Mixed acetal protonated

A highly selective synthesis of homoallylic alcohols has been reported by Tietze et al.,917 who reacted methyl ketones, the chiral norpseudoephedrine derivative 285, and an allylsilane in the presence of a catalytic amount (0.2 mol%) of triflic acid [Eq. (5.340)]. The transformation was interpreted as an SN2 attack of the allylsilane to the protonated mixed acetal 286. The obtained ethers were then cleaved to the final product, homoallylic alcohols. 

A way round these difficulties is to use an ether or an amide that has a built-in weakness so that the over-vigorous conditions are not needed. This Achilles heel for an ether is commonly the THP group that makes the ether into an acetal. Dihydropyran, DHP 26, is protonated on carbon 27 to give the cation 28 that captures the alcohol to give the mixed acetal 29, usually referred to as the THP derivative . After the reaction the hydrolysis needs only the weak aqueous acid used for acetals. The secret is that the weak acetal bond (b in 30) is cleaved4 rather than the strong ether bond (a in 30). 

The preparation involves an oxymercuration (Section 3.5.3) of the C=C double bond of the ethyl vinyl ether. The Hg(OAc) ion is the electrophile as expected, but it forms an open-chain cation A as an intermediate rather than a cyclic mercurinium ion. The open-chain cation A is more stable than the mercurinium ion because it can be stabilized by way of oxocarbe-nium ion resonance. Next, cation A reacts with the allyl alcohol, and a protonated mixed acetal B is formed. Compound B eliminates EtOH and Hg(OAc) in an El process, and the desired enol ether D results. The enol ether D is in equilibrium with the substrate alcohol and ethyl vinyl ether. The equilibrium constant is about 1. However, the use of a large excess of the ethyl vinyl ether shifts the equilibrium to the side of the enol ether D so that the latter can be isolated in high yield. 

A mixed acetal of benzaldehyde, tetrahydropyranol, and salicylic acid has also been studied. It, too, shows a marked rate enhancement attributable to intramolecular general acid catalysis. In this case the pH-rate profile (Figure 7.11) shows a plateau in the region Ph 2-5. As the carboxy group becomes protonated below pH 6, it provides an increment owing to intramolecular general acid catalysis. 

Treatment of the resulting carbanion with various electrophiles instead of protonation affords the corresponding adducts [363-365]. Successive addition of the a-silyldibromomethyllithium 207 and HMPA to esters causes the homo-Brook rearrangement providing carbanions of the alkyl silyl mixed acetals 208 (Scheme 2.132). Quenching with various electrophiles effectively yields the corresponding alkyl silyl acetals 209. 

RiCOR + R OH CR R (0R )2 It is also possible to have mixed acetals with the general formula CR R (OR )-(OR ). Note that if the acetal is derived from an aldehyde, then R and/or R may be a hydrogen atom. The mechanism of formation of an acetal from a hemiacetal is acid catalyzed. It involves protonation of the -OH group of the hemiacetal followed by loss of water to form an oxonium ion, which is attacked by the alcohol molecule. 

A further observation is the fact that differences in rates of nitration between the reagents prepared at different temperatures tended to zero as the water concentration of the added nitric acid was decreased to zero73. It has been argued that, since the acid-catalysed hydrolysis of acetic anhydride must be very rapid at 25 °C and removes water which initially competes with acetic anhydride and acetyl nitrate for protons, this removal permits equilibria (30) and (31) to be displaced towards products. The more anhydrous the nitric acid, the less important is this initial hydrolysis of the acetic anhydride and so the difference in the nitrating power of the differently prepared mixtures becomes less. When reagents are mixed at low temperatures, the hydrolysis of the anhydride is very slow, but once this is accomplished, formation of the protonated acetyl nitrate and subsequent nitration is rapid as observed73. 

The discrete protonation states methods have been tested in pKa calculations for several small molecules and peptides, including succinic acid [4, 25], acetic acid [93], a heptapeptide derived from ovomucoid third domain [27], and decalysine [61], However, these methods have sofar been tested on only one protein, the hen egg lysozyme [16, 61, 71], While the method using explicit solvent for both MD and MC sampling did not give quantitative agreement with experiment due to convergence difficulty [16], the results using a GB model [71] and the mixed PB/explicit... 

When alcohols are added to the reaction mixture, unsymmetrical ether products may be obtained. Starting with a mixture of aldehydes can also give rise to the formation of unsymmetrical ethers. These ether products are formed under conditions different from those used in the formation of ethers directly from alcohols. Thus, it is postulated that the reaction sequence that leads from the carbonyl substrate to the ether involves the intermediate formation of hemiacetals, acetals, or their protonated forms and alkoxycarbenium ions, which are intercepted and reduced to the final ether products by the organosilicon hydrides present in the reaction mix. The probable mechanistic scheme that is followed when Brpnsted acids are present is outlined in Scheme 2.311-327 328... 

Various chromogenic reagents have been used for the spectrophotometric determination of boron in seawater. These include curcumin [108,109], nile blue [110], and more recently 3,5 di-tert butylcatechol and ethyl violet [111]. Uppstroem [108] added anhydrous acetic acid (1 ml) and propionic anhydride (3 ml) to the aqueous sample (0.5 ml) containing up to 5 mg of boron per litre as H3BO3 in a polyethylene beaker. After mixing and the dropwise addition of oxalyl chloride (0.25 ml) to catalyse the removal of water, the mixture is set aside for 15-30 minutes and cooled to room temperature. Subsequently, concentrated sulfuric-anhydrous acetic acid (1 1) (3 ml) and curcumin reagent (125 mg curcumin in 100 ml anhydrous acetic acid) (3 ml) are added, and the mixed solution is set aside for at least 30 minutes. Finally 20 ml standard buffer solution (90 ml of 96% ethanol, 180 g ammonium acetate - to destroy excess of protonated curcumin - and 135 ml anhydrous acetic acid diluted to 1 litre... 

It is well documented that the isoimide is the kinetically favoured product and that isomerization yields the thermodynamically stable imide when sodium acetate is used as the catalyst. High catalyst concentrations provide maleimides with low isoimide impurity. The mechanism by which the chemical imidization is thought to occur is shown in Fig. 3. The first step in the dehydration reaction may be formation of the acetic acid-maleamic acid mixed anhydride. This species could lose acetic acid in one of the two ways. Path A involves participation by the neighboring amide carbonyl oxygen to eject acetate ion with simultaneous or subsequent loss of proton on nitrogen to form the isoimide. Path B involves loss of acetate ion assisted by the attack of nitrogen with simultaneous or subsequent loss of the proton on nitrogen to form the imide. If the cyclodehydration is run in acetic anhydride in the absence of the base catalyst, isoimide is the main reaction product. 

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