Oxygen-based nucleophiles

Oxygen nucleophiles usually attack a ring carbon atom rather than the sulfur atom of a thiirane, and those cases in which desulfurization is observed on treatment of a thiirane with oxygen bases probably involve the extrusion of sulfur by mechanisms other than a nucleophilic attack on sulfur, e.g. thermal. Desulfurization of thiirane intermediate (43)... 

It was pointed out earlier that the low nucleophilicity of fluoride ion and its low concentration in HF solutions can create circumstances not commonly observed with the other halogen acids. Under such conditions rearrangement reactions either of a concerted nature or via a true carbonium ion may compete with nucleophilic attack by fluoride ion. To favor the latter the addition of oxygen bases, e.g., tetrahydrofuran, to the medium in the proper concentration can provide the required increase in fluoride ion concentration without harmful reduction in the acidity of the medium. 

Diffusion-limited rate control at high basicity may set in. This is more eommonly seen in a true Br nsted plot. If the rate-determining step is a proton transfer, and if this is diffusion controlled, then variation in base strength will not affect the rate of reaction. Thus, 3 may be zero at high basicity, whereas at low basicity a dependence on pK may be seen. ° Yang and Jencks ° show an example in the nucleophilic attack of aniline on methyl formate catalyzed by oxygen bases. 

The synthesis of a large number of y-pyrones and y-pyranols from enamines has been brought about through the use of a wide variety of bifunctional molecules. These molecules include phenolic aldehydes (126,127), phenolic Mannich bases (128), ketal esters (129), and diketene (120-132). All of these molecules have an electrophilic carbonyl group and a nucleophilic oxygen center in relative 1,4 positions. This is illustrated by the reaction between salicylaldehyde (101) and the morpholine enamine of cyclohexanone to give pyranol 102 in a quantitative yield (127). 

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). 

Transition metal oxides represent a prominent class of partial oxidation catalysts [1-3]. Nevertheless, materials belonging to this class are also active in catalytic combustion. Total oxidation processes for environmental protection are mostly carried out industriaUy on the much more expensive noble metal-based catalysts [4]. Total oxidation is directly related to partial oxidation, athough opposes to it. Thus, investigations on the mechanism of catalytic combustion by transition metal oxides can be useful both to avoid it in partial oxidation and to develop new cheaper materials for catalytic combustion processes. However, although some aspects of the selective oxidation mechanisms appear to be rather established, like the involvement of lattice catalyst oxygen (nucleophilic oxygen) in Mars-van Krevelen type redox cycles [5], others are still uncompletely clarified. Even less is known on the mechanism of total oxidation over transition metal oxides [1-4,6]. 

Base catalysis of ligand substitutional processes of metal carbonyl complexes in the presence of oxygen donor bases may be apportioned into two distinct classifications. The first category of reactions involves nucleophilic addition of oxygen bases at the carbon center in metal carbonyls with subsequent oxidation of CO to C02, eqns. 1 and 2 (l, 2). Secondly, there are... 

Sulfation in most aspects is very similar to phosphorylation, except that sulfation is not involved in intracellular signal transduction, but in other forms of signaling. The mechanism of sulfation is similar to that of phosphorylation as a general base from the enzyme active site that deprotonates the hydroxyl groups of tyrosine residues. The nucleophilic oxygen then attacks the /3-position, in contrast to the 7-position in phosphorylation, and releases adenosine 3, 5 -diphosphate. 

Oxygen-based nucleophiles can also be employed for the catalysis of acyl transfer. For example, pyridine-A-oxide derivatives such as 4-DMAP-A-oxide have long been known as such catalysts although, interestingly, these catalophores are reportedly particularly efficient at mediating sulfonyl and phosphoryl transfer [229-230]. 

