Carbo cations

Henry B, Desvaux H, Pristchepa M, Berthault P, Zhang YM, Mallet JM, Esnault J, Sinay P. NMR smdy of a Lewis pentasaccharide 42. derivative Solution structure and interaction with cations. Carbo-... 

The superacid-catalyzed cracking of hydrocarbons (a significant practical application) involves not only formation of trivalent carbo-cationic sites leading to subsequent /3-cleavage but also direct C-C bond protolysis. 

One way to name carbo cations in the lUPAC system IS to add the word cation to the name of the alkyl group... 

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... 

As carbocations go CH3" is particularly unstable and its existence as an inter mediate m chemical reactions has never been demonstrated Primary carbocations although more stable than CH3" are still too unstable to be involved as intermediates m chemical reactions The threshold of stability is reached with secondary carbocations Many reactions including the reaction of secondary alcohols with hydrogen halides are believed to involve secondary carbocations The evidence m support of tertiary carbo cation intermediates is stronger yet... 

Primary alcohols do not react with hydrogen halides by way of carbo cation intermediates The nucleophilic species (Br for example) attacks the alkyloxonium ion and pushes off a water molecule from carbon m a bimolecular step This step is rate determining and the mechanism is Sn2... 

Step 3 IS new to us It is an acid-base reachon m which the carbocation acts as a Br0n sted acid transferrmg a proton to a Brpnsted base (water) This is the property of carbo cations that is of the most significance to elimination reactions Carbocations are strong acids they are the conjugate acids of alkenes and readily lose a proton to form alkenes Even weak bases such as water are sufficiently basic to abstract a proton from a carbocation... 

In Chapter 4 you learned that carbocations could be captured by halide anions to give alkyl halides In the present chapter a second type of carbocation reaction has been introduced—a carbocation can lose a proton to form an alkene In the next section a third aspect of carbocation behavior will be described the rearrangement of one carbo cation to another... 

A mechanism for the formation of these three alkenes is shown m Figure 5 9 Dissociation of the primary alkyloxonmm ion is accompanied by a shift of hydride from C 2 to C 1 This avoids the formation of a primary carbocation leading instead to a sec ondary carbocation m which the positive charge is at C 2 Deprotonation of this carbo cation yields the observed products (Some 1 butene may also arise directly from the pri mary alkyloxonium ion)... 

Dehydration of alcohols (Sections 5 9-5 13) Dehydra tion requires an acid catalyst the order of reactivity of alcohols IS tertiary > secondary > primary Elimi nation is regioselective and proceeds in the direction that produces the most highly substituted double bond When stereoisomeric alkenes are possible the more stable one is formed in greater amounts An El (elimination unimolecular) mechanism via a carbo cation intermediate is followed with secondary and tertiary alcohols Primary alcohols react by an E2 (elimination bimolecular) mechanism Sometimes elimination is accompanied by rearrangement... 

We have seen this situation before m the reaction of alcohols with hydrogen halides (8ection 4 11) m the acid catalyzed dehydration of alcohols (8ection 5 12) and m the conversion of alkyl halides to alkenes by the El mechanism (8ection 5 17) As m these other reactions an electronic effect specifically the stabilization of the carbocation intermediate by alkyl substituents is the decisive factor The more stable the carbo cation the faster it is formed... 

The reactions of alcohols with hydrogen halides to give alkyl halides (Chapter 4) are nucleophilic substitution reactions of alkyloxonium ions m which water is the leaving group Primary alcohols react by an 8 2 like displacement of water from the alkyloxonium ion by halide Sec ondary and tertiary alcohols give alkyloxonium ions which form carbo cations m an S l like process Rearrangements are possible with secondary alcohols and substitution takes place with predominant but not complete inversion of configuration... 

FIGURE 10 2 Electron delo calization in an allylic carbo cation (a) The tt orbital of the double bond and the vacant 2p orbital of the posi tively charged carbon (b) Overlap of the tt orbital and the 2p orbital gives an ex tended tt orbital that encom passes all three carbons The two electrons in the tt bond are delocalized over two car bons in part (a) and over three carbons in part (b)... 

Both alcohols are formed from the same carbocation Water may react with the carbo cation to give either a primary alcohol or a tertiary alcohol... 

