Disrotatory electrocyclization

Sulfur extrusion is the main decomposition pathway, with 1-benzothiepins being more stable than 3-benzothiepins. The required 6it disrotatory electrocyclic process leads to a loss of aromaticity for the [6]annulated benzene ring, whereas the [r/]benzene derivative 4 leads to a thianorcaradiene derivative with less disturbed aromaticity of the benzene ring. 

We have seen that carbonium ions can undergo a variety of photoreactions, affording products which often vary considerably from those obtained in the photolysis of the corresponding uncharged compounds. The predominant mode of reaction encountered would seem to be isomerization to one or more valence bond isomers, which occurs via a symmetry-allowed disrotatory electrocyclic closure, rather than a [<72a-f 7r2a] cycloaddition in the case of alkylbenzenium ions and pro-... 

Trauner and colleagues [39] recently found a striking contrast in the thermal and catalyzed reactions of a triene. Thermal reaction of a trienolate readily underwent disrotatory electrocyclization to afford cyclohexadiene (delocalization band in Scheme 8) in accordance with the Woodward-Hoffmann rule. Surprisingly, treatment of the trienolate with Lewis acid did not result in the formation of the cyclohexadiene but rather gave bicyclo[3.1.0]hexene in a [4n +2nJ manner (pseudoexcitation band in Scheme 8). The catalyzed reaction is similar to the photochemical reaction in the delocalization band. 

One of the most important problems that has to be solved in the thiepin chemistry is the mechanism of the sulfur extrusion reaction. Ready loss of sulfur of the simplest thiepins presumably occurs by valence isomerization to the corresponding thianorcaradiene, which requires a [4n -I- 2] disrotatory electrocyclic process leading to a c/s-fused three-membered ring, followed by cheletropic loss of sulfur. A lot of evidence supporting the above mechanism, though inconclusive, is available to date. 

Sorensen and coworkers used a domino conrotatory electrocydic ring-opening/ 6ji-disrotatory electrocyclization for the formation of ring C in the total synthesis of ( )-viridin (4-327) (Scheme 4.72) [112]. Heating 4-325 in the presence of a base followed by in-situ oxidation with DDQ afforded the tetracyde 4-326 in 83% yield. 

A similar strategy has been employed in a clever synthesis of the sesquiterpene dihy-dronovanin (44)21. Enol acetate 42 was irradiated in cold methanol to prevent thermal closure to the civ-fused system via a facile disrotatory electrocyclization (Scheme 10). 

The trans-cis isomerization process observed in the eudesmane/germacrane ring system has been utilized for the synthesis of the c/s-fused sesquiterpene occidentalol, 48a, and its 7-epi isomer, 48b (Scheme ll)22. Photolysis of the traws-fused diene 45 at —78°C afforded triene 46, which upon warming underwent disrotatory electrocyclization to give 47a and 47b as a 1 2 mixture of diastereomers. Apparently, the carboalkoxy group imparts... 

All three levels of theory predict the ring expansion of singlet phenylcarbene ( A -la) to cycloheptatetraene (3a) to occur in two steps, via bicy-clo[4.1.0]hepta-2,4,6-triene (2a) as an intermediate. The first step is addition of the carbene carbon to an adjacent 7t bond of the ring. The second step involves a six-electron, disrotatory, electrocyclic ring opening, which is allowed by orbital symmetry67 and thus proceeds by a highly delocalized transition state. Fig. 4... 

In the first step, Ag+ promotes the departure of Cl- to give a cyclopropyl carbocation. This undergoes two-electron disrotatory electrocyclic ring opening to give the chloroallylic cation, in which the empty orbital is localized on Cl and C3. Then 09 can add to C3 desilylation then gives the product. 

Upon exposure to UV light, a-tropolone methyl ether (142), included within chirally modified Y zeolite, has been found to undergo 4 7r-electron disrotatory electrocyclic ring closure to afford " the bicyclic photo-isomer (143). 

