Diels-Alder Reaction Butenone with cyclopentadiene, aqueous

The Diels-Alder reaction is one of the most important methods used to form cyclic structures and is one of the earliest examples of carbon-carbon bond formation reactions in aqueous media.21 Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous media were in fact first carried out in the 1930s, when the reaction was discovered,22 but no particular attention was paid to this fact until 1980, when Breslow23 made the dramatic observation that the reaction of cyclopentadiene with butenone in water (Eq. 12.1) was more than 700 times faster than the same reaction in isooctane, whereas the reaction rate in methanol is comparable to that in a hydrocarbon solvent. Such an unusual acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction by water was attributed to the hydrophobic effect, 24 in which the hydrophobic interactions brought together the two nonpolar groups in the transition state. 

The stereoselectivity of some Diels-Alder reactions was also strongly affected in water.26 At low concentrations, in which both components were completely dissolved, the reaction of cyclopentadiene with butenone gave a 21.4 1 ratio of endo/exo products when they were stirred at 0.15 M concentration in water, compared to only a 3.85 1 ratio in excess cyclopentadiene and an 8.5 1 ratio with ethanol as the solvent. Aqueous detergent solution had no effect on the product ratio. The stereochemical changes were explained by the need to minimize the transition-state surface area in water solution, thus favoring the more compact endo stereochemistry. The results are also consistent with the effect of polar media on the ratio.27... 

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