Nitrile oxides oxide

Pyrroles from 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds and ammonia isoxazolines from olefins and nitrile oxides. 

Isocyanates are derivatives of isocyanic acid, HN=C=0, ia which alkyl or aryl groups, as weU as a host of other substrates, are direcdy linked to the NCO moiety via the nitrogen atom. StmcturaHy, isocyanates (imides of carbonic acid) are isomeric to cyanates, ROCMSI (nitriles of carbonic acid), and nitrile oxides, RCMSI—>0 (derivatives of carboxyUc acid). 

Dipolar cycloaddition reactions with azides, imines, and nitrile oxides afford synthetic routes to nitrogen-containing heterocycles (25—30). 

Phototransformation of pyridazine 1,2-dioxides sharply contrasts with that of pyridazine 1-oxides. Pyridazine 1,2-dioxide derivatives give 3a,6a-dihydroisoxazolo[5,4- f]isoxazoles (53) through postulated bisiminoxyl radicals. 3,6-Diphenylpyridazine 1,2-dioxide gives, besides the corresponding bicyclic derivative (53), 3-phenylisoxazole (54) and 4,5-diphenyl-furoxan (55). The last two products can be explained by generation of the nitrile oxide from the intermediate (53) with subsequent dimerization to the furoxan (55 Scheme 18) (79T1267). 

Dihydrofuran (376) and 2,5-dihydrofuran (377) react with nitrile oxides to give furo[2,3-6 ]isoxazoles (378) and furo[3,4-rf]isoxazoles (379), respectively, as cycloadducts. The double bonds of furan, pyrrole and thiophene also react when the nitrile oxide is generated in situ. Thus furan and benzonitrile oxide gave (380), and with 2-methyl-2-oxazoline the cycloadduct (381) was obtained (71AG(E)810). These and related cycloadditions are discussed in Chapter 4.36. 

In theory, three isoxazolines are capable of existence 2-isoxazoline (2), 3-isoxazoline and 4-isoxazoline. The position of the double bond may also be designated by the use of the prefix A with an appropriate numerical superscript. Of these only the 2-isoxazolines have been investigated in any detail. The preparation of the first isoxazoline, 3,5-diphenyl-2-isoxazoline, from the reaction of )3-chloro-)3-phenylpropiophenone with hydroxylamine was reported in 1895 (1895CB957). Two major syntheses of 2-isoxazolines are the cycloaddition of nitrile A-oxides to alkenes and the reaction of a,/3-unsaturated ketones with hydroxylamine. Since 2-isoxazolines are readily oxidized to isoxazoles and possess some of the unique properties of isoxazoles, they also serve as key intermediates for the synthesis of other heterocycles and natural products. 

The electronic structure of nitrile A-oxides may be represented as a resonance hybrid of the canonical structures (335a-e). The structure (335a) is commonly used to represent this reactive species. 

Nitrile A-oxides, under reaction conditions used for the synthesis of isoxazoles, display four types of reactivity 1,3-cycloaddition 1,3-addition nucleophilic addition and dimerization. The first can give isoxazolines and isoxazoles directly. The second involves the nucleophilic addition of substrates to nitrile A-oxides and can give isoxazolines and isoxazoles indirectly. The third is the nucleophilic addition of undesirable nucleophiles to nitrile A-oxides and can be minimized or even eliminated by the proper selection of substrates and reaction conditions. The fourth is an undesirable side reaction which can often be avoided by generating the nitrile A-oxide in situ and by keeping its concentration low and by using a reactive acceptor (70E1169). 

The rate of dimerization of nitrile A-oxides is strongly influenced by the nature of R. When R = Cl, Br, CO2 alkyl or COR, the nitrile A-oxide cannot be isolated nor obtained in solution for any appreciable time. Table 11 gives the approximate time required for complete dimerization of some nitrile A-oxides (335) to furoxans (336) in benzene solution at 18 °C (70E1169). Evidently, steric and electronic effects dramatically increase the stability... 

Table 11 Stability of Some Nitrile Af-Oxides, R—C=N—O, towards Dimerization to Furoxans <70EU69)...

Hi) Preparation of isoxazoles from nitrile N-oxides The reaction between a nitrile //-oxide and an alkyne is so facile that it is usually sufficient to leave an ether solution of the reactants at room temperature to obtain the desired isoxazole in good yield. The reaction is in general sensitive to the size of the substituent on the alkyne but not on the nitrile -oxide. In the case of poorly reactive alkynes, the difficulty may be overcome by generating the nitrile -oxide in situ and keeping its concentration low. 

Table 13 Isoxazoles from Nitrile iV-Oxides and Alkynes...

On the whole, the cycloaddition of alkynes to nitrile N-oxides is one of the most important routes to isoxazoles, but in spite of its potentially wide application, its synthetic utility is less than that of the corresponding reaction with alkenes for the following reasons. (1)... 

Table 14 Isoxazoles from Nitrile N-Oxides and C=C Dipolarophiles...

This variation provides a regiospecific synthesis of isoxazoles with a great variety of substituents. The nitrile A-oxide does not react with the doubly activated methylene group in neutral or acidic medium, but under alkaline conditions the reaction proceeds exother-... 

A -Isoxazolines are readily available from the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile -oxides with alkenes and from the condensation reaction of ehones with hydroxylamine. Therefore, methods of conversion of -isoxazolines into isoxazoles are of particular interest and of synthetic importance. 

The thermal or photolytic fragmentation of furazans to nitriles and nitrile Af-oxides has been reported (73JOC1054, 75JOC2880). The irradiation of dimethylfurazan (419) in the presence of cyclopentene, and benzofurazan (420) in the presence of dimethyl acety-lenedicarboxylate, gave isoxazoline (421) and isoxazole (422), respectively, in good yields. The thermolysis of acenaphtho[l,2-c]furazan (423) in the presence of phenylacetylene gave isoxazole (424) in 55% yield. 

However, the thermolysis of diacylfuroxans (429) yielded two types of nitrile Af-oxides. An uncrowded diacylfuroxan such as (429a) rearranged to the a- acyloximino nitrile A-oxide (430) the diacylfuroxan with bulky substituents such as in (429b) gave rise to the half molecule acyl nitrile Af-oxide (431). Both types of nitrile Af-oxides (431) and (430) have been trapped with DMAD and hexafluoro-2-butyne to give isoxazoles in good yield. These reactions are shown in Scheme 97. 

The thermolysis of 5-substituted 1,3,2,4-dioxathiazole 2-oxides (432) also gave nitrile Af-oxides which were trapped with DMAD to give isoxazoles (433) (76JOC1296). 

Both 4,5-dimethylisoxazole and 3,4-dimethylisoxazole are formed on treatment of the sodium derivative of a-methylacetaldehyde with hydroxylamine hydrochloride. The two isomers can be separated by fractional distillation <62HC(17)1, p. 54). 4,5-Dialkylisoxazole or 3,4-dialkylisoxazole can be obtained as the sole reaction product from an appropriate nitrile iV-oxide and an appropriate vinyl acetate. 

Alkylarylisoxazoles can be obtained from the cycloaddition of nitrile Af-oxides to substituted alkynes or alkenes (Section 4.16.4.1.2(ii)), and from the condensation of the 1,4-dilithio oximes (358) with benzonitriles (72JHC183) or amides (78JOC3015). 

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