Nitrosation (Section 22 15) Nitrosation of amines occurs when sodium nitrite is added to a solution containing an amine and an acid Primary amines y e d alkyl diazonium salts Alkyl diazonium salts are very unstable and yield carbo cation derived products Aryl diazonium salts are exceedingly useful synthetic in termediates Their reactions are de scribed in Table 22 7... 

The enzyme catalyzed reactions that lead to geraniol and farnesol (as their pyrophosphate esters) are mechanistically related to the acid catalyzed dimerization of alkenes discussed m Section 6 21 The reaction of an allylic pyrophosphate or a carbo cation with a source of rr electrons is a recurring theme m terpene biosynthesis and is invoked to explain the origin of more complicated structural types Consider for exam pie the formation of cyclic monoterpenes Neryl pyrophosphate formed by an enzyme catalyzed isomerization of the E double bond m geranyl pyrophosphate has the proper geometry to form a six membered ring via intramolecular attack of the double bond on the allylic pyrophosphate unit... 

Carbon is known with all coordination numbers from 0 to 8 though compounds in which it is 3- or 4-coordinate are the most numerous. Some typical examples are summarized in the Panel (p. 291). Particular mention should also be made of hypercoordinate non-classical carbo-nium ions such as 5-coordinate CHj", square pyramidal CsHs (cf. the isoelectronic cluster B3H9, p. 154), pentagonal pyramidal C6Me6 " (cf. iso-electronic Bf,Hio, p. 154) and the bicyclic cation 2-norbomyl, C7H] 1... 

Recently Swan has employed tetrachloro-o-benzoquinone in the oxidation of the 3,4-dihydro-j8-carbolinium cation 124 to the j8-carbo-linium cation 252. Dehydrogenation with palladium black at 175° or at a higher temperature and with selenium has also been successfully used for the purpose. 

The FMOs of acrolein to the left in Fig. 8.2 are basically slightly perturbed butadiene orbitals, while the FMOs of protonated acrolein resemble those of an allyl cation mixed in with a lone-pair orbital on the oxygen atom (Fig. 8.2, right). Based on the FMOs of protonated acrolein, Houk et al. [2] argued that the predominant interaction in a normal electron-demand carbo-Diels-Alder reaction is between the dienophile LUMO and diene HOMO (Fig. 8.1, left). This interaction is greatly... 

An extensive survey has been carried out by McKervey and coworkers [7], who prepared the carbo-alkoxymethyl ethers of p-tert-h x y calix[4]arene, p-/< r/-butyl calix[6]arene, p-tert-bu y calix[8]arene, ca-lix[4]arene, calix[6Jarene, and calix[8]arene, and measured their abilities to extract cations from the aqueous phase into the nonaqueous phase. They concluded the following general aspects for the phase-transfer experiments (1) the calix[4]arene compounds show the greatest selectivity for Na (2) phase-transfer of Li is inefficient with all of the compounds (3) the calix[6]arene compounds show less affinity for Na than for K, with plateau selectivity for Rb" and Cs (4) the calix[8]ar-ene compounds are the least efficient of the cyclic oligomers, showing low levels of transport and low discrimination for all five cations (5) the calix[6]arene... 

When feed contacts the regenerated catalyst, the feed vaporizes. Then positive-charged atoms called carbocations are formed. Carbo-cation is a generic term for a positive-charged carbon ion. Carbocations can be either carbonium or carbenium ions. 

Mechanism of the electrophilic addition of HBr to 2-methyl-propene. The reaction occurs in two steps and involves a carbo-cation intermediate. 

HC1, HBr, and HI add to alkenes by a two-step electrophilic addition mechanism. Initial reaction of the nucleophilic double bond with H+ gives a carbo-cation intermediate, which then reacts with halide ion. Bromine and chlorine add to alkenes via three-membered-ring bromonium ion or chloronium ion intermediates to give addition products having anti stereochemistry. If water is present during the halogen addition reaction, a halohydrin is formed. 

