Diazo compounds decomposition with rearrangement

In this review an attempt is made to discuss all the important interactions of highly reactive divalent carbon derivatives (carbenes, methylenes) and heterocyclic compounds and the accompanying molecular rearrangements. The most widely studied reactions have been those of dihalocarbenes, particularly dichlorocarbene, and the a-ketocarbenes obtained by photolytic or copper-catalyzed decomposition of diazo compounds such as diazoacetic ester or diazoacetone. The reactions of diazomethane with heterocyclic compounds have already been reviewed in this series. ... 

Protected 6-amino-hexahydro-l,7-dioxopyrazolo[l,2-4]pyrazole-2-carboxylic acid 274 is available by a thermolytic decomposition of diazo compound 273 via the Wolff rearrangement. The starting compound is simply available by alkylation of racemic 272 with the corresponding bromoacetoacetate and subsequent diazo transfer reaction (Scheme 35) <1996TL4891>. 

The Cu(I)-catalyzed decomposition of (alkynyloxysilyl)diazoacetates 119 furnishes the silaheterocycles 120 and/or 121 (equation 30) in modest yield63. In these cases, the photochemical extrusion of nitrogen from 119 does not lead to defined products and the thermal reaction is dominated by the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition ability of these diazo compounds. In mechanistic terms, carbene 122 or more likely a derived copper carbene complex, is transformed into cyclopropene 123 by an intramolecular [1 + 2] cycloaddition to the triple bond. The strained cyclopropene rearranges to a vinylcarbene either with an exo-cyclic (124) or an endocyclic (125) carbene center, and typical carbene reactions then lead to the observed products. Analogous carbene-to-carbene rearrangements are involved in carbenoid transformations of other alkynylcarbenes64. 

Chavan and coworkers provide evidence that the Wolff rearrangement is facilitated by the formation of silver nanoclusters, which initiate electron transfer to the diazo compound providing 8. While the precise fate of this species remains to be firmly established, they suggest a multicycle process involving the intermediacy of a silver carbene 10 (Scheme 8.2).10 12 Decomposition of the silver carbene to the free carbene 14 precedes rearrangement to ketene 13, which is then trapped with water to provide the carboxylic acid 15 (Scheme 8.2). 

All-isomer is therefore regarded as the product of decomposition of the i2 diazo derivative (ii) via a carbene intermediate (12) (see p, 341). In hydroxylic solvents the 12-diazo compound (ii) suffers protonation, probably at C(i2) (c/. p. 340), and the resulting diazonium ion (13) rearranges via the C(i2> carbonium ion with elimination of N2. A possible alternative reaction sequence involving iV-protonation of the diazo compound is also illustrated (14). Present evidence does not permit... 

It is interesting that the para benzene di-sulphonic acid also yields the meta phenol sulphonic acid due to position rearrangement. This same rearrangement, it will be recalled, occurs in the stronger fusion of the para di-sulphonic acid, meta di-phenol being obtained (p. 522). Amino benzene sulphonic acid may also be converted into phenol sulphonic acid by diazotization and decomposition of the diazo compound with water. 

Three-membered heterocycles. Decomposition of diazo compounds by the iron complex in the presence of imines leads to aziridines. An analogous reaction of diazoalkanes with aldehydes gives some epoxides and the rearrangement products (ketones) owing to the Lewis acidic nature of the catalyst. Ethyl diazoacetate behaves differently, as 1,2-aryl shift occurs during the reaction. ... 

Allyl sulfides and allyl amines. Rhodium-catalyzed decomposition of ethyl diazoacetate in the presence of these allyl compounds generates products 136 and 137, respectively, derived from [2,3] rearrangement of an S- or N-ylide intermediate, besides small amounts of carbene dimers No cyclopropane and no product resulting from the ylide by [1,2] rearrangement were detected. Besides RhjfOAc) and Rhg(CO)i6, the rhodium(I) catalysts [(cod)RhCl]2 and [(CO)2RhCl]2 were found to behave similarly, but yields with the only allyl amine tested, CH =CH—CH NMe, were distinctly lower with the latter two catalysts. Reaction temperatures are higher than usually needed in rhodium-promoted diazoalkane decomposition, which is certainly due to competition between the diazo compound and the allylic hetero-... 

Aliphatic diazonium ions, on the other hand, are extremely unstable. Although they were obtained as very unstable intermediates in 1848 when Piria treated aspartic acid (2-aminosuccinic acid) with nitrosating reagents, leading to malic acid (2-hydroxysuccinic acid), they were not identified directly for almost 120 years. Piria s reaction allowed, in some cases, the substitution of a primary amino group by a hydroxy group. This reaction is also characterized by eliminations and rearrangements (see Chapt. 7). Aliphatic diazonium ions were postulated and subsequently identified as intermediates in the acid-catalyzed decomposition of aliphatic diazo compounds (see Sect. 7.2). 

Rearrangement of jS-thio-a-diazo carbonyl compounds (44) occurred upon decomposition of the diazo function by metals, especially Rh(II).43 1,2-Thio migration adducts (45) were obtained with moderate to high diastereoselectivities. The outcome of the decomposition of (46) by Rh(II) was shown to be highly dependent on the nature of the X substituent.44 When X = OH, (47) has been exclusively observed, whereas (48) was the only product isolated when X = NHC(0)CC13. 

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