Isoxazole reactivity

Azoles having heteroatoms in the 1,3-orlentatlon are more reactive than those in which the arrangement is 1,2. However, the magnitude of the factor varies. Thus oxazole is 68 times more reactive than Isoxazole, whereas benzoxazole quaternlzes 26 times faster than does 1,2-benzisoxazole (78AHC(22)71). 

Acid-catalyzed hydrogen exchange is used as a measure of the comparative reactivity of different aromatic rings (see Table 5). These reactions take place on the neutral molecules or, at high acidities, on the cations. At the preferred positions the neutral isoxazole, isothiazole and pyrazole rings are all considerably more reactive than benzene. Although the 4-position of isothiazole is somewhat less reactive than the 4-position in thiophene, a similar situation does not exist with isoxazole-furan ring systems. 

The reactivity of isoxazole in the presence of light, heat or electron impact has been well studied and the various transformations analyzed in terms of reaction pathways and of the potential intermediates. These studies have also been extended to a large variety of substituted derivatives (79AHC(25)147). 

The reactivity of isoxazole toward quaternization is compared with those of pyridine-2-carbonitrile, pyridine and five other azoles in Table 6 (73AJC1949). Isoxazole is least reactive among the six azoles and times less reactive than pyridine. There is also a good correlation between the rate of quaternization and basicity of the azole. 

The reactivities of the isoxazoles are compared with those of benzene and some five-membered ring heterocycles in Table 7. Isoxazole is more reactive than benzene (by 4.3 log units) and isothiazole (0.8) and is less reactive than 1-methylpyrazole, furan, thiophene and 1-methylpyrrole. A 5-methyl substituent activates the nucleus more than does a... 

Nitration of alkylisoxazoles and phenylisoxazoles has received considerable attention (71JCS(B)2365, 75JCS(P2)1627). Alkylisoxazoles underwent nitration as the free base at the 4-position of the isoxazole nucleus the non-reactivity under similar conditions of the... 

Nitrile A-oxides, under reaction conditions used for the synthesis of isoxazoles, display four types of reactivity 1,3-cycloaddition 1,3-addition nucleophilic addition and dimerization. The first can give isoxazolines and isoxazoles directly. The second involves the nucleophilic addition of substrates to nitrile A-oxides and can give isoxazolines and isoxazoles indirectly. The third is the nucleophilic addition of undesirable nucleophiles to nitrile A-oxides and can be minimized or even eliminated by the proper selection of substrates and reaction conditions. The fourth is an undesirable side reaction which can often be avoided by generating the nitrile A-oxide in situ and by keeping its concentration low and by using a reactive acceptor (70E1169). 

Hi) Preparation of isoxazoles from nitrile N-oxides The reaction between a nitrile //-oxide and an alkyne is so facile that it is usually sufficient to leave an ether solution of the reactants at room temperature to obtain the desired isoxazole in good yield. The reaction is in general sensitive to the size of the substituent on the alkyne but not on the nitrile -oxide. In the case of poorly reactive alkynes, the difficulty may be overcome by generating the nitrile -oxide in situ and keeping its concentration low. 

Heterocycles which provide the NOC or CNO component synthon Isoxazoles can be prepared by the thermal or photolytic cleavage of a number of heterocycles, such as 1,3,5-dioxazolidone, furazans, furoxans and 1,3,2,4-dioxathiazole 2-oxides, in the presence of a reactive alkene or alkyne. 

The usual carbonyl reagents (hydrazines, semicarbazone, hydroxyl-amine) do not give the normal derivatives, but lead to ring contraction and formation of pyrazoles or isoxazoles. However, a semicarbazone and an oxime of 2,6-diphenylpyrone has been obtained by Arndt et al., indirectly, through the intermediacy of the more reactive 4-thiopyrone. 

Fig. 10. Relative energy of the excited states of methyl isoxazole-3-carboxylate and of some reactive intermediates.

Meso-substituted /3-diketones have been found useful to synthesize 3,5-disubstituted isoxazoles with some reactive group in position 4. For example, 3,5-dimethyl-4-(2, 4 -dinitrophenyl) isoxazole (7) was... 

