Dienophile requirements

An additional example can be formd in the cycloadditions of 5-(indol-2-yl)-2-pyrone 26 with various electron-rich and electron-poor dienophiles reported by Passarella and coworkers (Scheme 8) <00T5205>. While the normal electron demand cycloadditions with electron-deficient dienophiles proceeded under solely thermal conditions, reactions with electron-rich dienophiles required the presence of Si02 or lanthanide shift agents, such as Eu(FOD)3 and Pr(FOD)3. 

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. 

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. 

In the kinetic runs always a large excess of catalyst was used. Under these conditions IQ does not influence the apparent rate of the Diels-Alder reaction. Kinetic studies by UV-vis spectroscopy require a low concentration of the dienophile( 10" M). The use of only a catalytic amount of Lewis-acid will seriously hamper complexation of the dienophile because of the very low concentrations of both reaction partners under these conditions. The contributions of and to the observed apparent rate constant have been determined by measuring k pp and Ka separately. ... 

Numerous attempts to determine the equilibrium constants using titration microcalorimetry failed, due to solubility problems encountered at the higher concentrations of catalyst and dienophile that are required for this technique. 

The merits of (enantioselective) Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous solution have been highlighted in Chapters 2 and 3. Both chapters focused on the Diels-Alder reaction of substituted 3-phenyl-1-(2-pyr idyl)-2-prop ene-1-one dienophiles. In this chapter the scope of Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water is investigated. Some literature claims in this area are critically examined and requirements for ejfective Lewis-acid catalysis are formulated. Finally an attempt is made to extend the scope of Lewis-acid catalysis in water by making use of a strongly coordinating auxiliary. 

On the basis of the studies described in the preceding chapters, we anticipated that chelation is a requirement for efficient Lewis-acid catalysis. This notion was confirmed by an investigation of the coordination behaviour of dienophiles 4.11 and 4.12 (Scheme 4.4). In contrast to 4.10, these compounds failed to reveal a significant shift in the UV absorption band maxima in the presence of concentrations up to one molar of copper(ir)nitrate in water. Also the rate of the reaction of these dienophiles with cyclopentadiene was not significantly increased upon addition of copper(II)nitrate or y tterbium(III)triflate. 

Careful examination of literature reporting Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in combination with kinetic investigations indicate that bidentate (or multidentate) reactants are required in order to ensure efficient catalysis in water. Moreover, studies of a number of model dienophiles revealed that a potentially chelating character is not a guarantee for coordination and subsequent catalysis. Consequently extension of the scope in this direction does not seem feasible. 

In general, stereochemical predictions based on the Alder rule can be made by aligning the diene and dienophile in such a way that the unsaturated substituent on the dienophile overlaps the diene n system. The stereoselectivity predicted by the Alder rule is independent of the requirement for suprafacial-suprafacial cycloaddition, since both the endo and exo transition states meet this requirement. 

How do orbital symmetry requirements relate to [4tc - - 2tc] and other cycloaddition reactions Let us constmct a correlation diagram for the addition of butadiene and ethylene to give cyclohexene. For concerted addition to occur, the diene must adopt an s-cis conformation. Because the electrons that are involved are the n electrons in both the diene and dienophile, it is expected that the reaction must occur via a face-to-face rather than edge-to-edge orientation. When this orientation of the reacting complex and transition state is adopted, it can be seen that a plane of symmetry perpendicular to the planes of the... 

Allene itself is not a good dienophile, its reaction with cyclopentadiene requires temperatures of >200 °C and gives a 49% yield [90] Fluoraallene and 1,1-difluoroaIIene are much more reactive dienophiles, the latter reacting instantly and quantitatively at -20 °C [91, 92], and the former taking 4 days to react quantitatively with cyclopentadiene at 0 °C [25, 27, 93] (equation 78)... 

