Hexenyl

Effects of substituent on the regiochemistry of the 5-hexenyl radical cyclization... 

Other transformations of the radicals are also possible. For example, the 5-hexenyl radical partially cyclizes in competition with coupling ... 

The use of radical cyclizations to make five-membered rings has become a very important tool for synthetic chemists Although there has been a virtual explosion of reports in the literature regarding the cyclization of 5-hexenyl radicals to cyclopentyl carbinyl radicals in all types of hydrocarbon systems [55], the use of this cyclization for the synthesis of fluorme-containing cyclopentanes has been largely ignored... 

The first example of a cyclization of fluorine-containing 5-hexenyl radicals was the study of the radical-iniOated cyclodimenzation reaction of 3,3,4,4-tetra-fluoro-4-iodo-1-butene. In this reaction, the intermediate free radical adds either to more of the butene or to an added unsaturated species [54, 55] (equation 56). Electron-deficient alkenes are not as effective trapping agents as electron-nch alkenes and alkynes [55]. 

Other radicals undergo rearrangement in competition with bimolecular processes. An example is the 5-hexenyl radical (5). The 6-heptenoyloxy radical (4) undergoes sequential fragmentation and cyclization (Scheme 3.8).1S... 

The understanding of the mechanism of cyclopolymerization has been one of the initial driving forces responsible for studies on the factors controlling the mode of ring closure of 5-hexenyl radicals and other simple model compounds.113... 

The preferential 1,5-ring closure of unsubsliluted 5-hexenyl radicals has been attributed to various factors these arc discussed in greater detail in Section 2.3.4. The mode and rate of cyclization is strongly influenced by substituents. The results may be summarized as follows (Scheme 4.13) ... 

A mode] study has demonstrated the pathways shown in Scheme 4,17. The first cyclization step gave predominantly five-membered rings, the second a mixture of six- and seven-membered rings.155 Relative rate constants for the individual steps were measured. The first cyclization step was found to be some five-fold faster than for the parent 5-hexenyl system. Although originally put forward as evidence for hyperconjugation in 1,6-dienes, further work showed the rate acceleration to be sterie in origin.113-I3j... 

Geometric considerations would seem to dictate that 1,4- and 1,5-dicncs should not undergo cyclopolymerization readily. However, in the case of 1,4-dienes, a 5-hexenyl system is formed after one propagation step. Cyclization via 1,5-backbiling generates a second 5-hexenyl system. Homopolymerization of divinyl ether (22) is thought to involve such a bicyclization. The polymer contains a mixture of structures including that formed by the pathway shown in Scheme 4.18. 

A better-known example of a free radical clock is the 5-hexenyl radical. Timing is provided by the rearrangement reaction... 

Activation parameters. Calculate AW and AS for the cyclization of the 5-hexenyl radical, whose rate is given in Eq. (5-39). 

Eisch, Behrooz and Galle196 give compelling evidence for the intervention of radical species in the desulphonylation of certain acetylenic or aryl sulphones with metal alkyls having a lower oxidation potential at the anionic carbon. The primary evidence presented by these workers is that the reaction of 5-hexenylmagnesium chloride outlined in equation (85) gives a mixture of desulphonylation products, in accord with the known behaviour of the 5-hexenyl radical, in which the cyclopentylmethyl radical is also formed. 

One experimental test for the involvement of radical intermediates is to study 5-hexenyl systems and look for the characteristic cyclization to cyclopentane derivatives (see Part A, Section 11.2.3). When 5-hexenyl bromide or iodide reacts with LiAlH4, no cyclization products are observed. However, the more hindered 2,2-dimethyl-5-hexenyl iodide gives mainly cyclic product.164... 

Small amounts of cyclized products are obtained after the preparation of Grignard reagents from 5-hexenyl bromide.9 This indicates that cyclization of the intermediate radical competes to a small extent with combination of the radical with the metal. Quantitative kinetic models that compare competing processes are consistent with diffusion of the radicals from the surface.10 Alkyl radicals can be trapped with high efficiency by the nitroxide radical TMPO.11 Nevertheless, there remains disagreement about the extent to which the radicals diffuse away from the metal surface.12... 

