Cations aromatic systems

II. Polar Cycloadditions in Which Cationic Aromatic Systems Act as Electrophiles. ... 

The quinolizinium ion, the parent compound of the aromatic quinolizines, is a cationic aromatic system like the pyrylium or thia-pyrylium cation. It is isoelectronic with naphthalene. The parent... 

The tropylium and the cyclopropenyl cations are stabilized aromatic systems. These ions are arumatic according to Hiickel s rule, with the cyclopropeniiun ion having two n electrons and the tropyliiun ion six (see Section 9.3). Both ring systems are planar and possess cyclic conjugation, as is required for aromaticity. 

The true, all-aromatic system (see 18, below) described by Kime and Norymberski is unusual in the sense that all of the ether linkages bridge aromatic carbons ". Synthesis of 18, therefore, required extensive use of copper mediated coupling reactions. As expected for such reactions, yields were generally low. The aromatics such as 18 were ineffective at binding either alkali metal or ammonium cations ". ... 

Depending on the specific reaction conditions, complex 4 as well as acylium ion 5 have been identified as intermediates with a sterically demanding substituent R, and in polar solvents the acylium ion species 5 is formed preferentially. The electrophilic agent 5 reacts with the aromatic substrate, e.g. benzene 1, to give an intermediate cr-complex—the cyclohexadienyl cation 6. By loss of a proton from intermediate 6 the aromatic system is restored, and an arylketone is formed that is coordinated with the carbonyl oxygen to the Lewis acid. Since a Lewis-acid molecule that is coordinated to a product molecule is no longer available to catalyze the acylation reaction, the catalyst has to be employed in equimolar quantity. The product-Lewis acid complex 7 has to be cleaved by a hydrolytic workup in order to isolate the pure aryl ketone 3. 

The initial step is the coordination of the alkyl halide 2 to the Lewis acid to give a complex 4. The polar complex 4 can react as electrophilic agent. In cases where the group R can form a stable carbenium ion, e.g. a tert-buiyX cation, this may then act as the electrophile instead. The extent of polarization or even cleavage of the R-X bond depends on the structure of R as well as the Lewis acid used. The addition of carbenium ion species to the aromatic reactant, e.g. benzene 1, leads to formation of a cr-complex, e.g. the cyclohexadienyl cation 6, from which the aromatic system is reconstituted by loss of a proton ... 

In practice, both the cyciopentadienyl cation and the radical are highly reactive and difficult to prepare. Neither shows any sign of the stability expected for an aromatic system. The six-77-electron cyciopentadienyl anion, by contrast, is easily prepared and remarkably stable. In fact, cyclopentadiene is one of the most acidic hydrocarbons known, with p/C, = 16, a value comparable to that of water Cyclopentadiene is acidic because the anion formed by loss of H+ is so stable (Figure 15.5). 

Whereas the pyrrolo[l,2-a]azepinium cation, a 107t-aromatic system, is unknown, 5-(cyano-methyl)pyrrolo[1,2-a]azepinium perchlorate (7) is available by protonation of the cyanomethy-lene derivative 6 in perchloric acid.7 H NMR studies reveal that the cation has a completely delocalized -electron system. 

Furan derivatives with an aromatic system fused on one of the ring s double bonds, such as benzofuran, naphthofuran etc., can be polymerized cationically through the other ring s double bond. In these polymerizations the complications encountered with furan and alkylfurans [see Section III-A-l-c] are absent because only one unsaturation is available for propagation, the other being tied up in the benzene system... 

There is one other substituent which is comparable with the diazonio group in the sense that it is cationic and that it has, in one of its mesomeric structures, a triple bond between the atom attached to the aromatic system and the second atom. It is the acylium group in 7.9. However, no substituent constants are known for this group, obviously because this cation is detectable in measurable concentrations only in superacidic media (see review by Olah et al., 1976). 

The complex that is formed can dissociate to form a cation (n-tr-complex) and an iodide anion, with the iodide ion reacting with the excess iodine molecules that are present. In addition the decomposition of the n-cr-complex can lead to the formation of highly reactive iodine cations, which can initiate further reactions — e.g. oxidations or electrophilic substitutions of aromatic systems [11, 13]. 

Tertiary nitrogen and iodine initially form a /i-o-complex, from which a strongly reactive iodine cation is produced this cation can bring about electrophilic substitutions on aromatic systems or cause oxidations [2]. 

Kuznetsov and Boldyrev [15] provided theoretical evidence that the 33 , Al3 , and Ga3 anions (lOe) have geometrical (cyclic, planar) and electronic (two delocalized 7t electrons) properties to be considered as aromatic systems. Positive cations of all group XV trimers (14e), P3 " As3 Sb3 and Bi3+, have equilateral-triangular ground states [16]. 

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. 

As mentioned above, ferrocene is amenable to electrophilic substitution reactions and acts like a typical activated electron-rich aromatic system such as anisole, with the limitation that the electrophile must not be a strong oxidizing agent, which would lead to the formation of ferrocenium cations instead. Formation of the CT-complex intermediate 2 usually occurs by exo-attack of the electrophile (from the direction remote to the Fe center. Fig. 3) [14], but in certain cases can also proceed by precoordination of the electrophile to the Fe center (endo attack) [15]. 

C8a (A = 0.077°) and an elongation of the 4a-8a bond (1.41 A), indicating a weakened sp bonding interaction between C4a and C8a in the aromatic system. It is clear that the structural features of 5, and other bridging cations give convincing support to Winstein s 3-center, 2-electron non-classical structures. ... 

The first step of a free radical aromatic substitution, the formation of the a-com-plex, is also an addition step. The o,m,p-product ratio therefore also responds to steric effects. This is shown for the free radical phenylation and dimethylamination of toluene and r.-butylbenzene in Table 8. The larger the substituent on the aromatic system and the bulkier the attacking radical, the more p-substitution product is obtained at the expense of o-substitution. In the phenylation reaction the yield of m-product also increases in contrast to the dimethylamination reaction. The substitution pattern of this latter reaction is, in addition to the steric effect, governed heavily by polar effects because a radical cation is the attacking species113. ... 

In contrast to the allyl system, where the reduction of an isolated double bond is investigated, the reduction of extensively delocalized aromatic systems has been in the focus of interest for some time. Reduction of the systems with alkali metals in aprotic solvents under addition of effective cation-solvation agents affords initially radical anions that have found extensive use as reducing agents in synthetic chemistry. Further reduction is possible under formation of dianions, etc. Like many of the compounds mentioned in this article, the anions are extremely reactive, and their intensive studies were made possible by the advancement of low temperature X-ray crystallographic methods (including crystal mounting techniques) and advanced synthetic capabilities. 

Our success in super-stabilization of cation 6 led us to the preparation of a higher homologue, that is, cyclooctatetraene (COT), fully annelated with BCO units 9 (9). As compared with a large number of studies on its radical anion or dianions, the studies on the cationic species of COT have been quite limited. There have been only one study by Olah and Paquette on the substituted COT dication (70), which is a typical 6n Hiickel aromatic system, and few sporadic studies on radical cations, which involve indirect spectral observations, such as electronic spectra in Freon matrix at low temperature (77,72) and constant-flow ESR study (13). 

While benzene was the first aromatic system studied, the formulation of HtickePs rule and the theory behind it created an impetus to prepare non-benzenoid species such as the tropylium cation and cyclopentadienyl anion that also obeyed Huckel s rule to see if these species were also aromatic. This required that the properties of aromatic compounds be defined. 

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