Lewis acids examples

A species consisting of several ligands (the Lewis bases) that have an independent existence bonded to a single central metal atom or ion (the Lewis acid). Examples (1) H,N—BF, (2) [Fe(H2())J,l PtCl4. composite material A synthetic material composed of a polymer and one or more other substances that have been solidified together. 

A donor atom is the atom in the ligand that donates shares in electron pairs to a metal, a Lewis acid. Examples of elements capable of being donor atoms in coordination compounds include O, N, P, F, Cl, Br, I, and C. They all have at least one lone pair of electrons to donate to a metal. 

Transmetallation with metallic electrophiles has also received a lot of attention, often with the aim of making polyfunctional Lewis acids. Examples are shown in Table 2. 

As noted above, the hardness or softness of an acidic or basic site is not an inherent property of the particular atom at that site, but can be influenced by the substituent atoms The addition of soft, polarizable substituents can soften an otherwise hard center and the presence of electron-withdrawing substituents can reduce the softness of a site. The acidic boron atom is borderline between hard and soft. Addition of three hard, electronegative fluorine atoms hardens the boron and makes it a hard Lewis acid. Conversely, addition of three soft, electropositive hydrogens54 softens the boron and makes it a soft Lewis acid. Examples of the difference in hardness of these two boron acids are... 

Tend to act as Lewis acids Examples CO2, SO3, CI2O7, N2O5 -> React with water to form a Bronsted acid Examples C02(g) + H20(l)... 

The Lewis acid-base definition focuses on the donation or acceptance of an electron pair to form a new covalent bond in an adduct, the product of an acid-base reaction. Lewis bases donate the electron pair, and Lewis acids accept it. Thus, many species that do not contain H act as Lewis acids examples are molecules with electron-deficient atoms and those with polar double bonds. 

Tend to act as Lewis acids Examples CO2, SO3, CI2O7, N2O5... 

We have seen that a base can be defined as combining with a proton and, therefore, requires at least one lone pair of electrons. A more general definition of acids and bases, due to G. N. Lewis, describes a base as any species (atom, ion or molecule) which can donate an electron pair, and an acid as any species which can accept an electron pair— more simply, a base is an electron-pair donor, an acid an electron-pair acceptor. Some examples of Lewis acids and bases are ... 

The BF4 ion has a regular tetrahedral configuration. The most important property of boron trifluoride is its great capacity to act as an electron pair acceptor (Lewis acid). Some examples of adducts are ... 

Finally, the solvent also interacts with sites of the Lewis acid and the Lewis base that are not directly involved in mutual coordination, thereby altering the electronic properties of the complex. For example, delocalisation of charges into the surrounding solvent molecules causes ions in solution to be softer than in the gas phase . Again, water is particularly effective since it can act as an efficient electron pair acceptor as well as a donor. 

A combination of the promoting effects of Lewis acids and water is a logical next step. However, to say the least, water has not been a very popular medium for Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reactions, which is not surprising since water molecules interact strongly with Lewis-acidic and the Lewis-basic atoms of the reacting system. In 1994, when the research described in this thesis was initiated, only one example of Lewis-acid catalysis of a Diels-Alder reaction in water was published Lubineau and co-workers employed lanthanide triflates as a catalyst for the Diels-Alder reaction of glyoxylate to a relatively unreactive diene . No comparison was made between the process in water and in organic solvents. 

To our knowledge, the results presented in this chapter provide the first example of enantioselective Lewis-acid catalysis of an organic reaction in water. This discovery opens the possibility of employing the knowledge and techniques from aqueous coordination chemistry in enantioselective catalysis. This work represents an interface of two disciplines hitherto not strongly connected. 

In summary, ligands tend to diminish the affinity of the substrate for the Lewis-acid catalyst as well as the extent of activation by this catalyst, once the ternary complex is formed. Only a few examples of ligand-accelerated catalysis " have been described... 

The first example of enantioselective catalysis of a Diels-Alder reaction was reported in 1979 . Since then, an extensive set of successful chiral Lewis-acid catalysts has been prepared. Some selected examples will be presented here together with their mechanistic interpretation. For a more complete... 

