Functional groups, determination esters

The order of reactivities of various functional groups determined under standard conditions (using externally generated diborane, and tetrahydrofuran as solvent) is acid > alkene > ketone > nitrile > epoxide > ester > acid chloride.33 Acids, aldehydes, ketones, epoxides, nitriles, lactones and azo compounds are reduced rapidly, esters more slowly and chloral, acid chlorides and nitro compounds are inert. Double bonds undergo the hydroboration reaction,25 nitriles and azo compounds are reduced to amines, and the remaining groups to alcohols. Ketones can be reduced selectively in the presence of epoxides. Contrary to the order of reactivities given above, it has been claimed that nitriles are reduced more rapidly than ketones.223... 

Any radical can be attached to the oxygen atom in the fnnctional group. If a methyl is added to the oxygen atom, the name of the ester compound is methyl formate. When a methyl radical is attached to the carbon atom in the functional group, it forms a two-carbon chain. The alternate name for two carbons, acet, is used the ending ate is used to indicate an ester, so a two-carbon ester is an acetate. The second radical added to the oxygen in the functional group determines what type of acetate the compound is. Theoretically, any radical can be used. If a vinyl radical were used, the compound would be vinyl acetate. 

Functional groups determine the chemical reactivity of molecules in which they are found. Classes of compounds characterized by their functional groups include alcohols, ethers, aldehydes and ketones, carboxylic acids and esters, and amines. 

Advances have been achieved in recent years, such as the use of CL reagents as labels to derivatize and sensitively determine analytes containing amine, carboxyl, hydroxy, thiol, and other functional groups and their application in HPLC and CE [35, 36], the synthesis and application of new acridinium esters [37], the development of enhanced CL detection of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) labels [38], the use of immobilization techniques for developing CL-based sensors [39-42], some developments of luminol-based CL in relation to its application to time-resolved or solid-surface analysis [43], and the analytical application of electrogenerated CL (ECL) [44-47], among others. 

One can attribute the selective formation of materials with the ester and allyl units trans to one another, to the preference for the allyl unit to occupy a pseudoequatorial rather than a pseudoaxial orientation in the product-determining transition state. Compare, for example, transition state formulation 68 with 69. This stereochemical outcome is fortunate, as later on in the sequence, it is necessary for the allyl unit (after functional group modification) to swing across the top face of the cyclopentyl ring system during the conversion of 62 to 63. Were the substituents cis to one another, this would not be possible. 

Various transition metals have been used in redox processes. For example, tandem sequences of cyclization have been initiated from malonate enolates by electron-transfer-induced oxidation with ferricenium ion Cp2pe+ (51) followed by cyclization and either radical or cationic termination (Scheme 41). ° Titanium, in the form of Cp2TiPh, has been used to initiate reductive radical cyclizations to give y- and 5-cyano esters in a 5- or 6-exo manner, respectively (Scheme 42). The Ti(III) reagent coordinates both to the C=0 and CN groups and cyclization proceeds irreversibly without formation of iminyl radical intermediates.The oxidation of benzylic and allylic alcohols in a two-phase system in the presence of r-butyl hydroperoxide, a copper catalyst, and a phase-transfer catalyst has been examined. The reactions were shown to proceed via a heterolytic mechanism however, the oxidations of related active methylene compounds (without the alcohol functionality) were determined to be free-radical processes. 

---