Nitrones electronic structures

STRUCTURE AND SPECTRA OF NITRONES 2.3.1. Electronic Structure of Nitrones... 

The electronic structure of the nitrone group, except for the main A structure, includes four canonical B-E structures. In the case of aromatic derivatives, it is necessary to consider the conjugation with the benzene ring (structures F and G)... 

Moreover, one should mention that in spite of similar electronic structures, PBN and the isoquinoline nitrone (278) react in a different way. Under no circumstances does PBN give an oxidative methoxylation product, whereas nitrone (278) reacts readily to form a,a-dialkoxy-substituted nitroxyl radical (280) (517). Perhaps this difference might be due to the ability to form a complex with methanol in aldo-nitrones with -configuration. This seems favorable for a fast nucleophilic addition of methanol to the radical cation (RC), formed in the oxidation step. The a-methoxy nitrone (279), obtained in the initial methoxylation, has a lower oxidation potential than the initial aldo-nitrone (see Section 2.4). Its oxidation to the radical cation and subsequent reaction with methanol results in the formation of the a,a-dimethoxy-substituted nitroxyl radical (280) (Scheme 2.105). 

Nitro-compounds fRNOj) are isomeric with nitrites, but their electronic structure, excited states and photochemistry are very different. There is no very low-lying (n.jt ) state, and nitroalkanes show n — 3i absorption with a maximum around 275 nm ( —201 mol - cm In cyclohexane solution, nitromethane (CH1NOi) is photoreduced to nitrosomethane(CH,NO, but nitroethane under the same conditions gives rise to a nitroso-dimer derived from the solvent CS.47). The latter process is probably initiated by cleavage of the carbon-nitrogen bond in the nitroalkane. In basic solution (when the nitroalkane is converted to a nitronate anion) irradiation can lead to efficient formation of a hydroxamic acid (S.48), and this reaction most likely proceeds through formation of an intermediate three-mem bered cyclic species. 

Examples of 1,3-dipoles include diazoalkanes, nitrones, carbonyl ylides and fulminic acid. Organic chemists typically describe 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions [15] in terms of four out-of-plane 71 electrons from the dipole and two from the dipolarophile. Consequently, most of the interest in the electronic structure of 1,3-dipoles has been concentrated on the distribution of the four Jt electrons over the three heavy atom centres. Of course, a characteristic feature of this class of molecules is that it presents awkward problems for classical valence theories a conventional fashion of representing such systems invokes resonance between a number of zwitterionic and diradical structures [16-19]. Much has been written on the amount of diradical character, with widely differing estimates of the relative weights of the different bonding schemes. 

The reason for the slow hydrolysis compared to that of structurally similar compounds like nitrones or 0,lV-acetals might be the following (b-67MI50800) in the protonated species (77) assistance of the lone pair of electrons at nitrogen is sterically hindered due to the large angle of its orbital to the plane of the ring. 

Nitrones are a rather polarized 1,3-dipoles so that the transition structure of their cydoaddition reactions to alkenes activated by an electron-withdrawing substituent would involve some asynchronous nature with respect to the newly forming bonds, especially so in the Lewis acid-catalyzed reactions. Therefore, the transition structures for the catalyzed nitrone cydoaddition reactions were estimated on the basis of ab-initio calculations using the 3-21G basis set. A model reaction indudes the interaction between CH2=NH(0) and acrolein in the presence or absence of BH3 as an acid catalyst (Scheme 7.30). Both the catalyzed and uncatalyzed reactions have only one transition state in each case, indicating that the reactions are both concerted. However, the synchronous nature between the newly forming 01-C5 and C3-C4 bonds in the transition structure TS-J of the catalyzed reaction is rather different from that in the uncatalyzed reaction TS-K. For example, the bond lengths and bond orders in the uncatalyzed reaction are 1.93 A and 0.37 for the 01-C5 bond and 2.47 A and 0.19 for the C3-C4 bond, while those in... 

Relative contribution of each of these structures differs significantly and is determined by internal structural characteristics of the nitrones and by the influence of external factors, such as changes in polarity of solvent, formation of a hydrogen bond, and complexation and protonation. Changes in the electronic stmcture of nitrones, effected by any of these factors, which are manifested in the changes of physicochemical properties and spectral characteristics, can be explained, qualitatively, by analyzing the relative contribution of A-G structures. On the basis of a vector analysis of dipole moments of two series of nitrones (355), a quantum-chemical computation of ab initio molecular orbitals of the model nitrone CH2=N(H)0 and its tautomers, and methyl derivatives (356), it has been established that the bond in nitrones between C and N atoms is almost... 