In Chapter 2 the Diels-Alder reaction between substituted 3-phenyl-l-(2-pyridyl)-2-propene-l-ones (3.8a-g) and cyclopentadiene (3.9) was described. It was demonstrated that Lewis-acid catalysis of this reaction can lead to impressive accelerations, particularly in aqueous media. In this chapter the effects of ligands attached to the catalyst are described. Ligand effects on the kinetics of the Diels-Alder reaction can be separated into influences on the equilibrium constant for binding of the dienoplule to the catalyst (K ) as well as influences on the rate constant for reaction of the complex with cyclopentadiene (kc-ad (Scheme 3.5). Also the influence of ligands on the endo-exo selectivity are examined. Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, studies aimed at enantioselective catalysis are presented, resulting in the first example of enantioselective Lewis-acid catalysis of an organic transformation in water. 

To the best of our knowledge the data in Table 3.2 constitute the first example of enantio selectivity in a chiral Lewis-acid catalysed organic transformation in aqueous solution. Note that for the majority of enantioselective Lewis-acid catalysed reactions, all traces of water have to be removed from the... 

This goal might well be achieved by introducing an auxiliary that aids the coordination to the catalyst. After completion of the Diels-Alder reaction and removal of the auxiliary the desired adduct is obtained. This approach is summarised in Scheme 4.6. Some examples in which a temporary additional coordination site has been introduced to aid a catalytic reaction have been reported in the literature and are described in Section 4.2.1. Section 4.2.2 relates an attempt to use (2-pyridyl)hydrazone as coordinating auxiliary for the Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction. 

Reactions of another class are catalyzed by Pd(II) compounds which act as Lewis acids, and are treated in Chapter 5 and partly in Chapter 4. From the above-mentioned explanation, the reactions catalyzed by Pd(0) and Pd(II) are clearly different mechanistically. In this book the stoichiometric and catalytic reactions are classified further according to reacting substrates. However, this classification has some problems, viz. it leads to separate treatment of some unit reactions in different chapters. The carbonylation of alkenes is an example. Oxidative carbonylation of alkenes is treated in Chapter 3 and hydrocar-bonylation in Chapter 4. 

Another category Ic indole synthesis involves cyclization of a-anilino aldehydes or ketones under the influence of protonic or Lewis acids. This corresponds to retro.synthetic path d in Scheme 4.1. Considerable work on such reactions was done in the early 1960s by Julia and co-workers. The most successful examples involved alkylation of anilines with y-haloacetoacetic esters or amides. For example, heating IV-substituted anilines with ethyl 4-bromoacetoacetate followed by cyclization w ith ZnClj gave indole-3-acetate esterfi]. Additional examples are given in Table 4.3. 

Epoxides and aziridines are also capable of electrophilic subsitution of indoles. Indolylmagncsium bromide and cyclohexene oxide react to give 3-(lrans-2-hydroxycyclohexyl)indole[14]. Reaction of indoles with epoxides also occurs in the presence of Lewis acids. For example, indole reacts with methyl 2S,3R-epoxybutanoate at C3 with inversion of configuration[15]. 

The thiazolium ring, as most heterocycloammoniums, is a Lewis acid conferring to the carbon atom in the 2-position the carbocationic property of adding the free pair of a base either organic or mineral that may be the molecule of solvent as ROH (Scheme 11). For many nuclei of suitable acidity, these equilibria can be observed in dilute solution by means of absorption spectra when species A and C possess different characteristics (24). For example, benzothiazolium and benzoxazolium in methanol and ethanol give at 10 mole liter 8 and 54% of the alkoxy derivatives for the former and 29 and 90% for the latter respectively. 

The product of this reaction a Lewis acid Lewis base complex called informally boron tnfluonde etherate may look unusual but it is a stable species with properties different from those of the reactants Its boiling point (126°C) for example is much higher than that of boron tnfluonde—a gas with a boiling point of — 100°C—and diethyl ether a liquid that boils at 34°C... 

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