Ketene pathway

In 1972, Ireland and Mueller reported the transformation that has come to be known as the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement (Scheme 4.2) [1]. Use of a lithium dialkylamide base allowed for efficient low temperature enolization of the allyUc ester. They found that sUylation of the ester enolate suppressed side reactions such as decomposition via the ketene pathway and Claisen-type condensations. Although this first reported Ireland-Claisen rearrangement was presumably dia-stereoselective vide infra, Section 4.6.1), the stereochemistry of the alkyl groups was not an issue in its application to the synthesis of dihydrojasmone. 

Lewis acids catalyse the cyclocondensation of acid chlorides and aldehydes to give lactones (83) and (84). Aluminium chloride catalysis favours the 1 1 product (84), via a ketene pathway, while the large ring is the predominant product using e.g. TiCl2(OPr )2, where aryl halide enolates are implicated as intermediates. 

Decomposition Reactions. Minute traces of acetic anhydride are formed when very dry acetic acid is distilled. Without a catalyst, equiUbrium is reached after about 7 h of boiling, but a trace of acid catalyst produces equiUbrium in 20 min. At equiUbrium, about 4.2 mmol of anhydride is present per bter of acetic acid, even at temperatures as low as 80°C (17). Thermolysis of acetic acid occurs at 442°C and 101.3 kPa (1 atm), leading by parallel pathways to methane [72-82-8] and carbon dioxide [124-38-9] and to ketene [463-51-4] and water (18). Both reactions have great industrial significance. 

Neither ground-state ethynol (hydroxyacetylene) (80) nor carbenaoxirane (81) appears to be a viable point of ingress to the oxirene-methanoylcarbene system, as both can isomerize to ketene by lower-energy pathways. The limited experimental information available on carbenaoxirane (Section 5.05.6.3.4(f/)) indicates that it is indeed largely isolated from the oxirene-methanoylcarbene manifold (but note the photolysis of ketene in Section 5.5.6.3.4(ff)) appropriate labelling experiments with (the unknown) ethynol have not been performed. 

Monocyclic /3-lactams undergo thermolysis or photolysis to give alkenes and isocyanates or ketenes and imines depending on the substitution pattern (75S547 p. 586). Apparently, thermolysis favours the former pathway while photolysis favours the latter (68CB2669). 

Flash vacuum thermolysis (FVT) of 2-substituted 4//-pyrido[l,2-n]pyrimidin-4-ones 126 above 800 °C afforded (2-pyridyl)iminopropadie-none (130) (99JCS(P2)1087). These reactions were interpreted in terms of reversible ring opening of 4//-pyrido[l,2-n]pyrimidin-4-ones to imidoyl-ketenes 127. A 1,5-H shift in 127 generated the N(l)H-tautomeric methylene ketene 128, in which facile elimination of HX took place via a six-membered cyclic transition state 129 to yield 130. In the case of 2-methoxy derivative 126 (X = OMe) another competing pathway was also identified at lower temperature, which resulted in the formation C3O2 and 2-methylaminopyr-idine via mesoionic isomer 131 (Scheme 9). The products were identified by IR spectroscopy. 

In addition to the pathways depicted above, a 4-center concerted mechanism yielding ketenes has been reported during die vacuum pyrolysis of aliphatic polyesters (Scheme 2.4).89,90... 

The second reaction pathway investigated was a o-QM decomposition initiated by a ring-opening process, generating a conjugated ketenes as intermediate, as shown in Scheme 2.18. 

This result eliminates an a-cleavage pathway to form ketene since deuterium in this case should have appeared a to the carbonyl group of the ester. This result is, however, compatible with the charge-transfer mechanism. 

The product profile thus reveals impressive parallels with the reaction of diphenyl-ketene, the carbon analogue of 9, with (p-methoxybenzal)acetophenone, in which, again under thermal conditions, both cycloadditions and fragmentation of the four-membered ring product25) occur. Overall, the rate or rearrangement 7- 9 appears to be more favorable by the thermal route than by the photochemical pathway. 

Fig. 5. Regioisomeric pathways in the [2 + 2] cycloaddition of ketenes to alky-lidenecyclopropanes...

Other non-traditional preparations of 1,2,3-triazoles have been reported. The rearrangement in dioxane/water of (Z)-arylhydrazones of 5-amino-3-benzoyl-l,2,4-oxadiazole into (2-aryl-5-phenyl-27/-l,2,3-triazol-4-yl)ureas was investigated mechanistically in terms of substituents on different pathways <06JOC5616>. A general and efficient method for the preparation of 2,4-diary 1-1,2,3-triazoles 140 from a-hydroxyacetophenones 139 and arylhydrazines is reported <06SC2461>. 5-Alkylamino-] //-], 2,3-triazoles were obtained by base-mediated cleavage of cycloadducts of azides to cyclic ketene acetals <06S1943>. Oxidation of N-... 

Cycloadditions give rise to four-membered rings. Thermal concerted [2+2] cycloadditions have to be antarafacial on one component and the geometrical and orbital constraints thus imposed ensure that this process is encountered only in special circumstances. Most thermal [2+2] cycloadditions of alkenes take place by a stepwise pathway involving diradical or zwitterionic intermediates [la]. Considerably fewer studies have been performed regarding the application of microwave irradiation in [2+2] cydoadditions than for other kinds of cydoaddition (vide supra). Such reactions have been commonly used to obtain /1-lactam derivatives by cycloaddition of ketenes with imines [18-20,117,118],... 

This effect has recently been explained by considering that under microwave irradiation the route involving direct reaction between the acyl chloride and the imine competes efficiently with the ketene-imine reaction pathway, a situation highlighted by theoretical calculations (Scheme 9.69) [42 a],... 

Flash vacuum pyrolysis of methyl imidazol-2-yl carboxylate 290 at 750°C gave 20% yield of 268 via the corresponding ketene 291. Similar pyrolysis of methyl imidazol-l-yl carboxylate 292 gave 20% of a 1 1 2 mixture of compounds 267,268, and 296. This fact can be rationalized by the pathway depicted in Scheme 71. Ketenes 291 and 295 may be intermediates formed from 293 and 294, respectively. They are products of rearrangement of 292. Similar pyrolysis of 4-imidazole carboxylic acid anilide performed at 800°C gave 267 in 20% yield (86JOC306). 

UV irradiation (A. > 305 nm) of cyclopropene 3a results in the ring-opening and formation of ketene 4a. Two reaction pathways for the 3a - 4a rearrange-... 

To select between these two alternative structures it was necessary to synthesize a labeled analog. Three hydrogen atoms of the methyl moiety of the ester group were substituted for deuterium. One of the principal pathways of fragmentation of [M N2]+ ions involves the loss of CH3 radical. Since all R substitutes in diazo ketones 4-1 were also methyls it was important to detect what group exactly is eliminated from the [M N2]+ ion. The spectrum of deuterated sample has confirmed that the methyl radical of the ester moiety leaves the parent ion. As a result the cyclic structure 4-2 was selected as the most probable. The ketene structure 4-3 is hardly able to trigger this process, while for heterocyclic ion 4-2 it is highly favorable (Scheme 5.22). 

Five- or six-membered saturated cyclic ketones can also react by another pathway that does not involve decarbonylation. In these reactions, the biradical initially formed by a-cleavage undergoes internal disproportionation without loss of carbon monoxide, resulting in the formation of either an unsaturated aldehyde or a ketene. Methanol is usually added to convert the reactive ketene to a stable carboxylic-acid derivative (Scheme 9.2). 

---