One of the most striking differences between conjugated dienes and typical alkenes is in their electrophilic addition reactions. To review briefly, the addition of an electrophile to a carbon-carbon double bond is a general reaction of alkenes (Section 6.7). Markovnikov regiochemistry is found because the more stable carbo-cation is formed as an intermediate. Thus, addition of HC1 to 2-methylpropene yields 2-chloro-2-methylpropane rather than l-chloro-2-methylpropane, and addition of 2 mol equiv of HC1 to the nonconjugated diene 1,4-pentadiene yields 2,4-dichloropentane. 

Active Figure 14.4 An electrostatic potential map of the carbo-cation produced by protonation of 1.3-butadiene shows that the positive charge is shared by carbons 1 and 3. Reaction of Br-wit n the more positive carbon (C3 blue) gives predominantly the 1.2-addition product. Sign in St wwW.thornSOneuU.com to see a simulation based on this figure and to take a short quiz. 

In the present instance, protonation of the C1-C2 double bond gives a carbo-cation that can react further to give the 1,2 adduct 3-chloro-3-methylcyclohexene and the 1,4 adduct 3-chloro-L-methylcyclohexene. Protonation of the C3-C4 double bond gives a symmetrical carbocation, whose two resonance forms are equivalent. Thus, the 1,2 adduct and the 1,4 adduct have the same structure 6-chloro-l-methyl-cyclohexene. Of the two possible modes of protonation, the first is more likely because it yields a tertiary allylic cation rather than a secondary allylic cation. 

Steps 1-2 of Figure 27.14 Epoxide Opening and Initial Cyclizations Cyclization is initiated in step 1 by protonation of the epoxide ring by an aspartic acid residue in the enzyme. Nucleophilic opening of the protonated epoxide by the nearby 5,10 double bond (steroid numbering Section 27.6) then yields a tertiary carbo-cation at CIO. Further addition of CIO to the 8,9 double bond in step 2 next gives a bicyclic tertiary cation at C8. 

Propose a mechanistic pathway for the biosynthesis of isoborneol. A carbo-cation rearrangement is needed at one point in the scheme. 

Acylium ion (Section 16.3) A resonance-stabilised carbo-cation in which the positive charge is located at a carbonyl-... 

Application of the reaction to the 2-azidobenzoyl derivative of diethylene glycol monomethyl ether 92, in a mixture of tetrahydrofuran and diethylene glycol monomethyl ether as the nucleophile, affords 2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl 2-[2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethoxy]-37/-azepine-3-carbo-xylate (93), which displays metal cation complexing properties towards lithium, potassium, and. to a lesser extent, barium and calcium cations.198... 

With certain substituents, such as methoxy150 or (substituted) phenyl53 functions, in the allylie position the reaction outcome completely changes, giving rise to predominant or exclusive formation of five-membered ring products via a preceding 2-aza-Cope rearrangement of the initially formed A -acyliminium ion. These substituents clearly stabilize the intermediary carbo-cation 3. 

Novolacs are prepared with an excess of phenol over formaldehyde under acidic conditions (Fig. 7.6). A methylene glycol is protonated by an acid from the reaction medium, which then releases water to form a hydroxymethylene cation (step 1 in Fig. 7.6). This ion hydroxyalkylates a phenol via electrophilic aromatic substitution. The rate-determining step of the sequence occurs in step 2 where a pair of electrons from the phenol ring attacks the electrophile forming a car-bocation intermediate. The methylol group of the hydroxymethylated phenol is unstable in the presence of acid and loses water readily to form a benzylic carbo-nium ion (step 3). This ion then reacts with another phenol to form a methylene bridge in another electrophilic aromatic substitution. This major process repeats until the formaldehyde is exhausted. 

The amount of the ester sulfonates, besides the mono- and disalt of the a-sulfo fatty acid, can be calculated by two titrations, one in the acid and one in the basic range. In the basic range both sulfonates and carbocylate functionalities are negatively charged and titrated with the cationic surfactant hyamine. In acid medium the RCOOH group is protonated and no longer available for the titration. Since hyamine-methylene blue (acid conditions) titrates only sulfonate and hyamine-phenol red (basic conditions) determines both sulfonates and carbo-cylates, substraction of the titration value with phenol red from the double value of the titration with methylene blue yields only the a-sulfo fatty acid ester. This is the only species of the three which has merely the sulfonate function [106]. 

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