions in nonnucleophilic solvents.15 The cation may be predominantly bridged or open, depending on the structure of the particular alkene. The addition is completed by attack of a nucleophile at the more-substituted carbon. The nucleophilic capture is usually the rate- and product-controlling step.13,16... 

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