Nucleophiles with Electrophiles

A third major class of carbon nucleophiles is enol derivatives. In general, these are stable compounds that are prepared by one of the functional group transformations outlined in die previous chapter. 

Electrophilic carbon species are most often stable compounds with an electrophilic functional group present. Since they are stable molecules, they need not be generated as transients in the reaction mixture. The functional types which are good electrophiles have been defined earlier in this chapter and, the preparations of these functional groups were oudined in the previous chapter. 

When stabilized (and consequently less reactive) anions are employed as the nucleophile, more reactive electrophiles are needed for successful carbon-carbon bond formation. Nitronate anions, which are highly resonance stabilized, fail to react widi simple alkyl hahde electrophiles. On the other hand, /3-dicarbonyl compounds react effectively with primary and some secondary alkyl bromides and iodides to give monoalkylated products. 

Under the same conditions simple etiolates react vigorously with alkyl halides (which must be primary) to give mono- and polyalkylated products. The reactivity of the simple enolate is greater and cannot be controlled at room temperature. However, if the alkylation is carried out at low temperature, the reaction can be controlled and smooth monoalkylation of simple enolates can be achieved. The same is true for the alkylation of acetylide anions, which must be carried out at low temperature for successful alkylation. 

Enolates are important nucleophiles which react nicely with a variety of carbonyl compounds. In this case, the nucleophilic reactivity of the enolate and the electrophilic reactivity of the carbonyl group are well matched and a wide variety of products can be made. The type of enolate (ketone, ester, etc.) and the type of carbonyl electrophile (aldehyde, ketone, ester, etc.) determine the structure of the final product. Furthermore these reactions are often named according to the two partners that are reacted and the type of product produced from them. 

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This methodology is also an important and potentially valuable method for C—N bond formation using the amination of carbon nucleophiles with electrophilic nitrogen transfer reagents (Scheme 1) Amination of ordinary carbanions and a-carbanion derived from carbonyl compounds and nitriles provides an important method for the synthesis of amines and a-amino carbonyl compounds and nitriles", respectively. For this purpose, a number of electrophilic amination reagents, which are synthetic equivalents of the R2N+ synthon, have been developed and the synthetic potential of electrophilic amination of carbon nucleophiles has been studied in detail . ... 

The reactions of nucleophiles with electrophiles also relates to the overall oxidative change of a reaction. As is expected, nucleophilic atoms which are... 

In practice, donor substituents make it possible actually to isolate a range of carbenes 4.105. With somewhat less stabilisation, the carbene 4.106, although it is only found as a reactive intermediate, is exceptionally easy to form. It is the key intermediate in all the metabolic steps catalysed by thiamine coenzymes, and its reactions are characterised by its nucleophilicity. Similarly, dimethoxycarbene 4.107 reacts as a nucleophile with electrophiles like dimethyl maleate to give the intermediate 4.108, and hence the cyclopropane 4.109, but it does not insert into unactivated alkenes. 

Mayr and Patz have recently evaluated 56 reaction series, mostly for reactions as described in this article, and derived Eq. (23), in which carbo-cations are characterized by the electrophilicity parameter E, whereas nucleophiles are characterized by the nucleophilicity parameter N and the slope parameter s [182]. The latter quantity, s, which basically describes the slopes of plots as shown in Figs. 10 and 11, ranges from 0.8 to 1.2 for 91 % of the 7r-nucIeophiles investigated. The mathematical form of Eq. (23) implies that the exact value of s will usually only be of importance when rate constants, which strongly deviate from 1 (e.g., (log > 5), are considered. Some of the characterized nucleophiles and electrophiles are listed in Scheme 53, where the two scales are arranged in such a way that electrophiles and nucleophiles which are located at the same level are predicted to combine with rate constants of lg k = -5 s. With s 1 one expects slow combinations for electrophile-nucleophile pairs at the same level, whereas reactions of nucleophiles with electrophiles located below them are expected to be very slow or not to occur at all at 20° C. 

Amines react as nucleophiles with electrophilic carbon atoms. The details of these reactions have been described in Chapters 21 and 22, so they are only summarized here to emphasize the similar role that the amine nitrogen plays. 

