Unsaturation, conjugated

The addition of active methylene compounds (ethyl malonate, ethyl aoeto-acetate, ethyl plienylacetate, nltromethane, acrylonitrile, etc.) to the aP-double bond of a conjugated unsaturated ketone, ester or nitrile In the presence of a basic catalyst (sodium ethoxide, piperidine, diethylamiiie, etc.) is known as the Michael reaction or Michael addition. The reaction may be illustrated by the addition of ethyl malonate to ethyl fumarate in the presence of sodium ethoxide hydrolysis and decarboxylation of the addendum (ethyl propane-1 1 2 3-tetracarboxylate) yields trlcarballylic acid ... 

Ethynyl carbinols rearrange to conjugated unsaturated aldehydes. Copper or silver salts cataly2e isomeri2ation of the acetate to an aHenic acetate, which can be hydroly2ed to an unsaturated aldehyde (204). 

These reversible reactions are cataly2ed by bases or acids, such as 2iac chloride and aluminum isopropoxide, or by anion-exchange resias. Ultrasonic vibrations improve the reaction rate and yield. Reaction of aromatic aldehydes or ketones with nitroparaffins yields either the nitro alcohol or the nitro olefin, depending on the catalyst. Conjugated unsaturated aldehydes or ketones and nitroparaffins (Michael addition) yield nitro-substituted carbonyl compounds rather than nitro alcohols. Condensation with keto esters gives the substituted nitro alcohols (37) keto aldehydes react preferentially at the aldehyde function. 

On the other hand, not only initial colour but colour change (discolouration) of the resin under UV light and heat is important. Colour retention of a resin is related to the chemical stability and increases as the degree of non-aromatic conjugated unsaturation of the resin molecule decreases. Thus, for rosins a high level of abietic-type resin acids lead to relatively unstable resins. Hydrogenation and disproportionation as well as esterification provide improved stability and colour retention to rosins. 

Conjugation of the 7t-electrons of the carbon-carbon double bond with the LUMO sulfur 3d-orbitals would be expected to stabilize the Hiickel 4n -I- 2 (n = 0) array of n-electrons in the thiirene dioxide system. No wonder, therefore, that the successful synthesis of the first member in this series (e.g. 19b) has initiated and stimulated several studies , the main objective of which was to determine whether or not thiirene dioxides should be considered to be aromatic (or pseudo-aromatic ) and/or to what extent conjugation effects, which require some sort of n-d bonding in the conjugatively unsaturated sulfones, are operative within these systems. The fact that the sulfur-oxygen bond lengths in thiirene dioxides were found to be similar to those of other 802-containing compounds, does not corroborate a Hiickel-type jr-delocalization... 

The only other functional group is the conjugated unsaturated ester. This functionality is remote from the stereocenters and the ketone functionality, and does not play a key role in most of the reported syntheses. Most of the syntheses use cyclic starting materials. Those in Schemes 13.4 and 13.5 lead back to a para-substituted aromatic ether. The syntheses in Schemes 13.7 and 13.8 begin with an accessible terpene intermediate. The syntheses in Schemes 13.10 and 13.11 start with cyclohexenone. Scheme 13.3 presents a retrosynthetic analysis leading to the key intermediates used for the syntheses in... 

Conjugated unsaturated systems systems that have a p orbital on an atom... 

The new p orbital of the allyl radical is conjugated with those of the double bond => the allyl radical is a conjugated unsaturated system. 

Figure 13.3 The n molecular orbitals of the allyl cation. The allyl cation, like the allyl radical, is a conjugated unsaturated system. The shapes of molecular orbitals for the allyl cation calculated using quantum mechanical principles are shown alongside the schematic orbitals. 

Syntheses of a,(3-unsaturated thioketones, based on the hydrothiolysis of conjugated unsaturated immonium cation, have been reviewed by Timokhina and Voronkov.71... 

Similarly if there is no absorption from 210 nm to the visible, the compound does not have conjugated unsaturation. 

Structural changes in the polymer, which will accompany the formation of small molecule products from the polymer, or may be produced by other reactions, can cause significant changes to the material properties. Development of colour, e.g. in polyacrylonitrile by ladder formation, and in poly(vinyl chloride) through conjugated unsaturation, is a common form of degradation. 

The chemical structures of polymers will be changed by the evolution of small molecule products. The formation of C=C bonds in the polymer backbone by loss of H2 from hydrocarbon polymers, or HC1 from PVC, is well established and leads to colouration of the polymer, especially with increasing sequence lengths of conjugated unsaturation. Carboxylic acid groups are... 

The higher conjugated unsaturated systems will be mentioned later in connexion with the polyenes and the carotenoids (p. 233). 

We begin by bringing you up to speed on mechanisms and reminding you how to push electrons around with those curved arrows. We jog your memory with a discussion of substitution and elimination reactions and their mechanisms, in addition to free radical reactions. Next you review the structure, nomenclature, synthesis, and reactions of alcohols and ethers, and then you get to tackle conjugated unsaturated systems. Finally, we remind you of spectroscopic techniques, from the IR fingerprints to NMR shifts. The review in this part moves at a pretty fast pace, but we re sure you can keep up. 

Conjugated unsaturated systems cire an important part of organic chemistry, so in Chapter 4 we spend a little time talking about those systems, setting the stc e for our discussion of aromatic compounds that you can find in Chapter 6. 

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