Esters nucleophilic addition

With the dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCQ reagent racemization is more pronounced in polar solvents such as DMF than in CHjCl2, for example. An efficient method for reduction of racemization in coupling with DCC is to use additives such as N-hydroxysuccinimide or l-hydroxybenzotriazole. A possible explanation for this effect of nucleophilic additives is that they compete with the amino component for the acyl group to form active esters, which in turn reaa without racemization. There are some other condensation agents (e.g. 2-ethyl-7-hydroxybenz[d]isoxazolium and l-ethoxycarbonyl-2-ethoxy-l,2-dihydroquinoline) that have been found not to lead to significant racemization. They have, however, not been widely tested in peptide synthesis. 

Protonation of the carbonyl oxygen activates the carbonyl group toward nucleophilic addition Addition of an alcohol gives a tetrahedral inter mediate (shown m the box m the preceding equation) which has the capacity to revert to starting materials or to undergo dehydration to yield an ester... 

Step 2 Nucleophilic addition of water to protonated form of ester... 

Step 2 Nucleophilic addition of the ester enolate to the carbonyl group of the neutral ester The product is the anionic form of the tetrahedral intermediate... 

We already know what happens when simple esters are treated with alkoxide bases— they undergo the Claisen condensation (Section 211) Simple esters have s of approximately 22 and give only a small amount of enolate when treated with alkoxide bases The small amount of enolate that is formed reacts by nucleophilic addition to the carbonyl group of the ester... 

Unsaturated Hydrocarbons. Olefins from ethylene through octene have been converted into esters via acid-catalyzed nucleophilic addition. With ethylene and propjiene, only a single ester is produced using acetic acid, ethyl acetate and isopropyl acetate, respectively. With the butylenes, two products are possible j -butyl esters result from 1- and 2-butylenes, whereas tert-huty esters are obtained from isobutjiene. The C5 olefins give rise to three j iC-amyl esters and one /-amyl ester. As the carbon chain is lengthened, the reactivity of the olefin with organic acids increases. 

Ring expansion of haloalkyloxiranes provides a simple two-step procedure for the preparation of azetidin-3-ols (Section 5.09.2.3.2(f)) which can be extended to include 3-substituted ethers and O-esters (79CRV331 p. 341). The availability of 3-hydroxyazetidines provides access to a variety of 3-substituted azetidines, including halogeno, amino and alkylthio derivatives, by further substitution reactions (Section 5.09.2.2.4). Photolysis of phenylacylamines has also found application in the formation of azetidin-3-ols (33). Not surprisingly, few 2-0-substituted azetidines are known. The 2-methoxyazetidine (57) has been produced by an internal displacement, where the internal amide ion is generated by nucleophilic addition to an imine. 

Because of thetr electron deficient nature, fluoroolefms are often nucleophihcally attacked by alcohols and alkoxides Ethers are commonly produced by these addition and addition-elimination reactions The wide availability of alcohols and fliioroolefins has established the generality of the nucleophilic addition reactions The mechanism of the addition reaction is generally believed to proceed by attack at a vinylic carbon to produce an intermediate fluorocarbanion as the rate-determining slow step The intermediate carbanion may react with a proton source to yield the saturated addition product Alternatively, the intermediate carbanion may, by elimination of P-halogen, lead to an unsaturated ether, often an enol or vinylic ether These addition and addition-elimination reactions have been previously reviewed [1, 2] The intermediate carbanions resulting from nucleophilic attack on fluoroolefins have also been trapped in situ with carbon dioxide, carbonates, and esters of fluorinated acids [3, 4, 5] (equations 1 and 2)... 

Haloethyl esters have been cleaved under a variety of conditions, many of which proceed by nucleophilic addition. 

Anhydrides and esters may differ in two ways. One may undergo nucleophilic addition more rapidly (kinetics), but the other may create a more favorable equilibrium constant for ester formation (thermodynamics). 

Katritzky and co-workers studied the mechanism of this reaction in detail. His work involved a NMR study of 16 reactions of methyl-, phenyl-, 1,2-dimethyl-, and l-methyl-2-phenylhydrazine with /3-keto esters. In many cases starting materials, intermediates, and products were detected simultaneously. Most reactions proceed by nucleophilic addition of the less hindered hydrazine nitrogen atom to the keto carbon of the keto ester. For example, the pathway given in Scheme 3 for the reaction of methyl 3-oxobutanoate 9 with methyl- or phenyUiydrazine 2 (R = Me or Ph) was found to be dominant. The initially formed addition product 10 dehydrates to hydrazone 11, which then isomerizes to hydrazone 12. Intermediate 12 then cyclizes to pyrazol-3-one 13, which tautomerizes to the kinetically more stable pyrazol-3-otie 14 [87JCS(P2)969]. 

Acid-catalyzed ester hydrolysis can occur by more than one mechanism, depending on the structure of the ester. The usual pathway, however, is just the reverse of a Fischer esterification reaction (Section 21.3). The ester is first activated toward nucleophilic attack by protonation of the carboxyl oxygen atom, and nucleophilic addition of water then occurs. Transfer of a proton and elimination of alcohol yields the carboxylic acid (Figure 21.8). Because this hydrolysis reaction is the reverse of a Fischer esterification reaction, Figure 21.8 is the reverse of Figure 21.4. 

O Nucleophilic addition of hydroxide ion to the ester carbonyl group gives the usual tetrahedral alkoxide intermediate. 

Conversion of Amides into Carboxylic Acids Hydrolysis Amides undergo hydrolysis to yield carboxylic acids plus ammonia or an amine on heating in either aqueous acid or aqueous base. The conditions required for amide hydrolysis are more severe than those required for the hydrolysis of add chlorides or esters but the mechanisms are similar. Acidic hydrolysis reaction occurs by nucleophilic addition of water to the protonated amide, followed by transfer of a proton from oxygen to nitrogen to make the nitrogen a better leaving group and subsequent elimination. The steps are reversible, with the equilibrium shifted toward product by protonation of NH3 in the final step. 

Both the malonic ester synthesis and the acetoacetic ester synthesis are easy to cany out because they involve unusually acidic dicarbonyi compounds. As a result, relatively mild bases such as sodium ethoxide in ethanol as solvent can be used to prepare the necessary enolate ions. Alternatively, however, it s also possible in many cases to directly alkylate the a position of monocarbonyl compounds. A strong, stericaliy hindered base such as LDA is needed so that complete conversion to the enolate ion takes place rather than a nucleophilic addition, and a nonprotic solvent must be used. 

Tire mechanism of the Claisen condensation is similar to that of the aldol condensation and involves the nucleophilic addition of an ester enolate ion to the carbonyl group of a second ester molecule. The only difference between the aldol condensation of an aldeiwde or ketone and the Claisen condensation of an ester involves the fate of the initially formed tetrahedral intermediate. The tetrahedral intermediate in the aldol reaction is protonated to give an alcohol product—exactly the behavior previously seen for aldehydes and ketones (Section 19.4). The tetrahedral intermediate in the Claisen reaction, however, expels an alkoxide leaving group to yield an acyl substitution product—exactly the behavior previously seen for esters (Section 21.6). The mechanism of the Claisen condensation reaction is shown in Figure 23.5. 

The enolate ion adds in a nucleophilic addition reaction to a second ester molecule, giving a tetrahedral alkoxide intermediate. 

Intramolecular nucleophilic addition of the ester enolate ion to the carbonyl group of the second ester at the other end of the chain then gives a cyclic tetrahedral intermediate. 

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