Diels-Alder reaction electronic effects

Despite the concerted nature of most Diels-Alder reactions, substituent effects are evident. Electronic compatibility of the reaction partners is of paramount importance, therefore while a normal Diels-Alder reaction is characterized by the union of an electron-rich diene and an electron-poor dienophile, the Diels-Alder reaction with inverse electron demand features an electron-poor diene and electron-rich dienophile. 

In Section 14-8 we discussed the effect that substituents have on the efficiency of the Diels-Alder reaction Electron donors on the diene and acceptors on the dienophile are beneficial to the outcome of the cycloaddition. Chapter 15 revealed another manifestation of these effects Introduction of electron-withdrawing substituents into the benzene ring (e.g., as in nitration) caused further electrophilic aromatic substitution (EAS) to slow down, whereas the incorporation of donors, as in the Friedel-Crafts alkylation, caused substitution to accelerate. What are the factors that contribute to the activating or deactivating nature of substituents in these processes How do they make a monosubstituted benzene more or less susceptible to further electrophilic attack ... 

Hydrogen bonding of water to the activating group of (for normal-electron demand Diels-Alder reactions) the dienophile constitutes the second important effect". Hydrogen bonds strengthen the electron-withdrawing capacity of this functionality and thereby decrease the HOMO-LUMO gap... 

In the case of the retro Diels-Alder reaction, the nature of the activated complex plays a key role. In the activation process of this transformation, the reaction centre undergoes changes, mainly in the electron distributions, that cause a lowering of the chemical potential of the surrounding water molecules. Most likely, the latter is a consequence of an increased interaction between the reaction centre and the water molecules. Since the enforced hydrophobic effect is entropic in origin, this implies that the orientational constraints of the water molecules in the hydrophobic hydration shell are relieved in the activation process. Hence, it almost seems as if in the activated complex, the hydrocarbon part of the reaction centre is involved in hydrogen bonding interactions. Note that the... 

Diels-Alder reactions, 4, 842 flash vapour phase pyrolysis, 4, 846 reactions with 6-dimethylaminofuKenov, 4, 844 reactions with JV,n-diphenylnitrone, 4, 841 reactions with mesitonitrile oxide, 4, 841 structure, 4, 715, 725 synthesis, 4, 725, 767-769, 930 theoretical methods, 4, 3 tricarbonyl iron complexes, 4, 847 dipole moments, 4, 716 n-directing effect, 4, 44 2,5-disubstituted synthesis, 4, 116-117 from l,3-dithiolylium-4-olates, 6, 826 electrocyclization, 4, 748-750 electron bombardment, 4, 739 electronic deformation, 4, 722-723 electronic structure, 4, 715 electrophilic substitution, 4, 43, 44, 717-719, 751 directing effects, 4, 752-753 fluorescence spectra, 4, 735-736 fluorinated derivatives, 4, 679 H NMR, 4, 731 Friedel-Crafts acylation, 4, 777 with fused six-membered heterocyclic rings, 4, 973-1036 fused small rings structure, 4, 720-721 gas phase UV spectrum, 4, 734 H NMR, 4, 7, 728-731, 939 solvent effects, 4, 730 substituent constants, 4, 731 halo... 

It has long been known that the Diels-Alder reaction is particularly efficient and rapid when the dienophile contains one or more electron-attracting groups. These substituent effects are illustrated by the data in Table 11.3. In the case of the diene, reactivity is increased by electron-releasing substituents. Some illustrative data are given in Table 11.4. 

More complete interpretations of Diels-Alder regioselectivity have been developed. MO results can be analyzed from an electrostatic perspective by calculating potentials at the various atoms in the diene and dienophile. These results give a more quantitatively accurate estimate of the substituent effects. Diels-Alder regioselectivity can also be accounted for in terms of HSAB theory (see Section 1.2.3). The expectation would be that the most polarizable (softest) atoms would lead to bond formation and that regioselectivity would reflect the best mateh between the diene and dienophile termini. These ideas have been applied using 3-2IG computations. The results are in agreement with the ortho rule for normal-electron-demand Diels-Alder reactions. ... 