One of the features of Diels-Alder reactions with most alkyl and aryl nitriles that has made them rather unattractive as dienophiles is the requirement of very high reaction temperatures Again, only when electron-withdrawing substituents are directly bonded to the nitnle function do [4+2] cycloaddition reactions occur at reasonably low temperatures [ 48, 231, 232] A high yield [4+2] cycloaddition was observed on reaction of 4,4-bis(trifluoromethyl) 1 thia-3-aza-l,3-butadienes with trifluoroacetonitrile at 150 °C [225]... 

The hetero Diels-Alder [4+2] cycloaddition (HDA reaction) is a very efficient methodology to perform pyrimidine-to-pyridine transformations. Normal (NHDA) and Inverse (IHDA) cycloaddition reactions, intramolecular as well as intermolecular, are reported, although the IHDA cycloadditions are more frequently observed. The NHDA reactions require an electron-rich heterocycle, which reacts with an electron-poor dienophile, while in the IHDA cycloadditions a n-electron-deficient heterocycle reacts with electron-rich dienophiles, such as 0,0- and 0,S-ketene acetals, S,S-ketene thioacetals, N,N-ketene acetals, enamines, enol ethers, ynamines, etc. 

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). 

Diels-Alder reactions of conjugated cycloalkenones provide a very important method for rapidly constructing complex polycyclic molecules. Since cycloalkenones are very poorly reactive dienophiles, acceleration by special physical and catalytic methods is required in order to avoid high reaction temperatures and long reaction times which often lead to low product yields [8],... 

Transition-metal-based Lewis acids such as molybdenum and tungsten nitro-syl complexes have been found to be active catalysts [49]. The ruthenium-based catalyst 50 (Figure 3.6) is very effective for cycloadditions with aldehyde- and ketone-bearing dienophiles but is ineffective for a,)S-unsaturated esters [50]. It can be handled without special precautions since it is stable in air, does not require dry solvents and does not cause polymerization of the substrates. Nitromethane was the most convenient organic solvent the reaction can also be carried out in water. 

The cyclopentadienyl triflate complexes of zirconium and titanium 51 and 52 (Figure 3.7) are also active catalysts [51]. Their activity has been tested in a wide variety of dienes and dienophiles. It is noteworthy that even at low catalyst loadings, rate accelerations between 10 and > 10 times have been observed. No special precautions were taken to dry the solvents or the substrates, in contrast with the traditional Lewis acids which require either predried solvents or high catalyst loadings. 

Bronsted-acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions are not frequent because of the proton sensitivity of many dienes and cycloadducts, especially when long reaction times and high temperatures are required. Examples in aqueous medium involving imines activated by protonation as dienophiles and a proton-promoted Diels-Alder reaction of glyoxylic acid with cyclopentadiene are considered in Section 6.1. 

The study was extended to other dienes and dienophiles [16d, e]. Some examples and comparisons are reported in Scheme 6.2. With respect to the organic solvent, the aqueous reaction requires milder conditions and the reactio-nis faster and more selective. It is significant that the use of cosolvents such as methanol, dioxane and tetrahydrofuran results in a reduction of reaction rate. 

Iminium ions bearing an electron-withdrawing group bonded to the sp carbon of the iminium function are very reactive dienophiles. Thus, iminium ions 26 generated from phenylglyoxal (Scheme 6.15, R = Ph) or pyruvic aldehyde (R = Me) with methylamine hydrochloride, react with cyclopenta-diene in water at room temperature with good diastereoselectivity [25] (Scheme 6.15). If glyoxylic acid is used, the formation of iminium salt requires the free amine rather than the amine hydrochloride. 

To avoid problems with the separation of regiomers, dimethyl acetylene dicarboxylate (DMAD) was chosen as a dienophile. The intermolecular Diels-Alder reactions were performed in refluxing dichlorobenzene (bp 132 °C), while the intramolecular reaction of alkyne tethered pyrazinone required a solvent with a higher boiling point (bromobenzene, bp 156 °C). In the case of 3-methoxy or 3-phenyl pyrazinones a mixture of pyridinones and pyridines was obtained, while for the alkyne tethered analogue only the di-hydrofuropyridinone was isolated as the single reaction product. 

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