Cyclohexanone kinetic deprotonation

For cyclic ketones conformational factors also come into play in determining enolate composition. 2-Substituted cyclohexanones are kinetically deprotonated at the C(6) methylene group, whereas the more-substituted C(2) enolate is slightly favored... 

A number of studies of the acid-catalyzed mechanism of enolization have been done. The case of cyclohexanone is illustrative. The reaction is catalyzed by various carboxylic acids and substituted ammonium ions. The effectiveness of these proton donors as catalysts correlates with their pK values. When plotted according to the Bronsted catalysis law (Section 4.8), the value of the slope a is 0.74. When deuterium or tritium is introduced in the a position, there is a marked decrease in the rate of acid-catalyzed enolization h/ d 5. This kinetic isotope effect indicates that the C—H bond cleavage is part of the rate-determining step. The generally accepted mechanism for acid-catalyzed enolization pictures the rate-determining step as deprotonation of the protonated ketone ... 

Such enantioselective deprotonations depend upon kinetic selection between prochiral or enantiomeric hydrogens and the chiral base, resulting from differences in diastere-omeric TSs.27 For example, transition structure E has been proposed for deprotonation of 4-substituted cyclohexanones by base D.28 This structure includes a chloride generated from trimethylsilyl chloride. 

Enantioselective deprotonation has also been used for the kinetic resolution of 2-substituted cyclohexanones rac-298. This procedure has been applied to a number of related cyclohexanones and a high level of enantioselectivity has been obtained. 

Fig. 13.11. Regioselective generation of ketone enolates, I the effects of different substituents in the Aland appositions. Enolate D is formed in THF at -78 °C with LDA irrespective of whether a substoichiometric amount or an excess of LDA is used. However, if one employs slightly less than the stoichiometric amount of LDA (so that a trace of the neutral ketone is present), then, upon warming, the initially formed enolate D isomerizes quantitatively to enolate C with its more highly substituted C=C double bond. It should be noted that LDA removes an axially oriented a-H from the cyclohexanone this is because only then does the resulting lone pair of electrons receive optimum stabilization by the adjacent C=0 bond. With the kinetically preferred deprotonation leading to the enolate D the axial of-H is transferred to the base (via transition state B), but not the equatorial of-H (via transition state iso-B.)...

Hence, the first clearcut evidence for the involvement of enol radical cations in ketone oxidation reactions was provided by Henry [109] and Littler [110,112]. From kinetic results and product studies it was concluded that in the oxidation of cyclohexanone using the outer-sphere one-electron oxidants, tris-substituted 2,2 -bipyridyl or 1,10-phenanthroline complexes of iron(III) and ruthenium(III) or sodium hexachloroiridate(IV) (IrCI), the cyclohexenol radical cation (65" ) is formed, which rapidly deprotonates to the a-carbonyl radical 66. An upper limit for the deuterium isotope effect in the oxidation step (k /kjy < 2) suggests that electron transfer from the enol to the metal complex occurs prior to the loss of the proton [109]. In the reaction with the ruthenium(III) salt, four main products were formed 2-hydroxycyclohexanone (67), cyclohexenone, cyclopen tanecarboxylic acid and 1,2-cyclohexanedione, whereas oxidation with IrCl afforded 2-chlorocyclohexanone in almost quantitative yield. Similarly, enol radical cations can be invoked in the oxidation reactions of aliphatic ketones with the substitution inert dodecatungstocobaltate(III), CoW,20 o complex [169]. Unfortunately, these results have never been linked to the general concept of inversion of stability order of enol/ketone systems (Sect. 2) and thus have never received wide attention. 

Enolate equilibration and di- and poly-alkylation are the major side reactions, which lead to reduced yields of desired products in ketone alkylations. These processes occur as a result of equilibration of the starting enolate (or enolate mixture) with the neutral monoalkylation product(s) via proton transfer reactions. Polyalkylation may also occur when bases, in addition to the starting enolate, which are capable of deprotonating the monoalkylated ketone are present in the medium. With symmetrical ketones, e.g. cyclopentanone and cyclohexanone, the problem of regioselectivity does not arise. However, except under special conditions, polyalkylation occurs to a significant extent during enolate alkylations of more kinetically acidic ketones such as cyclobutanone, cyclopentanone and acyclic ketones, particularly methyl ketones. Polyalkylation is also a troublesome side reaction with less acidic ketones such as cyclohexanone. 

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