Compounds with a high HOMO and LUMO (Figure 5.5c) tend to be stable to selfreaction but are chemically reactive as Lewis bases and nucleophiles. The higher the HOMO, the more reactive. Carbanions, with HOMO near a, are the most powerful bases and nucleophiles, followed by amides and alkoxides. The neutral nitrogen (amines, heteroaromatics) and oxygen bases (water, alcohols, ethers, and carbonyls) will only react with relatively strong Lewis acids. Extensive tabulations of gas-phase basicities or proton affinities (i.e., —AG° of protonation) exist [109, 110]. These will be discussed in subsequent chapters. 

It is appropriate at this point to summarize the tendency of various nucleophiles to add to the carbonyl group. In general, the strong bases (organometallics, hydrides, negative ions) are most effective among the neutral nucleophiles, the soft ones, for example the sulfur bases, tend to be more effective in addition than the hard ones, for example the oxygen bases. 

Enolate ions, which are usually strong nucleophiles, are more important in preparative applications than are the enols. In additions to carbonyl groups, the carbon end, rather than the oxygen end, attacks but in SA,2 substitutions on alkyl halides, significant amounts of O-alkylation occur. The more acidic compounds, such as those with the j3-dicarbonyl structure, yield enolates with the greater tendency toward O-alkylation. Protic solvents and small cations favor C-alkylation, because the harder oxygen base of the enolate coordinates more strongly than does the carbon with these hard Lewis acids.147... 

With 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene no diversity of attack is possible, though for substituted derivatives such as 2,4,6-trinitroanisole or 2,4,6-trinitro-aniline the mode of interaction may vary on changing the nucleophile. Thus structural measurements show that the thermodynamically stable adducts of 2,4,6-trinitroanisole with OMe-, Ns- or NEt2 result from addition at Cl while the apparently stable adducts with S03 or CHg CO CH2 are formed at C3. The failure to detect addition of these latter nucleophiles at Cl may be ascribed to steric strain. This may occur either in the Cl adducts themselves, so that they are no longer thermodynamically preferred to the C3 adducts, or alternatively in the transition states for their formation, so that their formation is very slow. Again the mode of ionization of 2,4,6-trinitroaniline and its N-substituted derivatives depends on the relative affinities for carbon or hydrogen of the particular nucleophile used. Thus sulphur bases such as SEt- and SPh will preferentially add at the 3-position, while with oxygen bases abstraction of an amino proton also occurs. 

Taking into account the associated structures of catalysts for the coordination polymerisation of epoxides and considering that the coordinated epoxide is attacked by the nucleophile from the back side [scheme (1)], the catalyst must engage its two metal atoms in order to make the polymerisation possible. In fact, zinc-based catalysts containing associated multinuclear species (—>Zn-O-Zn-O—>), including those with condensed zinc atoms ( Zn O Zn O ), are all characterised by the appearance of active sites with two zinc atoms bridged via a nucleophilic oxygen atom in which the O atom, bound covalently to the octahedral zinc atom, is coordinated to the adjacent tetrahedral Zn atom (Zn O -Zn). 

Because of the presence of the nucleophilic oxygen and electrophilic proton, alcohols can act both as weak acids and as weak bases when dissolved in water (Following fig.). However, the equilibrium in both cases is virtually completely weighted to the unionised form. 

One of the major uses of these halohydrins is for the preparation of epoxides. Treatment of the halohydrin with base, such as NaOH or KOH, results in deprotonation of the alcohol followed by an intramolecular nucleophilic substitution (see Section 10.3), as shown in the following example. Remember that the nucleophilic oxygen must displace the chlorine from the opposite side, resulting in inversion of configuration at that carbon. 

Epoxy resins, which are used as adhesives, are also thermoset polymers that form by cross-linking when the two components of the resin are mixed. One component is a low-molecular-mass linear polymer formed by the reaction of the conjugate base of bisphenol A with epichlorohydrin. The nucleophilic oxygens of the phenolate dianion can either displace the chlorine or open the epoxide ring of epichlorohydrin. A slight excess of epichlorohydrin is used to keep these polymer chains short and to ensure that the linear molecules have epoxide groups at their ends. 

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