Similar irradiation of the 1 1 complex of tropolone ether 10b and host compound 8 led to photoproducts 11b (100% ee) and 12b (72% ee) in 12 and 14% yields, respectively. The authors interpreted these reactions as follows disrotatory electrocyclic closure of tropolone derivative 10 to afford photoproduct 11 in the inclusion crystals occurs in only one direction owing to the steric hindrance of host 8. This interpretation appeared to be reasonable based on an examination of the X-ray crystal structure study of the inclusion complex [18]. Formation of keto-ester 12 takes place by a more complex mechanism... 

The combination of modem valence bond theory, in its spin-coupled (SC) form, and intrinsic reaction coordinate calculations utilizing a complete-active-space self-consistent field (CASSCF) wavefunction, is demonstrated to provide quantitative and yet very easy-to-visualize models for the electronic mechanisms of three gas-phase six-electron pericyclic reactions, namely the Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene and ethene, the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of fulminic acid to ethyne, and the disrotatory electrocyclic ringopening of cyclohexadiene. 

The article is organized as follows. In the next Section we present a brief outline of the theoretical background for the present work. Section 3 contains summaries of the SC models for the electronic mechanisms of the gas-phase Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene andethene [11] and the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of fulminic acid to ethyne [12]. In Section 4 we provide, for the first time, a description of the SC model for the electronic mechanism of the gas-phase disrotatory electrocyclic ring-opening of cyclohexadiene. Conclusions and final comments are presented in Section 5. 

It would be difficult, at this stage, to present a properly argued preference between schemes A and B in the Introduction as the more faithful representation for the disrotatory electrocyclic ring-opening of cyclohexadiene. Chemical intuition (at least that of the authors) would suggest scheme B, but scheme A is on the textbook pages and, as has been shown by the SC description of the 1,3-dipolar addition of fulminic acid to ethyne, a heterolytic scheme remains a definite possibility. 

The SC descriptions of the electronic mechanisms of the three six-electron pericyclic gas-phase reactions discussed in this paper (namely, the Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene and ethene [11], the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition offulminic acid to ethyne [12], and the disrotatory electrocyclic ring-opening of cyclohexadiene) take the theory much beyond the HMO and RHF levels employed in the formulation of the most popular MO-based treatments of pericyclic reactions, including the Woodward-Hoffmarm mles [1,2], Fukui s frontier orbital theory [3] and the Dewar-Zimmerman model [4—6]. The SC wavefunction maintains near-CASSCF quality throughout the range of reaction coordinate studied for each reaction but, in contrast to its CASSCF counterpart, it is very much easier to interpret and to visualize directly. 

Early work (B-69MI51600) on 7V-substituted-l//-azepines revealed that they undergo photoinduced ring contraction to bicyclic valence tautomers as indicated in Scheme 1. Subsequently, it has been found that 3H- and 4H- azepines enter into analogous ring contractions, as do some of their oxo and benzo derivatives. These transformations, which parallel those undergone by cycloheptatriene, are often thermally reversible and occur by an orbital symmetry-controlled disrotatory electrocyclic process. 

The spontaneous oxepin-benzene oxide isomerization proceeds in accordance with the Woodward-Hoffmann rules of orbital symmetry control and may thus be classified as an allowed thermal disrotatory electrocyclic reaction. A considerable amount of structural information about both oxepin and benzene oxide has been obtained from theoretical calculations using ab initio SCF and semiempirical (MINDO/3) MO calculations (80JA1255). Thus the oxepin ring was predicted to be either a flattened boat structure (MINDO/3) or a planar ring (SCF), indicative of a very low barrier to interconversion between boat conformations. Both methods of calculation indicated that the benzene oxide tautomer... 

The thermal ring closure reaction of a 1,3,5-triene to a 1,3-cyclohexadiene occurs by a concerted disrotatory electrocyclic mechanism. An example of the latter is the oxepin-benzene oxide equilibrium (7) which favors the oxepin tautomer at higher temperatures (Section 5.17.1.2). Oxepin (7) was found to rearrange to phenol during attempted distillation at normal pressure (67AG(E)385>. This aromatization reaction may be considered as a spontaneous rearrangement of the oxirane ring to the dienone isomer followed by enolization (equation 7). 

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