Elimination—addition nitrile-forming

A plausible mechanism for the [2+2+2] cycloaddition reactions between diynes and heterocumnlenes (or nitriles) is shown in Scheme 5.16. Initially [2+2] oxidative addition of one alkyne and the heterocnmnlene (or nitrile) forms the five-mem-bered intermediate 54 compound 55 is formed after the insertion of the second alkyne and finally the seven-membered compound 55 undergoes reductive elimination to afford the prodnct 56 and regenerate the Ni(0) catalyst. 

A domino sequence comprising a cycloaddition and subsequent cycloreversion step can often find a more general application in organic synthesis, especially in the formation of aromatic compounds such as furans or pyrroles. Oxazole moieties as electron-deficient dienes often serve as the crucial reactive centers which cycloadd to a triple bond and eliminate a nitrile upon cycloreversion. If the first step is intramolecular, the impelling enthalpy preserved in the stability of the formed CN function is additionally accompanied by a positive entropy when the nitrile, sometimes volatile, leaves the substrate. In an older example from 1984 [10], Jacobi and coworkers devised a scheme for the preparation of a highly substituted furan on their synthetic way to paniculide A. An intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction was followed by the critical extrusion of volatile acetonitrile, furnishing the bicycle 8 in 94% yield (Scheme 6.2). 

The use of the triphenylphosphine-carbon tetrachloride adduct for dehydration reactions appears to be a very simple way of synthesizing nitriles from amides, carbodi-imides from ureas, and isocyanides from monosubstituted formamides. All of these reactions involve the simultaneous addition of triphenylphosphine, carbon tetrachloride, and tri-ethylamine to the compound to be dehydrated. The elimination of the elements of water is stepwise. An adduct, e.g. (46), is first formed, chloroform being eliminated, which decomposes to produce hydrogen chloride and the dehydrated product. 

Interesting examples of the addition of N-nucleophiles to nitrile oxides are syntheses of chelated Z-amidoxime, N-[2-(dimethylaminomethyl)phenyl]mesitylene-carboamidoxime (118), and pyranosyl amidoximes (119) from the respective nitrile oxides and amines. Aromatic aldoximes undergo unusual reactions with chloramine-T (4 equiv, in refluxing MeOH). N-(p-toly 1 )-N-(p-tosy 1 )benzamides are formed via addition of 2 equiv of chloramine-T to the intermediate nitrile oxide followed by elimination of sulfur dioxide (120). 

A wide variety of five-membered zirconacydes 8 may be formed by the formal co-cycliza-tion of two 7i-components (3 and 6 alkene, alkyne, allene, imine, carbonyl, nitrile) on zir-conocene ( Cp2Zr ) (Scheme 3.2) [2,3,8]. The co-cydization takes place via the r 2-complex 5 of one of the components, which is usually formed by complexation of 3 with a zircono-cene equivalent (path a) ( Cp2Zr itself is probably too unstable to be a true intermediate) or by oxidation on the metal (cyclometallation/p-hydrogen elimination) (path b). Two additional routes to zirconocene r 2-complexes are by the reverse of the co-cyclization reaction (i. e. 8 reverting to 5 or 9 via 7), and by rearrangement of iminoacyl complexes (see Section... 

With hot xylene as solvent, compound 81 was obtained as the sole product. In this latter case the reaction proceeds via a Diels-Alder addition of 79 with DMAD followed by elimination of a nitrile (R CN). In aprotic polar solvents an imidazo[l,2-fl]pyridine (82) is formed. This reaction can be considered to be a 1,3-dipolar cycladdition of 84 with 2 mol DMAD via a 1,4-dipolar intermediate. 

