Mercury alkynes, rearrangement

Mercury(II) oxide and acetic acid effect the cyclization of l,4-diaryloxybut-2-ynes to 4-aryloxymethylchromenes. The transformation was attributed to cyclization of the butanone which resulted from hydration of the alkyne (72JHC489). However, it has since been shown that similar butanones do not cyclize to chromenes under the cyclization conditions (78JOC3856). Instead, a mechanism is proposed which involves a charge-induced Claisen rearrangement which is triggered by 7r-complex formation between the metal ion... 

The direct hydration of a terminal alkyne, with dilute sulphuric acid in the presence of a mercury salt, yields initially an enol which rearranges to the more stable ketone. The regioselectivity of the reaction is consistent with that predicted on the basis of mechanistic theory. 

The initial product has a hydroxy group attached to a carbon-carbon double bond. Compounds such as this are called enols (ene + ol) and are very labile—they cannot usually be isolated. Enols such as this spontaneously rearrange to the more stable ketone isomer. The ketone and the enol are termed tautomers. This reaction, which simply involves the movement of a proton and a double bond, is called a keto—enol tautomerization and is usually very fast. In most cases the ketone is much more stable, and the amount of enol present at equilibrium is not detectable by most methods. The mechanism for this tautomerization in acid is shown in Figure 11.6. The mercury-catalyzed hydration of alkynes is a good method for the preparation of ketones, as shown in the following example ... 

Activation by addition of a carboxylic acid to a triple bond occurs with ethyl ethynyl ether,which forms amides via reactive enol esters. The reaction is catalyzed by mercury(II) oxide under almost neutral conditions. Push-pull alkynes exert higher reactivityThe intermediate enol esters (Scheme 4) rearrange and react with the amino function of a second amino acid. Hydroxy, thiol and imidazole functional groups do not have to be protected. The degree of racemization is low, and yields are good in the case of small peptides. 

The first step in the mercuric-ion-catalyzed hydration of an alkyne is formation of a cyclic mercurinium ion. (Two of the electrons in mercury s filled 5d atomic orbital are shown.) This should remind you of the cyclic bromonium and mercurinium ions formed as intermediates in electrophilic addition reactions of alkenes (Sections 4.7 and 4.8). In the second step of the reaction, water attacks the most substituted carbon of the cyclic intermediate (Section 4.8). Oxygen loses a proton to form a mercuric enol, which immediately rearranges to a mercuric ketone. Loss of the mercuric ion forms an enol, which rearranges to a ketone. Notice that the overall addition of water follows both the general rule for electrophilic addition reactions and Markovnikov s rule The electrophile (H in the case of Markovnikov s rule) adds to the sp carbon bonded to the greater number of hydrogens. 

Vinyl complexes are typically prepared by the same methods used to prepare aryl complexes. Vinyl mercury compounds, like aryl mercury compoimds, are easily prepared (by the mercuration of acetylenes), and are therefore useful for the preparation of vinyl transition metal complexes by transmetallation. The use of vinyl lithium reagents has permitted the s rnthesis of homoleptic vinyl complexes by transmetallation (Equation 3.35). Reactive low-valent transition metal complexes also form vinyl complexes by the oxidative addition of vinyl halides with retention of stereochemistry about the double bond (Equation 3.36). Vinyl complexes have also been formed by the insertion of alkynes into transition metal hydride bonds (Equation 3.37), by sequential electrophilic and nucleophilic addition to alkynyl ligands (Equation 3.38), and by the addition of nucleophiles to alkyne complexes (Equation 3.39). The insertion of alkynes into transition metal alkyl complexes is presented in Chapter 9 and, when rearrangements are slower than insertion, occurs by s)m addition. In contrast, nucleophilic attack on coordinated alkynes, presented in Chapter 11, generates products from anti addition. 

Otymercuration (Section 10.3) The mercury-catalyzed conversion of alkenes into alcohols. Addition is in the Markovnikov sense, and there are no rearrangements. A three-membered ring containing mercury is an intermediate in the reaction. Alkynes also undergo oxymercuration to give enols that are rapidly converted into carbonyl compounds under the reaction conditions. 

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