Another major influence on the direction of cyclization is the presence of substituents. Attack at a less hindered position is favored by both steric effects and the stabilizing effect that most substituents have on a radical center. These have been examined by DFT (UB3LYP/6-31+G ) calculations, and the results for 5-hexenyl radicals are shown in Figure 10.14. For the unsubstituted system, the 5-exo chair TS is favored over the 6-endo chair by 2.7kcal/mol. A 5-methyl substituent disfavors the 5-exo relative to the 6-endo mode by 0.7kcal/mol, whereas a 6-methyl substituent increases the preference for the 5-exo TS to 3.3 kcal/mol.322... 

Fig. 10.13. MM2 models of exo and endo cyclization transition structures for 5-hexenyl, 6-heptenyl, and 7-octenyl radicals. Reproduced from Tetrahedron, 41, 3925 (1985), by permission of Elsevier.

Rearrangement of trivalent (5-hexenyl)Co(salen) proceeds via a radical chain process leading to the isomeric cyclopentylmethyl complex.1387 The efficiency with which this rearrangement occurs is dependent on the presence of trace impurities or 02. The selective reaction of alcohols (ROH) with arylglyoxals (ArCOCHO) to give a-aryl-a-hydroxyacetic esters ArCH(0H)C02R is catalyzed by compounds of this family.1388... 

FIGURE 1. Reaction of l-methyl-5-hexenyl with n-BiijGell. Reprinted with permission from Reference 19. Copyright (1987) American Chemical Society... 

The presence of a 5-hexenyl substituent in 28i allowed the o-quinodimethane 229b to be captured in an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction, producing 230, having a tetracyclic steroidal skeleton, in a single operation (Scheme 20.47) [33, 34], The fused tetracyclic 5,6,6,5-ring system was likewise produced from 34f and 34g. 

A more recent example is found in the work of Schmid and Ingold (1978), who used the rate of rearrangement (17) of 5-hexenyl radicals into cyclopentylmethyl radicals (R- and R - in Scheme 5) to time the spin trapping of primary alkyl radicals. In this system, both R and R are primary alkyl, and their spin adducts with several traps therefore have virtually indistinguishable spectra. This difficulty was circumvented by labelling C-l in the hex-5-enyl radical with 13C the unrearranged radical then gives spin... 

Since kc is known with reasonable precision, A T can be determined. The procedure was employed to estimate kT using several different traps. The temperature range for these experiments was limited by experimental constraints but activation energies for trapping 5-hexenyl radicals by MNP and PBN were estimated to be ca. 2.0 and 3.2 kcal mol-1 respectively, within rather large error limits log A for each trap is ca. 8. 

Table II. Most of the data was obtained from radical clock studies. The neophyl radical rearrangement24 [Eq. (2)] was used for the majority of the kinetic data in Table II, but the ring expansion rearrangement reactions25-27 of radicals 7 and 8, cyclizations of 5-hexenyl type radicals,...

Depends on literature values for 5-hexenyl-type rearrangements. 

The kinetic data for these reactions are numerous, as shown in Table VI. Most of values were obtained by radical clock methods. The ring expansion of radical 7 has been employed as the clock in a study that provided much of the data in Table VI.74 Cyclizations of 5-hexenyl-type radicals also have been used as clocks,75-77 and other competition reactions have been used.78 Hydrogen atom abstraction from n-Bu3GeH by primary alkyl radicals containing a trimethylsilyl group in the a-, >8-, or y-position were obtained by the indirect method in competition with alkyl radical recombi-... 

The extension of the cyclization from tetrahydrofurans and pyrrolidines to car-bocycles leads to a sharp decrease in the yield of cyclized product. This is due to the slower cyclization rate of 5-hexenyl radicals compared to 5-(3-oxahexenyl) radicals, which favors the competing bimolecular coupling to the acyclic product. Three measures help to increase the yield in these cyclizations. 

These methods are usually highly regio- and stereoselective and represent a breakthrough for synthetic chemistry using radicals. Giese quotes, as an example, that the cyclisation of the 5-hexenyl radical 8 affords the primary cyclopentylmethyl... 

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