Five-membered heterocycles relative reactivities

Intermolecular and intramolecular [3+2] cycloaddition reactions are among the most efficient and tvidely used procedures for synthesis of five-membered heterocycles. The reactive partners in these reactions are 1,3-dipoles and dipolarophiles such as alkenes and alkynes. 1,3-Dipoles vary in stability some can be isolated and stored, others are relatively stable, but they are usually employed immediately. Others are so unstable that they have to be generated and reacted in situ. There are tv ro general classes of dipole, often referred to as sp (Fig. 11.1) and sp -hybridized dipoles (Fig. 11.2). 

H(65)1889, 2005EJO3553>. Starting dihydro[l,2,4]triazolo[3, 4-4]benzo[l,2,4]triazines 482 readily react with aromatic aldehydes to yield iminium salts 483. These salts treated with a base (e.g., triethylamine) are deprotonated to reactive 1,3-dipolar azomethine imines 484. In contrast to related five-membered heterocycles, these compounds are relatively unstable on storage in the solid form and particularly in solution. Fortunately, this obstacle can be easily circumvented by their in situ preparation and subsequent 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. These compounds can participate in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions with both symmetric and nonsymmetric dipolarophiles to give the expected 1,3-cycloadducts in stereoselective manner. Selected examples are given in Scheme 82. 

Over the last 25 years both nitrile ylides and nitrile imines have continued to provide fascinating and synthetically useful chemistry. In both cases, the exploitation of [3 + 2]-cycloaddition chemistry with an increasing range of dipolarophiles has continued as a key route to five-membered heterocycles. The major development of new chemistry, however, has been in the extensive exploration of intramolecular reactions both in cycloaddition chemistry and in the electrocycliza-tion of 1,3-dipoles with extended conjugation. Such chemistry harnesses the unique reactivity of 1,3-dipoles in the synthesis of relatively elaborate structures but does require the design and preparation of quite complex reactants containing both the 1,3-dipole precursor and the dipolarophilic component. However, access to this chemistry is becoming much easier via the application of new synthetic procedures... 

Table 3 Relative reactivity of 2,5-dinitro derivatives of five-membered heterocycles and 1,4-dinitrobenzene towards some nucleophiles ...

Since the classic papers by Ingold and his co-workers,110, 111 nitration has for a long time been considered as the standard electrophilic substitution. Many orientation and relative rate data on the nitration of both carbocyclic and heterocyclic substrates have been accumulated and the results have been generalized as valid for all electrophilic substitutions. As a matter of fact, this popularity is partially undeserved nitration is a complicated reaction, which can occur by a multiplicity of parallel mechanisms.112 In particular, in the case of the very reactive substrates that five-membered heterocycles are, two complications may make meaningless both kinetic measurements and competitive experiments.113 (i) Due to the great reactivity of both partners the encounter limiting rate may be achieved in this case, of course, all the substrates react at the same rate and the effect of structure on the reactivity cannot be studied. (ii) Nitrous acid, always present in traces, may exert an anticatalytic effect in some cases and a markedly catalytic effect in others with a very reactive substrate, nitration may proceed essentially via nitrosa-tion, followed by oxidation. For these reasons, the nitration data must be handled with much caution. 

The relative reactivities of many five-membered heterocycles in acylation reactions130, 141-143 have been determined by the competitive method, which has the advantage over the kinetic one of not requiring a complete knowledge of the reaction kinetics. 

Since there are no extensive studies on the relative aromaticity of the heterocycles covered in this chapter, the relative order of aromaticity of these systems has been gleaned from disparate studies. A priori, the combined effects of the 7i-electron-deficient five-membered heterocycles annelated to a pyridine nucleus provides a series of bicyclic heterocycles with low reactivity towards electrophiles. In the presence of suitable leaving groups, they are prone to undergo nucleophilic substitution. Since these heterocycles are readily obtained from either appropriately substituted pyridines or five-membered heterocycles, methods for direct functionalization of the parent heterocycles are not frequently studied. Based on the diversity of reactions these heterocycles undergo, it can be inferred that the pyridofuroxans are the least aromatic. 

