Cleavage of Diazo Compounds

Under special conditions carbenes have been observed to dimerize to alkenes as illustrated in the synthesis of tetramesitylethylene (2.19)234). 

Ketocarbenes generated from diazoketones give two main type of reactions. The first one is the conventional carbene reaction, i.e. intramolecular insertion into a C—H or C—C bond, as applied in the synthesis of a 

The second reaction mode is rearrangement of the ketocarbene to a ketene. In the presence of a C—C double bond this species reacts further via an intramolecular photocycloaddition (cf. chapter 4.3.3), as shown in (2.23) 238). 

The photolysis of cyclic diazo ketones in hydroxylic solvents leads to ring contracted carboxylic acid derivatives via this ketocarbene - ketene rearrangement. Examples of such reactions are given in (2.24)239) and (2.25) 240). In this last example a photoequilibrium between the diazo ketone and its valence isomer, a diazirine, has been observed, both products then eliminating nitrogen to afford the cyclobutane carboxylic acid. 

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Homolytic cleavage of diazo compounds such as AIBN is also driven by the stability of a neutral molecule, this time molecular nitrogen, and two alkyl radicals are produced. 

Photochemical elimination reactions include all those photoinduced reactions resulting in the loss of one or more fragments from the excited molecule. Loss of carbon monoxide from type I or a-cleavage of carbonyl compounds has been previously considered in Chapter 3. Other types of photoeliminations, to be discussed here, include loss of molecular nitrogen from azo, diazo, and azido compounds, loss of nitric oxide from organic nitrites, and loss of sulfur dioxide and other miscellaneous species. 

The mechanisms of two other reactions described in Sect. 2.2 involve slow proton transfer to unsaturated carbon. The general acid catalysed cleavage of vinyl mercuric halides [42, 50] for example, allyl mercuric iodide, CH2=CHCH2HgI (XXII), gives Bronsted exponents around 0.7. Linear Bronsted plots are obtained with carboxylic acid catalysts but, as observed in other A—SE 2 reactions, general acids of different structural types (for example, hydronium ion or bisulphate ion) show substantial deviations. Bronsted catalysis of the hydrolysis of diazo compounds (N2 =CR X) has been studied by the groups of Albery and Kreevoy. With... 

Reactions arising via photo-oxidation of diazo-compounds are thought to involve carbonyl oxide intermediates, and stilbene derivatives are formed via aryldiazomethane radical-cations on dicyanoanthracene-sensitized irradiation of aryldiazomethanes. " A 1,4-biradical is formed by stepwise cleavage on photolysis of l,12-bis(diazo)-l,12-dihydroindeno[2,3-a]fluorene. ... 

The cleavage of the triazolines formed by the addition of azides to oxo-enamines has already been mentioned in section II.B.3. This cleavage can be applied to the synthesis of diazo compounds unavailable otherwise. a-Diazobutyraldehyde (105) was obtained for the first time from a-ethyl- -dimethylaminoacraldehyde (104) and tosyl or picryl azide... 

The photochemistry of diazo compounds has been discussed in detail in Houben-Weyl, Vol. 4/5 b, pp 1158 1257. Photochemical cleavage of an a-diazocarbonyl compound into an acylcarbene and nitrogen is typically carried out by UV irradiation at 1 = 254-300 nm. 

Such diazo compounds 3 however, that contain two electron-withdrawing substituents, are unstable under these reaction conditions. They further react by hydrolytic cleavage of one carbonyl substituent to give an anionic species 6, that is stabilized by resonance, and which yields the hydrazone 4 upon acidic workup ... 

Abstract Diazonium salts have been previously used to cleave DNA via generation of carbon centered radicals and cations. Efforts have been made in the past decade or so to develop diazo compounds and a-diazoketones for physiologically relevant DNA cleavage. These efforts, coupled with their relevance to the mechanism of action of kinamycin and lomaiviticin antibiotics and other naturally occurring diazo compounds, will be discussed. 

In an approach to the stereocontrolled creation of the acyclic side-chain of tetracyclic triterpenoids and other natural products, Trost and his colleagues have converted the acyclic starting compound (29) into the cyclopropanoid intermediate (31) via the diazo-ketone (30). The key step in the scheme is the cleavage of the cyclopropane with lithium dimethylcuprate to give (32). The stereochemistry at C-7 is determined by the configuration of the double bond in (29). The c.d. and u.v. spectra of a series of triterpenoid olefins have been measured. The Scott-Wrixon rules can be used to correlate the sign of the c.d. curves with molecular structure. A... 

Numerous methods to prepare individual classes of aliphatic diazo compounds have been extensively developed. The major strategies for their synthesis involve the alkaline cleavage of N-alkyl-N-nitroso-ureas, -carboxamides and -sulfonamides, dehydrogenation of hydrazones, as well as diazo group transfer from sulfonyl and related azides to active methylene compounds, and electrophilic diazoalkane substitution reactions. These synthetic methods have been comprehensively reviewed (15,16). Useful information on the preparation of selected diazo compounds can be found elsewhere (6,17). 

Alcoholysis of trihalides 0-6 Hydrolysis of ortho esters 0-20 Alcoholysis of acyl halides 0-21 Alcoholysis of anhydrides 0-22 Esterification of carboxylic acids 0-23 Transesterification 0-24 Alkylation of carboxylic acid salts 0-25 Cleavage of ethers with anhydrides 0-26 Alkylation of carboxylic acids with diazo compounds... 

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