Cyclopropyl nitriles

This reaction has been developed by Stevens for a refined access to various alkaloid families. Equation 29 shows the short synthesis of mesembrine, where methyl vinyl ketone is annulated to the endocyclic enamine. The precursors for the imines are usually cyclopropyl aldehydes and the corresponding amines or cyclopropyl nitriles combined with suitable organometallics as demonstrated in a simple myosmine synthesis (equation 30). Additional examples will not be discussed here since excellent review articles exist on this topic ... 

Pioneering work with cyclopropyl nitriles, their acidities, stereochemistry and the reactions of the corresponding carbanions has been published by Walborsky and coworkers ... 

Comparison of cyclopropyl nitriles with isopropyl nitriles, and of the nitriles with the corresponding ketones is accessible from work of Walborsky, and de Boer and their coworkers (Table 26). 

The literature offers more examples of facile deprotonations of cyclopropyl nitriles. Boche and coworkers and Ford and Newcomb observed the deprotonation of the nitriles 260 and 261 as well as their alkylation 262 has been deprotonated by Wittig and co workers . Similarly, 263 is easily deprotonated to give the a-cyano anion— in contrast to the corresponding ester 227 which is deprotonated exclusively at C(l) instead Compound 264 also gives the corresponding a-cyano cyclopropyl anion... 

The tetrahedral carbanion agrees well with the experimental results that optically active cyclopropyl-nitrile carbanions can undergo reprotonation with retention of configuration under certain conditions. 

Ishii, K., Abe, M., and Sakamoto, M., Photochemical reactions of nitrile compounds. Part 2. Photochemistry of an a,P-unsaturated 7,S-epoxy nitrile and Y,8-cyclopropyl nitrile, J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1, 1937, 1987. 

Cyclopropyl nitriles are cleaved more efficiently by sodium selenophenolate. Example ... 

Allyl- -diathylester 204 Allyl-(2-methyl-allyl)- -diathylester 202 -amid-nitril (2,2-disubst.) 113 Amino- -diathylester 613 Benzyl- -diathylester 204, 208, 210 Benzyl- -dinitril 559 Benzyliden- -diathylester 208, 210 Benzyliden- -diathylester-nitril 206 Benzyliden- -dinitril 559, 643 ter.-Butyl- -nitril 114 Cyclohexyl- -athylester-nitril 206 Cyclohexyl- -diathylester 204 Cyclohexyl- -dinitril 559 Cyclohexyliden- -athylester-nitril 206 Cyclohexyliden- -dinitril 559 (1-Cyclopropyl-athyliden)- -dinitril 666 Diathyl- -amid-nitril 113 -diester 640... 

Cu(II) EPR signal in nitriles as solvent as well as by polarographic measurements 144>. Similarly, the EPR signal disappeared when Cu(OTf)2 was used for catalytic cyclo-propanation of olefins with diazoesters 64). In these cases, no evidence for radical-chain reactions has been reported, however. The Cu(acac)2- or Cu(hfacac)2-eatalyzed decomposition of N2CHCOOEt, N2C(COOEt)2, MeCOC(N2)COOEt and N2CHCOCOOEt in the presence of cyclopropyl-substituted ethylenes did not furnish any products derived from a cyclopropylcarbinyl - butenyl rearrangement128. These results rule out the possible participation of electron-transfer processes and radical intermediates which would arise from interaction between the olefin and a radical species derived from the diazocarbonyl compound. 

Intramolecular cyclization of nitrile ylides produces the cyclopropyl-fused quinolines (Equation 43) <1998J(P1)807>. 

Furthermore, treatment of 194 a, b with potassium cyanide in the presence of aqueous acetic acid gave the cyclopropylnitrile 197 in 62-73% yield. This nitrile was then allowed, to react with cyclopropyllithium in ether at —78 °C to give the cyclopropyl ketimine 198, Eq. (62)129). 

Alicyclic nitriles are prepared by the intramolecular alkylation of halo nitriles. For example, cyclopropyl cyanide is obtained in 75-90% yield by the action of sodium amide on y-chlorobutyronitrile in ether or liquid... 

