Kinetically Controlled Ring Formation

In the construction of carbocycles, five-membered ring formation has been used for preparing fused cyclic compounds, such as functionalized diquinanes. ° The reaction of 36 with (TMSlsSiH furnished the expected product 37 in 80% yield and in a or.fi ratio of 82 18, as the result of a kinetic controlled reaction (Reaction 43). 

Diazo compounds also undergo cycloaddition with fullerenes [for reviews, see (104),(105)]. These reactions are HOMO(dipole)-LUMO(fullerene) controlled. The initial A -pyrazoline 42 can only be isolated from the reaction of diazomethane with [60]fullerene (106) (Scheme 8.12) or higher substituted derivatives of Ceo (107). Loss of N2 from the thermally labile 42 resulted in the formation of the 6,5-open 1,2-methanofullerene (43) (106). On the other hand, photolysis produced a 4 3 mixture of 43 and the 6,6-closed methanofullerene (44) (108). The three isomeric pyrazolines obtained from the reaction of [70]fullerene and diazomethane behaved analogously (109). With all other diazo compounds so far explored, no pyrazoline ring was isolated and instead the methanofullerenes were obtained directly. As a typical example, the reaction of Cgo with ethyl diazoacetate yielded a mixture of two 6,5-open diastereoisomers 45 and 46 as well as the 6,6-closed adduct 47 (110). In contrast to the parent compound 43, the ester-substituted structures 45 and 46, which are formed under kinetic control, could be thermally isomerized into 47. The fomation of multiple CPh2 adducts from the reaction of Ceo and diazodiphenylmethane was also observed (111). The mechanistic pathway that involves the extrusion of N2 from pyrazolino-fused [60]fullerenes has been investigated using theoretical methods (112). 

On the basis of these considerations, proton abstraction in 3-fluoropyridine using n-BuLi/TMEDA complex in THF is expected to occur at the most acidic C4 site, as observed. On the other hand, in Et20, which is a more weakly basic solvent than THF, coordination of base with ring nitrogen (87) is favored and leads by a proximity effect to C2-proton abstraction and formation of 83 (Scheme 24). Addition of THF to a solution of 83 in Et20 at -60°C did not result in the formation of the isomeric species 84, thus suggesting that C4-lithiation in THF is a kinetically controlled process that does not proceed via the 2-lithiated species 83. 

---