Forbidden rearrangements

Direct aromatization of the quinonoid intermediates is a photochemically allowed but thermally forbidden rearrangement (Scheme 5.6). When phenylethyl radicals are generated photochemically at 20 °C there is evidence95 of a-o coupling by way of the aromatized product 7. The products derived from these pathways can be trapped in thermal reactions by radical98 or acid1 catalyzed... 

There is the same difficulty if there were a cis-oxidative addition with HgC=CR adding trans to CO as in (10), while (11), which would be formed if HgC=CR added trans to L, could only reach the observed product by a symmetry-forbidden rearrangement. 

Dithiadiazolyl radicals are typically prepared by reduction of the corresponding cations with SbPh3. They are unstable with respect to isomerization to the 1,2,3,5-isomers both in solution " and in the solid state. The isomerization is a photochemically symmetry-allowed process, which is thermally symmetry forbidden. A bimolecular head-to-tail rearrangement has been proposed to account for this isomerization (Scheme 11.1). This rearrangement process is conveniently monitored... 

In any given sigmatropic rearrangement, only one of the two pathways is allowed by the orbital-symmetry rules the other is forbidden. To analyze this situation we first use a modified frontier-orbital approach. We will imagine that in the transition state the migrating H atom breaks away from the rest of the system, which we may treat as if it were a free radical. 

Interestingly, it was possible to probe the spin-forbidden component of the tunneling reaction with internal and external heavy atom effects. Such effects are well known to enhance the rates of intersystem crossing of electronically excited triplets to ground singlet states, where the presence of heavier nuclei increases spin-orbit coupling. Relative rates for the low-temperature rearrangements of 12 to 13 were... 

The prediction that the suprafacial path is forbidden, and the antarafacial one allowed (8) stimulated many experiments. In particular, the thermal rearrangements of the molecules shown in Fig. 17 a have been studied in detail (26) here the constraints due to molecular architecture do not allow antarafacial paths, so that stereochemical mutations must take place to preserve orbital symmetry (Fig. 17b)- These mutations can also be controlled by the bulk of the substituents R and R, so that steric and symmetry factors interact in a most interesting way. 

Assuming a reactive oxonium ylide 147 (or its metalated form) as the central intermediate in the above transformations, the symmetry-allowed [2,3] rearrangement would account for all or part of 148. The symmetry-forbidden [1,2] rearrangement product 150 could result from a dissociative process such as 147 - 149. Both as a radical pair and an ion pair, 149 would be stabilized by the respective substituents recombination would produce both [1,2] and additional [2,3] rearrangement product. Furthermore, the ROH-insertion product 146 could arise from 149. For the allyl halide reactions, the [1,2] pathway was envisaged as occurring via allyl metal complexes (Scheme 24) rather than an ion or radical pair such as 149. The remarkable dependence of the yield of [1,2] product 150 on the allyl acetal substituents seems, however, to justify a metal-free precursor with an allyl cation or allyl radical moiety. 

Rearrangement to the diphenyline product 3, formally a forbidden [3,5] shift, must take place by a different mechanism in parallel to 2 formation. Previous mechanistic suggestions have attempted to explain the formation of both products within the same mechanistic framework. It is now apparent that 3 is formed by rate-limiting N-N bond fission to give an intermediate from which the product is formed. The nature of this intermediate is not yet known, but it has been suggested16 that it could be a zr-complex. 

Even-electron rule Odd-electron ions (such as molecular ions and fragment ions formed by rearrangements) may eliminate either a radical or an even-electron neutral species, but even electron ions (such as protonated molecules or fragments formed by a single bond cleavage) will not usually lose a radical to form an odd-electron cation. In other words, the successive loss of radicals is forbidden. [12]... 

Haselbach et al. [9] also classified radical electrocyclic reactions in the three types shown in Fig. 2, but were the first to point out that formally state-forbidden radical ion reactions can be extremely facile because state crossings can occur at very low activation energies. The principles outlined were used to analyze the rearrangement of the quadricyclane radical cation, 1, to the norbor-nadiene radical cation, 2, a reaction that occurs at extremely low temperatures in Freon matrices [10]. 

Finally, it should be mentioned that rearrangement of the cp-cobaltacyclopentadiene intermediate to the thermodynamically more stable [(T7 -cp)Co(i7 -cyclobutadiene)] complex (which is catalytically inactive) is a thermally forbidden process [Eq.(47)]. 

There is an important class of rearrangements of strained cyclic a-bonded systems to give less strained ir-bonded qrstems which occur under the influence of transition metal catalysts although the uncatalysed proce is Woodward-Hoffman forbidden and slow. Examples are the conversion of cubanes XXII and bis-homocubanes XXIll to syn-tricyclooctadienes XXIV and related species XXV and of quadricyclene (XXVI) to norbomadiene (XXVII) [Ag, however, converted cubane and related species to the previously unrecognised species cuneane (XXVIII) and its relatives as do some electrophiles with incompletely filled d-subshells ... 

Although thermal [2 + 2] cycloadditions are forbidden as concerted reactions by the orbital symmetry conservation rules the same structural features which promote intermolecular cy-cioadditions will also promote intramolecular reactions. In addition, the proximity between two alkene moieties dictated by the tether length and rigidity would make these processes entropically favorable. A few reports have documented thermal intramolecular cycloadditions to cyclopropenes and activated alkenes. The thermal Cope rearrangement of allylcyclopropenes apparently proceeds by a two-step mechanism in which intramolecular [2 + 2] adducts have been observed.72-73... 

According to the generalized Woodward-Hoffmann rule, the total number of (4q + 2)s and (4r)0 components must be odd for an orbitally allowed process. Thus, Eq. (14) is an allowed, and Eq. (13) a forbidden sigmatropic rearrangement. The different fluxional characteristics of tetrahapto cyclooctatetraene (52, 138) and substituted benzene (36, 43, 125) metal complexes may therefore be related to orbital symmetry effects. 

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