Conjugated dienes anodic oxidation

The typical pattern of anodic oxidation of conjugated dienes is oxidative 1,2- or 1,4-addition of nucleophiles, though the selectivity usually depends on the structure of the diene and the reaction conditions (equation 1). 

The anodic oxidation of conjugated dienes is much more easily achieved than the oxidation of monoolefins since the conjugation of the --electron system lowers the oxidation potentials of the dienes. Several peak potentials for dienes are summarized in Table l1. 

Some typical results are shown in Table 2. The table shows that oxidation of conjugated dienes such as isoprene, piperylene (1,3-pentadiene), cyclopentadiene and 1,3-cyclohexadiene with a carbon anode in methanol or in acetic acid containing tetraethylammonium p-toluenesulfonate (EtjNOTs) as the supporting electrolyte yields mainly 1,4-addition products2. 1,3-Cyclooctadiene yields a considerable amount of the allylically substituted product. 

When conjugated dienes are anodically oxidized with a graphite anode in MeCN in the presence of NaCKAt and AW -dimethylurea, a variety of 2-imidazolidinones are formed though the yields are not always high as exemplified in equation 47. 

The products of electrochemical oxidation of conjugated dienes are considerably affected by the reaction conditions such as the material of the electrode, the supporting electrolyte and the solvent. The oxidation of butadiene with a graphite or carbon-cloth anode in 0.5 M methanolic solution of NaClCU mainly yields dimerized products along with small amounts of monomeric and trimeric compounds (equation 5)1. The use of platinum or glassy carbon mainly gives monomeric products. Other dienes such as isoprene, 1,3-cyclohexadiene, 2,4-hexadiene, 1,3-pentadiene and 2,3-dimethyl-l,3-butadiene yield complex mixtures of isomers of monomeric, dimeric and trimeric compounds, in which the dimeric products are the main products. 

The anodic oxidation of 1,2-dienes in methanol takes place stepwise at each double bond yielding a tetramethoxylated compound as one of the products (equation if. This result is reasonable since a 1,2-diene is not a conjugated diene. 

Compared with conjugated dienes, the electrochemistry of nonconjugated dienes is classified into two types, A and B11,12. In type A, the double bond of the diene behaves essentially the same as the double bond of a monoolefin in the anodic oxidation. A typical... 

Anodic addition converts enolacetates into a-acetoxyketones or enones, depending on the reaction conditions [135], conjugated dienes into 1,2- or 1,4-dimethoxy alkenes [65], and hydroquinone dimethyl ethers into quinone bisketals [136, 137]. Anodic addition also affords products, some of which are of industrial interest, such as propylene oxide [138a] or 1,4-dimethoxydihydrofuran [138b]. To... 

Oxidation of conjugated dienes in CH3CN-NaC104 in the presence of 1,3-dimethylurea gives a mixture of the possible 4,5-disubstituted 1,3-di-methylimidazolidin-2-ones in about 40% yield.103 Anodic oxidation of 2,4-hexadiene, 1,3-butadiene, and 1,3-cyclohexadiene in CH3CN-H20-NaC104 yields diols, 2-oxazolines, and 3-pyrrolines.104 The product distribution is influenced by the supporting electrolyte. 

When using a carbon electrode, the anodic oxidation of conjugated dienes (7) such as isoprene, pipe-rylene, cyclopentadiene and 1,3-cyclohexadiene in methanol or acetic acid mainly gives oxidative 1,4-addition products (8 equation 13). For example, 1,3-cyclohexadiene gives l,4-dimethoxycyclohex-2-ene (9) in 47% yield (equation 14). 1,3-Cyclooctadiene, in a similar experiment, yields a considerable amount of the allylically substituted product. 

A more efficient and economic procedure for the preparation of / -acetamido nitro compounds from alkenes, conjugated dienes and silyl enol ethers is based on the electrochemical generation of nitronium tetrafluoroborate in acetonitrile solution by anodic oxidation of dinitrogen tetrox-ide, using a divided cell (Table 6, Method B)142-143. From 1,3-dienes, mixtures of regio- and diastereomers were obtained. 

Anodic oxidation in DMF of the open-chain tetrapyrrole, 1, 8 -dimethyl-a,c-bila-diene, yielded porphyrin one methyl group is lost from a cyclic intermediate with four conjugated pyrrole subunits by attack of a nucleophile [32]. 

Nitroacetamidation of conjugated dienes is efficient when a solution of nitronium tetrafluoroborate in acetonitrile obtained by anodic oxidation of dinitrogen tetroxide is used substantial amounts of both 1,2- and 1,4-adducts are usually obtained.34 Some conjugated nitroalkenes can be readily prepared by reaction of alkenes with sodium nitrite and iodine under mild conditions (Scheme 158).347... 

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