Five-membered heterocycles with more than two heteroatoms

Five-Membered Heterocycles with More than Two Heteroatoms. 227... 

Considering the formation of saturated five-membered heterocycles with two heteroatoms, it is worth to note the possibility to prepare 1,3-dioxolanes, dithiane, oxathianes 148 [93] and dioxolanones 149 [94] by condensation of the corresponding carbonyl compounds under microwave irradiation in acid medium (Scheme 52). The reaction, which is very useful for the protection of carbonyl compounds or for the preparation of useful synthetic intermediates, has also been carried out under batch conditions over Montmorillonite KIO clay in more than 150 g scale, using a 1 L quartz reactor [95]. 

The ring bond order deviation from uniformity partially agreed with the order of reactivity computed on the basis of FMO energy gaps. The least aromatic was 1,2,5-oxadiazole, while 1,2,3-thiadiazole should be most aromatic (Table 36). The order of reactivity was oxadiazole, triazole, thiadiazole in all 1,2,3-, 1,2,5- and 1,3,4-series of the three heteroatom heterocycles. Except for 1,3,4-oxadiazole, the two other 1,3,4- five-membered heterocycles were predicted to be more reactive than their 1,2,3- isomers (Table 36). The prediction that 1,2,5-oxadiazole was the most reactive heterocycle as a diene for Diels-Alder reaction was unacceptable due to the fact that two C-N bonds should be formed in the course of the reaction, which usually requires an exceptionally high activation barrier. 

We have looked at the five-membered aromatic heterocycles pyrrole, furan and thiophene in Section 11.5. Introduction of a second heteroatom creates azoles. This name immediately suggests that nitrogen is one of the heteroatoms. As soon as we consider valencies, we discover that in order to draw a five-membered aromatic heterocycle with two heteroatoms, it must contain nitrogen A neutral oxygen or sulfm atom can have only two bonds, and we cannot, therefore, have more than one of these atoms in any aromatic heterocycle. On the other hand, there is potential for having as many nitrogens as we like in an aromatic ring. 

Finally, we note that all of the discussed heterocyclic derivatives of indane and indene have heteroatoms only in their five-membered ring. There are many other heterocycles related to indane that have the heteroatoms located elsewhere. However, the thermochemistry of such species is essentially uncharted. The enthalpy of formation of purine (XLVIII), with its four nitrogens dispersed through both rings, has been measured in recent times [78], and chronicled in the archive [15] with yet a later value [79], These two values inexplicably differ by over 2000 kJ mol-1. In the absence of a value for the enthalpy of sublimation we are hesitant to discuss this species further, other than to note two estimates from a paper more than 100 years old [80] that straddle the results in [78] by ca. 20 kJ mol-1. 

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