There are molecules that have two-electron deficient centers capable to react with nucleophiles. Such molecules are called ambident electrophiles. The reactivity profile is susceptible to the same kind of analysis as the one we have had above for the reaction of ambident nucleophiles with electrophiles. In the reaction of an electrophile with a nucleophile, it is the LUMO of the electrophile that interacts with the HOMO of the nucleophile. As such, the higher the HOMO and/or the lower the LUMO to reduce energy gap between the two, the faster will be the reaction. Alternatively, the better the match of the HOMO and LUMO coefficients, the more effective will be the reaction. 

Ascorbate anion is a much more reactive nucleophile than expected from Its p g> which has been attributed to the acidity of the C-2 hydroxy group. The observation was made by comparing the rates of reactions of many oxyanlon nucleophiles with electrophiles such as... 

Chapter 21 discusses the concept of aromaticity as well as the nomenclature and the specialized chemical reactions of aromatic compounds such as benzene and its derivatives. This chapter comes late in the book, with the notion that the chemistry of aliphatic compounds is simply used more often. The acid-base theme is continued with the recognition that the fundamental substitution chemistry associated with benzene derivatives may be explained by the reaction of aromatic rings as Lewis bases or nucleophiles with electrophilic reagents. The reactions of benzene derivatives with strong bases and good nucleophiles are also presented. 

FIGURE 19.66 Addition of hydroxide and the enolate anion to the carbonyl group are simply two examples of the reaction of nucleophiles with electrophilic carbonyl groups. In the second step, protonation gives the hydrate in the top sequence, or aldol in the lower sequence. 

There are ways to plot data with several pieces of data at each point in space. One example would be an isosurface of electron density that has been colorized to show the electrostatic potential value at each point on the surface (Figure 13.6). The shape of the surface shows one piece of information (i.e., the electron density), whereas the color indicates a different piece of data (i.e., the electrostatic potential). This example is often used to show the nucleophilic and electrophilic regions of a molecule. 

TT-Allylpalladium chloride (36) reacts with the nucleophiles, generating Pd(0). whereas tr-allylnickel chloride (37) and allylmagnesium bromide (38) reacts with electrophiles (carbonyl), generating Ni(II) and Mg(II). Therefore, it is understandable that the Grignard reaction cannot be carried out with a catalytic amount of Mg, whereas the catalytic reaction is possible with the regeneration of an active Pd(0) catalyst, Pd is a noble metal and Pd(0) is more stable than Pd(II). The carbon-metal bonds of some transition metals such as Ni and Co react with nucleophiles and their reactions can be carried out catalytic ally, but not always. In this respect, Pd is very unique. 

Pd(II) compounds coordinate to alkenes to form rr-complexes. Roughly, a decrease in the electron density of alkenes by coordination to electrophilic Pd(II) permits attack by various nucleophiles on the coordinated alkenes. In contrast, electrophilic attack is commonly observed with uncomplexed alkenes. The attack of nucleophiles with concomitant formation of a carbon-palladium r-bond 1 is called the palladation of alkenes. This reaction is similar to the mercuration reaction. However, unlike the mercuration products, which are stable and isolable, the product 1 of the palladation is usually unstable and undergoes rapid decomposition. The palladation reaction is followed by two reactions. The elimination of H—Pd—Cl from 1 to form vinyl compounds 2 is one reaction path, resulting in nucleophilic substitution of the olefinic proton. When the displacement of the Pd in 1 with another nucleophile takes place, the nucleophilic addition of alkenes occurs to give 3. Depending on the reactants and conditions, either nucleophilic substitution of alkenes or nucleophilic addition to alkenes takes place. 

Application of 7r-allylpalladium chemistry to organic synthesis has made remarkable progress[l]. As deseribed in Chapter 3, Seetion 3, Tt-allylpalladium complexes react with soft carbon nucleophiles such as maionates, /3-keto esters, and enamines in DMSO to form earbon-carbon bonds[2, 3], The characteristie feature of this reaction is that whereas organometallic reagents are eonsidered to be nucleophilic and react with electrophiles, typieally earbonyl eompounds, Tt-allylpalladium complexes are electrophilie and reaet with nucleophiles such as active methylene compounds, and Pd(0) is formed after the reaction. 