Honk et al. concluded that this FMO model imply increased asynchronicity in the bond-making processes, and if first-order effects (electrostatic interactions) were also considered, a two-step mechanisms, with cationic intermediates become possible in some cases. It was stated that the model proposed here shows that the phenomena generally observed on catalysis can be explained by the concerted mechanism, and allows predictions of the effect of Lewis acid on the rates, regioselectivity, and stereoselectivity of all concerted cycloadditions, including those of ketenes, 1,3-dipoles, and Diels-Alder reactions with inverse electron-demand [2],... 

For the ordinary Diels-Alder reaction the dienophile preferentially is of the electron-poor type electron-withdrawing substituents have a rate enhancing effect. Ethylene and simple alkenes are less reactive. Substituent Z in 2 can be e.g. CHO, COR, COOH, COOR, CN, Ar, NO2, halogen, C=C. Good dienophiles are for example maleic anhydride, acrolein, acrylonitrile, dehydrobenzene, tetracya-noethylene (TCNE), acetylene dicarboxylic esters. The diene preferentially is of the electron-rich type thus it should not bear an electron-withdrawing substituent. 

Inner-outer-ring dienes are very useful in the synthesis of polycyclic molecules. Their reactivity in the Diels-Alder reaction depends on the type of ring (carbo-cyclic, heterocyclic, aromatic) that bears the ethenyl group or on the electronic effects of substituents at the diene moiety [30]. 

Styrenes may act as 2n and 4n components of the Diels-Alder reaction depending on the substitution site and the electronic effects of the substituent. Electron-donating groups at the a-carbon of the olefinic double bond enhance the dienic reactivity of styrenes [30]. 

The substituents at C-2, C-3 within diene 97 and those at C-1, C-2 within dienophiles 98-100 are electronically and/or sterically equivalent with respect to diene and dienophile reaction centers, respectively, and therefore cycloaddition should not display regiochemical bias in the absence of orientational effects. The Diels-Alder reactions of 97 prepared in situ with 98-100 gave an excess of 101 (Scheme 4.19) [70b], which are the expected regioisomers if the reagents react in their preferred orientations within a mixed micelle with an ammonium head group at the aggregate-water interface and the remainder in the micelle interior. 

Keywords imines derived from formylphosphonate undergo Diels-Alder reactions only in those cases which carry a strongly electron-withdrawing N-substituent. Lewis acidity, solvent effect, lithium perchlorate in diethyl ether... 

In another aspect of the mechanism, the effects of electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents (p. 1065) indicate that the diene is behaving as a nucleophile and the dienophile as an electrophile. However, this can be reversed. Perchlorocyclopentadiene reacts better with cyclopentene than with maleic anhydride and not at all with tetracyanoethylene, though the latter is normally the most reactive dienophile known. It is apparent, then, that this diene is the electrophile in its Diels-Alder reactions. Reactions of this type are said to proceed with inverse electron demand ... 

In the case of the reverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder reactions, the secondary orbital interaction between the Jt-HOMO of dienophile and the LUMO of 114 or the effect of the orbital phase enviromnents (Chapter Orbital Phase Enviromnents and Stereoselectivities by Ohwada in this volume) cannot be ruled out as the factor controlling the selectivity (Scheme 55). 

Lewis acids such as zinc chloride, boron trifluoride, tin tetrachloride, aluminum chloride, methylaluminum dichloride, and diethylaluminum chloride catalyze Diels-Alder reactions.22 The catalytic effect is the result of coordination of the Lewis acid with the dienophile. The complexed dienophile is more electrophilic and more reactive toward electron-rich dienes. The mechanism of the addition is believed to be concerted and enhanced regio- and stereoselectivity is often observed.23... 

