Electrophilicity, and

The results in table 2.6 show that the rates of reaction of compounds such as phenol and i-napthol are equal to the encounter rate. This observation is noteworthy because it shows that despite their potentially very high reactivity these compounds do not draw into reaction other electrophiles, and the nitronium ion remains solely effective. These particular instances illustrate an important general principle if by increasing the reactivity of the aromatic reactant in a substitution reaction, a plateau in rate constant for the reaction is achieved which can be identified as the rate constant for encounter of the reacting species, and if further structural modifications of the aromatic in the direction of further increasing its potential reactivity ultimately raise the rate constant above this plateau, then the incursion of a new electrophile must be admitted. 

At one time a form of 8 2 mechanism was favoured for electrophilic substitution in which in the transition state bonding between carbon and the electrophile and severance of the proton had proceeded to the... 

However, the existence of the Wheland intermediate is not demanded by the evidence, for if the attack of the electrophile and the loss of the proton were synchronous an isotope effect would also be expected. The... 

Consideration of the orientation of substitution Orientation is an important factor to be considered in recognising both changes in the effective electrophile and in the nature of the aromatic substrate. Cases of the former type, which will be met at several places... 

Reactions of aromatic and heteroaromatic rings are usually only found with highly reactive compounds containing strongly electron donating substituents or hetero atoms (e.g. phenols, anilines, pyrroles, indoles). Such molecules can be substituted by weak electrophiles, and the reagent of choice in nature as well as in the laboratory is usually a Mannich reagent or... 

The use of oximes as nucleophiles can be quite perplexing in view of the fact that nitrogen or oxygen may react. Alkylation of hydroxylamines can therefore be a very complex process which is largely dependent on the steric factors associated with the educts. Reproducible and predictable results are obtained in intramolecular reactions between oximes and electrophilic carbon atoms. Amides, halides, nitriles, and ketones have been used as electrophiles, and various heterocycles such as quinazoline N-oxide, benzodiayepines, and isoxazoles have been obtained in excellent yields under appropriate reaction conditions. 

Retrosynthetic path b in Scheme 3.1 corresponds to reversal of the electrophilic and nucleophilic components with respect to the Madelung synthesis and identifies o-acyl-iV-alkylanilines as potential indole precursors. The known examples require an aryl or EW group on the iV-alkyl substituent and these substituents are presumably required to facilitate deprotonation in the condensation. The preparation of these starting materials usually involves iV-alkyla-tion of an o-acylaniline. Table 3.3 gives some examples of this synthesis. 

The condensation of a thiazolium with an oxonol dye in a basic medium is another example of the combination of electrophilic and nucleophilic reagents (Scheme 55). With a nonopening ring, the obtained neutrodimethine cyanine is not mesosubstimted (68). 

Among the hydrogen halides only hydrogen bromide reacts with alkenes by both electrophilic and free radical addition mechanisms Hydrogen iodide and hydrogen chlo ride always add to alkenes by electrophilic addition and follow Markovmkov s rule Hydrogen bromide normally reacts by electrophilic addition but if peroxides are pres ent or if the reaction is initiated photochemically the free radical mechanism is followed... 

The electrophilic character of boron is again evident when we consider the oxida tion of organoboranes In the oxidation phase of the hydroboration-oxidation sequence as presented m Figure 6 11 the conjugate base of hydrogen peroxide attacks boron Hydroperoxide ion is formed m an acid-base reaction m step 1 and attacks boron m step 2 The empty 2p orbital of boron makes it electrophilic and permits nucleophilic reagents such as HOO to add to it... 

Ozone IS a powerful electrophile and undergoes a remarkable reaction with alkenes m... 

The two dimers of (CH3)2C=CH2 are formed by the mechanism shown m Figure 6 16 In step 1 protonation of the double bond generates a small amount of tert butyl cation m equilibrium with the alkene The carbocation is an electrophile and attacks a second molecule of 2 methylpropene m step 2 forming a new carbon-carbon bond and generating a carbocation This new carbocation loses a proton m step 3 to form a mixture of 2 4 4 tnmethyl 1 pentene and 2 4 4 tnmethyl 2 pentene... 

Nitrosyl cation is a relatively weak electrophile and attacks only very strongly activated aromatic rings... 

You can interpret the stereochemistry and rates of many reactions involving soft electrophiles and nucleophiles—in particular pericyclic reactions—in terms of the properties of Frontier orbitals. This applies in particular to pericyclic reactions. Overlap between the HOMO and the LUMO is a governing factor in many reactions. HyperChem can show the forms of orbitals such as HOMO and LUMO in two ways a plot at a slice through the molecule and as values in a log file of the orbital coefficients for each atom. 

Thermodynamic properties such as heats of reaction and heats of formation can be computed mote rehably by ab initio theory than by semiempirical MO methods (55). However, the Hterature of the method appropriate to the study should be carefully checked before a technique is selected. Finally, the role of computer graphics in evaluating quantum mechanical properties should not be overlooked. As seen in Figures 2—6, significant information can be conveyed with stick models or various surfaces with charge properties mapped onto them. Additionally, information about orbitals, such as the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), which ate important sites of reactivity in electrophilic and nucleophilic reactions, can be plotted readily. Figure 7 shows representations of the HOMO and LUMO, respectively, for the antiulcer dmg Zantac. 

