Named rearrangements Meyer-Schuster

Regarding the first problem, the most elemental treatment consists of focusing on a few points on the gas-phase potential energy hypersurface, namely, the reactants, transition state structures and products. As an example, we will mention the work [35,36] that was done on the Meyer-Schuster reaction, an acid catalyzed rearrangement of a-acetylenic secondary and tertiary alcohols to a.p-unsaturatcd carbonyl compounds, in which the solvent plays an active role. This reaction comprises four steps. In the first, a rapid protonation takes place at the hydroxyl group. The second, which is the rate limiting step, is an apparent 1, 3-shift of the protonated hydroxyl group from carbon Ci to carbon C3. The third step is presumably a rapid allenol deprotonation, followed by a keto-enol equilibrium that leads to the final product. 

Meyer and Schuster discovered the rearrangement that carries their names in an attempt to convert a-acetylenic alcohols such as 1 to the respective tertiary chloride in the presence of an acetyl chloride catalyst. Rather than the expected chloride products, a,p-imsaturated ketone 2 was obtained via a previously unknown acid-catalyzed rearrangement. Further research demonstrated the ability of a variety of acid catalysts (i.e., acetic acid, concentrated sulfuric acid, ether saturated with dry hydrogen chloride, and acetic anhydride) to induce the observed transformation. ... 

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