Diels-Alder reaction rate enhancement

Diels-Alder reaction. Rate enhancement of the Diels Alder reaction is noted in aqueous perfluorinated emulsions (from perfluorohexane and hthium perfluorooctane-sulfonate) ... 

Scheme 5.10 Enhancement of Diels-Alder reaction rates in water...

Grieco, P. A. Giamer, P. He, Z.-M. "Micellar" catalysis in the aqueous intermolecular Diels-Alder reaction Rate acceleration and enhanced selectivity, Tetrahedron Lett. 1983, 24,1897-1900. 

Although the early examples of the 4ir participation of heterodienes in [4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions describe their reactions widi electron-deficient aJkenes, e.g. the thermal dimerization of a,3 unsaturated carbonyl compounds, the introduction of one or more heteroatoms into the 1,3-butadiene framewoiic does convey electrophilic character to the heterodiene. Consequently, such systems may be expected to participate preferentially in LUMOdiene-controlled Diels-Alder reactions with electron-rich, strained, or simple alkene and alkyne dienophiles. The complementary substitution of the heterodiene with one or more electron-withdrawing substituents further lowers the heterodiene Elumo, accelerates the rate of heterodiene participation in the LUMOdioie-conn-olled Diels-Alder reaction, and enhances the observed regioselectivity of the [4 + 2] cycloaddition reaction. ... 

The extreme influence water can exert on the Diels-Alder reaction was rediscovered by Breslow in 1980, much by coincidence . Whale studying the effect of p-cyclodextrin on the rate of a Diels-Alder reaction in water, accidentally, the addition of the cyclodextrin was omitted, but still rate constants were observed that were one to two orders of magnitude larger than those obtained in organic solvents. The investigations that followed this remarkable observation showed that the acceleration of Diels-Alder reactions by water is a general phenomenon. Table 1.2 contains a selection from the multitude of Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous media that have been studied Note that the rate enhancements induced by water can amount up to a factor 12,800 compared to organic solvents (entry 1 in Table 1.2). 

Alternatively, authors have repeatedly invoked the internal pressure of water as an explanation of the rate enhancements of Diels-Alder reactions in this solvent ". They were probably inspired by the well known large effects of the external pressure " on rates of cycloadditions. However, the internal pressure of water is very low and offers no valid explanation for its effect on the Diels-Alder reaction. The internal pressure is defined as the energy required to bring about an infinitesimal change in the volume of the solvents at constant temperature pi = (r)E / Due to the open and... 

Three years after the Breslow report on the large effects of water on the rate of the Diels-Alder reaction, he also demonstrated tliat the endo-exo selectivity of this reaction benefits markedly from employing aqueous media . Based on the influence of salting-in and saltirg-out agents, Breslow pinpoints hydrophobic effects as the most important contributor to the enhanced endo-exo... 

A few years after the first articles of Breslow had appeared, Grieco elegantly demonstrated that the astonishing rate and selectivity enhancements of Diels-Alder reactions in water can be exploited sirccessfully in organic synthesis. He extensively studied the reactivity of dienes containing... 

Apart from the thoroughly studied aqueous Diels-Alder reaction, a limited number of other transformations have been reported to benefit considerably from the use of water. These include the aldol condensation , the benzoin condensation , the Baylis-Hillman reaction (tertiary-amine catalysed coupling of aldehydes with acrylic acid derivatives) and pericyclic reactions like the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition and the Qaisen rearrangement (see below). These reactions have one thing in common a negative volume of activation. This observation has tempted many authors to propose hydrophobic effects as primary cause of ftie observed rate enhancements. 

The rate constants for the catalysed Diels-Alder reaction of 2.4g with 2.5 (Table 2.3) demonstrate that the presence of the ionic group in the dienophile does not diminish the accelerating effect of water on the catalysed reaction. Comparison of these rate constants with those for the nonionic dienophiles even seems to indicate a modest extra aqueous rate enhancement of the reaction of 2.4g. It is important to note here that no detailed information has been obtained about the exact structure of the catalytically active species in the oiganic solvents. For example, ion pairing is likely to occur in the organic solvents. 

First of all, given the well recognised promoting effects of Lewis-acids and of aqueous solvents on Diels-Alder reactions, we wanted to know if these two effects could be combined. If this would be possible, dramatic improvements of rate and endo-exo selectivity were envisaged Studies on the Diels-Alder reaction of a dienophile, specifically designed for this purpose are described in Chapter 2. It is demonstrated that Lewis-acid catalysis in an aqueous medium is indeed feasible and, as anticipated, can result in impressive enhancements of both rate and endo-exo selectivity. However, the influences of the Lewis-acid catalyst and the aqueous medium are not fully additive. It seems as if water diminishes the catalytic potential of Lewis acids just as coordination of a Lewis acid diminishes the beneficial effects of water. Still, overall, the rate of the catalysed reaction... 

