Catalyst, electrophilic

Many enzymes require metal ions for maximal activity. If the enzyme binds the metal very tightly or requires the metal ion to maintain its stable, native state, it is referred to as a metalloenzyme. Enzymes that bind metal ions more weakly, perhaps only during the catalytic cycle, are referred to as metal activated. One role for metals in metal-activated enzymes and metalloenzymes is to act as electrophilic catalysts, stabilizing the increased electron density or negative charge that can develop during reactions. Among the enzymes that function in this... 

Traces of bases such as methylimidazole in the final ionic liquid product can play an unfavorable role in some common applications of ionic liquids (such as bipha-sic catalysis). Many electrophilic catalyst complexes will coordinate the base in an irreversible manner and be deactivated. 

Abstract The dirhodium(II) core is a template onto which both achiral and chiral ligands are placed so that four exist in a paddle wheel fashion around the core. The resulting structures are effective electrophilic catalysts for diazo decomposition in reactions that involve metal carbene intermediates. High selectivities are achieved in transformations ranging from addition to insertion and association. The syntheses of natural products and compounds of biological interest have employed these catalysts and methods with increasing frequency. 

Chain initiation might conceivably be brought about by polarization of the monomer by an electrophilic catalyst as follows ... 

A variety of electrophilic catalysts promote the addition of allylic silanes to carbonyl compounds.86 The original catalysts included typical Lewis acids such as TiCl4 or BFj.87 This reaction is often referred to as the Sakurai reaction. 

There is little doubt that the zinc ion acts as an electrophilic catalyst to polarize the carbonyl group and stabilize the negative charge that develops on the oxygen (Chapter 2, section B7).151 The ionized carboxylate of Glu-270 is impli-cated in catalysis from the pH-rate profile.152... 

Electronic factors also influenced the outcomes of these cyclization reactions cyclization of pyrrole 84 to bicyclic amine 85 is catalyzed by the sterically open complex 79a. In this reaction, initial insertion into the Y - H bond occurred in a Markovnikov fashion at the more hindered olefin (Scheme 19) [48]. The authors proposed that the Lewis basic aromatic ring stabilizes the electrophilic catalyst during the hydrometallation step, overriding steric factors. In the case of pyrroles and indenes, the less Lewis basic nitrogen contained in the aromatic systems allowed for the cyclization of 1,1-disubstituted alkenes. 

The use of trimethylsilyl-based electrophilic catalysts with organosilicon hydrides also promotes the conversion of aldehydes into ethers and avoids the need to employ the potentially hazardous trityl perchlorate salt.314,334,338 One reagent pair that is particularly effective in the reductive conversion of aldehydes into symmetrical ethers is a catalytic amount of trimethylsilyl triflate combined with either trimethylsilane, triethylsilane, PMHS,334 or 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (TMDO, 64) as the reducing agent (Eq. 179).314 Either... 

One more example of metal ion catalysis will be considered briefly. In a now classic paper, Cox (1974) showed that the enolization of 2-acetylpyri-dine (but not 4-acetylpyridine) is catalysed by divalent transition metal ions. Proton abstraction by acetate ions is strongly accelerated by Zn2+, Ni2+ and Cu2+ ions and the transition state stabilization by these ions roughly parallels their abilities to bind to the substrate (Table A6.5). The three metal ions are significantly superior to the proton as electrophilic catalysts, no doubt because they can chelate to both the pyridine nitrogen and the... 

Like aspartic peptidases, metallopeptidases act by activating a H20 molecule, and they do not form a covalent intermediate with the substrate. Here, the activation of a H20 molecule is mediated by a residue that acts as general base (e.g., Glu, His, Lys, Arg, or Tyr), with a divalent cation (usually Zn2+ but sometimes Co2+ or Mn2+) perhaps also contributing. The major role of the metal cation, however, is to act as an electrophilic catalyst by coordinating the carbonyl (or phosphoryl) O-atom in the substrate and orienting the latter for nucleophilic attack by the HO ion generated from H20 by the general base. 

The most frequently used ylides for carbene-complex generation are acceptor-substituted diazomethanes. As already mentioned in Section 3.1.3.1, non-acceptor-substituted diazoalkanes are strong C-nucleophiles, easy to convert into carbene complexes with a broad variety of transition metal complexes. Acceptor-substituted diazomethanes are, however, less nucleophilic (and more stable) than non-acceptor-substituted diazoalkanes, and require catalysts of higher electrophilicity to be efficiently decomposed. Not surprisingly, the very stable bis-acceptor-substituted diazomethanes can be converted into carbene complexes only with strongly electrophilic catalysts. This order of reactivity towards electrophilic transition metal complexes correlates with the reactivity of diazoalkanes towards other electrophiles, such as Brpnsted acids or acyl halides. 

