Concerted -Cycloaddition

These aspects introduce different mechanistic patterns expected for the 1,3-DC reactions, as compared with DA cycloadditions (concerted vs stepwise with some zwitterionic character). This result may again be traced to the electrophilicity difference at the ground states of the reacting pairs.39 These results suggest that the description of the reactivity and the reaction mechanism involved in the 1,3-DC processes can be systematized as in the case of the DA cycloadditions. Such a model should be able to determine the charge transfer pattern and to decide which of the partners is acting as nucleophile/electrophile in a polar process, or even to anticipate a concerted pathway in those cases where the electrophilicity/nucleophilicity difference is small. 

HOMO of one ethylene mol ecule and the LUMO of an other do not have the proper symmetry to permit two O bonds to be formed in the same transition state for concerted cycloaddition... 

Figure 10 12 shows the interaction between the HOMO of one ethylene molecule and the LUMO of another In particular notice that two of the carbons that are to become ct bonded to each other m the product experience an antibondmg interaction during the cycloaddition process This raises the activation energy for cycloaddition and leads the reaction to be classified as a symmetry forbidden reaction Reaction were it to occur would take place slowly and by a mechanism m which the two new ct bonds are formed m separate steps rather than by way of a concerted process involving a sm gle transition state... 

Concerted Nonpolar Reactions. Maleic anhydride exemplifies the model dienophile for cycloaddition with dienes such as 1,3-butadiene... 

Ozonation ofAlkenes. The most common ozone reaction involves the cleavage of olefinic carbon—carbon double bonds. Electrophilic attack by ozone on carbon—carbon double bonds is concerted and stereospecific (54). The modified three-step Criegee mechanism involves a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of ozone to an olefinic double bond via a transitory TT-complex (3) to form an initial unstable ozonide, a 1,2,3-trioxolane or molozonide (4), where R is hydrogen or alkyl. The molozonide rearranges via a 1,3-cycloreversion to a carbonyl fragment (5) and a peroxidic dipolar ion or zwitterion (6). 

A versatile method for the synthesis of a variety of five-membered heterocycles and their ring-fused analogs involves the reaction of a neutral 47r-electron-3-atom system with a 27T-electron system, the dipolarophile, which is usually electron deficient in nature. Available evidence, e.g. retention of dipolarophile stereochemistry in the product and solvent polarity exerting only a moderate influence on the reaction, indicates that the cycloaddition proceeds via a concerted mechanism 63AG(E)565, 63AG(E)633, 68JOC2291) and may be represented in general terms by the expression in Scheme 8. 

Hart and Brewbaker have described the cyclization of l,3-bis(diazopropane) to pyrazole (Scheme 49) by a concerted, intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition (69JA711). 

Concerted cycloadditions are observed with heterocyclics of all ring sizes. The heterocycles can react directly, or via a valence tautomer, and they can utilize all or just a part of unsaturated moieties in their rings. With three-membered rings, ylides are common reactive valence tautomers. Open chain 47T-systems are observed as intermediates with four-membered rings, and bicyclic valence tautomers are commonly reactive species in additions by large rings. Very often these reactive valence tautomers are formed under orbital symmetry control, both by thermal and by photochemical routes. 

Two extreme mechanisms can be envisaged (Scheme 12), concerted [2 + 2] cycloaddition or the more generally accepted formation of a dipolar intermediate (164) which closes to a /3-lactam or which can interact with a second molecule of ketene to give 2 1 adducts (165) and (166) which are sometimes found as side products. In some cases 2 1 adducts result from reaction of the imine with ketene dimer. 

Cycloaddition involves the combination of two molecules in such a way that a new ring is formed. The principles of conservation of orbital symmetry also apply to concerted cycloaddition reactions and to the reverse, concerted fragmentation of one molecule into two or more smaller components (cycloreversion). The most important cycloaddition reaction from the point of view of synthesis is the Diels-Alder reaction. This reaction has been the object of extensive theoretical and mechanistic study, as well as synthetic application. The Diels-Alder reaction is the addition of an alkene to a diene to form a cyclohexene. It is called a [47t + 27c]-cycloaddition reaction because four tc electrons from the diene and the two n electrons from the alkene (which is called the dienophile) are directly involved in the bonding change. For most systems, the reactivity pattern, regioselectivity, and stereoselectivity are consistent with describing the reaction as a concerted process. In particular, the reaction is a stereospecific syn (suprafacial) addition with respect to both the alkene and the diene. This stereospecificity has been demonstrated with many substituted dienes and alkenes and also holds for the simplest possible example of the reaction, that of ethylene with butadiene ... 

