Equilibrating cations

Tadanier also found that the interconversion of (69a), (70a) and (71a) (see Chart I) could be achieved under distinct conditions of solvolysis and suggested a series of equilibrating cations to account for these observations (see Chart II). 

Non-Kolbe electrolysis may lead to a large product spectrum, especially when there are equilibrating cations of about equal energy involved. However, in cases where the further reaction path leads to a particularly stabilized carbocation and either elimination or solvolysis can be favored, then non-Kolbe electrolysis can become an effi-yient synthetic method. This is demonstrated in the following chapters. 

K, J. Morgan, and F. J. Chloupek Structural effects in solvolytic reactions. I. The role of equilibrating cations in carbonium ion chemistry. Nature of the intermediates involved in the solvolysis of symmetrically substituted 3-phcnylethyl derivatives. J. Amer. chem. Soc. 87, 2137 (1965). 

The method has also been successfully applied to other equilibrating cations such as 2-butyl (58), 2,3-dimethyl-2-butyl (130), and 2,2,3-trimethyl-2-butyl (131) cations (Scheme 5.10). These systems undergo rapid degenerate... 

Evidence for equilibrating cations and stereospecific isotope effects... 

There is another mechanism for equilibration of the cation pairs A, Aj and B, Bj, namely, inversion at oxygen. However, the observed barrier represents at least the minimum for the C=0 rotational barrier and therefore demonstrates that the C-O bond has double-bond character. 

When 2-butyl tosylate is solvolyzed in the less nucleophilic solvent triiluoroacetic acid, a different result emerges. The extent of migration approaches the 50% that would result from equilibration of the two possible secondary cations. 

The description of the nonclassical norbomyl cation developed by Wnstein implies that the nonclassical ion is stabilized, relative to a secondary ion, by C—C a bond delocalization. H. C. Brown of Purdue University put forward an alternative interpreta-tioiL He argued that all the available data were consistent with describing the intermediate as a rapidly equilibrating classical ion. The 1,2-shift that interconverts the two ions was presumed to be rapid relative to capture of the nucleophile. Such a rapid rearrangement would account for the isolation of racemic product, and Brown proposed that die rapid migration would lead to preferential approach of the nucleophile fiom the exo direction. 

For the other broad category of reaction conditions, the reaction proceeds under conditions of thermodynamic control. This can result from several factors. Aldol condensations can be effected for many compounds using less than a stoichiometric amount of base. Under these conditions, the aldol reaction is reversible, and the product ratio will be determined by the relative stability of the various possible products. Conditions of thermodynamic control also permit equilibration among all the enolates of the nucleophile. The conditions that permit equilibration include higher reaction temperatures, protic solvents, and the use of less tightly coordinating cations. 

The stereochemistry of the carboxylation of 4-substituted ( + )-(/ S)-fra ,v-1-(4-mcthylphcnyl-sulfinylmethyl)cyclohexane after metalation with methyllithium and quenching with carbon dioxide was reported64. The results listed in Table 1 show that the d.r. of around 75 25 under kinetic control changes to 25 75 under thermodynamic control. This is the result of the equilibration of the two diastereomeric metalated species. As shown by the experiment in hexamethylphosphoric Iriamide (IIMI A) (d.r. = 57 43 under kinetic control) an electrophilic assistance of the lithium cation to the electrophilic approach is probably involved. 

The ratio of the different isomeric products was found to vary with time, temperature, and initial concentration. This suggested that some kind of equilibration was occurring between isomers. I3C NMR spectroscopy of a reaction mixture showed, upon cooling, the reversible formation of a pair of signals in the anomeric region. These signals were ascribed to the anomeric carbon atoms of fructofuranosyl fluorides (10), which were presumed to be in equilibrium with the reactive fructofuranosyl cation, 11. 

Most of these results have been obtained in methanol but some of them can be extrapolated to other solvents, if the following solvent effects are considered. Bromine bridging has been shown to be hardly solvent-dependent.2 Therefore, the selectivities related to this feature of bromination intermediates do not significantly depend on the solvent. When the intermediates are carbocations, the stereoselectivity can vary (ref. 23) widely with the solvent (ref. 24), insofar as the conformational equilibrium of these cations is solvent-dependent. Nevertheless, this equilibration can be locked in a nucleophilic solvent when it nucleophilically assists the formation of the intermediate. Therefore, as exemplified in methylstyrene bromination, a carbocation can react 100 % stereoselectivity. 

---