Alkylation can also be accomplished with electrophilic alkenes. There is a dichotomy between basic and acidic conditions. Under basic conditions, where the indole anion is the reactive nucleophile, A-alkylation occurs. Under acidic conditions C-alkylation is observed. The reaction of indole with 4-vinylpyri-dine is an interesting illustration. Good yields of the 3-alkylation product are obtained in refluxing acetic acid[18] whereas if the reaction is done in ethanol containing sodium ethoxide 1-alkylation occurs[19]. Table 11.2 gives some examples of 3-alkylation using electrophilic alkenes. 

Quaternarj salts are obtained by alkylation of selenazole bases, the heterocyclic nitrogen atom playing the role of nucleophile with regard to the electrophilic carbon of the alkylating, agent. 

With the exception of the nuclear amination of 4-methylthiazole by sodium amide (341, 346) the main reactions of nucleophiles with thiazole and its simple alkyl or aryl derivatives involve the abstraction of a ring or substituent proton by a strongly basic nucleophile followed by the addition of an electrophile to the intermediate. Nucleophilic substitution of halogens is discussed in Chapter V. 

The Lewis bases that react with electrophiles are called nucleophiles ( nucleus seek ers ) They have an unshared electron pair that they can use m covalent bond formation The nucleophile m Step 3 of Figure 4 6 is chloride ion... 

Hydantoins can react with electrophiles at both nitrogen atoms and at C-5. The electrophilic carbonyl groups can be attacked by nucleophiles, leading to hydrolysis of the ring or to partial or total reduction of the carbonyl system. Other reactions are possible, including photochemical cleavage of the ring. 

In contrast to reaction of ozone with nucleophilic haUde and hypohaUte ions, reaction of ozone with electrophilic hypohalous acids is very slow. 

As conjugated systems with alternating TT-charges, the polymethine dyes are comparatively highly reactive compounds (3). Substitution rather than addition occurs to the equalized TT-bond. If the nucleophilic and electrophilic reactions are charge-controHed, reactants can attack regiospeciftcaHy. 

The N-oxide function has proved useful for the activation of the pyridine ring, directed toward both nucleophilic and electrophilic attack (see Amine oxides). However, pyridine N-oxides have not been used widely ia iadustrial practice, because reactions involving them almost iavariably produce at least some isomeric by-products, a dding to the cost of purification of the desired isomer. Frequently, attack takes place first at the O-substituent, with subsequent rearrangement iato the ring. For example, 3-picoline N-oxide [1003-73-2] (40) reacts with acetic anhydride to give a mixture of pyridone products ia equal amounts, 5-methyl-2-pyridone [1003-68-5] and 3-methyl-2-pyridone [1003-56-1] (11). 

The facility with which oxiranes may be prepared and the ease with which they undergo ring opening with nucleophiles or electrophiles makes them useful synthons. Aziridines and especially thiiranes have been less widely exploited in this respect. 

The pattern of reactivity is similar to that discussed for the azolinones in Sections 4.02.1.1.4 and 4.02.3.7.1. A difference is the greater nucleophilicity of sulfur, and thus more reaction of the ambident anion with electrophiles occurs at sulfur. 

Scheme 4 shows in a general manner cyclocondensations considered to involve reaction mechanisms in which nucleophilic heteroatoms condense with electrophilic carbonyl groups in a 1,3-relationship to each other. The standard method of preparation of pyrazoles involves such condensations (see Chapter 4.04). With hydrazine itself the question of regiospecificity in the condensation does not occur. However, with a monosubstituted hydrazine such as methylhydrazine and 4,4-dimethoxybutan-2-one (105) two products were obtained the 1,3-dimethylpyrazole (106) and the 1,5-dimethylpyrazole (107). Although Scheme 4 represents this type of reaction as a relatively straightforward process, it is considerably more complex and an appreciable effort has been expended on its study (77BSF1163). Details of these reactions and the possible variations of the procedure may be found in Chapter 4.04. 

Electron deficient carbon-carbon double bonds are resistant to attack by the electrophilic reagents of Section 5.05.4.2.2(t), and are usually converted to oxiranes by nucleophilic oxidants. The most widely used of these is the hydroperoxide ion (Scheme 79). Since epoxidation by hydroperoxide ion proceeds through an intermediate ct-carbonyl anion, the reaction of acyclic alkenes is not necessarily stereospecific (Scheme 80) (unlike the case of epoxidation with electrophilic agents (Section 5.05.4.2.2(f)) the stereochemical aspects of this and other epoxidations are reviewed at length in (B-73MI50500)). 

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