Dienes radical addition

Maleimides have three principal reaction pathways. These are radical addition to vinyl compounds the Michael addition with compounds having active hydrogens and the Diels-Alder reaction with dienes (Fig. 3). Any of the three can be tools for forming thermosetting adhesives. 

Thiol-ene polymerization was first reported in 1938.220 In this process, a polymer chain is built up by a sequence of thiyl radical addition and chain transfer steps (Scheme 7.17). The thiol-ene process is unique amongst radical polymerizations in that, while it is a radical chain process, the rate of molecular weight increase is more typical of a step-growth polymerization. Polymers ideally consist of alternating residues derived from the diene and the dithiol. However, when dienes with high kp and relatively low A-, monomers (e.g. acrylates) are used, short sequences of units derived from the diene are sometimes formed. 

The groups R2N and Cl can be added directly to alkenes, allenes, conjugated dienes, and alkynes, by treatment with dialkyl-V-chloroamines and acids. " These are free-radical additions, with initial attack by the R2NH- radical ion. " N-Halo amides (RCONHX) add RCONH and X to double bonds under the influence of UV light or chromous chloride. " Amines add to allenes in the presence of a palladium catalyst. ... 

For a review of free-radical addition to conjugated dienes, see Afanas ev, I.B. Samokh-valov, G.I. Russ. Chem. Rev., 1969, 38, 318. 

The mechanisms of explosions in solidified gas mixtures at low temperatures containing unsaturated hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen is discussed. Fast radical addition of nitrogen dioxide to double bonds is involved, and with dienes it is a fast reaction of very low energy of activation. Possibilities of preventing explosions are discussed. 

A new approach to piperidines via cyclization of dienes, such as 158, employs a phosphorus hydride mediated radical addition/cyclization reaction <06JOC3656>. This reaction proceeds with complete regioselectivity to create the 6-exo-trig product 159, although as an inseparable mixture of two of the four possible diastereomers. 

Despite the enormous importance of dienes as monomers in the polymer field, the use of radical addition reactions to dienes for synthetic purposes has been rather limited. This is in contrast to the significant advances radical based synthetic methodology has witnessed in recent years. The major problems with the synthetic use of radical addition reactions to polyenes are a consequence of the nature of radical processes in general. Most synthetically useful radical reactions are chain reactions. In its most simple form, the radical chain consists of only two chain-carrying steps as shown in Scheme 1 for the addition of reagent R—X to a substituted polyene. In the first of these steps, addition of radical R. (1) to the polyene results in the formation of adduct polyenyl radical 2, in which the unpaired spin density is delocalized over several centers. In the second step, reaction of 2 with reagent R—X leads to the regeneration of radical 1 and the formation of addition products 3a and 3b. Radical 2 can also react with a second molecule of diene which leads to the formation of polyene telomers. 

The dependence of relative rates in radical addition reactions on the nucleophilicity of the attacking radical has also been demonstrated by Minisci and coworkers (Table 7)17. The evaluation of relative rate constants was in this case based on the product analysis in reactions, in which substituted alkyl radicals were first generated by oxidative decomposition of diacyl peroxides, then added to a mixture of two alkenes, one of them the diene. The final products were obtained by oxidation of the intermediate allyl radicals to cations which were trapped with methanol. The data for the acrylonitrile-butadiene... 

Based on the data collected in this section, one must conclude that the addition of radicals to dienes is certainly rapid enough to compete against the typical chain-breaking processes and that especially the addition of electrophilic radicals to polyenes appears to bear significant potential. Terminally substituted polyenes are likely to be unsuitable for radical addition reactions due to their lower addition rates and to undesirable side reactions. 

Most of the dienes investigated experimentally show high regioselectivity in radical addition reactions. The preferred position of attack is shown in Scheme 2. 

Further variations of the general scenario described in Scheme 4 consist in trapping adduct radical 48 before oxidation occurs7. This can be achieved if intramolecular radical additions are possible, as is the case in radical 62. Oxidation of 62 to the corresponding allyl cation is slower than 6-ew-cyclization to the chlorobenzene ring to form radical 63, which subsequently is oxidized to yield tetrahydronaphthalene 64 as the main product (equation 27). This sequence does not work well for other dienes such as 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene, for which oxidation of the intermediate allyl radical is too rapid to allow radical cyclization onto the aromatic TT-system. 

Iron(II) salts, usually in conjunction with catalytic amounts of copper(II) compounds, have also been used to mediate radical additions to dienes91,92. Radicals are initially generated in these cases by reductive cleavage of peroxyesters of hydroperoxides to yield, after rearrangement, alkyl radicals. Addition to dienes is then followed by oxidation of the allyl radical and trapping by solvent. Hydroperoxide 67, for example, is reduced by ferrous sulfate to acyclic radical 68, which adds to butadiene to form adduct radical 69. Oxidation of 69 by copper(H) and reaction of the resulting allyl cation 70 with methanol yield product 71 in 61% yield (equation 29). 