The nucleophilic substitution reactions are still more limited in scope owing to the instability of the isoxazole ring toward nucleophilic reagents. Homolytic reactions appear to be unknown though some of the reactions being studied are possibly of this type. Besides those reactions which are characteristic of the reactivity of the isoxazole nucleus itself, we shall consider in this section some substitution reactions in the side chain organomagnesium synthesis in the isoxazole series, condensation reactions of the methyl groups of methyl-isoxazoles, and finally some miscellaneous reactions. 

In the reactions of electrophilic substitution, isoxazole is far less active than the five-membered heterocycles with one hetero atom and pyrazole. It is closer to pyridine, but more reactive. 

The presently known electrophilic substitution reactions all occur at the 4-position of the isoxazole nucleus, corresponding to the j3-position in pyridine. Thus the influence of the nitrogen atom is predominant. The introduction of alkyl and, particularly, aryl substituents into the isoxazole nucleus markedly increases its reactivity (on the other hand, during nitration and sulfonation the isoxazole nucleus also activates the phenyl nucleus). 

Accordingly, cyclic nitronates can be a useful synthetic equivalent of functionalized nitrile oxides, while reaction examples are quite limited. Thus, 2-isoxazoline N-oxide and 5,6-dihydro-4H-l,2-oxazine N-oxide, as five- and six-membered cyclic nitronates, were generated in-situ by dehydroiodination of 3-iodo-l-nitropropane and 4-iodo-l-nitrobutane with triethylamine and trapped with monosubstituted alkenes to give 5-substituted 3-(2-hydroxyethyl)isoxazolines and 2-phenylperhydro-l,2-oxazino[2,3-fe]isoxazole, respectively (Scheme 7.26) [72b]. Upon treatment with a catalytic amount of trifluoroacetic acid, the perhydro-l,2-oxazino[2,3-fe]isoxazole was quantitatively converted into the corresponding 2-isoxazoline. Since a method for catalyzed enantioselective nitrone cycloadditions was established and cyclic nitronates should behave like cyclic nitrones in reactivity, there would be a good chance to attain catalyzed enantioselective formation of 2-isoxazolines via nitronate cycloadditions. 

Primary nitro compounds are good precursors for preparing nitriles and nitrile oxides (Eq. 6.31). The conversion of nitro compounds into nitrile oxides affords an important tool for the synthesis of complex natural products. Nitrile oxides are reactive 1,3-dipoles that form isoxazolines or isoxazoles by the reaction with alkenes or alky nes, respectively. The products are also important precursors for various substrates such as P-amino alcohols, P-hydroxy ketones, P-hydroxy nitriles, and P-hydroxy acids (Scheme 6.3). Many good reviews concerning nitrile oxides in organic synthesis exist some of them are listed here.50-56 Applications of organic synthesis using nitrile oxides are discussed in Section 8.2.2. 

Pyrazolone-1,2-dioxides 311 were subjected to cycloaddition with a wide range of olefinic compounds leading to the 0-2,3,3 ,4-tetrahydro-pyrazolo[l,5-3]isoxazole cycloadducts 312. The behavior of these reactive species 311 toward unsaturated compounds, stereochemical and mechanistic aspects, were discussed in details (Equation 134) <1994J(P2)1337>. 

O—N bond is cleaved, maintaining, for convenience, the previous model. For a given sequence XYZ, the results will be presented in order of decreasing reactivity, 1,2,4-oxadiazole, isoxazole, 1,2,5-oxadiazole, quoting the heterocycle only when new examples are discussed. The results of photochemical (II, A, 10) and mechanistic studies (II,B) will be presented in special sections. Rearrangements involving the cleavage of an N—N bond will be discussed separately (Section II,C). 

Nitrile oxides, which are formed by dehydration of nitroalkanes or by oxidation of oximes with hypochlorite,87 88 are also useful 1,3-dipoles. They are highly reactive and must be generated in situ.ss They react with both alkenes and alkynes. Entry 5 in Scheme 6.5 is an example in which the cycloaddition product (an isoxazole) was eventually converted to a prostaglandin derivative. 

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