Disrotatory

Electi ocyclic reactions are examples of cases where ic-electiDn bonds transform to sigma ones [32,49,55]. A prototype is the cyclization of butadiene to cyclobutene (Fig. 8, lower panel). In this four electron system, phase inversion occurs if no new nodes are fomred along the reaction coordinate. Therefore, when the ring closure is disrotatory, the system is Hiickel type, and the reaction a phase-inverting one. If, however, the motion is conrotatory, a new node is formed along the reaction coordinate just as in the HCl + H system. The reaction is now Mdbius type, and phase preserving. This result, which is in line with the Woodward-Hoffmann rules and with Zimmerman s Mdbius-Huckel model [20], was obtained without consideration of nuclear symmetry. This conclusion was previously reached by Goddard [22,39]. 

SUBSTITUTED BUTADIENES. The consequences of p-type orbitals rotations, become apparent when substituents are added. Many structural isomers of butadiene can be foiined (Structures VIII-XI), and the electrocylic ring-closure reaction to form cyclobutene can be phase inverting or preserving if the motion is conrotatory or disrotatory, respectively. The four cyclobutene structures XII-XV of cyclobutene may be formed by cyclization. Table I shows the different possibilities for the cyclization of the four isomers VIII-XI. These structmes are shown in Figure 35. 

Conservation of orbital symmetry is a general principle that requires orbitals of the same phase (sign) to match up in a chemical reaction. For example, if terminal orbitals are to combine with one another in a cyclixation reaction as in pattern. A, they must rotate in the same dii ection (conrotatory ovei lap). but if they combine according to pattern H. they must rotate in opposite directions (disrotatory). In each case, rotation takes place so that overlap is between lobes of the it orbitals that are of the same sign. 

For this curriputtir prujoct, obtain the. orbitals of butadiene and prediet whether the eyelization of butadiene to eyelobutene is eonrotatory or disrotatory. 

Conrotatory and disrotatory eoncerted reaetions ean often be distinguished by chemical means. For example, using the results of the previous calculation, predict whether the cyclizations of hexa-2,4-diene will lead to cii or traa.i dimethyl cyclo-butene... 

The faet that the lowest two orbitals of the reaetants, whieh are those oeeupied by the four 71 eleetrons of the reaetant, do not eorrelate to the lowest two orbitals of the produets, whieh are the orbitals oeeupied by the two a and two n eleetrons of the produets, will be shown later in Chapter 12 to be the origin of the aetivation barrier for the thermal disrotatory rearrangement (in whieh the four aetive eleetrons oeeupy these lowest two orbitals) of 1,3-butadiene to produee eyelobutene. 

As an example of the applieation of CCD s and SCD s, eonsider the disrotatory elosing of 1,3-butadiene to produee eyelobutene. The OCD given earlier for this proposed reaetion path is reprodueed below. 

Recall that the symmetry labels e and o refer to the symmetries of the orbitals under reflection through the one Cy plane that is preserved throughout the proposed disrotatory closing. Low-energy configurations (assuming one is interested in the thermal or low-lying photochemically excited-state reactivity of this system) for the reactant molecule and their overall space and spin symmetry are as follows ... 

Symmetry forbidden reaction (Section 10 14) Concerted re action in which the orbitals involved do not overlap in phase at all stages of the process The disrotatory ring opening of cyclobutene to 1 3 butadiene is a symmetry forbidden reaction... 

The reaction of 1-aminopyridinium iodide (429) with dimethyl chlorofumarate in ethanol/K2C03 to form, ultimately, a pyrazolo[l,5-n]pyridine also occurs via a 1,5-dipolar mechanism. The initially formed 1 1 adduct (430), stabilized by delocalization of the negative charge, underwent disrotatory ring closure as shown to give (431) in which the 3... 

A complete mechanistic description of these reactions must explain not only their high degree of stereospecificity, but also why four-ir-electron systems undergo conrotatory reactions whereas six-Ji-electron systems undergo disrotatory reactions. Woodward and Hoifinann proposed that the stereochemistry of the reactions is controlled by the symmetry properties of the HOMO of the reacting system. The idea that the HOMO should control the course of the reaction is an example of frontier orbital theory, which holds that it is the electrons of highest energy, i.e., those in the HOMO, that are of prime importance. The symmetry characteristics of the occupied orbitals of 1,3-butadiene are shown in Fig. 11.1. 

Figure 11.3 illustrates the classification of the MOs of butadiene and cyclobutene. There are two elements of symmetry that are common to both s-cw-butadiene and cyclobutene. These are a plane of symmetry and a twofold axis of rotation. The plane of symmetry is maintained during a disrotatory transformation of butadiene to cyclobutene. In the conrotatory transformation, the axis of rotation is maintained throughout the process. Therefore, to analyze the disrotatory process, the orbitals must be classified with respect to the plane of symmetry, and to analyze the conrotatory process, they must be classified with respect to the axis of rotation. 

Fig. 11.4. Correlation diagram for cyclobutene and butadiene orbitals (symmetry-forbidden disrotatory reaction).