Aldehydes react with alkenylborates to give 1,3-diols upon oxidation of the intermediate (300). Alkynylborates ate transformed by epoxides into homoallyhc alcohols and alkenylborates into 1,4-diols (300,301). Carbon dioxide reacts with alkenylborates to yield catboxyhc acids (302). The scope of these transformations is further extended by the use of functionalized electrophiles and borates, often reacting with high stereoselectivity. For example, in the... 

The reactivity of the individual O—P insecticides is determined by the magnitude of the electrophilic character of the phosphoms atom, the strength of the bond P—X, and the steric effects of the substituents. The electrophilic nature of the central P atom is determined by the relative positions of the shared electron pairs, between atoms bonded to phosphoms, and is a function of the relative electronegativities of the two atoms in each bond (P, 2.1 O, 3.5 S, 2.5 N, 3.0 and C, 2.5). Therefore, it is clear that in phosphate esters (P=0) the phosphoms is much more electrophilic and these are more reactive than phosphorothioate esters (P=S). The latter generally are so stable as to be relatively unreactive with AChE. They owe their biological activity to m vivo oxidation by a microsomal oxidase, a reaction that takes place in insect gut and fat body tissues and in the mammalian Hver. A typical example is the oxidation of parathion (61) to paraoxon [311-45-5] (110). 

Substitution Reactions. Aromatic heterocycHc A/-oxides undergo both electrophilic and nucleophilic substitution because the dipolar N-oxide group is both an electron donor and an electron acceptor, giving rise to the resonance stmctures ... 

Synthesis by oxidation remains the first choice for commercial and laboratory preparation of quinones the starting material (1) provided the generic name quinone. This simple, descriptive nomenclature has been abandoned by Chemicaly hstracts, but remains widely used (2). The systematic name for (2) is 2,5-cyclohexadiene-l,4-dione. Several examples of quinone synonyms are given in Table 1. Common names are used in this article. 1,2-Benzoquinone (3,5-cydohexadiene-l,2-dione) (3) is also prepared by oxidation, often with freshly prepared silver oxide (3). Compounds related to (3) must be prepared using mild conditions because of their great sensitivity to both electrophiles and nucleophiles (4,5). 

Chemical Properties. The most impoitant reactions which tetraorganotins undergo are heterolytic, ie, electrophilic and nucleophilic, cleavage and Kocheshkov redistribution (81—84). The tin—carbon bond in tetraorganotins is easily cleaved by halogens, hydrogen hahdes, and mineral acids ... 

A diazonium salt is a weak electrophile, and thus reacts only with highly electron-rich species such as amino and hydroxy compounds. Even hydroxy compounds must be ionized for reaction to occur. Consequendy, hydroxy compounds such as phenols and naphthols are coupled in an alkaline medium (pH > of phenol or naphthol typically pH 7—11), whereas aromatic amines such as N,N diaLkylamines are coupled in a slightly acid medium, typically pH 1—5. This provides optimum stabiUty for the dia2onium salt (stable in acid) without deactivating the nucleophile (protonation of the amine). 

Pyrazine and quinoxaline fV-oxides generally undergo similar reactions to their monoazine counterparts. In the case of pyridine fV-oxide the ring is activated both towards electrophilic and nucleophilic substitution reactions however, pyrazine fV-oxides are generally less susceptible to electrophilic attack and little work has been reported in this area. Nucleophilic activation generally appears to be more useful and a variety of nucleophilic substitution reactions have been exploited in the pyrazine, quinoxaline and phenazine series. 

Indole undergoes add-catalyzed dimerization the 3H-indoIium ion acts as an electrophile and attacks an unprotonated molecule to give the dimer (46). Protonation of the dimer in turn gives an electrophilic species from which a trimeric product can be derived (77CPB3122). Af-Methylisoindole undergoes acid-catalyzed polymerization, indicating that protonation at C-1 gives a reactive electrophilic intermediate. 

Methylthiophene is metallated in the 5-position whereas 3-methoxy-, 3-methylthio-, 3-carboxy- and 3-bromo-thiophenes are metallated in the 2-position (80TL5051). Lithiation of tricarbonyl(i7 -N-protected indole)chromium complexes occurs initially at C-2. If this position is trimethylsilylated, subsequent lithiation is at C-7 with minor amounts at C-4 (81CC1260). Tricarbonyl(Tj -l-triisopropylsilylindole)chromium(0) is selectively lithiated at C-4 by n-butyllithium-TMEDA. This offers an attractive intermediate for the preparation of 4-substituted indoles by reaction with electrophiles and deprotection by irradiation (82CC467). 

Results for the neutral pyrazole molecule show a considerable spread. The tt-electron and total (Tr-l-cr) densities predict electrophilic substitution at the 4-position as found. Results for thiazole also agree with experimentally determined electrophilic and nucleophilic reactivity. 

An alternative approach is in terms of frontier electron densities. In electrophilic substitution, the frontier electron density is taken as the electron density in the highest filled MO. In nucleophilic substitution the frontier orbital is taken as the lowest vacant MO the frontier electron density at a carbon atom is then the electron density that would be present in this MO if it were occupied by two electrons. Both electrophilic and nucleophilic substitution thus occur at the carbon atom with the greatest appropriate frontier electron density. 

The reactivities of 1-methylpyrazole (33) and pyrazole (29) are similar and so are the corresponding charges. The competition between C-4 and C-4 in 1-phenylpyrazole depends on the electrophile and on the experimental conditions (Section 4.04.2.3.10(i)). Thus in an acidic medium the reaction takes place on the conjugate acid (34) and considering the calculated charge densities the attack on C-4 would always be favoured. 

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