Oxygen nucleophiles, addition with

An especially interesting case of oxygen addition to quinonoid systems involves acidic treatment with acetic anhydride, which produces both addition and esterification (eq. 3). This Thiele-Winter acetoxylation has been used extensively for synthesis, stmcture proof, isolation, and purification (54). The kinetics and mechanism of acetoxylation have been described (55). Although the acetyhum ion is an electrophile, extensive studies of electronic effects show a definite relationship to nucleophilic addition chemistry (56). 

The intramolecular Michael addition11 of a nucleophilic oxygen to an a,/ -unsaturated ester constitutes an attractive alternative strategy for the synthesis of the pyran nucleus, a strategy that could conceivably be applied to the brevetoxin problem (see Scheme 2). For example, treatment of hydroxy a,/ -unsaturated ester 9 with sodium hydride furnishes an alkoxide ion that induces ring formation by attacking the electrophilic //-carbon of the unsaturated ester moiety. This base-induced intramolecular Michael addition reaction is a reversible process, and it ultimately affords the thermodynamically most stable product 10 (92% yield). 

Structure B is of most interest. It is responsible for the activity of nitronates as 1,3-dipoles in [3+ 2]-cycloaddition reactions. This is the most important aspect of the reactivity of nitronates determining the significance of these compounds in organic synthesis (see e.g., Ref. 267). In addition, this structure suggests that nitronates can show both, O -nucleophilic properties, that is, react at the oxygen atom with electrophiles, and a-C-electrophilic properties, that is, add nucleophiles at the a-carbon atom. 

For carbon nucleophiles sequential addition of 2-potassio-2-nitropropane and oxygen to 4-arylidene-2-phenyl-5(47/)-oxazolones 623 has been reported (Scheme 7.200). The process involves a Michael reaction of the 2-nitropropane anion followed by reaction with molecular oxygen and elimination of nitrous acid to yield 2-aryl butenoic acid imides 626. 

At the beginning of our investigations enantioselective intermolecular oxa-Michael additions with removable chirality information in the oxygen-nucleophile had not been reported. Therefore we developed a highly diastereo- and enantiose-... 

However, Natta, Pasquon, Zambelli and Gatti (63) have shown that titanium trichloride-dialkylaluminum chloride or titanium trichloride and alkylaluminum dichloride with nucleophilic materials are good catalysts for the polymerization of propylene to the isotactic structure. The titanium trichloride could also be made in situ from titanium tetrachloride and triethyl aluminum. Vesely, Ambroz, Vilin and Hamrik (64) showed the addition of the nucleophilic materials to diethylaluminumchloride-titanium trichloride polymerizations decreased the rate of polymerization and changed the stereospecificity. The more nucleophilic materials such as sulfur compounds were more effective than the less nucleophilic oxygen materials. 

The two possible valence-bond structures of the enolate anion, 7a and 7b, show that the anion should act as an ambident nucleophile—a nucleophile with nucleophilic properties associated with both carbon and oxygen. The addition step in the aldol reaction therefore may be expected to take place in either of two ways The anion could attack as a carbon nucleophile to form a carbon-carbon bond, 8, leading ultimately to the aldol 9, or it might attack as an oxygen nucleophile to form a carbon-oxygen bond, thereby leading to the hemiacetal 10. By this reasoning, we should obtain a mixture of products 9 and 10. However, the aldol 9 is the only one of these two possible products that can be isolated ... 

One of the earliest uses of palladium(II) salts to activate alkenes towards additions with oxygen nucleophiles is the industrially important Wacker process, wherein ethylene is oxidized to acetaldehyde using a palladium(II) chloride catalyst system in aqueous solution under an oxygen atmosphere with cop-per(II) chloride as a co-oxidant.1,2 The key step in this process is nucleophilic addition of water to the palladium(II)-complexed ethylene. As expected from the regioselectivity of palladium(II)-assisted addition of nucleophiles to alkenes, simple terminal alkenes are efficiently converted to methyl ketones rather than aldehydes under Wacker conditions. 

The Morita-Baylis-Hillman (MBH) reaction is the formation of a-methylene-/ -hydroxycarbonyl compounds X by addition of aldehydes IX to a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds VIII, for example vinyl ketones, acrylonitriles or acrylic esters (Scheme 6.58) [143-148]. For the reaction to occur the presence of catalytically active nucleophiles ( Nu , Scheme 6.58) is required. It is now commonly accepted that the MBH reaction is initiated by addition of the catalytically active nucleophile to the enone/enoate VIII. The resulting enolate adds to the aldehyde IX, establishing the new stereogenic center at the aldehydic carbonyl carbon atom. Formation of the product X is completed by proton transfer from the a-position of the carbonyl moiety to the alcoholate oxygen atom with concomitant elimination of the nucleophile. Thus Nu is available for the next catalytic cycle. 

B2. With Neutral Molecules Electron Transfer Addition to Olefins Cycloaddition to Diolefins Complex Formation B3. With Ions or Dipolar Substrates Nucleophilic Capture B4. With Radicals Spin Labeling Oxygenation (302)... 

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