Heteroatom-centered

The Diels-Alder reaction is of wide scope. Not all the atoms involved in ring formation have to be carbon atoms the hetero-Diels-Alder reaction involving one or more heteroatom centers can be used for the synthesis of six-membered heterocycles. The reverse of the Diels-Alder reaction—the retro-Diels-Alder reaction —also is of interest as a synthetic method. Moreover and most importantly the usefulness of the Diels-Alder reaction is based on its 5y -stereospecifi-city, with respect to the dienophile as well as the diene, and its predictable regio-and c ifo-selectivities. °... 

Other radical reactions not covered in this chapter are mentioned in the chapters that follow. These include additions to systems other than carbon-carbon double bonds [e.g. additions to aromatic systems (Section 3.4.2.2.1) and strained ring systems (Section 4.4.2)], transfer of heteroatoms [eg. chain transfer to disulfides (Section 6.2.2.2) and halocarbons (Section 6.2.2.4)] or groups of atoms [eg. in RAFT polymerization (Section 9.5.3)], and radical-radical reactions involving heteroatom-centered radicals or metal complexes [e g. in inhibition (Sections 3.5.2 and 5.3), NMP (Section 9.3.6) and ATRP (Section 9.4)]. 

The hydrogen abstraction addition ratio is generally greater in reactions of heteroatom-centered radicals than it is with carbon-centered radicals. One factor is the relative strengths of the bonds being formed and broken in the two reactions (Table 1.6). The difference in exothermicity (A) between abstraction and addition reactions is much greater for heteroatom-centered radicals than it is for carbon-centered radicals. For example, for an alkoxy as opposed to an alkyl radical, abstraction is favored over addition by ca 30 kJ mol"1. The extent to which this is reflected in the rates of addition and abstraction will, however, depend on the particular substrate and the other influences discussed above. 

Alkyl radicals, when considered in relation to heteroatom-centered radicals (e.g. r-butoxy, benzoyloxy), show a high degree of chcmo- and rcgiospecificity in their reactions. A discussion of the factors influencing the rate and rcgiospecificity of addition appears in Section 2.3. Significant amounts of head addition arc observed only when addition to the tail-position is sterically inhibited as it is in a,p-disubstituted monomers. For example, with p-alkylacrylates, cyclohexyl... 

Various other heteroatom-centered radicals have been generated as initiating species. These include silicon-, sulfur-, selenium- (see 3.4.3.1). nitrogen- and phosphorus-centered species (see 3.4.3.2). Kinetic data for reactions of these radicals with monomers is summarized in Table 3.10. 

Tabic 3.10 Selected Rate Data for Reactions of Heteroatom-Centered Radicals... 

Importantly, the purple color is completely restored upon recooling the solution. Thus, the thermal electron-transfer equilibrium depicted in equation (35) is completely reversible over multiple cooling/warming cycles. On the other hand, the isolation of the pure cation-radical salt in quantitative yield is readily achieved by in vacuo removal of the gaseous nitric oxide and precipitation of the MA+ BF4 salt with diethyl ether. This methodology has been employed for the isolation of a variety of organic cation radicals from aromatic, olefinic and heteroatom-centered donors.174 However, competitive donor/acceptor complexation complicates the isolation process in some cases.175... 

Indeed, the extent of disproportionation of NO according to equation (89) clearly depends on the donor strength of the aromatic hydrocarbon.240 For example, hexamethylbenzene which is a strong donor (IP = 7.85 V) promotes the ionization of NO to an extent of 80% whereas the weaker donor durene (IP = 8.05 V) affords less than 25% ion-pair formation. Furthermore, the resulting NO+ cation is a powerful electron acceptor (Erea = 1.48 V versus SCE) in contrast to NO (Ered = 0.25 V versus SCE) and thus readily forms donor/acceptor complexes with a variety of aromatic, olefinic and heteroatom-centered donors. Accordingly, the donor/acceptor complexation and electron-transfer activation are the critical steps in various transformations in Chart 8 as described below. 

Addition ofN-, S- and P-Nucleophiles The reaction of nitrones with heteroatom centered nucleophiles has been little investigated and are mainly applied to the synthesis of new heterocyclic systems and stable nitroxyl radicals, containing a heteroatom at the a-carbon atom. 

Interestingly, homolytic substitution at boron does not proceed with carbon centered radicals [8]. However, many different types of heteroatom centered radicals, for example alkoxyl radicals, react efficiently with the organoboranes (Scheme 2). This difference in reactivity is caused by the Lewis base character of the heteroatom centered radicals. Indeed, the first step of the homolytic substitution is the formation of a Lewis acid-Lewis base complex between the borane and the radical. This complex can then undergo a -fragmentation leading to the alkyl radical. This process is of particular interest for the development of radical chain reactions. 

Scheme 2 Reactivity of carbon- and heteroatom-centered radicals towards organoboranes...

Reductive Addition of Heteroatom Centered Radicals to Alkynes and Alkenes... 

R-Y = radical precursor R-A = desired product A-X = radical trap X = heteroatom centered radical R = radical involved in product formation... 

The stability of heteroatom-centered radicals can be defined relative to reference systems sharing the same type of radical center. The stability of nitrogen-centered radicals may, for example, be defined relative to ammonia... 

The addition of anionic heteroatom-centered nucleophiles (HO, MeO, pyr-azolate, etc.) and carbanions (CN , enolates, aUcyl or alkynyl reagents) to the cationic allenylidenes [Ru( 7 -C9H7)(=C=C=CR R )(PPh3)2][PF6] [125-128,... 

Propargylic Substitution Reactions with Heteroatom-Centered Nucleophiles... 

In the presence of a catalytic amount of methanethiolate-bridged diruthenium complex (la abbreviated as met-DIRUX), reactions of propargylic alcohols (2) with a variety of heteroatom-centered nucleophiles such as alcohols, thiols, amines, amides, and diphenylphosphine oxide gave the corresponding propargylic substituted... 

Scheme 7.5 Propargylic substitution reactions of propargylic alcohols with a variety of heteroatom-centered nucleophiles.

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