Conjugated diene hydrogenation

Diphenylketene (253) reacts with allyl carbonate or acetate to give the a-allylated ester 255 at 0 °C in DMF, The reaction proceeds via the intermediate 254 formed by the insertion of the C = C bond of the ketene into 7r-allylpalla-dium, followed by reductive elimination. Depending on the reaction conditions, the decarbonylation and elimination of h-hydrogen take place in benzene at 25 °C to afford the conjugated diene 256(155]. 

The electrochemical conversions of conjugated dienes iato alkadienedioic acid have been known for some time. Butadiene has been converted iato diethyl-3,7-decadiene-l,10,dioate by electrolysis ia a methanol—water solvent (67). An improvement described ia the patent Hterature (68) uses an anhydrous aprotic solvent and an electrolyte along with essentially equimolar amounts of carbon dioxide and butadiene a mixture of decadienedioic acids is formed. This material can be hydrogenated to give sebacic acid. 

The most notable chemistry of the biscylopen-tadienyls results from the aromaticity of the cyclopentadienyl rings. This is now far too extensively documented to be described in full but an outline of some of its manifestations is in Fig. 25.14. Ferrocene resists catalytic hydrogenation and does not undergo the typical reactions of conjugated dienes, such as the Diels-Alder reaction. Nor are direct nitration and halogenation possible because of oxidation to the ferricinium ion. However, Friedel-Crafts acylation as well as alkylation and metallation reactions, are readily effected. Indeed, electrophilic substitution of ferrocene occurs with such facility compared to, say, benzene (3 x 10 faster) that some explanation is called for. It has been suggested that. 

Double-bond migration often passes unnoticed, for unless tracers are employed, there may be no direct evidence remaining that migration has occurred. Nonetheless, the fact that it does occur can have a number of important consequences. Selective removal of cis homoconjugated dienes and trienes in natural oils, used to make edible hydrogenated fats, depends mainly on prior isomerization of multiple unsaturation into conjugation under hydrogenation conditions (J9). 

Tricarbonylchromium complexes are useful for 1,4-addition of hydrogen to 1,3-dienes to afford monoenes selectively (40,42,43,44). With 1,4-dienes, isomerization into conjugation precedes hydrogenation. Isolated double... 

We can get a quantitative idea of benzene s stability by measuring heats of hydrogenation (Section 6.6). Cyclohexene, an isolated alkene, has ff ydrog = -118 kj/mol (-28.2 kcal/mol), and 1,3-cyclohexadiene, a conjugated diene, has A/Chydrog = 230 kj/mol (-55.0 kcal/mol). As noted in Section 14.1, this value for 1,3-cyclohexadiene is a bit less than twice that for cyclohexene because conjugated dienes are more stable than isolated dienes. 

The HX compounds are electrophilic reagents, and many polyhalo and polycyano alkenes, (e.g., Cl2C=CHCl) do not react with them at all in the absence of free-radical conditions. When such reactions do occur, however, they take place by a nucleophilic addition mechanism, (i.e., initial attack is by X ). This type of mechanism also occurs with Michael-type substrates C=C—Z, where the orientation is always such that the halogen goes to the carbon that does not bear the Z, so the product is of the form X—C—CH—Z, even in the presence of free-radical initiators. Hydrogen iodide adds 1,4 to conjugated dienes in the gas phase by a pericyclic mechanism ... 

Conjugated dienes can add hydrogen by 1,2 or 1,4 addition. Selective 1,4 addition can be achieved by hydrogenation in the presence of carbon monoxide, with bis(cyclopentadienyl)chromium as catalyst. With allenes catalytic hydrogenation usually reduces both double bonds. 

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