Dienophile

Diels-Alder reaction is the 1,4-addition of an alkene or alkyne (dienophile) across a conjugated diene. An example is the addition of pro-penal to buta-l,3-diene to give A -tetrahy-... 

FMO theory requires that a HOMO of one reactant has to be correlated with the LUMO of the other reactant. The decision between the two alternatives - i.e., from which reactant the HOMO should be taken - is made on the basis of which is the smaller energy difference in our case the HOMO of the electron rich diene, 3.1, has to be correlated with the LUMO of the electron-poor dienophile, 3.2. The smaller this HOMO-LUMO gap, the higher the reactivity will be. With the HOMO and LUMO fixed, the orbital coefficients of these two orbitals can explain the regios-electivity of the reaction, which strongly favors the formation of 3.3 over 3.4. 

Compounds containing a double or triple bond, usually activated by additional unsaturation (carbonyl, cyano, nitro, phenyl, etc.) In the ap position, add to the I 4-positions of a conjugated (buta-1 3-diene) system with the formation of a ax-membered ring. The ethylenic or acetylenic compound is known as the dieTwphile and the second reactant as the diene the product is the adduct. The addition is generally termed the Diels-Alder reaction or the diene synthesis. The product in the case of an ethylenic dienophile is a cyctohexene and in that of an acetylenic dienophile is a cyctohexa-1 4-diene. The active unsaturated portion of the dienophile, or that of the diene, or those in both, may be involved in rings the adduct is then polycyclic. 

The mechanism of the diene synthesis appears to involve an electron transfer from the diene to the dienophile, .e., it is initiated by an ionic reaction. The following scheme may represent the addition of 2 3-dimethylbutadiene to maleic anhydride ... 

D-A rxns with electron rich dienes and electron defficient dienophiles work the best. 

Some electron deficient dienophiles are quinones, maleic ahydride, nitroalkenes, a,p-unsaturated ketones, esters and nitriles. 

D-A rxns with electron deficient dienes and electron rich dienophiles also work well. These are refered to as reverse demand D-A rxns. 

D-A rxns are sensitive to steric effects of the dienephiles, particularly at the I- and 2-postions. Steric bulk at the I-position may prevent approach of the dienophile while steric bulk at the 2-position may prevent the diene from adopting the s-cis conformation. 

In the Diels-Alder reaction (in older literature referred to as the diene synthesis ) a six-membered ring is fonned through fusion of a four-tt component, usually a diene and a two-7C component, which is commonly referred to as the dienophile (Scheme 1.1). 

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. 

Despite this overwhelming body of evidence, two-step mechanisms have been suggested for the Diels-Alder reaction, probably inspired by special cases, where highly substituted dienes and/or dienophiles have been found to react through zwitterionic or biradicalintermediates (Scheme 1.2). 

The FMO coefficients also allow cpralitative prediction of the kinetically controlled regioselectivity, which needs to be considered for asymmetric dienes in combination with asymmetric dienophiles (A and B in Scheme 1.1). There is a preference for formation of a o-bond between the termini with the most extreme orbital coefficients ... 

Another form of selectivity can arise when substitirted dienes and dienophiles are employed in the Diels-Alder reaction. Two different cycloadducts denoted as endo and exo can then be formed (Figure 1.2). 

Figure 1.2. Endo and exo pathway for the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene with methyl vinyl ketone. As was first noticed by Berson, the polarity of the endo activated complex exceeds that of the exo counterpart due to alignment of the dipole moments of the diene and the dienophile K The symmetry-allowed secondary orbital interaction that is only possible in the endo activated complex is usually invoked as an explanation for the preference for endo adduct exhibited by most Diels-Alder reactions.

Theoretical work by the groups directed by Sustmann and, very recently, Mattay attributes the preference for the formation of endo cycloadduct in solution to the polarity of the solvent Their calculations indicate that in the gas phase the exo transition state has a lower energy than the endo counterpart and it is only upon introduction of the solvent that this situation reverses, due to the difference in polarity of both transition states (Figure 1.2). Mattay" stresses the importance of the dienophile transoid-dsoid conformational equilibrium in determining the endo-exo selectivity. The transoid conformation is favoured in solution and is shown to lead to endo product, whereas the cisoid conformation, that is favoured in the gas phase, produces the exo adduct This view is in conflict with ab initio calculations by Houk, indicating an enhanced secondary orbital interaction in the cisoid endo transition state . 

In summary, solvents can influence Diels-Alder reactions through a multitude of different interactions, of which the contributions to fire overall rate uniquely depend on the particular solvent-diene-dienophile combination. Scientists usually feel uncomfortable about such a situation and try to extract generalities. When limited to the most extensively studied type A Diels-Alder reactions this approach seems feasible. These Diels-Alder reactions are dominated by hydrogen bonding interactions in combination with solvophobic interactions. This observation predicts a very special role of water as a solvent for type A Diels-Alder reactions, which is described in Section 1.4. 

In 1961 Berson et al. were the first to study systematically the effect of the solvent on the endo-exo selectivity of the Diels-Alder reaction . They interpreted the solvent dependence of the endo-exo ratio by consideririg the different polarities of the individual activated complexes involved. The endo activated complex is of higher polarity than the exo activated complex, because in the former the dipole moments of diene and dienophile are aligned, whereas in the latter they are pointing in... 

