Keto-enol tautomerism, also

The pharmacological activity of barbiturates is also influenced by their acidity, which is attributed to the lactam-lactim tautomer-ism that can occur in all derivatives in which at least one of the ring nitrogens is unsubstituted keto-enol tautomerism also takes place in 5-unsubstituted or mono-substituted compounds (Equation 5.17). Barbiturates must have acidity within certain limits to possess hypnotic activity (156). For example, barbituric acid (Ri, R2, R3, R4 = H), which has a pifa of 4.1 and is >99% dissociated at physiological pH, and the neutral N, iV -disubstituted compound (Ri, R2, R3 = Et, R4 = Ph) that is completely undissociated, are devoid of hypnotic... 

Keto-enol tautomerism also plays a part in the mechanism of catalytic hydrogenation of a, 3-unsaturated carbonyls leading to the two monomeric products (see Scheme 1). ... 

Methylphenylhydrazine and both 1- and 2-naphthylhydrazines are also reported to react similarly. Phenols, in general, do not undergo this reaction, which is favoured by compounds exhibiting keto-enol tautomerism. ... 

Armulated thiophenes of types 195 and 197 (A benzo, naphtho) were studied concerning keto-enol tautomerism. The ring fusion has a remarkable influence upon these equilibria. Whereas for the c-fused thiophenes 197 only keto tautomers were present, for h-fused derivatives 195 also the enol forms 196 were found (the equilibria are solvent dependent) (82JOC705). 

With an electrophilic transition metal complex, it is believed that the hydration of an alkyne occurs through a trans-addition of water to an 72-alkyne metal complex (Scheme 15, path A),380 although the m-pathway via hydroxymetallation has also been proposed (path B).381,382 However, distinguishing between the two pathways is difficult due to the rapid keto-enol tautomerization that renders isolation of the initial water adduct challenging. 

The difference in conjugation between neutral molecules and their ion-radicals can also be traced for keto-enol tautomerism. As a rule, enols are usually less stable than ketones. Under the equilibrium conditions, enols exist only at a very low concentration. However, the situation becomes different in the corresponding cation-radicals, where gas-phase experiments have shown that enol cation-radicals are usually more stable than their keto tautomers. This is because enol cation-radicals profit from allylic resonance stabilization that is not available to ketones (Bednarek et al. 2001, references therein). 

Both the aldol and reverse aldol reactions are encountered in carbohydrate metabolic pathways in biochemistry (see Chapter 15). In fact, one reversible transformation can be utilized in either carbohydrate biosynthesis or carbohydrate degradation, according to a cell s particular requirement. o-Fructose 1,6-diphosphate is produced during carbohydrate biosynthesis by an aldol reaction between dihydroxyacetone phosphate, which acts as the enolate anion nucleophile, and o-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, which acts as the carbonyl electrophile these two starting materials are also interconvertible through keto-enol tautomerism, as seen earlier (see Section 10.1). The biosynthetic reaction may be simplihed mechanistically as a standard mixed aldol reaction, where the nature of the substrates and their mode of coupling are dictated by the enzyme. The enzyme is actually called aldolase. 

There is a distinct relationship between keto-enol tautomerism and the iminium-enamine interconversion it can be seen from the above scheme that enamines are actually nitrogen analogues of enols. Their chemical properties reflect this relationship. It also leads us to another reason why enamine formation is a property of secondary amines, whereas primary amines give imines with aldehydes and ketones (see Section 7.7.1). Enamines from primary amines would undergo rapid conversion into the more stable imine tautomers (compare enol and keto tautomers) this isomerization cannot occur with enamines from secondary amines, and such enamines are, therefore, stable. 

The details of the organic chemistry of the reaction of ethylene with PdCl2 (equation (1) above) are also known and are shown in Fig. 9.2. The palladium ion complexes with ethylene and water molecules and the water adds across the bond while still complexed to palladium. The palladium then serves as a hydrogen acceptor while the double bond reforms. Keto-enol tautomerism takes place, followed by release of an acetaldehyde molecule from the palladium. 

The keto-enol tautomerism rates for oxaloacetate and zinc(II)-oxaloacetate have also been investigated using acetate buffer solutions.339,357 Thus for the equilibrium shown in equation (24) the value of fcf for the reaction oxacketI12 +OAc is 6.6x 10 3 M"1 s l, while for Zn(oxac)keto+ OAc , fcf= 25 M-1 s 1. The rate acceleration at 25 °C is ca. 4 x 103. Metal ion-promoted enolization is considered in detail in Section 61.4.20. 

Pron et al.569) looked at polyacetylene treated from the gas phase with H2S04 which leads to HS04 counter-ions. They found that the conductivity drops in air with the appearance of C=O bands in the ir, although the rate of decay is much lower than would be expected for undoped samples. The polymer was more rapidly degraded by exposure to water but could be redoped with further acid treatment. Pron et al.570) have also reported hydrolytic instability in polyacetylene with A1C14 as the counterion. In both cases the proposed mechanism involves addition of OH" to the chain and keto-enol tautomerism to form carbonyl groups. 

The effects of cationic and zwitterionic micelles on the keto-enol tautomerism of 2-phenylacetyl-furan and -thiophene (73, X = O, S) have been studied in aqueous media.285 While the micelles perturb the equilibrium only slightly, the apparent acidity of one or other tautomer is increased, as the micelles have an affinity for the enolate. The systems also show lowered water rates at the minima of their pH-rate profiles, allowing an otherwise undetectable metal ion catalysis to be observed. 

Keto groups can be introduced at position C2 or C3, and they may be present also as 2,3-diketo structures. According to keto-enol tautomerism the po-... 

Acid-catalysed hydrogen-deuterium exchange in norcamphor has also been investigated by Werstiuk and Banerjee (1977) (DOAc—D20—DC1 medium). It was observed that exo-deuteron addition to the enol is also preferred, but with a slightly smaller selectivity (x 190). This would mean that, if torsional factors cause preferential base-catalysed exo-exchange, they also occur for acid-catalysed keto-enol tautomerism. However, the absence of important torsional strain effects on the rate constants of acid-catalysed enolisation of cyclic and bicyclic ketones contradicts this assumption. 

Keto-enol tautomerism is also catalyzed by acid. In acid, a proton is moved from the a carbon to oxygen by first protonating oxygen and then removing a proton from carbon. 

Aldol condensations also take place under acidic conditions. The enol serves as a weak nucleophile to attack an activated (protonated) carbonyl group. As an example, consider the acid-catalyzed aldol condensation of acetaldehyde. The first step is formation of the enol by the acid-catalyzed keto-enol tautomerism, as discussed earlier. The enol attacks the protonated carbonyl of another acetaldehyde molecule. Loss of the enol proton gives the aldol product. 

Photoelectron spectroscopy is an efficient tool for the gas-phase characterization of various elusive compounds <1989CSR317>. It has also been used to investigate the products formed on flash vacuum pyrolysis of alkylthio derivatives of Meldrum s acid <1991JOC3445>. The PESs of the thiophen-3(2//)-ones formed were similar to authentic samples from which it is apparent that no keto-enol tautomerism occurred in the gas phase and that only the keto tautomers are formed in the gas phase. 

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