Cycloadditions forming six

The usual reaction of alkenes with conjugated dienes is the Diels-Alder synthesis. This addition does not apply, with a few exceptions, to cycloaddition of fluorinated alkenes. The presence of fluorine atoms, especially if there are more of them around the double bond, retards the cycloadditions forming six-membered rings, and accelerates the (2 + 2) cycloaddition to form four-membered rings. 

Cycloadditions Forming Five- and Six-Membered Rings by W. R. Dolbier... 

Cycloaddition reactions prevalently form six-, five-, four-, and three-membered rings cycles with more than six atoms are not described. 

So special reactions are often used to make cyclobutanes. In the next chapter we shall see that thermal cycloadditions of alkenes with ketenes give four-membered rings, but the commonest method is photochemical cycloaddition. You are already aware that Diels-Alder reactions (chapter 17) occur easily when a diene 6 and a dienophile 7 are heated together and six-membered rings 8 are formed. Have you ever wondered why four-membered rings 9 are not formed instead Orbital symmetry allows cycloadditions involving six Ti-electrons but not those involving four 7r-electrons.2... 

We can now turn from pericyclic reactions forming six- and four-membered rings to those forming five-membered rings. Most of these are 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, typified by the reaction230 of diazomethane (260), which is the 1,3-dipole, and methyl acrylate (261), which in this context is called a dipolarophile. 

The intramolecular cycloaddition of o-quinone methide N-alky1imines with alkenes to form six-membered nitrogen rings is well documented but the intermolecular reaction is less well characterised. Ito et al. have now shown that the o-quinone methide N-alkylimines (182), generated in situ by treatment of the corresponding N-trimethylsilyltrimethylammonium salts (181) with fluoride ion, react with the electron-deficient alkenes (183)... 

Related [4+2] cycloadditions involving substrates that incorporate heteroatoms into the formed six-membered ring are also known. In representative examples from Matsubara and Ogoshi, the cycloaddition of alkylidene malonates with alkynes provide dihydropyran products, whereas cycloadditions of 1,3-dienes with nitriles provide pyridine products (Scheme 3-22). The formation of pyridines arises from oxidation of initially formed dihydropyridines. 

The reactivity of isocyanates in [2+2] cycloaddition reactions is as follows alkyl < aryl < nitroaryl << arenesulfonyl < halosulfonyl. Also, the reactivity of the substrate is determined by the substituents. For example, vinyl ethers and enamines are more reactive than olefins. Often the formation of the [2+2] cycloadducts involves polar linear intermediates, which can be intercepted by the isocyanate or the substrate to form six-membered ring [2+2+2] cycloadducts (see Section 3.3.1.4). Also, diynes react with isocyanates to give six-membered ring [2+2+2] cycloadducts. In the latter reactions catalysts play an important role. From Q, ty-diynes macrocyclic adducts are obtained. 

The carbodiimide 57 undergoes a [2+2+2] cycloaddition reaction with aliphatic isothiocyanates to form six-membered ring triazine derivatives 58. ... 

VCPs have served as valuable five-carbon components in various cycloaddition reactions. Usually, they form six-membered metallacycles upon oxidative cycliza-tion with transition metals. Then, migratory insertion of unsaturated molecules, followed by reductive elimination, furnishes the carbocycles. In particular, intermolecular [5-1-2] annulation of VCPs with alkynes, alkenes, and allenes has been studied extensively (Scheme 2.39) [57]. In addition, VCP-cyclopentene rearrangement has been well documented [56 ]. 

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... 

The 1,3-dipoles consist of elements from main groups IV, V, and VI. The parent 1,3-dipoles consist of elements from the second row and the central atom of the dipole is limited to N or O [10]. Thus, a limited number of structures can be formed by permutations of N, C, and O. If higher row elements are excluded twelve allyl anion type and six propargyl/allenyl anion type 1,3-dipoles can be obtained. However, metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions have only been explored for the five types of dipole shown in Scheme 6.2. 

Mechanistically the observed stereospecificity can be rationalized by a concerted, pericyclic reaction. In a one-step cycloaddition reaction the dienophile 8 adds 1,4 to the diene 7 via a six-membered cyclic, aromatic transition state 9, where three r-bonds are broken and one jr- and two cr-bonds are formed. The arrangement of the substituents relative to each other at the stereogenic centers of the reactants is retained in the product 10, as a result of the stereospecific y -addition. 

Another interesting example is provided by the phenylethynylcarbene complex 173 and its reactions with five-, six-, and seven-membered cyclic enamines 174 to form bridgehead-substituted five-, six-, and seven-membered cycloalkane-annelated ethoxycyclopentadienes with high regioselectivity under mild reaction conditions (Scheme 38) [119,120]. In these transformations the phenylethynylcarbene complex 173 acts as a C3 building block in a formal [3+2] cycloaddition. Like in the Michael additions (reaction route F in Scheme 4), the cyclic electron-rich enamines 174 as nucleophiles attack the... 

The Diels-Alder cycloaddition is the best-known organic reaction that is widely used to construct, in a regio- and stereo-controlled way, a six-membered ring with up to four stereogenic centers. With the potential of forming carbon-carbon, carbon-heteroatom and heteroatom-heteroatom bonds, the reaction is a versatile synthetic tool for constructing simple and complex molecules [1], Scheme 1.1 illustrates two examples the synthesis of a small molecule such as the tricyclic compound 1 by intermolecular Diels-Alder reaction [2] and the construction of a complex compound, like 2, which is the key intermediate in the synthesis of (-)chlorothricolide 3, by a combination of an intermolecular and an intramolecular Diels-Alder cycloaddition [3]. 

The Diels-Alder reaction is a pericyclic cycloaddition when bond-forming and bond-breaking processes are concerted in the six-membered transition state... 

If, on the other hand, unsymmetrically substituted carbonyl compounds such as monosubstituted benzophenones (X = OCH3, CH3, Cl), tert-butyl methyl ketone, acetophenone, acetaldehyde, or benzaldehyde are used for trapping 39a, diastere-omeric mixtures are formed in each case they could all be resolved except for the products obtained with p-methoxybenzophenone and acetophenone 33>. An X-ray structure analysis has been performed for the E-isomer 57g 36) which, in conjunction with H-NMR studies, permitted structural assignment in cases 56 and 57e, g and h35>. Additional chemical evidence for the structure of the six-membered heterocycles is provided by the thermolysis of 56 a considered in another context (see Sect. 3.1). In general the reaction 39a- 56 or 57 is accompanied by formation of phosphene dimers, presumably via [4 + 4]- and via [4 + 2]-cycloaddition 35). 

---