Ylide formation, and hence X-H bond insertion, generally proceeds faster than C-H bond insertion or cyclopropanation [1176], 1,2-C-H insertion can, however, compete efficiently with X-H bond insertion [1177]. One problem occasionally encountered in transition metal-catalyzed X-H bond insertion is the deactivation of the (electrophilic) catalyst L M by the substrate RXH. The formation of the intermediate carbene complex requires nucleophilic addition of a carbene precursor (e.g. a diazocarbonyl compound) to the complex Lj,M. Other nucleophiles present in the reaction mixture can compete efficiently with the carbene precursor, or even lead to stable, catalytically inactive adducts L M-XR. For this reason carbene X-H bond insertion with substrates which might form a stable complex with the catalyst (e.g. amines, imidazole derivatives, thiols) often require larger amounts of catalyst and high reaction temperatures. 

A series of diaquatetraaza cobalt(III) complexes accelerated the hydrolysis of adenylyl(3 -50adenosine (ApA) (304), an enhancement of 10 -fold being observed with the triethylenetetramine complex (303) at pH 7. The pentacoordinated intermediate (305), which is formed with the complex initially acting as an electrophilic catalyst, then suffers general acid catalysis by the coordination water on the Co(III) ion to yield the complexed 1,2-cyclic phosphate (306), the hydrolysis of which occurs via intracomplex nucleophilic attack by the metal-bound hydroxide ion on the phosphorus atom. Neomycin B (307) has also been shown to accelerate the phosphodiester hydrolysis of ApA (304) more effectively than a simple unstructured diamine. 

Fig. 3 Possible catalytic functions of metal ions in the cleavage of a phosphodiester bond. Metal ions can act as (a) a general acid catalyst, (b) a general base catalyst, (c) a Lewis acid that stabilizes the leaving group, (d) a Lewis acid that enhances the deprotonation of the attacking nucleophile, and (e) an electrophilic catalyst that increases the electrophilicity of the phosphorus atom...

Subsequent to CO2 association in the hydrophobic pocket, the chemistry of turnover requires the intimate participation of zinc. The role of zinc is to promote a water molecule as a potent nucleophile, and this is a role which the zinc of carbonic anhydrase II shares with the metal ion of the zinc proteases (discussed in the next section). In fact, the zinc of carbonic anhydrase II promotes the ionization of its bound water so that the active enzyme is in the zinc-hydroxide form (Coleman, 1967 Lindskog and Coleman, 1973 Silverman and Lindskog, 1988). Studies of small-molecule complexes yield effective models of the carbonic anhydrase active site which are catalytically active in zinc-hydroxide forms (Woolley, 1975). In addition to its role in promoting a nucleophilic water molecule, the zinc of carbonic anhydrase II is a classical electrophilic catalyst that is, it stabilizes the developing negative charge of the transition state and product bicarbonate anion. This role does not require the inner-sphere interaction of zinc with the substrate C=0 in a precatalytic complex. 

Assuming that Ti(IV) is distributed statistically in all tetrahedral positions, it can be easily seen that even for crystallite sizes of 0,2 m the great majority of T1(IV) is located inside the pore structure. Assuming that every Ti(IV) is a catalytic centre with equal activity, diffusion limitations for molecules of different sizes should be observed. This is in fact the case. It has been shown [27] that the rate of oxidation of primary alcohols decreases regularly as the chain length increases, while for iso-butyl alcohol a sudden drop in the rate is observed. Also the reactivity order of olefins on TS-1 is different from the order observed with homogeneous electrophilic catalysts, while as already indicated very bulky molecules are unreactive when TS-1 is used as the catalyst. All these facts can only be interpreted as due to diffusion limitations of the larger molecules, which means that the catalytic sites are located inside the pore structure of the solid. 

In the catalytically active complex 4-Ba the negative poles and the polyether bridge act as working units that perform cooperatively in providing the driving force for the formation of the complex itself, whereas the metal ion serves as an electrophilic catalyst both in the acylation and deacylation steps. The crucial importance of the polyether bridge is demonstrated by the disappearance of any catalytic activity upon replacement by two methoxy groups. 

It turns out that we can t do this with HC1, we need a stronger electrophilic catalyst for the first step than the proton. We use instead PC15, which reacts by ionising to Cl and PCI4. The products are R2CC12, and... 

In addition to a detailed review,342 alkylations are briefly addressed in reviews about homogeneous and heterogeneous electrophilic catalysts.343-349... 

Since isobutylene is a very reactive olefin, its oligomerization can be promoted by almost any electrophilic catalyst. More recently fluorinated alumina,6 cation-exchange resins,7 benzylsulfonic acid siloxane,8 pentasil zeolites,9 and perfluori-nated resinosulfonic acids10 were studied. Some of these catalysts may bring about improved oligomerization. 

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