Isomerization polycyclization

The existence of isomeric polycyclic aromatic diol epoxide compounds provides rich opportunities for attempting to correlate biological activities with the physico-chemical reaction mechanisms, and conformational and biochemical properties of the covalent DNA adduct8 which are formed. 

Similar intramolecular Heck reactions with Pd(OAc)2 and a base (KOAc) or a phosphine have been reported by two other groups.78 These conditions also result in two isomeric polycyclic alkenes. 

The MM method proved to be remarkably useful for elucidating the complex mechanisms of the famous syntheses of adamantane and diamantane as well as other diamondoid molecules from isomeric polycyclic hydrocarbons under Lewis acid catalysis in Schleyer s laboratory (128,258,264-266),... 

The two isomeric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons phenanthrene and anthracene are solids at 25°C. Although these compounds have almost the same boiling point (see below), their vapor pressures at 25°C differ by more than one order of magnitude (see Appendix C). Explain these findings. What differences would you expect for the subcooled liquid vapor pressures of the two compounds at 25°C ... 

Kong, R.C. and Milton, L.L., Mesogenic polysiloxane stationary phase for high resolution gas chromatography of isomeric polycyclic aromatic compounds, Anal. Chem., 54, 1802, 1982. 

Treatment of ketone 409 with lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) results in the ethyl 1,2-dihydroxybenzoate 410 in a 74% yield (equation 191) . The acid-catalyzed isomerization of diarene oxides derived from benz[a]anthracene, chrysene and benzo[c]phenanthrene gives mixtures of isomeric polycyclic phenols. Finally, it should be mentioned that dibenzo[i>, ]oxepin 411 undergoes an interesting rearrangement to 2-hydroxyphenylindene 412 (equation 192). 

Riahi, K. and Sellier, N., Separation of isomeric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by GC-MS differentiation between isomers by positive chemical ionization with ammonia and dimethyl ether as reagent gases, Chromatographia, Al, 309-312, 1998. 

As already mentioned, the modest yield of tetraphosphacubane from the reaction 59 c -+ 53 c is due to the formation of isomeric polycyclic compounds. 

Oehme, M Determination of Isomeric Polycyclic T matic Hydrocarbons in TUr Particulate Matter by High-Resolution Gas Chromatography/Negative Ion Chemical lorrization Mass Spectrometry. Anal. Chem. 1983,55, 2290-2295. 

The same isomerization also occurs with diarylthiazoles, but when two adjacent phenyl groups are present, even in the final product, a photochemical cyclization gives rise to a polycyclic benzothiazole (Scheme 3) (213,218,219). 

The readily prepared 1-ethynylcyclohexanol (Chapter 14) can be isomerized with acidic catalysts into I -acetylcyclohexene, a compound of considerable use in the building up of polycyclic molecules. To illustrate the fact that a variety of conditions can be employed to carry out a given process, three methods are presented. 

Dihydro-9,10-epoxyphenanthrene and related arene oxides are of considerable interest as carcinogens formed by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in vivo.45 Phenanthrene oxide does not isomerize to the corresponding dibenzoxepin under thermal conditions. Photolysis of... 

Scheme 6.17 gives some examples of the orthoamide and imidate versions of the Claisen rearrangement. Entry 1 applied the reaction in the synthesis of a portion of the alkaloid tabersonine. The reaction in Entry 2 was used in an enantiospecific synthesis of pravastatin, one of a family of drugs used to lower cholesterol levels. The product from the reaction in Entry 3 was used in a synthesis of a portion of the antibiotic rampamycin. Entries 4 and 5 were used in the synthesis of polycyclic natural products. Note that the reaction in Entry 4 also leads to isomerization of the double bond into conjugation with the ester group. Entries 1 to 5 all involve cyclic reactants, and the concerted TS ensures that the substituent is introduced syn to the original hydroxy substituent. 

This chemistry becomes synthetically useful when one of the isomeric palladium intermediates can react with a neighboring substituent and the other isomer cannot. Thus, we have taken advantage of this effect to synthesize a range of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by Pd migration and subsequent arylation (Scheme 24).21 This provides a unique way to form new carbon-carbon bonds in a location remote from the original functionality. 

Reduction of aromatic compounds to dihydro derivatives by dissolved metals in liquid ammonia (Birch reduction) is one of the fundamental reactions in organic chemistry308. When benzene derivatives are subjected to this reduction, cyclohexa-1,4-dienes are formed. The 1,4-dienes obtained from the reduction isomerize to more useful 1,3-dienes under protic conditions. A number of syntheses of natural products have been devised where the Birch reduction of a benzenoid compound to a cyclohex-1,3-diene and converting this intermediate in Diels-Alder fasion to polycyclic products is involved (equation 186)308f h. 

