Diels-Alder reactions acceleration

Roskamp reported29 a similar intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction accelerated by silica gel saturated with water. The reaction led to the ready construction of the 11-oxabicyclo [6,2,1] ring systems (Eq. 12.4). The intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction has also been investigated by Keay.30 The Diels-Alder reaction of 2,5-dimethylpyrrole derivatives with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate in water generated the corresponding cyclization products.31... 

Figure 3.6 (a) An example of a Diels-Alder reaction accelerated by a hydrophobic... 

Diels-Alder reactions can be divided into normal electron demand and inverse electron demand additions. This distinction is based on the way the rate of the reaction responds to the introduction of electron withdrawing and electron donating substituents. Normal electron demand Diels-Alder reactions are promoted by electron donating substituents on the diene and electron withdrawii substituents on the dienophile. In contrast, inverse electron demand reactions are accelerated by electron withdrawing substituents on the diene and electron donating ones on the dienophile. There also exists an intermediate class, the neutral Diels-Alder reaction, that is accelerated by both electron withdrawing and donating substituents. 

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). 

Breslow immediately grasped the significance of his observation. He interpreted this discovery in terms of a hydrophobic effect Since in the Diels-Alder reaction. .. the transition state. .. brings together two nonpolar groups, one might expect that in water this reaction could be accelerated by hydrophobic interactions ". ... 

Breslow supported this suggestion by demonstrating that the cycloaddition can be further accelerated by adding anti cliaotropic salts such as lithium chloride, whereas chaotropic salts such as guanidium chloride led to a retardation " "" ". On the basis of these experiments Breslow excluded all other possible explanations for the special effect of water on the Diels-Alder reaction " . 

Tire importance of hydrophobic interactions in the aqueous acceleration is further demonstrated by a qualitative study described by Jenner on the effect of pressure on Diels-Alder reactions in water and a number of organic solvents. Invariably, the reactions in water were less accelerated by pressure than those in organic solvents, which is in line with the notion that pressure diminishes hydrophobic interactions. 

In summary, a wealtli of experimental data as well as a number of sophisticated computer simulations univocally indicate that two important effects underlie the acceleration of Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous media hydrogen bonding and enforced hydrophobic interactionsIn terms of transition state theory hydrophobic hydration raises the initial state more tlian tlie transition state and hydrogen bonding interactions stabilise ftie transition state more than the initial state. The highly polarisable activated complex plays a key role in both of these effects. 

Breslow studied the dimerisation of cyclopentadiene and the reaction between substituted maleimides and 9-(hydroxymethyl)anthracene in alcohol-water mixtures. He successfully correlated the rate constant with the solubility of the starting materials for each Diels-Alder reaction. From these relations he estimated the change in solvent accessible surface between initial state and activated complex " . Again, Breslow completely neglects hydrogen bonding interactions, but since he only studied alcohol-water mixtures, the enforced hydrophobic interactions will dominate the behaviour. Recently, also Diels-Alder reactions in dilute salt solutions in aqueous ethanol have been studied and minor rate increases have been observed Lubineau has demonstrated that addition of sugars can induce an extra acceleration of the aqueous Diels-Alder reaction . Also the effect of surfactants on Diels-Alder reactions has been studied. This topic will be extensively reviewed in Chapter 4. 

The Diels-Alder reaction is often quoted as an example of a reaction that is little influenced by the solvent. However, this is not fully justified, since particularly water can have a pronounced effect on the rate of this reaction. This was first noticed by E elte et al." in 1973 and rediscovered in 1980 by Breslow In the years that followed this intriguing discovery, it turned out that acceleration of Diels-Alder reactions by water is a general phenomenon that can ultimately result in up to 12,800 fold accelerations". Synthetic applications followed rapidly". ... 

Mechanistic studies have tried to unravel the origin of the special effect of water. Some authors erroneously have held aggregation phenomena responsible for the observed acceleration, whereas others have hinted at effects due to the internal pressure. However, detailed studies have identified two other effects that govern the rate of Diels-Alder reactions in water. 

Appreciating the beneficial influences of water and Lewis acids on the Diels-Alder reaction and understanding their origin, one may ask what would be the result of a combination of these two effects. If they would be additive, huge accelerations can be envisaged. But may one really expect this How does water influence the Lewis-acid catalysed reaction, and what is the influence of the Lewis acid on the enforced hydrophobic interaction and the hydrogen bonding effect These are the questions that are addressed in this chapter. 

It is obvious that the reaction is accelerated markedly by water. However, for the first time, the Diels-Alder reaction is not fastest in water, but in 2,2,2-trifiuoroethanol (TFE). This might well be a result of the high Bronsted acidity of this solvent. Indirect evidence comes from the pH-dependence of the rate of reaction in water (Figure 2.1). Protonation of the pyridyl nitrogen obviously accelerates the reaction. 