How do orbital symmetry requirements relate to [4tc - - 2tc] and other cycloaddition reactions Let us constmct a correlation diagram for the addition of butadiene and ethylene to give cyclohexene. For concerted addition to occur, the diene must adopt an s-cis conformation. Because the electrons that are involved are the n electrons in both the diene and dienophile, it is expected that the reaction must occur via a face-to-face rather than edge-to-edge orientation. When this orientation of the reacting complex and transition state is adopted, it can be seen that a plane of symmetry perpendicular to the planes of the... 

When the orbitals have been classified with respect to symmetry, they can be arranged according to energy and the correlation lines can be drawn as in Fig. 11.10. From the orbital correlation diagram, it can be concluded that the thermal concerted cycloadditon reaction between butadiene and ethylene is allowed. All bonding levels of the reactants correlate with product ground-state orbitals. Extension of orbital correlation analysis to cycloaddition reactions involving other numbers of n electrons leads to the conclusion that the suprafacial-suprafacial addition is allowed for systems with 4n + 2 n electrons but forbidden for systems with 4n 7t electrons. 

Fig. 11.16. Concerted cycloaddition of a ketene and an olefin. The orbitals represented are the HOMO of the olefin and the LUMO of the ethylenic portion of the ketene.

The prediction of the Woodward-Hofrmann rules that thermal concerted cycloadditions are allowed for combinations in which 4 -1- 2 7c electrons are involved has stimulated the search for combinations with 10 and larger numbers of participating electrons. An example of a [6 -1- 4] cycloaddition is the reaction of tropone with 2,5-dimethyl-3,4-diphenylcyclopentadienone ... 

Classify the following reactions as electrocyclizations, sigmatropic rearrangements, cycloadditions, etc., and give the correct symbolism for the electrons involved in each concerted process. Some of the reactions proceed by two sequential processes. 

The high degree of orientational specificity which controls the cycloadditions to (267) of allene [(273) (274) 30 1 ] and acetoxybutenone [rz t/-adducts (278) and (279)] is suggestive of being meaningful in mechanistic terms. Several proposals have been advanced to account for these observations, inter alia a polar ground-state complex of the reactants, (281), which undergoes photoexcitation followed by concerted bond formation to products... 

Fluorinated cyclobutanes and cyclobutenes are relatively easy to prepare because of the propensity of many gem-difluoroolefins to thermally cyclodimerize and cycloadd to alkenes and alkynes. Even with dienes, fluoroolefins commonly prefer to form cyclobutane rather than six-membered-ring Diels-Alder adducts. Tetrafluoroethylene, chlorotrifluoroethylene, and l,l-dichloro-2,2-difluoroethyl-ene are especially reactive in this context. Most evidence favors a stepwise diradical or, less often, a dipolar mechanism for [2+2] cycloadditions of fluoroalkenes [S5, (5], although arguments for a symmetry-allowed, concerted [2j-t-2J process persist [87], The scope, characteristic features, and mechanistic studies of fluoroolefin... 

Both the carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen double bonds of fluoroketenes can take part in [2+2] cycloadditions, but with cyclopentadiene, only cyclo butanones are produced via concerted [2 +2 ] additions [J34] (equation 58) Cycloadditions involving the carbon-oxygen double bonds to form oxetanes are discussed on page 855 Difluoroketene is veiy short lived and difficult to intercept but has been trapped successfully by very electron rich addends to give 2 2 di fluorocyclobutanones m moderate yields [/55] (equation 59)... 

In a definitive study of butadiene s reaction with l,l-dichloro-2,2-difluoio-ethylene, Bartlett concluded that [2+4] adducts of acyclic dienes with fluorinated ethylenes are formed through a mixture of concerted and nonconcerted, diradical pathways [67] The degree of observed [2+4] cycloaddition of fluorinated ethylenes IS related to the relative amounts of transoid and cisoid conformers of the diene, with very considerable (i.e., 30%) Diels-Alder adduct being observed in competition with [2+2] reaction, for example, in the reaction of 1,1 -dichloro-2,2-difluoro-ethylene with cyclopentadiene [9, 68]... 

