Cycloadditions symmetry allowed

Let us now examine the Diels-Alder cycloaddition from a molecular orbital perspective Chemical experience such as the observation that the substituents that increase the reac tivity of a dienophile tend to be those that attract electrons suggests that electrons flow from the diene to the dienophile during the reaction Thus the orbitals to be considered are the HOMO of the diene and the LUMO of the dienophile As shown m Figure 10 11 for the case of ethylene and 1 3 butadiene the symmetry properties of the HOMO of the diene and the LUMO of the dienophile permit bond formation between the ends of the diene system and the two carbons of the dienophile double bond because the necessary orbitals overlap m phase with each other Cycloaddition of a diene and an alkene is said to be a symmetry allowed reaction... 

The 27T-electrons of the carbon-nitrogen double bond of 1-azirines can participate in thermal symmetry-allowed [4 + 2] cycloadditions with a variety of substrates such as cyclo-pentadienones, isobenzofurans, triazines and tetrazines 71AHC(13)45). Cycloadditions also occur with heterocumulenes such as ketenes, ketenimines, isocyanates and carbon disulfide. It is also possible for the 27r-electrons of 1-azirines to participate in ene reactions 73HCA1351). 

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... 

According to the Woodw ard-Hofmann rules the concerted thermal [2n + 2n] cycloaddition reaction of alkenes 1 in a suprafacial manner is symmetry-forbidden, and is observed in special cases only. In contrast the photochemical [2n + 2n cycloaddition is symmetry-allowed, and is a useful method for the synthesis of cyclobutane derivatives 2. 

An explanation for the finding that concerted [4 -I- 2] cycloadditions take place thermally, while concerted [2 + 2] cycloadditions occur under photochemical conditions, is given through the principle of conservation of orbital symmetry. According to the Woodw ard-Hofmann rules derived thereof, a concerted, pericyclic [4 -I- 2] cycloaddition reaction from the ground state is symmetry-allowed. 

The photochemical cycloaddition of a carbonyl compound 1 to an alkene 2 to yield an oxetane 3, is called the Patemo-Buchi reaction - This reaction belongs to the more general class of photochemical [2 + 2]-cycloadditions, and is just as these, according to the Woodward-Hofmann rules, photochemically a symmetry-allowed process, and thermally a symmetry-forbidden process. 

A cycloaddition reaction is one in which two unsaturated molecules add to one another, yielding a cyclic product. As with electrocyclic reactions, cycloadditions are controlled by the orbital symmetry of the reactants. Symmetry-allowed... 

Note that both suprafacial and antarafacial cycloadditions are symmetry-allowed. Geometric constraints often make antarafacial reactions difficult, however, because there must be a twisting of the it orbital system in one of the reactants. Thus, suprafacial cycloadditions are the most common for small tt systems. 

According to frontier molecular orbital theory (FMO), the reactivity, regio-chemistry and stereochemistry of the Diels-Alder reaction are controlled by the suprafacial in phase interaction of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of one component and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the other. [17e, 41-43, 64] These orbitals are the closest in energy Scheme 1.14 illustrates the two dominant orbital interactions of a symmetry-allowed Diels-Alder cycloaddition. 

Investigation of the photochemistry of protonated durene offers conclusive evidence that the mechanism for isomerization of alkyl-benzenium ions to their bicyclic counterparts is, indeed, a symmetry-allowed disrotatory closure of the pentadienyl cation, rather than a [a2a -f 7r2a] cycloaddition reaction, which has been postulated to account for many of the photoreactions of cyclohexadienones and cyclohexenones (Woodward and Hoffmann, 1970). When the tetramethyl benzenium ion (26) is irradiated in FHSO3 at — 90°, the bicyclo[3,l,0]hexenyl cation (27) is formed exclusively (Childs and Farrington, 1970). If photoisomerization had occurred via a [(r2a-t-772 ] cycloaddition, the expected... 

We have seen that carbonium ions can undergo a variety of photoreactions, affording products which often vary considerably from those obtained in the photolysis of the corresponding uncharged compounds. The predominant mode of reaction encountered would seem to be isomerization to one or more valence bond isomers, which occurs via a symmetry-allowed disrotatory electrocyclic closure, rather than a [<72a-f 7r2a] cycloaddition in the case of alkylbenzenium ions and pro-... 

Photochemical [2h-2] cycloadditions of olefins occur with retention of configuration according to the Woodward-Hoffmarm rule [6,7], These are excited-state reactions in the delocalization band of the mechanistic spectrum. A striking example of the symmetry-allowed reaction was observed when the neat cis- and tran -butenes were irradiated (delocahzation band in Scheme 3) [8],... 