This thesis describes a study of catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water. No studies in this field had been reported at the start of the research, despite the well known beneficial effects of acpieous solvents as well as of Lewis-add catalysts on rate and endo-exo selectivity of Diels-Alder reactions in organic solvents. We envisaged that a combination of these two effects might well result in extremely large rate enhancements and improvements of the endo-exo selectivity. 

The rate of the Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction in water has been compared to that in other solvents. The results demonstrate that the expected beneficial effect of water on the Lewis-acid catalysed reaction is indeed present. However, the water-induced acceleration of the Lewis-add catalysed reaction is not as pronounced as the corresponding effect on the uncatalysed reaction. The two effects that underlie the beneficial influence of water on the uncatalysed Diels-Alder reaction, enforced hydrophobic interactions and enhanced hydrogen bonding of water to the carbonyl moiety of 1 in the activated complex, are likely to be diminished in the Lewis-acid catalysed process. Upon coordination of the Lewis-acid catalyst to the carbonyl group of the dienophile, the catalyst takes over from the hydrogen bonds an important part of the activating influence. Also the influence of enforced hydrophobic interactions is expected to be significantly reduced in the Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction. Obviously, the presence of the hydrophilic Lewis-acid diminished the nonpolar character of 1 in the initial state. 

In contrast to SDS, CTAB and C12E7, CufDSjz micelles catalyse the Diels-Alder reaction between 1 and 2 with enzyme-like efficiency, leading to rate enhancements up to 1.8-10 compared to the reaction in acetonitrile. This results primarily from the essentially complete complexation off to the copper ions at the micellar surface. Comparison of the partition coefficients of 2 over the water phase and the micellar pseudophase, as derived from kinetic analysis using the pseudophase model, reveals a higher affinity of 2 for Cu(DS)2 than for SDS and CTAB. The inhibitory effect resulting from spatial separation of la-g and 2 is likely to be at least less pronoimced for Cu(DS)2 than for the other surfactants. 

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. 

Diels-Alder reactions Neutral ionic liquids have been found to be excellent solvents for the Diels-Alder reaction. The first example of a Diels-Alder reaction in an ionic liquid was the reaction of methyl acrylate with cyclopentadiene in [EtNH3][N03] [40], in which significant rate enhancement was observed. Howarth et al. investigated the role of chiral imidazolium chloride and trifluoroacetate salts (dissolved in dichloromethane) in the Diels-Alder reactions between cyclopentadiene and either crotonaldehyde or methacroline [41]. It should be noted that this paper describes one of the first examples of a chiral cationic ionic liquid being used in synthesis (Scheme 5.1-17). The enantioselectivity was found to be < 5 % in this reaction for both the endo (10 %) and the exo (90 %) isomers. 

It has been established that alkoxy alkenylcarbene complexes participate as dienophiles in Diels-Alder reactions not only with higher rates but also with better regio- and stereoselectivities than the corresponding esters [95]. This is clearly illustrated in Scheme 51 for the reactions of an unsubstituted vinyl complex with isoprene. This complex reacts to completion at 25 °C in 3 h whereas the cycloaddition reaction of methyl acrylate with isoprene requires 7 months at the same temperature. The rate enhancement observed for this complex is comparable to that for the corresponding aluminium chloride-catalysed reactions of methyl acrylate and isoprene (Scheme 51). 

The cycloadditions of cyclopentadiene 1 and its spiro-derivatives 109 and 110 with quinones 52, 111 and 112 (Scheme 4.20), carried out in water at 30 °C in the presence of 0.5% mol. of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), gave the endo adduct in about 3 h with good yield [72b]. With respect to the thermal Diels-Alder reaction, the great reaction rate enhancement in micellar medium (Scheme 4.20) can be ascribed to the increased concentration of the reactants in the micellar pseudophase where they are also more ordered. 

Water has physical hemical properties that are very different from those of other solvents [1] and its role in enhancing the reactivity and selectivity of some organic reactions is still a debated question. Recent experimental studies [3e, 9] and computer simulations [10] seem to indicate, at least with respect to the rate enhancement of aqueous Diels Alder reactions, that the main effects are due to the enforced hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bond interactions. 

The rate enhancement of the Diels-Alder reaction in LP-NM has been attributed to the high dipole moment of nitromethane (3.40 D) in comparison with diethyl ether (1.33 D). 

The combination of Lewis-acid catalysis and sc-COi has also been investigated. One of these studies involved the AlCls-catalyzed Diels Alder reaction of isoprene and maleic anhydride in sc-COi at 67 °C and at 74.5-78.5 bar [89]. The reaction rate was enhanced with respect to the uncatalyzed reaction and an unconcerted two-step mechanism was suggested [89]. 

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