Electrophilic substitution with cyclic transition structures

X-Substituted Allyl Anions. Allyl anions with alkyl substituents almost always react with carbonyl electrophiles at the more substituted a position, as in the reaction of the prenyl Grignard reagent with aldehydes to give the product 4.39, presumably because the metal attaches itself preferentially to the less-substituted end of the allyl system and then delivers the electrophile in a six-membered transition structure 4.38. In contrast, alkylation of a similar anion with an alkyl halide gives mainly the product 4.40 of y attack, which is normal for an X-substituted allyl anion when a cyclic transition structure is not involved. 

From this point on, the regioselectivity of substituted allyl anions is much less regular, and somewhat less explicable. For a start, X-substituted allyl anions react with carbonyl electrophiles with a selectivity. This is explicable, but it is determined by the site of coordination by the metal, not by the frontier orbitals. We can contrast the reaction of the oxygen-substituted lithium anion 4.57 with an alkyl halide, which is y selective, as usual, and the reaction of the zinc anion 4.58 with a ketone, which is a selective.304 The oxygen substituent coordinates to the zinc cr-bound at the y position, and the aldehyde is then delivered to the a position in a six-membered cyclic transition structure 4.59. The same reaction with the lithium reagent 4.57 gives a 50 50 mixture of a and y products, and so lithium is not so obviously coordinated in the way that the zinc is. This type of reaction is often brought under control in the sense 4.59 for synthetic purposes by... 

Why, then, do electrophiles prefer to attack naphthalene at Cl rather than at C2 Closer inspection of the resonance contributors for the two cations reveals an important difference Attack at Cl allows two of the resonance forms of the intermediate to keep an intact benzene ring, with the full benefit of aromatic cyclic delocalization. Attack at C2 allows only one such structure, so the resulting carbocation is less stable and the transition state leading to it is less energetically favorable. Because the first step in electrophilic aromatic substitution is rate determining, attack is faster at Cl than at C2. 

The additions of allyl-, crotyl-, and prenylborane or -boronate reagents to aldehydes are among the most widely studied, well developed, and powerful reactions in stereoselective synthesis. The additions not only display excellent levels of absolute induction in enantioselective synthesis, but also exhibit superb levels of reagent control in diastereoselective additions. The additions of ( )- or (Z)-crotyl pinacol boronates to aldehydes have been observed to give predominantly 1,2-anti- and 1,2-syn-substituted products, respectively (Scheme 5.3) [31, 50]. The inherent stereospecificity of the reaction is consistent with a closed, cyclic Zimmerman-Traxler transition state structure [51], In the accepted model, coordination of the aldehyde to the allylation reagent results in synergistic activation of both the electrophile and the nucleophile... 

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