High electrophilicity

The keto tautomer (211a) is involved in the high electrophilic reactivin-of the C-5 carbonyl group. Thus ring opening has been reported u ith various amino nucleophilic reagents. 

The polymerization of ethyleneimine (16,354—357) is started by a catalyticaHy active reagent (H or a Lewis acid), which converts the ethyleneimine into a highly electrophilic initiator molecule. The initiator then reacts with nitrogen nucleophiles, such as the ethyleneimine monomer and the subsequendy formed oligomers, to produce a branched polymer, which contains primary, secondary, and tertiary nitrogen atoms in random ratios. Termination takes place by intramolecular macrocycle formation. 

The ionization mechanism for nucleophilic substitution proceeds by rate-determining heterolytic dissociation of the reactant to a tricoordinate carbocation (also sometimes referred to as a carbonium ion or carbenium ion f and the leaving group. This dissociation is followed by rapid combination of the highly electrophilic carbocation with a Lewis base (nucleophile) present in the medium. A two-dimensional potential energy diagram representing this process for a neutral reactant and anionic nucleophile is shown in Fig. 

Hexafluoro-2-butyne readily undergoes anionic oligomerization in the presence of fluoride ion 24 ], but the intermediate vinylic carbamon can be trapped by highly electrophilic fluormated heterocycles [249] (equation 52)... 

Fluoroalkyl ketones may be used as the electrophilic partners in condensation reactions with other carbonyl compounds The highly electrophilic hexafluo-roacetone has been used in selective hexafluoroisopropyhdenation reactions with enol silyl ethers and dienolsilyl ethers [f] (equation 1)... 

Tnflic acid is an excellent catalyst for the nitration of aromatic compounds [.S7]. In a mixture with nitnc acid, it forms the highly electrophilic nitronium inflate, which can be isolated as a white crystalline solid Nitronium inflate is a powerful nitrating reagent in inert organie solvents and in tnflic acid or sulfuric acid. It nitrates benzene, toluene, chlorobenzene, nitrobenzene, m-xylene, and benzotn-fluoride quantitatively in the temperature range of-110 to 30 °C with exeeptionally high positional selectivity [87],... 

Ionic Inflate derivatives of nonmetallic elements such as selenium, sulfur, phosphorus, and iodine form an important class of reagents lor organic chemistry. Highly electrophilic phenylselenyl triflate can be used in the cyclization of 5- and 6-hydroxyalkenes, affording the corresponding tetrahydrofurans and pyrans [132] (equation 68). 

P-Ruorocarbenes like bis(trifluoromethyl)carbene and tnfluoromethylcar-bene by contrast are highly electrophilic, ground state tnplet species that display little selectivity in their reactions [759, 162]... 

All these compounds possess a highly electrophilic triple bond. In a number of cases the nucleophilic addition occurs at this bond only, whereas the carbonyl function acts as a negative charge acceptor. 

The fact that ionic liquids with weakly coordinating anions can combine, in a unique manner, relatively high polarity with low nucleophilicity allows biphasic catalysis with highly electrophilic, cationic Ni-complexes to be carried out for the first time [26]. 

The highly electrophilic 1,3,5-triazinylnitrene generated by photolysis of 2-azido-4,6-dimethoxy-l,3,5-triazine (24) does, however, bring about ring expansion of benzene to l-(4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-1//-azepine (25) in moderate yield.168... 

Whereas the production of arylnitrenes by the deoxygenation of nitrosobenzenes or nitro-benzenes by trivalent phosphorus reagents and their subsequent intramolecular ring expansion to 3//-azepines are well-known processes, the corresponding intermolecular reactions to form 1//-azepines have been exploited only on rare occasions and appear to be of little preparative value. For example, the highly electrophilic pentafluorophenylnitrene, obtained by deoxygenation of pentafluoronitrosobenzene with triethyl phosphite in benzene solution, produced a low yield (2-10%) of l-(pentafluorophenyl)-l//-azepine, which was isolated as its [4 + 2] cycloadduct with ethenetetracarbonitrile.169 With anisole as the substrate l-(pentafluorophenyl)-l//-azepin-2(3//)-one (16% bp 128 —130 C/0.4 Torr) was obtained. 

When lithiated, the ring strain of the three-membered heterocycle remains important, and this strain, combined with a weakening of the a-C-O bond, due to its greater polarization, make metalated epoxides highly electrophilic species [2], They react with strong nucleophiles (often the base that was used to perform the a-deprotonation) to give olefins following the elimination of M2O (Scheme 5.2, Path B), a process often referred to as reductive alkylation . 

The electrophilic carbene carbon atom of Fischer carbene complexes is usually stabilised through 7i-donation of an alkoxy or amino substituent. This type of electronic stabilisation renders carbene complexes thermostable nevertheless, they have to be stored and handled under inert gas in order to avoid oxidative decomposition. In a typical benzannulation protocol, the carbene complex is reacted with a 10% excess of the alkyne at a temperature between 45 and 60 °C in an ethereal solvent. On the other hand, the non-stabilised and highly electrophilic diphenylcarbene pentacarbonylchromium complex needs to be stored and handled at temperatures below -20 °C, which allows one to carry out benzannulation reactions at room temperature [34]. Recently, the first syntheses of tricyclic carbene complexes derived from diazo precursors have been performed and applied to benzannulation [35a,b]. The reaction of the non-planar dibenzocycloheptenylidene complex 28 with 1-hexyne afforded the Cr(CO)3-coordinated tetracyclic benzannulation product 29 in a completely regio- and diastereoselective way [35c] (Scheme 18). 

Triphenylphosphonium ylide reacts with the silylene complex 93 which has a highly electrophilic silicon center, to give the corresponding cationic adduct 94 [115]. The lengthening of the PC bond indicates a loss of the double bond character of the ylide and corresponds to the formation of a tetrahedral silicon center with four covalent bonds (Scheme 28). 

The only other reaction with an aromatic substance is the C-H insertion into ferrocene [85], giving 41,which illustrates the highly electrophilic character of the phosphinidene complex. Other aromatic C-H insertions have been observed, but these likely occur by means of intermediate P,0- and P,N-ylids,such as the reaction of (0C)5W=PR withbenzophenone and azobenzene that give 42 and 43,respectively [56a, 86]. 

Reaction of glycosylmethylamines with aryldiazonium salts gives a class of compounds which, by acid catalysis or unknown factors of enzymic catalysis, generate glycosylmethyldiazonium ions. These, in turn, lose nitrogen, to yield highly electrophilic carbenium ions, as illustrated for the ) -d-galactosyl derivative 38 (see Scheme 8). 

Nucleophilic reactions take place in the homocyclic ring, SwAr or AEc when it is activated by electron-withdrawing substituents. It has been described that halides can be displaced by a great number of nucleophiles via a normal and cine substitution [54,55]. Nitro containing Bfx has represented a class of neutral lO-TT-electron-defident system which exhibit an extremely high electrophilic character in many covalent nucleophihc addition and substitution processes. 4,6-Dinitrobenzofuroxan and others 4-nitro-6-substitutedbenzofuroxans (Scheme 2) have been defined as superelectrophiles and used as convenient probes to assess to the C-basicity of... 

The best carbonyl components for these reactions are highly electrophilic compounds such as glyocylate, pyruvate, and oxomalonate esters, as well as chlorinated and fluorinated aldehydes. Most synthetic applications of the carbonyl-ene reaction utilize Lewis acids. Although such reactions may be stepwise in character, the stereochemical outcome is often consistent with a cyclic TS. It was found, for example, that steric effects of trimethylsilyl groups provide a strong stereochemical influence.28... 

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