Heterocycles from heteroatom Diels-Alder reactions

The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction, like the Diels-Alder reaction, is a 6tt electron pericyclic reaction, but it differs from the Diels-Alder reaction in that the 4it component, called the 1,3-dipole, is a three-atom unit containing at least one heteroatom and which is represented by a zwitterionic octet structure. The 2tt component, here called the dipolarophile (rather than the dienophile), is a compound containing a double or triple bond. The product of the reaction is a five-membered heterocyclic compound. 

The carbo- and hetero-Diels-Alder reactions are excellent for the constmction of six-membered ring systems and are probably the most commonly applied cycloaddition. The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition complements the Diels-Alder reaction in a number of ways. 1,3-Dipolar cycloadditions are more efficient for the introduction of heteroatoms and are the preferred method for the stereocontrolled constmction of five-membered heterocycles (1 ). The asymmetric reactions of 1,3-dipoles has been reviewed extensively by us in 1998 (5), and recently, Karlsson and Hogberg reviewed the progress in the area from 1997 and until now (6). Asymmetric metal-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions have also been separately reviewed by us (7-9). Other recent reviews on special topics in asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions have appeared. These include reactions of nitrones (10), reactions of cyclic nitrones (11), the progress in 1996-1997 (12), 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions with chiral allyl alcohol derivatives (13) and others (14,15). 

The aromaticity of a heterocycle depends on how effectively the lone-pair of the heteroatom contributes to the aromatic sextet. The aromaticity of five-membered heterocyclic compounds may be estimated from their reactivity in the Diels-Alder reaction.94 Spectrophotometry shows that furan, thiophene, and selenophene resemble benzene in that with maleic anhydride 1 1 complexes are formed which are stable up to 150°C in the case of thiophene, decompose at 150°C with selenophene (whereby selenium is formed together with a diene which gives a further adduct with another molecule of maleic anhydride), and produce the usual adduct at 20°C with furan. Thus, only furan is a normal diene as regards the Diels-Alder reaction. 

The reactivity of five membered heterocycles with two heteroatoms as dienes with at least one nitrogen for Diels-Alder reactions is also very low. In fact, there is not much experimental data in this area of research, except for addition of dienophiles to oxazole, better known as the Kondrateva reaction [57]. The main reason for their low reactivity is high heterocycle aromaticity delocalization of molecular x-orbitals that should be part of the cycloaddition reaction. That can be explained from FMO energy difierences between aromatic heterocycles as well as by bond order uniformity of heterocycles with two heteroatoms... 

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. 

Table 41. Frontier Molecular Orbital (FMO) energy (eV) changes going from reactants to transition state structures with heterocycles with three heteroatoms in 1, 3, and 4 positions as dienes for Diels-Alder reaction. The values were...

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