In contrast, when ot,P-unsaturated multiple bond systems act as dienophiles in concerted [4+2] cycloaddition reactions, they react across the C=C double bond Periselectivity as well as regiochemistry are explained on the basis of the size of the orbital coefficients and the resonance integrals [25S]... 

The transition state for the first step of the Claisen reanangement bears much in common with the transition state for the Diels-Alder cycloaddition. Both involve a concerted six-electron reorganization. 

The mechanism of the cycloaddition of sulfenes to enamines does not involve a concerted process in many if not all cases, but rather a two-step process in which a zwitterion is the initially formed intermediate (158,159). 

The mechanism of the cycloaddition of phenyl azide to norbornene has been shown to involve a concerted mechanism with a charge imbalance in the transition state (199). In a similar manner the cycloaddition of phenyl azide to enamines apparently proceeds by a concerted mechanism (194, 194a). This is shown by a rather large negative entropy of activation (—36 entropy units for l-(N-morpholino)cyclopentene in benzene solvent at 25°C), indicative of a highly ordered transition state. Varying solvents from those of small dielectric constants to those of large dielectric constants has... 

A concerted [2 + 2] cycloaddition pathway in which an oxametallocycle intermediate is generated upon reaction of the substrate olefin with the Mn(V)oxo salen complex 8 has also been proposed (Scheme 1.4.5). Indeed, early computational calculations coupled with initial results from radical clock experiments supported the notion.More recently, however, experimental and computational evidence dismissing the oxametallocycle as a viable intermediate have emerged. In addition, epoxidation of highly substituted olefins in the presence of an axial ligand would require a seven-coordinate Mn(salen) intermediate, which, in turn, would incur severe steric interactions. " The presence of an oxametallocycle intermediate would also require an extra bond breaking and bond making step to rationalize the observation of trans-epoxides from dy-olefms (Scheme 1.4.5). 

Cycloaddition reactions are close to the heart of many chemists - these reactions have fascinated the chemical community for generations. In a series of communications in the sixties. Woodward and Hoffmann [2] laid down the fundamental basis for the theoretical treatment of all concerted reactions. The basic principle enunciated was that reactions occur readily when there is congruence between the orbital symmetry characteristics of reactants and products, and only with difficulty when that congruence is absent - or to put it more succinctly, orbital symmetry is conserved in concerted reactions [3]. 

There have been few mechanistic studies of Lewis acid-catalyzed cycloaddition reactions with carbonyl compounds. Danishefsky et ah, for example, concluded that the reaction of benzaldehyde 1 with trans-l-methoxy-3-(trimethylsilyloxy)-l,3-di-methyl-1,3-butadiene (Danishefsky s diene) 2 in the presence of BF3 as the catalyst proceeds via a stepwise mechanism, whereas a concerted reaction occurs when ZnCl2 or lanthanides are used as catalysts (Scheme 4.3) [7]. The evidence of a change in the diastereochemistry of the reaction is that trans-3 is the major cycloaddition product in the Bp3-catalyzed reaction, whereas cis-3 is the major product in, for example, the ZnCl2-catalyzed reaction - the latter resulting from exo addition (Scheme 4.3). 

A simple approach for the formation of 2-substituted 3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrans, which are useful precursors for natural products such as optically active carbohydrates, is the catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reaction of a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds with electron-rich alkenes. This is an inverse electron-demand cycloaddition reaction which is controlled by a dominant interaction between the LUMO of the 1-oxa-1,3-butadiene and the HOMO of the alkene (Scheme 4.2, right). This is usually a concerted non-synchronous reaction with retention of the configuration of the die-nophile and results in normally high regioselectivity, which in the presence of Lewis acids is improved and, furthermore, also increases the reaction rate. 

The major developments of catalytic enantioselective cycloaddition reactions of carbonyl compounds with conjugated dienes have been presented. A variety of chiral catalysts is available for the different types of carbonyl compound. For unactivated aldehydes chiral catalysts such as BINOL-aluminum(III), BINOL-tita-nium(IV), acyloxylborane(III), and tridentate Schiff base chromium(III) complexes can catalyze highly diastereo- and enantioselective cycloaddition reactions. The mechanism of these reactions can be a stepwise pathway via a Mukaiyama aldol intermediate or a concerted mechanism. For a-dicarbonyl compounds, which can coordinate to the chiral catalyst in a bidentate fashion, the chiral BOX-copper(II)... 

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