Staudinger observed that the cycloaddition of ketenes with 1,3-dienes afforded cyclobutanones from a formal [2+2] cycloaddition [52] prior to the discovery of the Diels-Alder reaction. The 2+2 cycloadditions were classified into the symmetry-allowed 2+2 cycloaddition reactions [6, 7], It was quite momentous when Machiguchi and Yamabe reported that [4+2] cycloadducts are initial products in the reactions of diphenylketene with cyclic dienes such as cyclopentadiene (Scheme 11) [53, 54], The cyclobutanones arise by a [3, 3]-sigmatropic (Claisen) rearrangement of the initial products. 

Cycloaddition reactions of ketenes with alkenes have long been known to give cyclobutanones [123] and to proceed with retention of the configurations [124], The reactions were classified into the symmetry-allowed cycloaddition reactions... 

Formation of the same dimer from irradiation of benzofulvene 462 suggests that benzofulvene 462 or a photoproduct of it is generated first by photolysis of triafulvene 180 via 461 and then undergoes orbital-symmetry allowed cycloaddition of type 463 to a second benzofulvene molecule. 

Palladocyclopentadiene reagent promotes [2 + 2]-cycloaddition of suitably positioned enynes to form cyclobutenes which undergo symmetry allowed ring opening to form 1,3-dienes with a bridgehead double bond (equation 149)264. 

Based on the number of n electrons in polyenes, we can predict which type of intermolecular cycloadditions will be symmetry allowed. The close in energy the frontier orbitals are, the stronger will be the interaction between them and therefore the more easily the reaction will occur. The orbital coefficients at the interacting centres can also influence the rate and the direction of addition. 

In photochemical process there is an excitation of an electron from the HOMO of one component to the next higher orbital which now makes this the HOMO having the opposite symmetry. This change will permit a previously forbidden reaction to become an allowed process. Thus a (n2s + n2s) cycloaddition is symmetry allowed under photochemical conditions, which was not possible under thermal conditions. 

In this way Hoffmann and Woodward have established the following simple rule a concerted m + n cycloaddition will be symmetry allowed in the ground state and symmetry forbidden in the excited state if m + n = 4q + 2 (q = 0, 1, 2...) if m + n = 4q the reaction will be symmetry allowed in the excited state and symmetry forbidden in the ground state. This rule applies to ms + ns cycloadditions and to ma + na processes. 

The cycloaddition of methylene CH2 to ethylene has indicated that the components can be correlated in the ground state with the ground state trimethylene. The reaction is thus symmetry allowed in the ground state. 

The reaction is carried out simply by heating a diene or another conjugated system of n bonds with a reactive unsaturated compound (dienophile). Usually the reaction is not sensible to catalysts and light does not affect the course. Depending on the specific components, either carboxylic or heterocyclic products can be obtained. The stereospecificity of the reaction was firmly established even before the importance of orbital symmetry was recognized. In terms of orbital symmetry classification, the Diels-Alder reaction is a k4s + n2s cycloaddition, an allowed process. 

It resembles both a cycloaddition and a [1, 5] sigmatropic shift of hydrogen. It is a symmetry allowed process shown as follows ... 

Reactions.—Nucleophilic Attack at Carbon. (/) Carbonyls. Methyl arylglyoxylates react with trisdimethylaminophosphine (TDAP) to form m-a/S-dimethoxycarbonyl-stilbene oxides.63 The initially formed zwitterion (61) reacts with a second molecule of the ester to form a fra/ -diphenyl-1,4,2-dioxaphospholan intermediate, which undergoes a concerted symmetry-allowed retrograde n2s + 4 cycloaddition to give a carbonyl ylide, conrotatory cyclization of which leads to the cw-oxirans (62) (Scheme 3). 

Even more than [6 + 4] and [8 + 2] cycloaddition reactions, the [2 + 2 + 2] cycloaddition reactions require a very well preorganized orientation of the three multiple bonds with respect to each other. In most cases, this kind of cycloaddition reaction is catalyzed by transition metal complexes which preorientate and activate the reacting multiple bonds111,324. The rarity of thermal [2 + 2 + 2] cycloadditions, which are symmetry allowed and usually strongly exothermic, is due to unfavorable entropic factors. High temperatures are required to induce a reaction, as was demonstrated by Berthelot, who described the synthesis of benzene from acetylene in 1866325, and Ullman, who described the reaction between nor-bomadiene and maleic anhydride in 1958326. As a consequence of the limiting scope of this chapter, this section only describes those reactions in which two of the participating multiple bonds are within the same molecule. 

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