Concerted . -elimination

Alkylaziridines can be stereospecifically deaminated to alkenes by reaction with m-chioroperbenzoic acid (70AG(E)374). The reaction and work-up are carried out in the dark to avoid isomerization of the cw-alkene, and the mechanism is thought to involve an initial oxidation to an amine oxide followed by a concerted elimination. Aziridine oxides have been generated by treating aziridines with ozone at low temperatures (71JA4082). Two... 

One of the major differences between penicillins and cephalosporins is the possibility for a concerted elimination of the C-3 substituent in the case of cephalosporins (6->7). There is now considerable evidence to support the idea that an increase in the ability of the C-3 substituent to act as a leaving group results in an increased reactivity of the 8-lactam carbonyl (75JMC408). Thus, both the hydrolysis rate of the 8-lactam and antibacterial activity... 

Allylsilanes and allylstannanes are also reactive toward electrophiles and usually undergo a concerted elimination of the silyl substituent. Several examples are shown below. 

C—O bonding and Cl—F fission of the intermediate cw-fluoro chlorate (29a), which in turn undergoes oxidation to the fluoro ketone (25) by a concerted elimination of chlorous acid. A similar transition state (30) approximating an allylic carbonium ion could be involved in the reaction of the dienol derivatives (6) with perchloryl fluoride, which would be expected to give rise to the c/5-adduct (30a). Reaction of the latter with water leads to product and chlorate ion. 

The mechanism of the rearrangement is explained as shown in Scheme 19. Protonation of the 9-hydroxy group followed by its elimination and subsequent chloride attack at the 4a-carbon generates a chloroindolenine 126. Addition of water to the 9a-imine carbon atom of 126 gives 127. Concerted elimination of the chloride with rearrangement of the alkyl side chain attached to the 9a carbon atom results in 3,3-disubstituted oxindole structure 120a. 

A careful examination of all the data indicates a delicate balance between a concerted elimination, path E in Scheme XI, and a unimolecular ionization... 

Solvolyses of these cyclic vinyl triflates at 100 in 50% aqueous ethanol, buffered with triethylamine, lead exclusively to the corresponding cyclo-alkanones. Treatment of 176 with buffered CH3COOD gave a mixture of cyclohexanone (85%) and 1-cyclohexenyl acetate (15%). Mass spectral analysis of this cyclohexanone product showed that the amount of deuterium incorporation was identical to that amount observed when cyclohexanone was treated with CH3COOD under the same conditions. This result rules out an addition-elimination mechanism, at least in the case of 174, and since concerted elimination is highly unlikely in small ring systems, it suggests a unimolecular ionization and formation of a vinyl cation intermediate in the solvolysis of cyclic triflates (170). The observed solvent m values, 174 m =. 64 175 m =. 66 and 16 m =. 16, are in accord with a unimolecular solvolysis. 

Figure 6.2. Typical ignition delay of an alkane fuel as a function of the initial mixture s temperature. Three different kinetic models are shown (a) High temperature chemistry only that is, no peroxy radical chemistry, (b) Same as (a), but the Q OOH chain-branching channel of the peroxy radicals has been considered, (c) Same as (b), bnt the concerted elimination of RO2 to alkene + HO2 has been considered. (Figure courtesy of Timothy Barckholtz, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering.)...

Three possible mechanistic schemes can be suggested for this process. One involves elimination of the proton attached to the p-C atom of nitronate A or A followed by elimination of the OSi group from the intermediate anion (cf. Scheme 3.93). Another mechanism is associated with a 1,4-C,O-transfer of the proton from the p-C atom of nitronate A to the oxygen atom of the N—>0 fragment followed by elimination of silanol from hemiacetal B. The third mechanism is based on the concerted elimination of silanol from the minor cis isomer of SENA. 

Saunders10 and by Sims and coworkers11 have shown that the magnitude of the leaving-group heavy-atom isotope effect varies linearly with the extent of C—X bond rupture in the transition state for concerted elimination reactions and for nucleophilic substitution reactions, respectively. Since the magnitude of the isotope effect is directly related to the amount of C—X bond rupture in the transition state, these isotope effects provide detailed information about the structure of the transition state. 

This section will describe reactions in which elimination to form a double bond or a new ring occurs as a result of thermal activation. There are several such thermal elimination reactions which find use in synthesis. Some of these are concerted processes. The transition-state energy requirements and stereochemistry of concerted elimination processes can be analyzed in terms of orbital symmetry considerations. We will also consider an important group of unimolecular /1-elimination reactions in Section 6.8.3. 

The most widely studied example is decomposition of azo compounds, where —X—Y— is —N=N—,220 The elimination of nitrogen from cyclic azo compounds can be carried out either photochemically or thermally. Although the reaction generally does not proceed by a concerted mechanism, there are some special cases in which concerted elimination is possible. We will consider some of these cases first and then consider the more general case. 

The reason for this difference is that if 16 were to undergo a concerted elimination, it would have to follow the forbidden (high-energy) [2ns + 2ns] pathway. For 17, the elimination can take place by the allowed [2ns + 4rcv] pathway. Thus, these reactions are the reverse of, respectively, the [2 + 2] and [4 + 2] cycloadditions, and only the latter is an allowed concerted process. The temperature at which 16 decomposes is fairly typical for strained azo compounds, and the decomposition presumably proceeds by a noncon-certed diradical mechanism. Because a C—N bond must be broken without concomitant compensation by carbon-carbon bond formation, the activation energy is much higher than for a concerted process. 

The chemistry of radical sites adjacent to phosphatoxy centers elicited interest because of the involvement of such species in DNA degradation processes. These species can give rise to rearrangement, elimination, and substitution products, and for some time concerted eliminations and migrations as well as heterolysis to a radical cation and a phosphate anion were considered to be involved (Scheme 2). Recently, experimental studies of the l,2-dibenzyl-2-(diphenylphosphatoxy)-2-phenylethyl radical and complementary theoretical studies of l,l-dimethyl-2-(dimethylphosphatoxy)ethyl radical have been interpreted as indicating that a radical cation/anion pathway with initial formation of 49 is favored. ... 

The frequently observed preference for anti-elimination over syn-elimi-nation on alumina (for a summary of earlier results see ref. 7, later especially ref. 96) has been a cause of much controversy. However, as has been explained in Sect. 2.1.2, it is a natural reaction course for concerted elimination, provided that suitably spaced acidic and basic sites are available on the surface. Catalysts which operate by means of the El-like mechanism... 

It seems probable that this picture is relevant to ester hydrolysis, and the above conclusions make good sense chemically. But it must be realised that the comparison of trialkyl and monoalkyl orthoesters involves a not-inconsider-able extrapolation. The latter are presumably intermediates in the hydrolysis of trialkyl orthoesters, and their hydrolysis is clearly considerably faster than that of the fully esterified compounds, since the loss of the first alkyl group is rate-determining. In particular, concerted elimination mechanisms, illustrated in (24)... 

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