Enolate ions protonation

The retro-Claisen reaction occurs by initial nucleophilic addition of a cysteine -SH group on the enzyme to the keto group of the /3-ketoacyl CoA to yield an alkoxide ion intermediate. Cleavage of the C2-C3 bond then follows, with expulsion of an acetyl CoA enolate ion. Protonation of the enolate ion gives acetyl CoA, and the enzyme-bound acyl group undergoes nucleophilic acyl substitution by reaction with a molecule of coenzyme A. The chain-shortened acyl CoA that results then enters another round of tire /3-oxidation pathway for further degradation. 

In a 1,4-addition, the nucleophile adds to the /3 carbon atom of an a,/3-unsaturated system to give an enolate ion. Protonation may occur on oxygen to give an enol, or on carbon to give the keto form. 

The reactions of enamines with electrophiles follow a similar course and are also of OE t type. Enamines are isoconjugate with enolate ions and can likewise react with electrophiles in two different ways, either on nitrogen to form an enammonium ion or on carbon to form a methyleneammonium ion. As in the case of enolate ions, protonation takes place more rapidly on the heteroatom (here nitrogen) rather than carbon while allyl halides, e.g., methyl iodide, give C-alkylated products e.g.. 

Step 2 A water molecule acts as a Brpnsted acid to transfer a proton to the oxygen of the enolate ion... 

The slow step m base catalyzed enolization is formation of the enolate ion The second step proton transfer from water to the enolate oxygen is very fast as are almost all proton transfers from one oxygen atom to another... 

Only the a hydrogens are replaced by deuterium m this reaction The key intermediate IS the enolate ion formed by proton abstraction from the a carbon atom of cyclopen tanone Transfer of deuterium from the solvent D2O to the enolate gives cyclopentanone containing a deuterium atom m place of one of the hydrogens at the a carbon... 

Each act of proton abstraction from the a carbon converts a chiral molecule to an achi ral enol or enolate ion The sp hybridized carbon that is the chirality center m the start mg ketone becomes sp hybridized m the enol or enolate Careful kinetic studies have established that the rate of loss of optical activity of sec butyl phenyl ketone is equal to Its rate of hydrogen-deuterium exchange its rate of brommation and its rate of lodma tion In each case the rate determining step is conversion of the starting ketone to the enol or enolate anion... 

The point was made earlier (Section 5 9) that alcohols require acid catalysis in order to undergo dehydration to alkenes Thus it may seem strange that aldol addition products can be dehydrated in base This is another example of the way in which the enhanced acidity of protons at the a carbon atom affects the reactions of carbonyl com pounds Elimination may take place in a concerted E2 fashion or it may be stepwise and proceed through an enolate ion... 

Reversible electron addition to the enone forms the radical anion. Rate determining protonation of the radical anion occurs on oxygen to afford an allylic free radical [Eq. (4b) which undergoes rapid reduction to an allylic carbanion [Eq. (4c)]. Rapid protonation of this ion is followed by proton removal from the oxygen of the neutral enol to afford the enolate ion [Eq. (4c)]. 

Reduction of linearly conjugated 4,6-dien-3-ones with lithium-ammonia yields either 5-en-3-ones or 4-en-3-ones depending upon the work-up procedure. Protonation of the dienyl carbanion intermediate (58) occurs at C-7 to give ultimately the enolate ion (59) kinetic protonation of (59) occurs largely at C-4 to give the 5-en-3-one (60). ... 

Enolate ion formation (Section 18.6) An a hydrogen of an aldehyde or a ketone is more acidic than most other protons bound to carbon. Aldehydes and ketones are weak acids, with pK s in the 16 to 20 range. Their enhanced acidity is due to the electron-withdrawing effect of the carbonyl group and the resonance stabilization of the enolate anion. 

As noted previously, conjugate addition of a nucleophile to the j3 carbon of an cr,/3-unsaturated aldehyde or ketone leads to an enolate ion intermediate, which is protonated on the a carbon to give the saturated product (Figure 19.16). The net effect is addition of the nucleophile to the C=C bond, with the carbonyl group itself unchanged. In fact, of course, the carbonyl group is crucial to the success of the reaction. The C=C bond would not be activated for addition, and no reaction would occur, without the carbonyl group. 

Mechanism of base-catalyzed enol formation. The intermediate enolate ion, a resonance hybrid of two forms, can be protonated either on carbon to regenerate the starting keto tautomer or on oxygen to give an enol. 

Figure 22.5 Mechanism of enolate ion formation by abstraction of an a proton from a carbonyl compound. The enolate ion is stabilized by resonance, and the negative charge (red) is shared by the oxygen and the a carbon atom, as indicated by the electrostatic potential map.