An ab initio MO calculation by Jorgensen revealed enhanced hydrogen bonding of a water molecule to the transition states for the Diels-Alder reactions of cyclopentadiene with methyl vinyl ketone and acrylonitrile, which indicates that the observed rate accelerations for Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous solution arise from the hydrogenbonding effect in addition to a relatively constant hydrophobic term.7,76 Ab initio calculation using a self-consistent reaction field continuum model shows that electronic and nuclear polarization effects in solution are crucial to explain the stereoselectivity of nonsymmetrical... 

Cyclopentadienylindium(I) has been shown to be effective in the reaction with aldehydes or electron-deficient alkenes to form highly functionalized cyclopentadienes in aqueous media (See Section 8.4.3).101 This reaction with the appropriate substrates can be followed by an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction in the same pot to provide complex tricyclic structures in a synthetically efficient manner (Scheme 12.4). 

The first examples of transition metal-catalyzed [5 + 2]-cycloadditions between vinylcyclopropanes (VCPs) and 7r-systems were reported in 1995 by Wender and co-workers.10 This [5 + 2]-reaction was based conceptually on the Diels-Alder reaction, replacing the four-carbon, four-7r-electron diene with a five-carbon, four-electron VCP (Scheme 1). Although the [5 + 2]-reaction of VCPs and 7r-systems can be thought of as a homolog of the Diels-Alder [4 +21-reaction, the kinetic stability of VCPs (activation barrier for the thermal isomerization of VCP to cyclopentene has been reported as 51.7 kcal mol-1)11 makes the thermal [5 + 2]-reactions involving VCPs and 7r-systems very difficult to achieve. A report of a thermal [5 + 2]-cycloaddition between maleic anhydride and a VCP has been published,12 but this reaction has not been reproduced by others.13 14 Based on the metal-catalyzed isomerization of VCPs to cyclopentenes and dienes,15-20 Wender and co-workers hypothesized that a metal might be used to convert a VCP to a metallocyclohexene which in turn might be trapped by a 7r-system to produce a [5 + 2]-cycloadduct. Based on its previous effectiveness in catalyzed [4 + 2]-21 and [4 + 4]-cycloadditions (Section 10.13.2.4), nickel(0) was initially selected to explore the potential of VCPs as four-electron, five-carbon components in [5 + 2]-cycloadditions. 

Asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions. Unlike methyl crotonate, which is a weak dienophile, chiral (E)-crotonyl oxazolidinones when activated by a dialkylaluminum chloride (1 equiv.) are highly reactive and diastereoselective dienophiles. For this purpose, the unsaturated imides formed from oxazolidinones (Xp) derived from (S)-phenylalanol show consistently higher diastereoselectivity than those derived from (S)-valinol or (IS, 2R)-norephedrine. The effect of the phenyl group is attributed in part at least to an electronic interaction of the aromatic ring. The reactions of the unsaturated imide 1 shown in equation (I) are typical of reactions of unsaturated N-acyloxazolidinones with cyclic and acyclic dienes. All the Diels-Alder reactions show almost complete endo-selectivity and high diastereoselectivity. Oxazolidinones are useful chiral auxiliaries for intramolecular Diels-Alder... 

Diels-Alder catalysis.1 This radical cation can increase the endo-selectivity of Diels-Alder reactions when the dienophile is a styrene or electron-rich alkene. This endo-selectivity obtains even in intramolecular Diels-Alder reactions. Thus the triene 2, a mixture of (Z)- and (E)-isomers, cyclizes in the presence of 1 to 0° to the hydroindanes 3 and 4 in the ratio 97 3. Similar cyclization of (E)-2 results in 3 and 4 in the ratio 98 2 therefore, the catalyst can effect isomerization of (Z)-2 to (E)-2. Even higher stereoselectivity is observed when the styrene group of 2 is replaced by a vinyl sulfide group (SC6H5 in place of QHtOCT ). 

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