The regioselectivity benefits from the increased polarisation of the alkene moiety, reflected in the increased difference in the orbital coefficients on carbon 1 and 2. The increase in endo-exo selectivity is a result of an increased secondary orbital interaction that can be attributed to the increased orbital coefficient on the carbonyl carbon ". Also increased dipolar interactions, as a result of an increased polarisation, will contribute. Interestingly, Yamamoto has demonstrated that by usirg a very bulky catalyst the endo-pathway can be blocked and an excess of exo product can be obtained The increased di as tereo facial selectivity has been attributed to a more compact transition state for the catalysed reaction as a result of more efficient primary and secondary orbital interactions as well as conformational changes in the complexed dienophile" . Calculations show that, with the polarisation of the dienophile, the extent of asynchronicity in the activated complex increases . Some authors even report a zwitteriorric character of the activated complex of the Lewis-acid catalysed reaction " . Currently, Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions is everyday practice in synthetic organic chemistry. 

In a Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction, the first step is coordination of the catalyst to a Lewis-basic site of the reactant. In a typical catalysed Diels-Alder reaction, the carbonyl oxygen of the dienophile coordinates to the Lewis acid. The most common solvents for these processes are inert apolar liquids such as dichloromethane or benzene. Protic solvents, and water in particular, are avoided because of their strong interactions wifti the catalyst and the reacting system. Interestingly, for other catalysed reactions such as hydroformylations the same solvents do not give problems. This paradox is a result of the difference in hardness of the reactants and the catalyst involved... 

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... 

Furthermore, the number of diene - dienoplrile combinations that can be expected to undergo a Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction is limited. Studies by Wijnen leave little doubt that the rate of typical Diels-Alder reactions, where the dienophile is activated by one or more carbonyl functionalities, does not respond to the presence of Lewis acids in aqueous solution , at least not beyond the extent that is expected for non-specific interactions (salt effects). No coordination of the Lewis acid to the dienophile was observed in these cases, which is perhaps not surprising. Water is... 

Fortunately, azachalcone derivatives (2.4a-g, Scheme 2.4) turned out to be extremely suitable dienophiles for Lewis-add catalysed Diels-Alder reactions with cyclopentadiene (2.5). This reaction is outlined in Scheme 2.4 and a large part of this thesis will be devoted to the mechanistic details of this process. The presence of a chromophore in 2.4 allows kinetic studies as well as complexation studies by means of UV-vis spectroscopy. Furthermore, the reactivity of 2.4 is such that also the... 

The higjily water-soluble dienophiles 2.4f and2.4g have been synthesised as outlined in Scheme 2.5. Both compounds were prepared from p-(bromomethyl)benzaldehyde (2.8) which was synthesised by reducing p-(bromomethyl)benzonitrile (2.7) with diisobutyl aluminium hydride following a literature procedure2.4f was obtained in two steps by conversion of 2.8 to the corresponding sodium sulfonate (2.9), followed by an aldol reaction with 2-acetylpyridine. In the preparation of 2.4g the sequence of steps had to be reversed Here, the aldol condensation of 2.8 with 2-acetylpyridine was followed by nucleophilic substitution of the bromide of 2.10 by trimethylamine. Attempts to prepare 2.4f from 2.10 by treatment with sodium sulfite failed, due to decomposition of 2.10 under the conditions required for the substitution by sulfite anion. 

Scheme 2.5. Synthesis of the ionic dienophiles 2.4f and 2.4g. features of the nncatalysed reaction will be discussed The kinetics of the Diels-Alder reaction of 2,4...

The rate of the uncatalysed reaction in all four solvents is rather slow. (The half-life at [2.5] = 1.00 mM is at least 28 hours). However, upon complexation of Cu ion to 2.4a-g the rate of the Diels-Alder reaction between these compounds and 2.5 increases dramatically. Figure 2.2 shows the apparent rate of the Diels-Alder reaction of 2.4a with 2.5 in water as a lunction of the concentration of copper(II)nitrate. At higher catalyst concentrations the rate of the reaction clearly levels off, most likely due to complete binding of the dienophile to the catalyst. Note that in the kinetic experiments... 

Herein is the rate constant for a dienophile with substituent x ko is the corresponding rate constant for unsubstituted 2,4c Ox is the substituent constant for substituent x and p is the reaction constant, defined as the slope of the plot of log (k / ko) versus Ox. The parameter p is a measure of the sensitivity of the reactions towards introduction of substituents. Figure 2.3 and Table 2.4 show the results of correlating the kinetic data for the reaction of 2.4a-e with 2.5 with a. ... 

The fact that good correlations are observed with d" rather than with a, is indicative of a strong infiuence of the substituent through a direct resonance interaction with a positive charge in the reacting system. The p-values are positive, which is expected for substituted dienophiles in a normal electron demand Diels-Alder reaction. Furthermore, the p-values do not exceed unity and are not significantly different from literature values reported for the uncatalysed reaction. It is tempting to... 

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