In order to gain more insight into this proposed mechanism, Montgomery and co-workers tried to isolate the intermediate metallacycle. This effort has also led to the development of a new [2 + 2 + 2]-reaction.226 It has been found that the presence of bipyridine (bpy) or tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) makes the isolation of the desired metallacycles possible, and these metallacycles are characterized by X-ray analysis (Scheme 56).227 Besides important mechanistic implications for enyne isomerizations or intramolecular [4 + 2]-cycloadditions,228 the TMEDA-stabilized seven-membered nickel enolates 224 have been further trapped in aldol reactions, opening an access to complex polycyclic compounds and notably triquinanes. Thus, up to three rings can be generated in the intramolecular version of the reaction, for example, spirocycle 223 was obtained in 49% yield as a single diastereomer from dialdehyde 222 (Scheme 56).229... 

Intramolecular Heck reactions.6 Heck intramolecular coupling of alkenyl or aryl iodides substituted by 3-cycloalkenyl group is an attractive route to fused, spiro, and bridged polycyclic products. Coupling is achieved with a Pd-phosphine catalyst such as Pd[P(QH5),]4 in combination with a base, N(C2H5)3 or NaOAc. The coupling tends to produce a mixture of two isomeric alkenes, in which the newly formed bond is allylic or homoallylic to the ring juncture. 

In the case of carboxylic acids [33], ketones [47] or sulfones [49], it was possible to prove a further prototropic rearrangement of allenes 19 with R2 = H yielding the alkynes 20. In other examples, the prototropic isomerization of the triple bond leads to conjugated dienes directly thus the allene of type 19 could only be postulated as an intermediate [50]. Braverman et al. showed that the allenes generated by prototropic isomerization of dipropargylic sulfones or sulfoxides, for example 24, are unstable. They are transferred rapidly via diradical intermediates to polycycles such as 27 [51-53],... 

For cycloheptatriene and a series of its derivatives various thermal unimolecular processes, namely conformational ring inversions, valence tautomerism, [1,5]-hydrogen and [l,5]-carbon shifts, are known. An example of such multiple transformations was described65 which can provide a facile approach to new polycyclic structures by a one-step effective synthesis (yields up to 83%) of the two unique ketones 156 and 157. The thermolysis of the neat ether 151 at 200 °C for 24 h gives initially the isomeric allyl vinyl... 

These transformations were applied to develop a new promising method for synthesis of various bridged polycyclic systems66, viz. ketones 160 and 161. Tropone reacts with butenyl magnesium bromide (—78 °C, 75%) to form a mixture of 2-(3-butenyl)dihydrotropones 158 and 159, the pyrolysis of which (200-210 °C, neat or in heptane solution) leads to 60% total yield of the isomeric homoprotoadamantenones 160 and 161 and the tricyclic ketone 162 in a ratio of 58 18 24, respectively (equation 49)66. 

Further isomerization from system A to system B, or of pseudo-geminal to meta- and pseudo-ortho to para-substituted products leakage between sets of isomers), was not observed this finding can be reconciled with a p-xylylene or polycyclic intermediate mechanism. 

Another isomerization reaction of arene oxides is equilibrium with oxe-pins [5], Here, the fused six-membered carbocycle and three-membered oxirane merge to form a seven-membered heterocycle, as shown in Fig. 10.2. An extensive computational and experimental study involving 75 epoxides of monocyclic, bicyclic, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons has revealed much information on the structural factors that influence the reaction rate and position of equilibrium [11], Thus, some compounds were stable as oxepins (e.g., naphthalene 2,3-oxide), while others exhibited a balanced equilibrium... 

Caryophyllenes, as an example of two naturally occurring isomeric sesquiterpenes containing a medium-sized ring, in which the success of the total syntheses lies in the stereoselective control of a chiral centre, in a common synthetic key intermediate, which governs the configuration (JE or Z) of the double bonds present in each one of the two isomers. In this context, a brief reference to Cecropia Juvenile Hormone synthesis by the Syntex group, as well as to Johnson s cationic cyclisation of unsaturated polyolefins to fused polycyclic compounds, is made. 

In collaboration with Prof. Herman Ammon (University of Maryland), MOLPAK/WMIN computational methods [6-12] have been employed successfully to predict the crystal densities of (i) several isomerically pure monomethylated PCU alkene dimers [13] and (ii) several polycyclic epoxides [14]. The crystal densities calculated from X-ray crystal structure data are compared with the corresponding calculated values. Attempts have been made to address discrep>-ancies that may exist between computed densities and those derived from A-ray data by using advanced theoretical methods. 

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