Heterocyclic compounds four-membered ring, formation

Oxetanes are the cycloadducts from a carbonyl compound and an olefin. This one step photochemical formation of a four membered ring heterocycle has been named the Paterno-Buchi reaction 489a> b). Oxetanes are important synthetic intermediates as they can fragment into the carbonyl-olefin pair by which they were not formed (a so termed carbonyl-olefin metathesis). Two examples of such oxetan cracking reactions are shown below in (4.76)490) and in (4.77)491) in this last example the oxetane was used as a precursor for the pheromone E-6-nonenol,... 

The coordination of the phosphine P(ft-Pr)2Ph to the Lewis acidic Ga center is essential for the synthesis of both compounds. In the absence of any Lewis base, the most likely reaction product would be the heterocubane [ClGaSbSi(/-Pr)3]4. However, in analogy to the results observed for reactions of heterocycles [R MER with Lewis bases, leading to base-stabilized monomeric compounds, both the formation of 84 and 85 can be explained by reaction of such a heterocubane intermediate with the phosphine base. According to the description of heterocycles as head-to-tail adducts, heterocubanes may be described as Lewis acid-base adducts between two four-membered rings as shown in Fig. 45. 

Only a few papers on the formation of compounds with small rings have been published. One example is the [2 + 2]-cycloaddition of electron-rich enamines to Schiff bases under high pressure (1.4 GPa) (87JOC365). The reaction leads to substituted azetidines (1). Four-membered ring heterocycles, thietane derivatives (4), are formed by interaction of sulfene (2) with enamines (3) (86CB257 93JOC3429). 

Compounds 3 and 13 represented fused four-membered heterocycles, that have been formed by the photochemical irradiation of 2 (R = H) to give 12, via a photo-aza-Claisen rearrangement, in addition to the four-membered ring 13 in a very poor yield. The formation of which has been... 

The ease of ring formation helped us to make five-membered cyclic acetals from ketones and a seven-membered heterocyclic compound (see Chapter 6). In this chapter we have seen how three-membered epoxides are formed. Ring formation is generally preferred to bimolecular reactions forming open chain compounds providing that the ring is three-, five-, six-, or seven-membered. Four-membered ring are a special case discussed in Chapter 29 where all these points are developed more fully. 

The argument is closely analogous to that used to explain the regioselectivity of formation of bromoacetoxy compounds (Table 9.2) formed in the addition of bromine to alkenes in acetic acid. Similarly, addition of bromine to alkenes in water produces bromohydrins. Although they are more difficult to synthesize, iodohydrins and fluorohydrins are also known. For a review of the synthesis and reactions of halohydrins, see Rosowsky, A. in Weissberger, A., Ed. Heterocyclic Compounds with Three- and Four-Membered Rings, Part One Wiley-Intersdence New York, 1964 p.l. 

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