Hydride transfer isomerization

In another example substituted allyl alcohols undergo non-oxidative doublebond shift if there is no labile coordination site available for the hydride transfer. Isomerization is explained by a reversible hydroxypalladation reaction [132]. 

At this time we do not have a firm nnderstanding of how CrCl2 and VCI3 catalyze the double bond isomerization and why other metal chlorides are less effective. We propose that CrCh" or VCh" anion plays a role in hydride transfer, facilitating donble bond isomerization. CnCh is less effective and both lactic acid and pyruvaldehyde are formed. FeCh" and MnCh" anions are ineffective in the transformation and only pyruvaldehyde is formed. The fact that only a small amount of 1,3-dihydroxyacetone is formed is consistent with the NMR observation that the compounds exist as hemiacetal dimers in ionic hquids and not as monomers. Otherwise 1,3-dihydroxyacetone would be expected as a major product (16). 

Metal hahdes in imidazolium ionic hquids offer unique enviromnents able to facihtate dehydration reactions. Under such conditions certain metal halides are able to catalyze formal hydride transfer reactions that otherwise do not occur in the ionic liquid media. We have now discovered two systems in which this transformation has been observed. The initial system involves the conversion of glucose to fractose followed by dehydration the second system involves the dehydration of glycedraldehyde dimer followed by isomerization to lactide. CrCls" anion is the only catalyst that has been effective for both systems. VCI3" is effective for the glyceraldehyde dimer system but not for glucose. 

The regioselectivity of the hydride addition step has been probed by searching for deuterium exchange into isomerized alkenes that have undergone partial reduction.15 The results suggest that Rh is electrophilic in the addition step and that the hydride transfer is nucleophilic. 

The rate also varies with butadiene concentration. However, the order of the rate dependence on butadiene concentration is temperature-de-pendent, i.e., a fractional order (0.34) at 30°C and first-order at 50°C (Tables II and III). Cramer s (4, 7) explanation for this temperature effect on the kinetics is that, at 50°C, the insertion reaction to form 4 from 3, although still slow, is no longer rate-determining. Rather, the rate-determining step is the conversion of the hexyl species in 4 into 1,4-hexadiene or the release of hexadiene from the catalyst complex. This interaction involves a hydride transfer from the hexyl ligand to a coordinated butadiene. This transfer should be fast, as indicated by some earlier studies of Rh-catalyzed olefin isomerization reactions (8). The slow release of the hexadiene is therefore attributed to the low concentration of butadiene. Thus, Scheme 2 can be expanded to include complex 6, as shown in Scheme 3. The rate of release of hexadiene depends on the concentra-... 

Table I gives the compositions of alkylates produced with various acidic catalysts. The product distribution is similar for a variety of acidic catalysts, both solid and liquid, and over a wide range of process conditions. Typically, alkylate is a mixture of methyl-branched alkanes with a high content of isooctanes. Almost all the compounds have tertiary carbon atoms only very few have quaternary carbon atoms or are non-branched. Alkylate contains not only the primary products, trimethylpentanes, but also dimethylhexanes, sometimes methylheptanes, and a considerable amount of isopentane, isohexanes, isoheptanes and hydrocarbons with nine or more carbon atoms. The complexity of the product illustrates that no simple and straightforward single-step mechanism is operative rather, the reaction involves a set of parallel and consecutive reaction steps, with the importance of the individual steps differing markedly from one catalyst to another. To arrive at this complex product distribution from two simple molecules such as isobutane and butene, reaction steps such as isomerization, oligomerization, (3-scission, and hydride transfer have to be involved.

Butene as the feed alkene would thus—after hydride transfer—give 2,2,3-TMP as the primary product. However, with nearly all the examined acids, this isomer has been observed only in very small amounts. Usually the main components of the TMP-fraction are 2,3,3-, 2,3,4-, and 2,2,4-TMP, with the selectivity depending on the catalyst and reaction conditions. Consequently, a fast isomerization of the primary TMP-cation has to occur. Isomerization through hydride- and methyl-shifts is a facile reaction. Although the equilibrium composition is not reached, long residence times favor these rearrangements (47). The isomerization pathways for the TMP isomers are shown schematically in Fig. 3. 

Fast hydride transfer reduces the lifetime of the isooctyl cations. The molecules have less time to isomerize and, consequently, the observed product spectmm should be closer to the primary products and further from equilibrium. This has indeed been observed when adamantane, an efficient hydride donor, was mixed with zeolite H-BEA as the catalyst (78). When 2-butene/isobutane was used as the feed, the increased hydride transfer activity led to considerably higher 2,2,3-TMP and lower 2,2,4-TMP selectivities, as shown in Fig. 5. 

Fig. 15 A proposed reaction network of direct ring opening of decalin reaction over acidic zeolites. PC Protolytic cracking HeT Hydride transfer HT Hydrogen transfer I Isomerization P /i-scission DS Desorption TA Transalkylation. Adapted from ref. 47.

Several reaction pathways for the cracking reaction are discussed in the literature. The commonly accepted mechanisms involve carbocations as intermediates. Reactions probably occur in catalytic cracking are visualized in Figure 4.14 [17,18], In a first step, carbocations are formed by interaction with acid sites in the zeolite. Carbenium ions may form by interaction of a paraffin molecule with a Lewis acid site abstracting a hydride ion from the alkane molecule (1), while carbo-nium ions form by direct protonation of paraffin molecules on Bronsted acid sites (2). A carbonium ion then either may eliminate a H2 molecule (3) or it cracks, releases a short-chain alkane and remains as a carbenium ion (4). The carbenium ion then gets either deprotonated and released as an olefin (5,9) or it isomerizes via a hydride (6) or methyl shift (7) to form more stable isomers. A hydride transfer from a second alkane molecule may then result in a branched alkane chain (8). The... 