Aldol reactions, Like all carbonyl condensations, occur by nucleophilic addition of the enolate ion of the donor molecule to the carbonyl group of the acceptor molecule. The resultant tetrahedral intermediate is then protonated to give an alcohol product (Figure 23.2). The reverse process occurs in exactty the opposite manner base abstracts the -OH hydrogen from the aldol to yield a /3-keto alkoxide ion, which cleaves to give one molecule of enolate ion and one molecule of neutral carbonyl compound. 

Tire mechanism of the Claisen condensation is similar to that of the aldol condensation and involves the nucleophilic addition of an ester enolate ion to the carbonyl group of a second ester molecule. The only difference between the aldol condensation of an aldeiwde or ketone and the Claisen condensation of an ester involves the fate of the initially formed tetrahedral intermediate. The tetrahedral intermediate in the aldol reaction is protonated to give an alcohol product—exactly the behavior previously seen for aldehydes and ketones (Section 19.4). The tetrahedral intermediate in the Claisen reaction, however, expels an alkoxide leaving group to yield an acyl substitution product—exactly the behavior previously seen for esters (Section 21.6). The mechanism of the Claisen condensation reaction is shown in Figure 23.5. 

Protonation of the enolate ion by addition of aqueous acid in a separate step yields the final /3-keto ester product. 

Base abstracts an acidic a proton from the carbon atom next to one of the ester groups, yielding an enolate ion. 

One suggested mechanism is that the reaction may take place by a conjugate hydride-transfer mechanism, analogous to what occurs during alcohol oxidations with NAD+. Electrons on the enolate ion might expel a (3 hydride ion, which could add to the doubly bonded NS nitrogen on FAD. Protonation of the intermediate at N1 would give the product. 

Step 2 of Figure 29.3 Conjugate Addition of Water The a,(3-unsaturated acyl CoA produced in step 1 reacts with water by a conjugate addition pathway (Section 19.13) to yield a jG-hydroxyacyl CoA in a process catalyzed by enoyl CoA hydratase. Water as nucleophile adds to the 3 carbon of the double bond, yielding an enolate ion intermediate that is protonated on the a position. 

Transfer of the phosphoryl group to ADP in step 10 then generates ATP and gives enolpyruvate, which undergoes tautomerization to pyruvate. The reaction is catalyzed by pyruvate kinase and requires that a molecule of fructose 1,6-bis-phosphate also be present, as well as 2 equivalents of Mg2+. One Mg2+ ion coordinates to ADP, and the other increases the acidity of a water molecule necessary for protonation of the enolate ion. 

Steps 7-8 of Figure 29.12 Hydration and Oxidation The final two steps in the citric acid cycle are the conjugate nucleophilic addition of water to fumarate to yield (S)-malate (L-malate) and the oxidation of (S)-malate by NAD+ to give oxaloacetate. The addition is cataiyzed by fumarase and is mechanistically similar to the addition of water to ris-aconitate in step 2. The reaction occurs through an enolate-ion intermediate, which is protonated on the side opposite the OH, leading to a net anti addition. 

This reaction illustrates the striking difference in behavior between carboxylic esters on the one hand and aldehydes and ketones on the other. When a carbanion such as an enolate ion is added to the carbonyl group of an aldehyde or ketone (16-41), the H or R is not lost, since these groups are much poorer leaving groups than OR. Instead the intermediate similar to 146 adds a proton at the oxygen to give a hydroxy compound. 

Protonation of the enolate ion is chiefly at the oxygen, which is more negative than the carbon, but this produces the enol, which tautomerizes. So, although the net result of the reaction is addition to a carbon-carbon double bond, the mechanism is 1,4 nucleophilic addition to the C=C—C=0 (or similar) system and is thus very similar to the mechanism of addition to carbon-oxygen double and similar bonds (see Chapter 16). When Z is CN or a C=0 group, it is also possible for Y to attack at this carbon, and this reaction sometimes competes. When it happens, it is called 1,2 addition. 1,4 Addition to these substrates is also known as conjugate addition. The Y ion almost never attacks at the 3 position, since the resulting carbanion would have no resonance stabilization " ... 

Still another possibility in the base-catalyzed reactions of carbonyl compounds is alkylation or similar reaction at the oxygen atom. This is the predominant reaction of phenoxide ion, of course, but for enolates with less resonance stabilization it is exceptional and requires special conditions. Even phenolates react at carbon when the reagent is carbon dioxide, but this may be due merely to the instability of the alternative carbonic half ester. The association of enolate ions with a proton is evidently not very different from the association with metallic cations. Although the equilibrium mixture is about 92 % ketone, the sodium derivative of acetoacetic ester reacts with acetic acid in cold petroleum ether to give the enol. The Perkin ring closure reaction, which depends on C-alkylation, gives the alternative O-alkylation only when it is applied to the synthesis of a four membered ring ... 

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