Ketene carbene insertion into

The diverse chemistry of carbenes is beyond the scope of this account, but a few typical reactions are shown here to illustrate the usefulness of the photochemical generation of these reactive species. A carbene can insert into a C—H bond, and this finds application in the reaction of an a-diazoamide to produce a P-lactam (5.29). Carbenes derived from o-diazoketones can rearrange to ketenes, and thus a route is opened up to ring-contraction for making more highly strained systems <5.301. Carbenes also react with alkenes, often by cycloaddition to yield cyclopropanes in a process that can be very efficient (5.31) and highly stereoselective (5.321. 

CARBENE. The name quite generally used for the methylene radical, CH,. It is formed during a number of reactions. Thus the flash photochemical decomposition of ketene (CH2=C=0) has been shown to proceed in two stages. The first yields carbon monoxide and CHj. the latter then reacting with more ketene to form ethylene and carbon monoxide. Carbcne reacts by insertion into a C- H bond to form a C-CH, bond. Thus carbene generated from ketene reacts with propane to form, i-butane and isobutane. Carbene generated by pyrolysis uf diazomethane reacts with diethyl ether to form ethylpropyl ether and ethylisopropyl ether. 

In contrast to the carbene and carbenoid chemistry of simple diazoacetic esters, that of a-silyl-a-diazoacetic esters has not yet been developed systematically [1]. Irradiation of ethyl diazo(trimethylsilyl)acetate in an alcohol affords products derived from 0-H insertion of the carbene intermediate, Wolff rearrangement, and carbene- silene rearrangement [2]. In contrast, photolysis of ethyl diazo(pentamethyldisilanyl)acetate in an inert solvent yields exclusively a ketene derived from a carbene->silene->ketene rearrangement [3], Photochemically generated ethoxycarbonyltrimethyl-silylcarbene cyclopropanates alkenes and undergoes insertion into aliphatic C-H bonds [4]. Copper-catalyzed and photochemically induced cyclopropenation of an alkyne with methyl diazo(trimethylsilyl)acetate has also been reported [5]. 

The migratory aptitude of R in (11) varies widely with its structure (see Section 3.9.2.1), the shift of an alkoxy group being among the slowest. The formation of alkoxyketenes in the photolysis of alkyl diazoacetates is a fairly recent discovery. The major competing reactions of the carbene precursor are insertions into the C—H and O—H bonds of alcohols employed as solvents and ketene traps. The extent of Wolff rearrangement varies with structure ethyl diazoacetate (20-25%), phenyl diazoacetate (45-60%), and A -methyldiazoacetamide (30%). These reactions are of limited synthetic interest at present. 

The currently accepted mechanism of the DBR is shown above. The rate-determining step is thought to be loss of a carbon monoxide ligand to form a coordinatively unsaturated intermediate II. This process can be facilitated thermally or photolytically. An alkyne can then coordinate to form 12. The alkyne inserts into the carbene heteroatom bond to give a new chromium carbene 13. At this point there are at least two possible pathways. In the first pathway, carbon monoxide can insert to provide chromium complexed ketene 14, which undergoes electrocyclization to give the hexadienone 15. Tautomerization completes the reaction to provide the phenol 2. Alternatively, metallacycle 16 can form prior to carbon monoxide insertion. Reductive elimination before carbon monoxide insertion leads to pentadiene 5, a commonly observed by-products of the DBR. Cyclopentanones 6, cyclobutenones 7, and indenes have also been observed as by-products in the... 

Several stable Group 6 metal-ketene complexes are known [14], and photo-driven insertion of CO into a tungsten-carbyne-carbon triple bond has been demonstrated [15]. In addition, thermal decomposition of the nonheteroatom-stabilized carbene complexes (CO)5M=CPh2 (M=Cr, W) produces diphenylke-tene [16]. Thus, the intermediacy of transient metal-ketene complexes in the photodriven reactions of Group 6 Fischer carbenes seems at least possible. 

At the present, the most straightforward mechanism for the formation of J5 from 1 is via insertion of CO into the Th-C(acyl) bond to form a ketene (H, (eq. (4)) which subsequently dimerizes. Presumably, initial CO interaction could involve coordination either to the metal ion as shown or to the electrophilic vacant "carbene p atomic orbital. Considering the affinity of the Th(IV) ion for oxygenated ligands, interaction of the ketene oxygen atom with the metal ion seems reason-... 

Telluro ketene acetals are also accessible by the insertion of unsaturated carbenes into Te-Te bond. 

In another copper-mediated carbene transfer reaction, diazoester 222 has been decomposed in the presence of bis(triethylsilyl- or -germyl)mercury (equation 72) it was assumed that the obtained ketenes 223 result from the insertion of ethoxycarbonyl(trimethylsilyl)carbene into a Hg-element bond followed by a cyclic fragmentation process110. 

Intramolecular insertion of carbon monoxide into the metal-carbene bond of the (Ej-isomer of D leads to the t/4-vinyl ketene complex intermediate E. Experimental support for this type of intermediate has been provided by the isolation of Cr( CO) 3-coordinated dienyl ketenes related to 5 (Scheme 4) [15a], and by trapping the vinyl ketene intermediates as vinyl lactone derivatives in the course of the reaction of chromium carbene complexes with 1-alkynols [15b]. 

This is known as the linear approach, in which the carbene, with its two substituents already lined up where they will be in the product, comes straight down into the middle of the double bond. The two sulfur dioxide reactions above, 6.127 and 6.128, are also linear approaches, but these are both allowed, the former because the total number of electrons (6) is a (An I 2) number, and the latter because the triene is flexible enough to take up the role of antarafacial component. The alternative for a carbene is a nonlinear approach 6.130, in which the carbene approaches the double bond on its side, and then has the two substituents tilt upwards as the reaction proceeds, in order to arrive in their proper orientation in the product 6.131. The carbene is effectively able to take up the role of the antarafacial component as with ketenes, it is possible to connect up the orthogonal orbitals, as in 6.132 (dashed line), to make the nonlinear approach classifiably pericyclic and allowed. This avoids any problem there might be with reactions like 6.127 and 6.128 being pericyclic and the clearly related reaction 6.130—>6.131 seeming not to be. Similar considerations apply to the insertion of carbenes into cr bonds. 

The mechanism proposed by Ddtz involves the insertion of a carbon monoxide into the vinyl carbene complex intermediate with the formation of the vinyl ketene complex (255). Electrocyclic ring closure of (255) leads to the cyclohexadienone complex (252), which is related to the final tenzannulation product by a tautomerizadon when R is hydrogen. The mechanism proposed by Casey differs from that of Ddtz in that the order of the steps involving carbon monoxide insertion and cyclization to the aryl or alkenyl substiment is reversed. < Specifically, the vinyl carbene complex intermediate (248) first undergoes cyclization to the metallacyclohexadiene (249), followed by cartion monoxide insertion to give the intermediate (251), and finally reductive elimination to give cyclohexadienone intermediate (252). At this time the circumstantial evidence favors the intermediacy of vinyl ketene intermediates since they can be trapped from these reactions and isolated where the metal is dispaced from the vinyl ketene functionality however, there is not any evidence which can rule out the alternative mechanism. 

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