The second class of benzo-fused heterocycles accessible from benzofuroxans are benzimidazole oxides. In this case only one carbon from the co-reactant is incorporated in the product. With primary nitroalkanes 2-substituted l-hydroxybenzimidazole-3-oxides (46) are formed via displacement of nitrite, and / -sulfones behave similarly. The nitrile group of a-cyanoacetamides is likewise eliminated to alford 2-amide derivatives (46 R = CONRjX and the corresponding esters are formed in addition to the expected quinoxaline dioxides from acetoacetate esters. Under similar conditions secondary nitroalkyl compounds afford 2,2-disubstituted 2//-benzimidazole-1,3-dioxides (47). Benzimidazoles can also result from reaction of benzofuroxans with phosphorus ylides <86T3631>, nitrones (85H(23)1625>, and diazo compounds <75TL3577>. 

Lithium aluminum hydride in tetrahydrofuran has been found to reduce aromatic nitriles to give an amine and to give an imine which is formed from the addition of the amine to the nonisolatable imine intermediate followed by an elimination of ammonia [24] (Eq. 14). This is simpler than catalytic hydrogenation of nitriles [25], which gives poor yields of imines. 

The reaction of vinylic phenyliodium salts (57) with cyanide anions could be mistaken for a simple substitution reaction.59 However, the presence of both allylic (58) and vinylic (59) nitrile products suggests a more complex picture. Deuterium labelling experiments show that the allylic product is formed via the Michael addition of cyanide to the vinylic iodonium salt, followed by elimination of iodobenzene and a 1,2-hydrogen shift in the 2-cyanocycloalkylidene intermediate (60). H-shift occurs from the methylene carbon in preference to the methine carbon. The effects of substitution and different nucleophiles were examined. 

Electron-poor nitriles react with compound 87 and its derivatives to form the 5-amino-l,2,4-thiadiazole derivatives 104 <1985JOC1295>. Therefore, the formation of product 94 (see Scheme 21) may be explained alternatively by the addition of amidonitrile 93 to compound 90. The mechanism of the formation of product 104 was discussed in detail in CHEC-II(1996) <1996CHEC-II(4)691> but most probably the steps involved are (1) reaction of the electrophilic nitrile with the exocyclic nitrogen of compound 87 or its derivatives (2) loss of nitrogen similarly to the previous reactions and formation of an imine 103 (3) masked 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition/elimination reaction of the nitrile to the imine 103. Since the same nitrile is expelled in the elimination step, only 1 equiv of reagent is needed (Scheme 24). 

In 1821 Wohler discovered that a solid deposited from concentrated aqueous solutions of thiocyanic acid. The solid, which was called isoperthiocyanic acid (3-imino-5-mercapto-1,2,4-dithiazole) (361), formed a new product perthiocyanic acid (3,5-dimercapto-l,2,4-thiadiazole) (18) when treated with alkali and then acid. On storage perthiocyanic acid (18) readily reverted to isoperthiocyanic acid (361) (65AHC(5)119). The mechanisms of these interconversions are still not known with certainty but the transformations outlined in Scheme 130 are suggested. Wohler proposed the initial formation of a dimer of thiocyanic acid for which structure (359) appears resonable. Addition of the imine function of (359) to the nitrile function of HSCN would produce the trimer (360) which could readily eliminate hydrogen cyanide to produce isoperthiocyanic acid (361). 

In the reactions of the pyrroles 102 with tetracyanoethene, one of the nitrile groups in the latter compound was replaced by a 2- or 3-pyrrole moiety to form tricyanoethenylpyrroles 103 (R = H) or 104 (R = Me) in quantitative yields. The reaction proceeded as an addition-elimination sequence (Equation (27)) (00RJO1504, 01ARK(ix)37). 

The selective synthesis of the 2-allyltetrazoles 55 by the three-component coupling reaction of the cyano compounds 54, allyl methyl carbonate 5b, and trimethylsilyl azide 42 was accomplished in the presence of Pd2(dba)3.CHCl3 and P(2-furyl)3 (Scheme 19) [55,56]. Most probably, the formation of rj -allyl)(77 -tetrazoyl)-palladium complex 56 took place through [3 + 2] dipolar cyclo addition of 7r-allylpalladium azide 44 with the nitrile 54. The complex 56 thus formed would undergo reductive elimination to form the products 55. 

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