Correlation diagrams can be constructed in an analogous fashion for the disrotatory and conrotatory modes for interconversion of hexatriene and cyclohexadiene. They lead to the prediction that the disrotatory mode is an allowed process whereas the conrotatory reaction is forbidden. This is in agreement with the experimental results on this reaction. Other electrocyclizations can be analyzed by the same method. Substituted derivatives of polyenes obey the orbital symmetry rules, even in cases in which the substitution pattern does not correspond in symmetiy to the orbital system. It is the symmetry of the participating orbitals, not of the molecule as a whole, that is crucial to the analysis. 

For the butadiene-cyclobutene interconversion, the transition states for conrotatory and disrotatory interconversion are shown below. The array of orbitals represents the basis set orbitals, i.e., the total set of 2p orbitals involved in the reaction process, not the individual MOs. Each of the orbitals is tc in character, and the phase difference is represented by shading. The tilt at C-1 and C-4 as the butadiene system rotates toward the transition state is different for the disrotatory and conrotatory modes. The dashed line represents the a bond that is being broken (or formed). 

Analysis of the hexatriene-cyclohexadiene system leads to the conclusion that the disrotatory process will be favored. The basis set orbitals for the conrotatory and disrotatory transition states are shown below. 

Here, with six electrons involved, it is the disrotatory mode (Hiickel system) in which the transition state is stabilized. There are numerous examples of interconversion of 1,3,5-... 

We have now considered three viewpoints from which thermal electrocyclic processes can be analyzed symmetry characteristics of the frontier orbitals, orbital correlation diagrams, and transition-state aromaticity. All arrive at the same conclusions about stereochemistiy of electrocyclic reactions. Reactions involving 4n + 2 electrons will be disrotatory and involve a Hiickel-type transition state, whereas those involving 4n electrons will be conrotatory and the orbital array will be of the Mobius type. These general principles serve to explain and correlate many specific experimental observations made both before and after the orbital symmetry mles were formulated. We will discuss a few representative examples in the following paragraphs. 

This compound is less stable than 5 and reverts to benzene with a half-life of about 2 days at 25°C, with AH = 23 kcal/mol. The observed kinetic stability of Dewar benzene is surprisingly high when one considers that its conversion to benzene is exothermic by 71 kcal/mol. The stability of Dewar benzene is intimately related to the orbital symmetry requirements for concerted electrocyclic transformations. The concerted thermal pathway should be conrotatory, since the reaction is the ring opening of a cyclobutene and therefore leads not to benzene, but to a highly strained Z,Z, -cyclohexatriene. A disrotatory process, which would lead directly to benzene, is forbidden. ... 

The prediction on the basis of orbital symmetry analysis that cyclization of eight-n-electron systems will be connotatoiy has been confirmed by study of isomeric 2,4,6,8-decatetraenes. Electrocyclic reaction occurs near room temperature and establishes an equilibrium that favors the cyclooctatriene product. At slightly more elevated temperatures, the hexatriene system undergoes a subsequent disrotatory cyclization, establishing equilibrium with the corresponding bicyclo[4.2.0]octa-2,4-diene ... 

Fonnation of allylic products is characteristic of solvolytic reactions of other cyclopropyl halides and sulfonates. Similarly, diazotization of cyclopropylamine in aqueous solution gives allyl alcohol. The ring opening of a cyclopropyl cation is an electrocyclic process of the 4 + 2 type, where n equals zero. It should therefore be a disrotatory process. There is another facet to the stereochemistry in substituted cyclopropyl systems. Note that for a cri-2,3-dimethylcyclopropyl cation, for example, two different disrotatory modes are possible, leading to conformationally distinct allyl cations ... 

The disrotatory mode, in which the methyl groups move away from each other, would be more favorable for steric reasons. If the ring opening occurs through a discrete cyclopropyl cation, the W-shaped allylic cation should be formed in preference to the sterically less favorable U-shaped cation. This point was investigated by comparing the rates of solvolysis of the cyclopropyl tosylates 6-8 ... 

This interpretation is supported by results on the acetolysis of the bicyclic tosylates 9 and 10. With 9, after three months in acetic acid at 150°C, 90% of the starting material was recovered. This means that both ionization to a cyclopropyl cation and a concerted ring opening must be extremely slow. The preferred disrotatory ring-opening process would lead to an impossibly strained structure, the /ran -cyclohexenyl cation. In contrast, the stereoisomer 10 reacts at least 2x10 more rapidly because it can proceed to a stable cis-cyclohexenyl cation ... 

There are also examples of electrocyclic processes involving anionic species. Since the pentadienyl anion is a six-7c-electron system, thermal cyclization to a cyclopentenyl anion should be disrotatory. Examples of this electrocyclic reaction are rare. NMR studies of pentadienyl anions indicate that they are stable and do not tend to cyclize. Cyclooctadienyllithium provides an example where cyclization of a pentadienyl anion fragment does occur, with the first-order rate constant being 8.7 x 10 min . The stereochemistry of the ring closure is consistent with the expected disrotatory nature of the reaction. 

Show, by constructing a correlation diagram, whether each of the following disrotatory cyclizations is symmetiy allowed ... 

A striking illustration of the relationship between orbital symmetry considerations and the outcome of photochemical reactions can be found in the stereochemistry of electrocyclic reactions. In Chapter 11, the distinction between the conrotatory and the disrotatory mode of reaction as a function of the number of electrons in the system was... 

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