This means that the isopropyl group stabilises the secondary ion sufficiently (compared to but-l-ene) for hydride transfer reactions to be suppressed, at least at low temperature. At about -120 °C a high polymer of structure (IV) is formed. This is a true phantom polymer, since there exists no corresponding monomer. Evidently, at the very low temperature the propagation reaction which would lead to structure (III) becomes much slower than the isomerization reaction ... 

Mazet et al. have reported an efficient asymmetric isomerization reaction of allylic alcohols [60, 61]. In a preliminary report they utilized the BArp analog of Crabtree s complex to efficiently catalyze a hydride transfer from the a position of the allylic alcohol to the p position of the olefin with a concomitant formation of a formyl group. A subsequent report detailed a remarkable enantioselective variant of this process catalyzed with Ir(12g) and (12h) (Scheme 12). 

In the case of alkenes, 1-pentene reactions were studied over a catalyst with FAU framework (Si/Al2 = 5, ultrastable Y zeoHte in H-form USHY) in order to establish the relation between acid strength and selectivity [25]. Both fresh and selectively poisoned catalysts were used for the reactivity studies and later characterized by ammonia temperature programmed desorption (TPD). It was determined that for alkene reactions, cracking and hydride transfer required the strongest acidity. Skeletal isomerization required moderate acidity, whereas double-bond isomerization required weak acidity. Also an apparent correlation was established between the molecular weight of the hard coke and the strength of the acid sites that led to coking. 

Such isomerizations are sometimes desired and sometimes are the cause of or explanation for unwanted structures. In the cationic polymerization forming poly(l-butene), nine different structural units have been found. Classical 1,2-hydride and 1,2-methide shifts, hydride transfer, and proton elimination account for these structures. 

Termination is even more complicated than described, especially when polymerizations by metallocene initiators are considered [Beach and Kissin, 1986 Kissin et al., 1999b Lehmus et al., 2000 Liu et al., 2001b Resconi et al., 2000 Rossi et al., 1995, 1996 Thorshaug et al., 1998 Weng et al., 2000 Zhao et al., 2000]. A variety of different unsaturated end groups have been found in different polymerizations. Isomerization of propagating chain ends followed by P-hydride transfer (Eq. 8-41) results in trisubstituted double bond end... 

Short branches, specifically ethyl branches up to about 2 mol%, are formed in the polymerization of ethylene by meso-ansa zirconocenes containing unsubstituted cyclo-pentadienyl and indenyl ligands [Melillo et al., 2002]. Ethyl branches form by an isomerization process in which the usual P-hydride transfer to monomer is immediately followed by reinsertion of the vinyl-terminated polymer into the formed ethyl-zirconium bond. 

The interconversion of aldoses and the respective 2-ketoses in alkaline solution may be somewhat more complex than originally supposed, as it has been reported that a partial transfer of hydrogen from C-2 of the aldose to C-l of the corresponding ketose occurs during the reaction.29 This observation is not inconsistent with isomerizations that involve 1,2-enediol intermediates. The transfer could occur as a result of a rapid conversion in which some of the protons originally at C-2 of the aldose molecules are retained by the solvent cage that surrounds the intermediate 1,2-enediol, and are, therefore, available for addition to C-l of the resulting ketose. It should be noted that other interpretations, such as hydride-transfer mechanisms, are also possible. 

A special case of isomerization is the racemization of optically active compounds catalyzed, for example, by sulfuric acid or promoted A1C13. Thus, treatment of (+)-(5)-3-methylhexane at 60°C with 96% sulfuric acid yields a mixture of racemic 2- and 3-methylhexane68 (Scheme 4.4). At lower temperature (0 or 30°C), racemization occurs, but shift of the methyl group does not take place. It can be concluded that at 60°C methyl migration is faster than hydride abstraction to yield isomeric alkanes. At 0 or 30°C, hydride transfer occurs before methyl... 

Positional Isomerization. A different type of isomerization, substituent migration, takes place when di- and polyalkylbenzenes (naphthalenes, etc.) are treated with acidic catalysts. Similar to the isomerization of alkanes, thermodynamic equilibria of neutral arylalkanes and the corresponding carbocations are different. This difference permits the synthesis of isomers in amounts exceeding thermodynamic equilibrium when appropriate reaction conditions (excess acid, fast hydride transfer) are applied. Most of these studies were carried out in connection with the alkylation of aromatic hydrocarbons, and further details are found in Section 5.1.4. 

Besides the rearrangement of carbocations resulting in the formation of isomeric alkylated products, alkylation is accompanied by numerous other side reactions. Often the alkene itself undergoes isomerization prior to participating in alkylation and hence, yields unexpected isomeric alkanes. The similarity of product distributions in the alkylation of isobutane with n-butenes in the presence of either sulfuric acid or hydrogen fluoride is explained by a fast preequilibration of n-butenes. Alkyl esters (or fluorides) may be formed under conditions unfavorable for the hydride transfer between the protonated alkene and the isoalkane. 

Related terminal epoxides undergoing eidugive isomerization by I -hydride transfer (Eq 482) include ec-ethyl and a-phenyiacryJo-phcnone oxide.822... 

Several instructive illustrations taken from the field of natural products will serve to conclude the present discussion of acid-catalyzed epoxide isomerization. Much has been said about the occurrence of simple i,2-hydride transfers in boron trifhioiide-catajyzed epoxy steroid rearrangements. Although initiated by a mineral acid rather than a Lewis acid, an instance of traneatmular hydride transfer has boon reported far a 9/3,110-epoxy steroid,1824 as shown in Eq. (484). Such migrations can in principle occur elsewhere. 

Scheme 11. Isomerization by hydride transfer Fieser and Fieser Mechanism (20)...

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