Comparison of the water-induced acceleration of the reaction of 2.4a with the corresponding effect on 2.4g is interesting, since 2.4g contains an ionic group remote from the reaction centre. The question arises whether this group has an influence on the acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction by water. Comparison of the data in Table 2.1 demonstrates that this is not the case. The acceleration upon going from ethanol to water amounts a factor 105 ( 10) for 2.4a versus 110 ( 11) for 2.4g. Apparently, the introduction of a hydrophilic group remote from the reaction centre has no effect on the aqueous acceleration of the Diels-Alder reaction. 

In organic solvents Lewis-acid catalysis also leads to large accelerations of the Diels-Alder reaction. Table 2.2 shows the rate constants for the Cu -catalysed Diels-Alder reaction between 2.4a and 2.5 in different solvents. 

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. 

Studies of the Diels-Alder reaction of the ionic dienophile 2.4g have demonstrated that the acpieous acceleration of the uncatalysed reaction as well as the catalysed reaction is not significantly affected by the presence of the ionic group at a site remote from the reaction centre. 

In Chapter 2 the Diels-Alder reaction between substituted 3-phenyl-l-(2-pyridyl)-2-propene-l-ones (3.8a-g) and cyclopentadiene (3.9) was described. It was demonstrated that Lewis-acid catalysis of this reaction can lead to impressive accelerations, particularly in aqueous media. In this chapter the effects of ligands attached to the catalyst are described. Ligand effects on the kinetics of the Diels-Alder reaction can be separated into influences on the equilibrium constant for binding of the dienoplule to the catalyst (K ) as well as influences on the rate constant for reaction of the complex with cyclopentadiene (kc-ad (Scheme 3.5). Also the influence of ligands on the endo-exo selectivity are examined. Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, studies aimed at enantioselective catalysis are presented, resulting in the first example of enantioselective Lewis-acid catalysis of an organic transformation in water. 

Likewise, the influence of the ligand catalyst ratio has been investigated. Increase of this ratio up to 1.75 1 resulted in a slight improvement of the enantioselectivity of the copper(L-tryptophan)-catalysed Diels-Alder reaction. Interestingly, reducing the ligand catalyst ratio from 1 1 to 0.5 1 resulted in a drop of the enantiomeric excess from 25 to 18 % instead of the expected 12.5 %. Hence, as anticipated, ligand accelerated catalysis is operative. 

Analogously, the effect of micelles on the rate of the unimolecular retro Diels-Alder reaction has been studied. Also here only a modest retardation" or acceleration" is observed. Likewise, the presence of micelles has been reported to have a modest influence on an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction . Studies on the endo-exo selectivity of a number of different Diels-Alder reactions in micellar media lead to comparable conclusions. Endo-exo selectivities tend to be somewhat smaller in micellar solutions than in pure water, but still are appreciably larger than those in organic media In contrast, in microemulsions the endo-exo selectivity is reduced significantly" ... 

Interestingly, at very low concentrations of micellised Qi(DS)2, the rate of the reaction of 5.1a with 5.2 was observed to be zero-order in 5.1 a and only depending on the concentration of Cu(DS)2 and 5.2. This is akin to the turn-over and saturation kinetics exhibited by enzymes. The acceleration relative to the reaction in organic media in the absence of catalyst, also approaches enzyme-like magnitudes compared to the process in acetonitrile (Chapter 2), Cu(DS)2 micelles accelerate the Diels-Alder reaction between 5.1a and 5.2 by a factor of 1.8710 . This extremely high catalytic efficiency shows how a combination of a beneficial aqueous solvent effect, Lewis-acid catalysis and micellar catalysis can lead to tremendous accelerations. 

Throughout this thesis reference has been made to hydrophobic effects. Enforced hydrophobic interactions are an important contributor to the acceleration of uncatalysed and also of the Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reactions which are described in this thesis. Moreover, they are likely to be involved in the beneficial effect of water on the enantioselectivity of the Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction, as described in Chapter 3. Because arguments related to hydrophobic effects are spread over nearly all chapters, and ideas have developed simultaneously, we summarise our insights at the end of this thesis. 

We conclude that the beneficial effects of water are not necessarily limited to reactions that are characterised by a negative volume of activation. We infer that, apart from the retro Diels-Alder reaction also other reactions, in which no significant reduction or perhaps even an increase of solvent accessible surface area takes place, can be accelerated by water. A reduction of the nonpolar nature during the activation process is a prerequisite in these cases. 

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. 

Chapter 5 describes a study of the effect of micelles on the Diels-Alder reaction of 1 with 2. Literature studies on micellar catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions invariably failed to reveal significant accelerations. These results are unexpected, since most Diels-Alder reactants have a high affinity for... 

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