Methylene electrophilicity

Application of 7r-allylpalladium chemistry to organic synthesis has made remarkable progress[l]. As deseribed in Chapter 3, Seetion 3, Tt-allylpalladium complexes react with soft carbon nucleophiles such as maionates, /3-keto esters, and enamines in DMSO to form earbon-carbon bonds[2, 3], The characteristie feature of this reaction is that whereas organometallic reagents are eonsidered to be nucleophilic and react with electrophiles, typieally earbonyl eompounds, Tt-allylpalladium complexes are electrophilie and reaet with nucleophiles such as active methylene compounds, and Pd(0) is formed after the reaction. 

Fig. 5. Nonoxidative cyanine syntheses. Reactions of the methylene base from (14) with electrophilic reagents.

Another well-established process to generate fluoro ketones proceeds via acylation ofenolates [68, 69] or activated methylene compounds [70 71] as well as by Claisen type condensation reactions [72] Because of the electrophilic power of the acylating agents, there is usually no need tor a catalyst [68]... 

The tetrasubstituted isomer of the morpholine enamine of 2-methyl-cyclohexanone (20) because cf the diminished electronic overlap should be expected to exhibit lower degree of enamine-type reactivity toward electrophilic agents than the trisubstituted isomer. This was demonstrated to be the case when the treatment of the enamine with dilute acetic acid at room temperature resulted in the completely selective hydrolysis of the trisubstituted isomer within 5 min. The tetrasubstituted isomer was rather slow to react and was 96% hydrolyzed after 22 hr (77). The slowness might also be due to the intermediacy of quaternary iminium ion 23, which suffers from a severe. 4< strain 7,7a) between the equatorial C-2 methyl group and the methylene group adjacent to the nitrogen atom, 23 being formed by the stereoelectronically controlled axial protonation of 20. 

Examine the highest-occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of singlet methylene. Where is the pair of electrons, inplane or perpendicular to the plane Next, examine the electrostatic potential map. Where is the molecule most electron rich, in the o or the 7t system Where is the most electron poor Next, display the corresponding map for triplet methylene. Which molecule would you expect to be the better nucleophile The better electrophile Explain. Experimentally, one state of methylene shows both electrophilic and nucleophilic chemistry, while the other state exhibits chemistry typical of radicals. Which state does which Elaborate. 

Such methyenepyrans afford still another possibility for obtaining new pyrylium salts, namely, electrophilic alkylation or acylation at the exocyclio methylene carbon atom. Thus, 2,6-diphenyl-4-iso-propylidene-4/I-pyran is converted into 2,6-diphenyl-4-i-butyl-pyrylium iodide on refluxing with methyl iodide (see Scheme 3). Unlike the protonation of methylenepyrans, this reaction is no longer... 

Reactions of potentially tautomeric methyl and methylene derivatives of pyridine with N-electrophiles 98KGS147. 

The acid-catalyzed reaction occurs by an electrophilic substitution where formaldehyde is the electrophile. Condensation between the methylol groups and the benzene rings results in the formation of methylene bridges. Usually, the ratio of formaldehyde to phenol is kept less than unity to produce a linear fusible polymer in the first stage. Crosslinking of the formed polymer can occur by adding more formaldehyde and a small amount of hexamethylene tetramine (hexamine. 

Mechanistically there is ample evidence that the Balz-Schiemann reaction is heterolytic. This is shown by arylation trapping experiments. The added arene substrates are found to be arylated in isomer ratios which are typical for an electrophilic aromatic substitution by the aryl cation and not for a homolytic substitution by the aryl radical (Makarova et al., 1958). Swain and Rogers (1975) showed that the reaction takes place in the ion pair with the tetrafluoroborate, and not, as one might imagine, with a fluoride ion originating from the dissociation of the tetrafluoroborate into boron trifluoride and fluoride ions. This is demonstrated by the insensitivity of the ratio of products ArF/ArCl in methylene chloride solution at 25 °C to excess BF3 concentration. 

Nitration by nitric acid in sulphuric acid has also been by Modro and Ridd52 in a kinetic study of the mechanism by which the substituent effects of positive poles are transmitted in electrophilic substitution. The rate coefficients for nitration of the compounds Pl CHi NMej (n = 0-3) given in Table 10 show that insertion of methylene groups causes a substantial decrease in deactivation by the NMej group as expected. Since analysis of this effect is complicated by the superimposed activation by the introduced alkyl group, the reactivities of the... 

A detailed discussion of the different acidities of the diastereotopic a-methylene protons in sulphoxides, as well as of the stereochemistry of reactions of sulphoxide a-carbanions with electrophilic reagents is beyond the scope of this chapter. A recent review by Wolfe pertinent to these problems is available392. 

Novolacs are prepared with an excess of phenol over formaldehyde under acidic conditions (Fig. 7.6). A methylene glycol is protonated by an acid from the reaction medium, which then releases water to form a hydroxymethylene cation (step 1 in Fig. 7.6). This ion hydroxyalkylates a phenol via electrophilic aromatic substitution. The rate-determining step of the sequence occurs in step 2 where a pair of electrons from the phenol ring attacks the electrophile forming a car-bocation intermediate. The methylol group of the hydroxymethylated phenol is unstable in the presence of acid and loses water readily to form a benzylic carbo-nium ion (step 3). This ion then reacts with another phenol to form a methylene bridge in another electrophilic aromatic substitution. This major process repeats until the formaldehyde is exhausted. 

The Mannich condensation has traditionally been carried out in the presence of water as a three-component condensation involving a carbonyl compound (or related carbon nucleophile), formaldehyde, and a primary or secondary amine. The initial step is a condensation between the latter two reactants to form a mono- or dialkyl(methylene)ammonium ion which subsequently serves as the electrophilic partner in the reaction. With unsymmetrical ketones aminomethylation generally occurs at both positions to give mixtures of isomeric 3-amino ketones. The ratio of the isomers depends strongly on the structure of the ketone, and the more highly branched (3-amino ketone usually predominates. 

The imide nitrogen atom was also most reactive to a variety of electrophilic species (hydrogen halides, pseudohalogens, and alkyl halides) in the parent Rimidophosphazenes, R(C—NH)-N=PPh3. With t-butyl hypochlorite the /V-chloro-derivatives, R(C=NCl)-N=PPh3, were obtained. R/ -Vinyl-phenylphosphazenes have been prepared by condensation of aldehydes with active methylene compounds ... 

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