Diels inverse-electron-demand

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. 

Figure 1.1. Orbital correlation diagram illustrating the distinction between normal electron demand (leftside) and inverse electron demand (right side) Diels-Alder reactions.

Fluorine-substituted heterodienes are particularly prone to inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reactions with electron-rich dienophiles, as can be seen from the examples in equations 94-97 [113, 114, 115, 116, 117]... 

Bis(trifluoromethyl)-substituted heterodienes are electron-deficient species They therefore react preferentially with electron-rich multiple bond systems to give [4+2] cycloadducts (Diels-Alder reaction with inverse electron demand) [238]... 

The total syntheses of fredericamycin 71 and camptothecin 72 made use of similar strategies. N-Sulfonyl-l-aza-1,3-butadienes in conjunction with electron rich dienophiles participated in the inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reaction to afford pyridines after treatment with base. 

Reaction of 2-(arylmethyleneamino)pyridines 335 and styrenes in the presence of hydroquinone afforded 2,4-diaryl-3,4-dihydro-2/f-pyrido[l,2-n]pyrimidines 336 by means of an inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reaction (95MI10). Reaction of 2-(benzylideneamino)pyridines 337 and chloroacetyl chloride gave 2-aryl-4//-pyrido[l,2-n]pyrimidin-4-ones 338 (97JMC2266). 

The inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction is also accelerated by Lewis acids, but the successful application of chiral Lewis acids to this kind of Diels-Alder reaction is very rare. Marko and coworkers applied Kobayashi s catalyst system (Yb(OTf)3-BINOL-amine) to the Diels-Alder reaction of 3-methoxycarbonyl-2-py-rone with vinyl ether or sulfide [58] (Scheme 1.72, Table 1.29). A bulky ether or... 

Table 1.29 Asymmetric inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reactions catalyzed by 39 [58 ...

Scheeren et al. reported the first enantioselective metal-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with alkenes in 1994 [26]. Their approach involved C,N-diphenylnitrone la and ketene acetals 2, in the presence of the amino acid-derived oxazaborolidinones 3 as the catalyst (Scheme 6.8). This type of boron catalyst has been used successfully for asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions [27, 28]. In this reaction the nitrone is activated, according to the inverse electron-demand, for a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with the electron-rich alkene. The reaction is thus controlled by the LUMO inone-HOMOaikene interaction. They found that coordination of the nitrone to the boron Lewis acid strongly accelerated the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction with ketene acetals. The reactions of la with 2a,b, catalyzed by 20 mol% of oxazaborolidinones such as 3a,b were carried out at -78 °C. In some reactions fair enantioselectivities were induced by the catalysts, thus, 4a was obtained with an optical purity of 74% ee, however, in a low yield. The reaction involving 2b gave the C-3, C-4-cis isomer 4b as the only diastereomer of the product with 62% ee. 

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],... 

The two transition states in Figs 8.5 and 8.6 correspond in principle to a metal-catalyzed carho-Diels-Alder reaction under normal electron-demand reaction conditions and a hetero-Diels-Alder reaction with inverse electron-demand of an en-one with an alkene. The calculations by Houk et al. [6] indicated that with the basis set used there were no significant difference in the reaction course. 

Fig. 8.11 An FMO diagram of the normal and inverse electron-demand hetero-Diels-Al-...

Inverse electron-demand controlled hetero-Diels-Alder reactions... 

Inverse Electron-demand Hetero-Diels-Alder Reactions... 

The final class of reactions to be considered will be the [4 + 2]-cycloaddition reaction of nitroalkenes with alkenes which in principle can be considered as an inverse electron-demand hetero-Diels-Alder reaction. Domingo et al. have studied the influence of reactant polarity on the reaction course of this type of reactions using DFT calculation in order to understand the regio- and stereoselectivity for the reaction, and the role of Lewis acid catalysis [29]. The reaction of e.g. ni-troethene 15 with an electron-rich alkene 16 can take place in four different ways and the four different transition-state structures are depicted in Fig. 8.16. 

There are Diels-Alder reactions known where the electronic conditions outlined above are just reversed. Such reactions are called Diels-Alder reactions with inverse electron demand For example the electron-poor diene hexachlorocy-clopentadiene 21 reacts with the electron-rich styrene 22 ... 

However, when 3,5-diphenyl-4//-pyrazol-4-one, a reagent that undergoes Diels- Alder reactions with inverse-electron demand, is used, addition of the 2,4-diene part of oxepin to one of the two C-N double bonds of the pyrazolone is observed to give 4.232... 

Interestingly, in the inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder reactions of oxepin with various enophiles such as cyclopentadienones and tetrazines the oxepin form, rather than the benzene oxide, undergoes the cycloaddition.234 236 Usually, the central C-C double bond acts as dienophile. Oxepin reacts with 2,5-dimethyl-3,4-diphenylcyclopenta-2,4-dienone to give the cycloadduct 6 across the 4,5-C-C double bond of the heterocycle.234 The adduct resists thermal carbon monoxide elimination but undergoes cycloreversion to oxepin and the cyclopenta-dienone.234... 

The inverse electron demand Diels-Alder [4 + 2] cycloadditions of methyl 1,2,4-triazine-3-carb-oxylates 36 (cf. Section B.2.2.) with cyclopropene followed by loss of nitrogen from the unstable cycloadducts 37 provide useful access to 4//-azepine-2-carboxylates 38.83-85... 

The inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder cycloaddition of ethyl l//-azepine-l-carboxylate (1) with dimethyl l,2,4,5-tetrazine-3,6-dicarboxylatc (36) yields the C4 —C5 adduct 37.266... 

Oxidation of the 2//-4a,7-dihydro derivative 15, the inverse electron-demand [4+2] Diels-Alder cycloadduct of ethyl 1 /7-azepine-l -carboxylate and dimethyl l,2,4,5-tetrazine-3,6-dicar-boxylate, with tetrachloro-l,4-bcnzoquinone furnishes the pyridazino[4.5-r/]azepine 16.112... 

The Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopropenes with 1,2,4,5-tetrazines (see Vol.E9c, p 904), a reaction with inverse electron demand, gives isolable 3,4-diazanorcaradienes 1, which are converted into 4H-1,2-diazepines 2 on heating. The transformation involves a symmetry allowed [1,5] sigmatropic shift of one of the bonds of the three-membered ring, a so-called walk rearrangement , followed by valence isomerization.106,107... 

Triazine (38) is ideal for inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder cycloadditions, for example, with azulene to give a l,4-bis(CF3)phthalazine (89CB711). A rare example of the synthesis of a five-membered heterocycle originating from [4 + 1] cycloaddition followed by [4 + 2] cycloreversion was reported using (38). The intermediate tetraazanorbomadienimine (39) is highly strained and eliminates N2 [82AG(E)284]. 

V-Acyliminium ions act as dienophiles in [4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions with conjugated dienes13, while A-acylimimum ions that (can) adopt an x-cis conformation are able to act as heterodienes in an inverse electron demand Diels-Alder process with alkenes or alkynes3 (see Section D. 1.6.1.1.). 

Racemic pyrone sulfoxide 52 undergoes a diastereoselective inverse-electron-demand 2 + 4-cycloaddition with 1,1-dimethoxyethylene to afford adduct 53 in > 95% yield (equation 49)100 this is the first example of an asymmetric Diels-Alder cycloaddition using a sulfinyldiene as an electron-deficient enophile101. 

Intermolecular [4C+2S] cycloaddition reactions where the diene moiety is contained in the carbene complex are less frequent than the [4S+2C] cycloadditions summarised in the previous section. However, 2-butadienylcarbene complexes, generated by a [2+2]/cyclobutene ring opening sequence, undergo Diels-Alder reactions with typical dienophiles [34,35] (Scheme 59). Also, Wulff et al. have described the application of pyranylidene complexes, obtained by a [3+3] cycloaddition reaction (see Sect. 2.8.1), in the inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction with enol ethers and enamines [87a]. Later, this strategy was applied to the synthesis of steroid-like ring skeletons [87b] (Scheme 59). 

The simplest dienophile, ethene, is poorly reactive. Electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups, on the carbon atom double bond, activate the double bond in normal and inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reactions, respectively. 

Sauer and Heldmann [97] recently reported an interesting application of ethynyltributyltin as an electron-rich dienophile in an inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction with the electron-deficient triazine derivative 94. This method is interesting because the reaction is highly regioselective and the trialkylstannyl group is easily replaced by several groups under mild conditions, leading to substituted pyridines 95 (Scheme 2.41). 

Lewis-acid catalyzed inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reactions between conjugated carbonyl compounds and simple alkenes and enolethers also allow dihydropyranes to be prepared. SnCU-Catalyzed cycloaddition of... 

Inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction of (E)-2-oxo-l-phenylsulfo-nyl-3-alkenes 81 with enolethers, catalyzed by a chiral titanium-based catalyst, afforded substituted dihydro pyranes (Equation 3.27) in excellent yields and with moderate to high levels of enantioselection [81]. The enantioselectivity is dependent on the bulkiness of the Ri group of the dienophile, and the best result was obtained when Ri was an isopropyl group. Better reaction yields and enantioselectivity [82, 83] were attained in the synthesis of substituted chiral pyranes by cycloaddition of heterodienes 82 with cyclic and acyclic enolethers, catalyzed by C2-symmetric chiral Cu(II) complexes 83 (Scheme 3.16). 

An interesting combination of enzymatic with non-enzymatic transformation in a one-pot three-step multiple sequence was reported by Waldmann and coworkers [82]. Phenols 125 in the presence of oxygen and enzyme tyrosinase are hydroxylated to catechols 126 which are then oxidized in situ to ortho quinones 127. These intermediates subsequently undergo a Diels-Alder reaction with inverse electron demand by reaction with different dienophiles (Table 4.19) to give endo bicyclic 1,2-diketones 128 and 129 in good yields. 

The study was extended to the inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction between the (E)-l-carboalkoxybutadienes 21 with ethylvinylether 22 (Figure 5.1). No reaction was observed in any case either the starting materials were recovered or polymeric material was produced. 

Whereas electronically activated 2-pyrones can react thermally in both normal and inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder cycloaddition, 2-pyrone by itself requires thermal conditions that are so vigorous that they cause spontaneous extrusion of carbon dioxide from the bicyclic cycloadduct [61]. 

Lee L., Snyder J. K. Indole As a Dienophile in Inverse Electron Demand Diels-Alder and Related Reactions Adv. Cycloaddit. 1999 6 119-171... 

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