The base-catalysed ring contraction of 1,3-dioxepanes offers an attractive route to 4-formyl tetrahydropyrans (Scheme 14) , whilst fused exo-cyclic dienes 27 result from the radical cyclisation of alkenyl iodides 26 (Scheme 15) <00OL2011>. Intramolecular radical addition to vinylogous sulfonates is highly stereoselective, leading to the ci s-2,6-disubstituted tetrahydropyran (Scheme 16) . 

The cumulated Jt-system of allenes has been described as consisting of two comparatively unperturbed double bonds with regard to its reactivity towards nucleophiles or electrophiles [10]. Early reports on radical additions to 1,2-dienes, however, already pointed to peculiarities of the allene system concerning its reactivity towards intermediates with unpaired electrons [11-14], It was soon realized that no such correlation between polar and steric substituent effects existed, similar to what had been uncovered for the reaction of radicals with olefins, in order to predict selectivities in radical additions to cumulated dienes [4, 15],... 

In view of this background, it is the aim of this chapter to organize the fundamentals of radical additions to 1,2-dienes and to present its state of the art in organic synthesis. All aspects of enyne allene cyclizations [19, 20] have been omitted since this topic is addressed in Chapter 20. In order to simplify the mechanistic discussion, the positions and Jt-bonds of allenes have been consistently numbered using the nomenclature outlined in Figure 11.1. 

Free radical addition of HBr to buta-1,2-diene (lb) affords dibromides exo-6b, (E)-6b and (Z)-6b, which consistently originate from Br addition to the central allene carbon atom [37]. The fact that the internal olefins (E)-6b and (Z)-6b dominate among the reaction products points to a thermodynamic control of the termination step (see below). The geometry of the major product (Z)-(6b) has been correlated with that of the preferred structure of intermediate 7b. The latter, in turn, has been deduced from an investigation of the configurational stability of the (Z)-methylallyl radical (Z)-8, which isomerizes with a rate constant of kiso=102s 1 (-130 °C) to the less strained E-stereoisomer (fc)-8 (Scheme 11.4) [38]. 

According to results from laser flash photolysis, the p-(methoxyphenyl) sulfanyl radical adds exclusively to the central atom in of 2,4-dimethylpenta-2,3-diene (If) with a rate constant of 1.1 x 10s M-1 s-1 (23 1 °C) (Scheme 11.6) [45], A correlation between the measured rate constants for addition of para-substituted arylsulfanyl radicals to allene If was feasible using Brown and Okomoto s o+ constant [46], The p+ value of 1.83, which was obtained from this analysis, was interpreted in terms of a polar transition state for C-S bond formation with the sulfanyl radical being the electrophilic part [45]. This observation is in agreement with an increase in relative rate constant for phenylsulfanyl radical addition to 1-substituted allene in the series of methoxyallene lg, via dimethylallene Id, to phenylsulfanylallene lh, to ester-substituted 1,2-diene li (Table 11.2). 

Scheme 11.6 Selectivity and relative rate constants for arylsulfanyl radical addition to 2,4-penta-2,3-diene (If) [45],...

Aryl- and alkylsulfonyl radicals have been generated from the corresponding iodides and added to, e.g., propadiene (la), enantiomerically enriched (P)-(+)-propa-2,3-diene [(P)-(lc)] and (P)-(-)-cyclonona-l,2-diene [(P)-(lk)] [47]. Diaddition of sulfo-nyl radicals may compete considerably with the monoaddition [48,49]. Also, products of diiodination have been purified from likewise obtained reaction mixtures, which points to a more complex reactivity pattern of these substrates towards cumulated Jt-bonds. An analysis of regioselectivities of arylsulfonyl radical addition to allenes is in agreement with the familiar trend that a-addition occurs in propadiene (la), whereas alkyl-substitution at the cumulated Jt-bond is associated with a marked increase in formation of /3-addition products (Scheme 11.7). 

The a-selectivity for carbon radical addition to propadiene (la) is retained on substituting chlorine or fluorine for hydrogen in radicals of the type CX3 (X=F, Cl), no matter whether the reaction is conducted in the liquid or in the gas phase (Table 11.4) [14, 49-51]. /3-Selective addition to allenes becomes progressively more important for the CC13 radical with an increase in number of methyl substituents [14, 47]. For example, treatment of optically active (P)-(+)-2,4-dimethylpenta-2,3-diene [(P)-(lc)] with BrCCl3 affords a 59 41 mixture of a- and /3-monoadducts [47]. The a-addition product consists of a 20 80 mixture of E- and Z-stereoisomers, whereas the product of /3-addition exclusively exhibits the Z-configuration. The fraction of 2,4-dimethylpenta-2,3-diene (P)-(lc) that was recovered from this reaction mixture had completely retained its optical activity. These results indicate that the a-and the /3-CCl3 addition proceed under kinetic control. If one of the addition steps were reversible, at least partial racemization would inevitably have taken place. 

The preferred site for radical addition to a cumulated Jt-system of a 1,2-diene depends on (i) the degree of substitution of the allene, (ii) the nature of the attacking radical and (iii) reaction parameters such as temperature and initial reactant concentrations. 

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