MO calculations have been carried out on the isomerization of cyclopropane to propene, and the MNDO method has been used to study the reaction pathway and to optimize the structure of reactant, transition structure, and product of the ring opening reaction of bicyclo[1.1.0]butane. Various methods have been employed to estimate the rate constants for ring opening of the 2-cyclopropyl-2-propyl radical. 1-Acceptor-1-sulfenyl-substituted 2-vinylcyclopropanes of the type (430) have been found to afford 6-sulfenyl-a,jS y, -unsaturated carboxylic esters and nitriles (431) upon treatment with acid, by a process which involves C(l)—C(2) bond fission and a novel 1,5-sulfenyl rearrangement (see Scheme 110). It has been shown that the benzophenone-sensitized photolysis of vinyl norcaradiene derivatives, such as 5-(2-methylprop-l-enyl)-3-oxatricyclo[4.4.0.0 ]deca-7,9-dien-4-ones (432), results in the regioselective cleavage of only one of the cyclopropyl c-bonds to afford isochroman-3-one derivatives (433). It has been reported that the major product obtained from the reaction of structurally diverse a-diazo ketones with an electron-rich alkene in the... 

In an analogous manner, treatment of 4-(2-haloethyl)-phenols and -l-naphthols " with bases produces spiro[2.5]octa-4,7-dien-6-ones and their benzo analogues, respectively. The basic treatments of jS-oxiranyl ketones , esters (equation 13) , nitriles , sulfones and alkynes affords 2-(hydroxymethyl) cyclopropyl derivatives, usually as the sole cyclization product. The cyclization occurs regiospecifically by the intramolecular attack of the anion on the y-carbon in the oxirane ring. Attack of the anion on the 5-carbon in the oxirane, which should lead to the formation of cyclobutanols, usually does not take... 

The influence of cyclopropyl on the gas phase stability of carbocations as measured by ion cyclotron resonance is shown in Table 14, along with data for some reference compounds. The results are given as gas phase basicities, GB, and proton affinities, PA, defined as AG° and AH°, respectively, for dissociation of the protonated molecule, as in equation 11. In addition hydride affinities D(BH H ) for some cations defined as — AH° for equation 18 are included. For the gas phase basicities and proton affinities the products B are alkenes, amines, nitriles or carbonyl compounds, and thus for these values the stability of the cation is compared to a derivative where the substituent is conjugated with a carbon-carbon or carbon-oxygen double bond, or a nitrogen lone pair, whereas for hydride affinities the products are saturated. 

In contrast, the photolysis of these azides at 350 nm leads only to the corresponding nitriles and olefins in yields of 90 l-(Alkylthio)cyclopropyl azides (164), readily accessible from the corresponding chlorides and bromides, are smoothly decomposed at ITC with nitrogen evolution. The main process is a ring enlargement to 2-(alkylthio)azetines (165), accompanied by cleavage to an alkyl thiocyanate and an alkene (equation 114). ... 

Most alkyl carbanions undergo facile pyramidal inversion. Cyclopropyl anions are an exception, presumably because the transition state, with a planar trigonal carbon, is more strained than the ground state. The configurational stability of cyclopropyl anions is of value in the synthesis of deuterated cyclopropanes by the Haller-Bauer reaction (see Section II.B). An interesting dilemma arises when a cyclopropyl anion is stabilized by a n-electron acceptor substituent such as a nitrile or an ester. Will the anion then retain its pyramidal equilibrium geometry for the strain reasons alluded to above, or will it become planar in order to maximize overlap of the filled orbital on carbon with the n orbital of the substituent Walborsky and coworkers addressed this question in a series of experiments in which rates of H/D exchange and racemization were compared for an optically active cyclopropane exposed to a base in a deuterated hydroxylic solvent. The outcome can be illustrated with the particular example of 1,1-diphenylcyclopropane-2-... 

Singlet generated cyclopropyl carbenes, e.g. 253 (Z = CR), give cyclobutadienes by Wolff-like rearrangement whereas alkyne products most likely result from the triplet carbene 34 4.-347 nitrene analogue 253 (Z = N ) is thought to behave similarly but azacyclobutadiene is not isolable from the Sj reaction as it fragments to alkyne and nitrile. 

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