Electrocyclic reactions disrotatory thermal reaction

Four electron pairs undergo reorganization in this electrocyclic reaction. The thermal reaction occurs with conrotatory motion to yield a pair of enantiomeric rra/w-7,8-dimethyI-1,3,5-cyclooctatrienes. The photochemical cyclization occurs with disrotatory motion to yield the cis-1,8-dimethyl isomer. 

From this it should not be inferred that all electrocyclic reactions under thermal conditions proceed in a conrotatory manner and under irradiation they proceed in a disrotatory fashion. This is clear from the following example ... 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Many other examples of contrasting behaviour have been discovered. For example all-cis-cyclodecapentaene (VII) photochemically equilibrate at low temperatures with trans 9, 10 dihydronapthalene by a conrotatory six electron electrocyclic reaction but it is converted thermally into cis-9, 10 dihydronaphthalene by disrotatory closure. 

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... 

Thermal extrusion of a sulfur atom is the most common thermal reaction of a thiepin. The mechanism of this thermal process involves two orbital symmetry controlled reactions (69CC1167). The initial concerted step involving a reversible disrotatory electrocyclic rearrangement is followed by a concerted cheleotropic elimination of sulfur (Scheme 29). Similar aromatization reactions occur with thiepin 1-oxides and thiepin 1,1-dioxides, accompanied by the extrusion of sulfur monoxide and sulfur dioxide respectively. Since only a summary of the major factors influencing the thermal stability of thiepins was given in Section... 

The electrocyclic reactions of 3-membered rings, cyclopropyl cation and cyclopropyl anion, may be treated as special cases of the general reaction. Thus the cyclopropyl cation opens to the allyl cation in a disrotatory manner (i.e., allyl cation, n = 0), and the cyclopropyl anion opens thermally to the allyl anion in a conrotatory manner (i.e., allyl anion, m = 1). Heterocyclic systems isoelectronic to cyclopropyl anion, namely oxiranes, thiiranes, and aziridines, have also been shown experimentally and theoretically to open in a conrotatory manner [300]. 

Geometrical constraints require that these electrocyclic reactions proceed by disrotatory mechanisms. In a disrotatory thermal cleavage the ff-bond... 

The closed and open forms, 4 and 5, respectively, represent the formal starting and end points of an electrocyclic reaction. In terms of this pericyclic reaction, the transition state 6 can be analysed with respect to its configurational and electronic properties as either a stabilized or destabilized Huckel or Mobius transition state. Where 4 and 5 are linked by a thermally allowed disrotatory process, then 6 will have a Hiickel-type configuration. Where the process involves (4q + 2) electrons, the electrocyclic reaction is thermally allowed and 6 can be considered to be homoaromatic. In those instances where the 4/5 interconversion is a 4q process, then 6 is formally an homoantiaromatic molecule or ion. 

How can we account for the stereoselectivity of thermal electrocyclic reactions Our problem is to understand why it is that concerted 4n electro-cyclic rearrangements are conrotatory, whereas the corresponding 4n + 2 processes are disrotatory. From what has been said previously, we can expect that the conrotatory processes are related to the Mobius molecular orbitals and the disrotatory processes are related to Hiickel molecular orbitals. Let us see why this is so. Consider the electrocyclic interconversion of a 1,3-diene and a cyclobutene. In this case, the Hiickel transition state one having an... 

Thermal electrocyclic reactions involving (4n + 2) it electrons are disrotatory... 

It would be a good point here to remind you that, although all electrocyclic reactions are allowed both thermally and photochemically pro viding the rotation is right, the steric requirements for con- or disrotatory cyclization or ring opening may make one or both modes impossible. 

In general, polyenes with odd numbers of double bonds undergo disrotatory thermal electrocyclic reactions, and polyenes with even numbers of double bonds undergo conrotatory thermal electrocyclic reactions. 

Two electrocyclic reactions, involving three electron pairs each, occur in this isomerization. The thermal reaction is a disrotatory process that yields two cis-fused six-membered rings. The photochemical reaction yields the rrans-fused isomer. The two pairs of n electrons in the eight-membered ring do not take part in the electrocyclic reaction. 

The rules are that thermal electrocyclic reactions involving a total number of electrons that can be expressed in the form (4n+2) are disrotatory, and thermal electrocyclic reactions in which the total number of electrons can be expressed in the form (4n) are conrotatory. 

Several cases of photochemical reactions, for which the thermal equivalents were forbidden, are shown below. In some cases the reactions simply did not occur thermally, like the [2 +2] and [4 +4] cycloadditions, and the 1,3- and 1,7-suprafacial sigmatropic rearrangements. In others, the photochemical reactions show different stereochemistry, as in the antarafacial cheletropic extrusion of sulfur dioxide, and in the electrocyclic reactions, where the 4-electron processes are now disrotatory and the 6-electron processes conrotatory. In each case,... 

It turns out that there is an alternating relationship between the number of electron pairs (double bonds) undei going bond leorganization and the stereochemistry of ring opening or closure. Polyenes with an even number of electron pairs undergo thermal electrocyclic reactions in a conrotatory sense, whereas polyenes with an odd number of electron pairs undergo the same reactions In a disrotatory sense. 

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