Enamines with singlet oxygen

Figure 58 Enamine reaction with singlet oxygen (photochemistry).

Electron-rich olefins, especially vinyl ethers, " ketene acetals, thioalkyl-substituted olefins,and enamines, " react readily with singlet oxygen to give dioxetane cleavage products. Under carefully controlled temperature conditions, the intermediary 1,2-dioxetanes can be isolated. The first 1,2-dioxetanes prepared in this manner were the cis and trans isomers (8a) and (8b), respectively (Eq. 14). 

Tertiary enamines are oxidized to different compounds. 7V-Methyl-pyrrol gives 92% of /V-methylsuccinimide by oxidation with peroxybenzoic acid in chloroform at room temperature [311]. A -Cyclohexenylmorpholine, with singlet oxygen, is oxidized to cyclohexanedione (equation 524) [42], The oxidation of Af-phenylacetylenyl-lV,Af-diethylamine yields the M diethylamide of phenylglyoxylic acid (equation 525) [7S6]. 

Methylene blue irradiation a-Diketones from enamines Oxidation with singlet oxygen... 

Ab initio molecular orbital calculations, coupled with activation energies and entropies from experimental data, have been employed to determine the nature of the intermediates in the reaction of singlet oxygen with alkenes, enol ethers, and enamines.214 Allylic alkenes probably react via a perepoxide-like conformation, whereas the more likely pathway for enamines involves a zwitterionic cycloaddition mechanism. The reactions of enol ethers are more complex, since the relative stabilities of the possible intermediates (biradical, perepoxide, and zwitterionic) here depend sensitively on the substituents and solvent polarity. 

However, in recent years, it has become apparent that several photoinduced oxidation reactions do not involve singlet oxygen as the reactive intermediate, and, consequently, the reaction products cannot be accounted for the mechanisms shortly reported above. Moreover, since the first report on the photochemical stereospecific synthesis of the most fascinating peroxide derivatives, i.e., 1,2-dioxetanes [32], it clearly appeared, with a few notable exceptions [33,38], that only electron-rich olefins, such as enamines, enol ethers, and thio-substituted... 

In a number of groundbreaking explorations,46 Wudl, Hummelen, and coworkers showed that photoinduced [2 + 2] cycloaddition of singlet oxygen to one of the electron-rich enamine-type double bonds of azahomo [60] fullerene derivative 53 (Scheme 1.8), followed by decomposition of the 1,2-dioxetane intermediate (not shown), led to ketolactam ( )-54, the first cluster-opened fullerene with a free orifice.153 Under synthetic conditions mimicking events observed in the gas phase,154 acid-induced loss of 2-methoxyethanol from... 

Quaternary papaverinium salts (22) have been converted into enamines (23), which have been oxidised by singlet oxygen or by oxygen and cuprous chloride with fission to the quinolones (24). N-methyl-3,4-dihydropapaverinium salts... 

Pyrroles are very sensitive to the action of singlet oxygen ( O2). Wasserman (1970) has observed a novel type of oxidation in the case of aryl-substituted pyrroles exemplified by the photooxidation of 2,3,4,5-tetraphenylpyrrole in methanol. There is special interest in the reactions of imidazoles with O2 since it has been shown that photooxi-dative inactivation of certain enzymes involves destruction of histidine residues, and more specifically oxidation of the imidazole ring (Wasserman and Lenz). These heterocyclic system behave in many respects like furans and pyrroles, but are more prone to cleavage through reactions resembling the oxidation of enamines by 02 (Wasserman et al. 1968). 

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