Cyclopentenyl cation electrocyclic formation

Upon treatment of a divinyl ketone 1 with a protic acid or a Lewis acid, an electrocyclic ring closure can take place to yield a cyclopentenone 3. This reaction is called the Nazarov cyclization Protonation at the carbonyl oxygen of the divinyl ketone 1 leads to formation of a hydroxypentadienyl cation 2, which can undergo a thermally allowed, conrotatory electrocyclic ring closure reaction to give a cyclopentenyl cation 4. Through subsequent loss of a proton a mixture of isomeric cyclopentenones 5 and 6 is obtained ... 

An electrocyclic reaction is the formation of a new o-bond across the ends of a conjugated 7T-system or the reverse. They thus lead to the creation or destruction of one a-bond. Hexatrienes 1 can cyclise to six-membered rings 2 in a disrotatory fashion but we shall be more interested in versions of the conrotatory cyclisation of pentadienyl cations 3 to give cyclopentenyl cations 4. The different stereochemistry results from the different number of rt-electrons involved.1... 

The Nazarov cyclization is an example of a 47r-electrocyclic closure of a pentadienylic cation. The evidence in support of this idea is primarily stereochemical. The basic tenets of the theory of electrocyclic reactions make very clear predictions about the relative configuration of the substituents on the newly formed bond of the five-membered ring. Because the formation of a cyclopentenone often destroys one of the newly created centers, special substrates must be constructed to aUow this relationship to be preserved. Prior to the enunciation of the theory of conservation of orbital symmetry, Deno and Sorensen had observed the facile thermal cyclization of pentadienylic cations and subsequent rearrangements of the resulting cyclopentenyl cations. Unfortunately, these secondary rearrangements thwarted early attempts to verify the stereochemical predictions of orbital symmetry control. Subsequent studies with Ae pentamethyl derivative were successful. - The most convincing evidence for a pericyclic mechanism came from Woodward, Lehr and Kurland, who documented the complementary rotatory pathways for the thermal (conrotatory) and photochemical (disrotatoiy) cyclizations, precisely as predicted by the conservation of orbital symmetry (Scheme 5). 

For the protic acid catalyzed reaction, the cyclization commences with protonation of the divinyl ketone 9 and formation of a pentadienyl cation 10. An analogous process is operational in the case of Lewis acid-catalyzed reactions. The pentadienyl cation 10 then undergoes a 47t electrocyclic closure to give a cyclopentenylic cation 11. This cyclization is a pericyclic reaction and is governed by the rules for conservation of orbital symmetry. Namely, this means the cyclization occurs stereospecifically in a conrotatory fashion, with predictable relative configurations of the substituents (i.e., the R groups in 11 are anti). Elimination of a proton, followed by tautomerization gives product 13. ... 

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