Intramolecular bifunctional

There are few, if any, examples of intramolecular bifunctional catalysis in aqueous solution. Maugh and Bruice (1971) examined ester hydrolysis reactions where two functional groups are present in... 

Breslow, R. and Mcallister, C, Intramolecular bifunctional catalysis of ester hydrolysis by metal ion and carboxylate in a carboxypeptidase model, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1971, 93, 7096-7097. 

Recent evidence has been advanced in support of the view that the tertiary nitrogen atom of ceveratrum ester alkaloid derivatives participates in an intramolecular basic catalysis of the solvolysis of C-16 esters and is therefore an instance of intramolecular bifunctional general acid-general base catalysis of ester solvolysis (118, 119). Examination of models indicated that the teritary nitrogen atom of ceveratrum ester alkaloids could participate in an intramolecular general base catalysis... 

T. Higuchi, H. Takechi, I. H. Pitman, and H. L. Fung (1971), Intramolecular bifunctional facilitation in complex molecules, combined nucleophilic and general acid participation in hydrolysis of hexachlorophene monosuccinate. J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 93, 539-540. 

Bis-Pyndoxal Tetraphosphate. A second class of bifunctional reagents, described in 1988, involves two pyridoxal groups linked by phosphates of different lengths (89). As shown in Table 4, the yield of intramolecularly cross-linked hemoglobin increases dramatically with increasing length of the phosphate backbone. It is beheved that the site of reaction of (bis-PL) is between the amino-terminal amino group of one P-chain and the... 

Another type of bifunctional catalysis has been noted with a,cn-diamines in which one of the amino groups is primary and the other tertiary. These substituted diamines are from several times to as much as 100 times more reactive toward imine formation than similar monofunctional amines. This is attributed to a catalytic intramolecular proton transfer. 

Other interesting synthetic applications of the ketone-derived enamine alkylation are found in the monomethylation of steroid enamines (249), extension of the benzylation reaction (250) to a ferrocene derivative (251), the use of a-bromoesters (252) and ketones (252) or their vinylogues (25J), in the syntheses of alantolactone (254-256), isoalantolactone (257), and with a bridged bis-enamine (258). The use of bifunctional alkylating agents is also seen in the introduction of an acetylenic substituent in the synthesis of the characteristic fragrant constituent of jasmine (259), the synthesis of macrocyclic ketolactones (260), the use of butyrolactone (261), and the intermolecular or intramolecular double alkylations of enamines with dihalides (262). 

Difunctional reagents, for example the very cheap dimethyldichlorosilane 48, which is produced on a large technical scale, and the much more reactive and expensive dimethylsilyl bis(O-triflate) 49 [65-67] (Scheme 2.8) convert alcohols or phenols 11 in the presence of bases, for example triethylamine or DBU, into the silylated compounds 50. Thus 48 and 49 and other bifunctional reagents such as di-tert-butyldichlorosilane [68] or di(tert-butylsilyl)-bis(0-triflate) [69] and the subsequently described 51 and 52 combine two alcohols to silicon-tethered molecules 50, which can undergo interesting intramolecular reactions [70-74]. 

A palladium-catalyzed one-step synthesis of dihydrobenzo[fc]furan-based fused aromatic heterocycles from bifunctional bromoenoates or bromoalkyl indoles and iodoarenes was reported, and an example is provided in the scheme below <060L3601>. 2-Alkyl- or 2-aryl-substituted benzo[ >]furans were synthesized by a copper-TMEDA catalyzed intramolecular annulation from the corresponding ketones <06OL1467>. 

In the presence of a proper second molecule bimolecular photochemical processes occur. Obviously such reactions can also occur in an intramolecular fashion in bifunctional molecules containing both reactive centres. These reactions are a) hydrogen abstraction by the excited molecule if the second molecule (or reactive centre) is a hydrogen donor RH (1.14) b) photodimerisation (1.15) c) photoaddition or photocycloaddition (1.16) d) electron transfer (1.17), if no bonding takes place between the reactants (or reactive centres). ... 

For the formation of microgels the presence of a crosslinking monomer is not always necessary. Thus, microgels have also been detected in polymers prepared with bifunctional monomers, e.g. poly(acrylonitrile-co-vinylacetate) [39], polyethylene [40],poly(vinylchloride) [41] andpoly(vinylidenefluoride) [42].Obviously, the reason for the intramolecular crosslinking with the formation of microgels are side reactions. 

It is remarkable that in the same year, 1934, two independent approaches, those of Stoll et al. and of Kuhn, led to the definition of two quantities which are conceptually quite similar and can be practically identical in many actual cases. In either case the intramolecular reaction is compared to a corresponding intermolecular process. This is the dimerisation reaction of the bifunctional reactant in the definition of the cyclisation constant C in the case of the effective concentration Crff Winter must be determined with the aid of an inter-molecular model reaction, the choice of which is not always obvious and can possibly lead to conceptual as well as experimental difficulties. It is also worth noting that although these early workers established a firm basis for interpretation of physical as well as of preparative aspects of intramolecular reactions, no extensive use of quantities C and Qff appears to have been made in the chemical literature over more than three decades after their definition. This is in spite of the enormous development of studies in the field of... 

In this author s opinion, the influence of chain length on the ease of cyclisation of bifunctional chains is the most relevant and fascinating aspect in intramolecular reactions. An illustrative example is provided by the reactivity profile (Fig. 7) related to the lactonisation of co-bromoalkanoate anions (44), which is the first ring-closure reaction series for which a complete set of... 

Intramolecular variations of a series of bifunctional derivatives lead to the formation of cyclic nitrones. Many pyrroline /V-oxide derivatives were obtained in the course of intramolecular interaction in situ between carbonyl and hydrox-ylamine groups, resulting from the reduction of a y-nitro group (Scheme 2.31) (Fig. 2.8) (238-253). 

Simple reactivity inversion" implies using an umpoled synthon whose origin has, in principle, nothing in common with the synthon with "unnatural" polarity. An example of this type of reactivity inversion is found in one of the possible synthesis of cw-jasmone (3) in which the nitroethane (4) is used as an equivalent of an "acetyl anion" and reacts with an a,P-unsaturated ketone to give the corresponding 1,4-bifunctional system which can then be transformed by a Nef-type reaction into the dissonant 1,4-dicarbonyl system [5]. An intramolecular aldol condensation finally affords the target molecule (Scheme 5.3). 

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