Reactivities, relative to benzene, in gas-phase protonation of five-membered heterocycles by 3HeT+ are pyrrole, 30 N-methylpyrrole, 6 furan, 0.7 and thiophene, 0.5 (84JA37). The low substrate selectivities are consistent with the anticipated high reactivity of the unsolvated electrophile. Demands for conjugative electron release by the heteroatom will be small, thus accounting for the low reactivity of furan and thiophene (see Section 5). 

This approach was extended to evaluate the relative stability and reactivity of fused five-membered heterocycles and benzene, based on the computed physical properties of their ground states <1996JHC1079>. The computed structures are presented in Figure 33. 

Because these transition state structures are symmetric, all previously used approaches for determining relative reactivity of the heterocycles should be applicable in these cases. The cycloaddition is a HOMO dienophile and LUMO heterocycle (diene) controlled cycloaddition reaction with exceptionally low demand for orbital energy changes in reactants to achieve the electronic contribution present in the transition state structure (Table 41). There is no doubt that 1,3,4-oxadiazole is the most reactive of all five-membered heterocycles with three heteroatoms. However, the question remains as to whether this heterocycle is more reactive than, for instance, furan or even cyclopentadiene. To answer this question, the deviation of bond order uniformity in the six-membered ring being formed was computed (Table 42). The bond order uniformity selected 1,3,4-... 

The relative reactivities of many five-membered heterocycles in acylation reactions have been determined by the com-... 

Diazaphospholes constitute the most widely investigated class of heterophospholes, the 67t-aromatic phosphorus heterocycles [1,2]. Diazaphospholes are unique in the manner that the five-membered ring incorporates one phosphorus atom. First diazaphosphole representative, i.e. 2//-[l,2,3 diazaphospholc was obtained as early as 1967 [3] and until 1980s the interest of organophosphorus chemists remained in the development of different synthetic routes and in investigating their varied reactivity due to the structural diversity within the class [4], On the basis of the relative positions of the three heteroatoms in the five-membered ring, six monocyclic diazaphosphole systems (A-F) are possible and all of them have been reported (Structure 1). 

Thiophene is far more reactive than benzene in electrophilic substitution reactions. Reaction with bromine in acetic acid has been calculated to be 1.76 x 109 times faster than with benzene (72IJS(C)(7)6l). This comparison should, of course, be treated with circumspection in view of the fact that the experimental conditions are not really comparable. Benzene in the absence of catalysts is scarcely attacked by bromine in acetic acid. More pertinent is the reactivity sequence for this bromination among five-membered aromatic heterocycles, the relative rates being in the order 1 (thiophene) and 120 (furan) or, for trifluoroacetylation, 1 (thiophene), 140 (furan), 5.3 xlO7 (pyrrole) (B-72MI31300, 72IJS(C)(7)6l). Among the five-membered heteroaromatics, thiophene is definitely the least reactive. 

While there are no extensive reports on the relative aromaticity of the heterocycles covered in this chapter, the general reactivity of these systems can be predicted based on first principles. By assuming that these fused systems are comprised of a five-membered rc-excessive heterocyclic system and a five-membered -deficient heterocyclic system, electrophilic agents are expected to react on the n-excessive subunit. Ab initio calculations on the thienothiazoles and furothiazoles predicted that electrophilic substitutions should occur exclusively on the furan or thiophene subunit with the regioselectivity being a function of the resonance-stabilization of the reactive intermediates <76KGS1202>. A priori, C-H deprotonation by a nonnucleophilic base should occur preferentially on the -deficient heterocyclic component. 

The relative reactivities of the five-membered-ring heterocycles are reflected in the Lewis acid required to catalyze a Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction (Section 15.13). Benzene requires AICI3, a relatively strong Lewis acid. Thiophene is more reactive than benzene, so it can undergo a Friedel-Crafts reaction using SnCl4, a weaker Lewis acid. An even weaker Lewis acid, BF3, can be used when the substrate is furan. Pyrrole is so reactive that an anhydride is used instead of a more reactive acyl chloride, and no catalyst is necessary. 

In this chapter are gathered the most important generalisations which can be made, and the general lessons which can be learned about the reactivity, and relative reactivities, one with the other, of the prototypical five-membered aromatic heterocycles pyrroles, thiophenes and furans. 

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