Convincing evidence was found that the majority of acyclic aldo-nitrones exist in the Z-form, by investigating the ASIS-effect (aromatic solvent induced shift effect) (399). However, in some cases, specified by structural factors and solvent, the presence of both isomers has been revealed. Thus, in C -acyl-nitrones the existence of Z -and -isomers was detected. Their ratio appears to be heavily dependant on the solvent polar solvents stabilize Z-isomers and nonpolar, E-isomers (399). A similar situation was observed in a- methoxy-A-tert-butylnitrones. In acetone, the more polar Z-isomer was observed, whereas in chloroform, the less polar E-isomer prevailed. The isomer assignments were made on the basis of the Nuclear Overhauser Effect (NOE) (398). /Z-Isomerization of acylnitrones can occur upon treatment with Lewis acids, such as, MgBr2 (397). Another reason for isomerization is free rotation with respect to the C-N bond in adduct (218) resulting from the reversible addition of MeOH to the C=N bond (Scheme 2.74). The increase of the electron acceptor character of the substituent contributes to the process (135). 

The electron-donor N -oxide oxygen atom of a nitrone makes it suitable for com-plexation and protonation. Such properties of nitrones have been widely used to influence their reactivity, using Lewis acids and protonation in nucleophilic addition reactions (see Section 2.6.6). In this chapter, the chemistry of nitrones with various metal ions [Zn (II), Cu(II), Mn (II), Ni (II), Fe (II), Fe (III), Ru (II), Os (II), Rh (I), UO2 2 ] (375, 382, 442-445), and diarylboron chelates is described (234—237, 446). Accurate descriptions of the structures of all complexes have been established by X-ray analysis. 

The jt-electron density distribution in nitronates can be described by borderline resonance structures A-D (Scheme 3.84). 

In order to identify organic free - radicals present at quantifiable concentrations during the sonication of PCBs, we employed Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) with a spin trap, N-t-butyl-a-phenyl-nitrone (PBN). PBN reacts with the reactive free - radicals to form more stable spin-adducts, which are then detected by ESR. The ESR spectrum of a PBN spin adduct exhibits hyperfine coupling of the unpaired election with the 14N and the (3-H nuclei which leads to a triplet of doublets. The combination of the spin-adduct peak position and peak interval uniquely identifies the structure of a free-radical. 

The primary cycloadduct from combination of a dipolarophile with a silyl nitronate is an isoxazolidine. The and NMR spectra are highly informative for the structural determination of these products. Tables 2.7 and 2.8 (21,25,34,35). Both the and NMR data show that HC(5) are shifted downfield relative to HC(3). An expected downheld shift is also observed with electron-withdrawing or conjugating groups. In the absence of functionalization at C(3), there is a significant upfield shift of the corresponding resonance. The IR data is less reliable. The O—N—O stretch is reported to be 1055 cm (Fig. 2.8), however, this stretching... 

Fig. 2.3 shows the core structures of the most important 1,3-dipoles, and what they are all called. As with dienes, they can have electron-donating or withdrawing substituents attached at any of the atoms with a hydrogen atom in the core structure, and these modify the reactivity and selectivity that the dipoles show for different dipolarophiles. Some of the dipoles are stable compounds like ozone and diazomethane, or, suitably substituted, like azides, nitrones, and nitrile oxides. Others, like the ylids, imines, and carbonyl oxides, are reactive intermediates that have to be made in situ. Fig. 2.4 shows some examples of some common 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, and Fig. 2.5 illustrates two of the many ways in which unstable dipoles can be prepared. 

Scheme 5.17).40 A three-step reduction-deprotection protocol liberated the aratz -vicinal diamine 21. A six-membered cyclic transition-state structure was proposed to account for the anti selectivity after a two-electron reduction of the nitrone. The chiral A-tert-butylsulfinyl group directs the attack of the carban-ion to the Sz-face of the C=N double bond of the imine. 

If you donate one or two electrons to an atom that already has an octet, regardless of whether it has a formal positive charge, another bond to that atom must break. For example, in nitrones (PhCH=NR-0) the N atom has its octet. A lone pair from O can be used to form a new N=0 it bond only if the electrons in the C=N it bond leave N to go to C, i.e., PhCH=NR-0 PhCH-NR=0. In the second resonance structure, N retains its octet and its formal positive charge. 

Nitrogen can be incorporated as an oxime into a different kind of ene reaction that has been explored by Grigg and his group. The ene component now bears no resemblance to a diene one pair of electrons comes from the lone pair on nitrogen and the other from the OH bond of the oxime 140. The enophile is a more conventional enone and the initial product is a nitrone 141. No nitrogen heterocycle is formed in this step, but, if the enophile contains a second alkene, a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition gives a bicyclic structure. The simplest reagent for this job is the rather unstable divinyl ketone (penta-l,4-dien-3-one, 143). Fortunately this can be released from the dichloroketone 142 with base and distilled with the solvent THF into the reaction mixture.24... 

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