Nucleophiles alkene, formaldehyde

Di-tert-butyl methylenemalonate was originally prepared by phenyl-sulfenylation of di-tert-butyl methylmalonate and thermal elimination of the related sulfoxide.8 Because methylenemalonate esters are customarily prepared by Knoevenagel-type condensation of malonic esters with formaldehyde equivalents, the considerably more convenient procedure described herein was subsequently adapted from Bachman and Tanner s study using paraformaldehyde under metal ion catalysis.39 The approximately 6% di-tert-butyl malonate accompanying the product has presented no interference in the aforementioned reactions with nucleophilic alkenes under neutral or acidic conditions, but its presence should be taken into consideration in other applications. 

Prins reaction (cf 10, 186-187). Dimethylaluminum chloride is an effective catalyst for the ene addition of formaldehyde (as trioxane or paraformaldehyde) to mono- and 1,2-disubstituted alkenes.5 When 1.5-2.0 equiv. of the Lewis acid is used, homoallylic alcohols are obtained, usually in high yield. y-Chloro alcohols, formed by cis-addition of -Cl and -CH2OH to the double bond, are sometimes also observed when only 1 equiv. of the Lewis acid is present. The advantage of this reaction over the Prins reaction (using HC1) is that m-dioxanes are not formed as by-products, because formaldehyde no longer functions as a nucleophile when complexed to the Lewis acid. 

Alkynes are more susceptible than alkenes to external soft nucleophiles, as demonstrated in the reaction of (37) with formaldehyde, where an excess of Nal dramatic ly changes the cyclization mode (Scheme 20). ... 

Snider has found dialkyl aluminium halides to be excellent catalysts for this reaction and they can be used to stop the reaction after the first step. This is a real advance in the Prins reaction that otherwise tends to give a mixture of products by multiple addition of the aldehyde and intervention by various nucleophiles. A simple example is the addition of formaldehyde to the terpene limonene 208 catalysed by BF3. A single monoadduct 210 is formed in good yield.34 This must be a Lewis acid catalysed carbonyl ene reaction on the external double bond 209. Notice the excellent chemoselectivity in that the internal alkene is not attacked and the excellent regioselectivity in that hydrogen atoms at four other sites might have taken part in the reaction, but do not. 

Halide anions have also been employed to facilitate the cyclization of weakly nucleophilic terminal vinyl ir-nucleophiles. For example, the butenylamine (85) undergoes Mannich cyclization in the presence of excess Nal to provide the 4-iodopiperidine (87) in excellent yield. The success of this cyclization should be contrasted with the failure of related amines to cyclize in formic acid with formaldehyde (Scheme 25). A detailed study " of the effect that nucleophile concentration has on the outcome of Mannich cyclizations provides deilnitive evidence that the cyclization of iminium ions with alkenes is not a concerted process, but rather proceeds via a cationic intermediate capable of partitioning between product formation and reversal to the starting iminium ion. A bridged cation or ir-complex, e.g. (86) in equation (8), is a reasonable description of this intermediate. 

Cuprous chloride tends to form water-soluble complexes with lower olefins and acts as an IPTC catalyst, e.g., in the two-phase hydrolysis of alkyl chlorides to alcohols with sodium carboxylate solution [10,151] and in the Prins reactions between 1-alkenes and aqueous formaldehyde in the presence of HCl to form 1,3-glycols [10]. Similarly, water-soluble rhodium-based catalysts (4-diphenylphosphinobenzoic acid and tri-Cs-io-alkylmethylam-monium chlorides) were used as IPTC catalysts for the hydroformylation of hexene, dodecene, and hexadecene to produce aldehydes for the fine chemicals market [152]. Palladium diphenyl(potassium sulfonatobenzyl)phosphine and its oxide complexes catalyzed the IPTC dehalogenation reactions of allyl and benzyl halides [153]. Allylic substrates such as cinnamyl ethyl carbonate and nucleophiles such as ethyl acetoactate and acetyl acetone catalyzed by a water-soluble bis(dibenzylideneacetone)palladium or palladium complex of sulfonated triphenylphosphine gave regio- and stereo-specific alkylation products in quantitative yields [154]. Ito et al. used a self-assembled nanocage as an IPTC catalyst for the Wacker oxidation of styrene catalyzed by (en)Pd(N03) [155]. 

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