Nucleophilic addition reactions oxygen nucleophiles

Preparing Aldehydes and Ketones A Review Introduction to Nucleophilic Addition Reactions Oxygen Nucleophiles Nitrogen Nucleophiles Mechanism Strategies Sulfur Nucleophiles Hydrogen Nucleophiles Carbon Nucleophiles Baeyer-Villiger Oxidation of Aldehydes and Ketones Synthesis Strategies... 

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. 

The most common reaction of aldehydes and ketones is the nucleophilic addition reaction, in which a nucleophile, Nu , adds to the electrophilic carbon of the carbonyl group. Since the nucleophile uses an electron pair to form a new bond to carbon, two electrons from the carbon-oxygen double bond must move toward the electronegative oxygen atom to give an alkoxide anion. The carbonyl carbon rehybridizes from sp2 to sp3 during the reaction, and the alkoxide ion product therefore has tetrahedral geometry. 

As we saw in A Preview of Carbonyl Compounds, the most general reaction of aldehydes and ketones is the nucleophilic addition reaction. A nucleophile, Nu-, approaches along the C=0 bond from an angle of about 75° to the plane of the carbonyl group and adds to the electrophilic C=0 carbon atom. At the same time, rehybridization of the carbonyl carbon from sp2 to sp3 occurs, an electron pair from the C=0 bond moves toward the electronegative oxygen atom, and a tetrahedral alkoxide ion intermediate is produced (Figure 19.1). 

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). 

Additions of oxygen and nitrogen nucleophiles to vinyloxiranes can be achieved with Pd(0) catalysis [103, 104]. Acetate, silanols, amines, sulfonamides, and azide have been used as nucleophiles, and the stereochemical outcome of these additions, where applicable, is normally the result of two consecutive SN2 reactions. This is demonstrated by the additions of NaNHTs to vinylepoxides 29 and 30, affording syn- and anti-amino alcohols 31 and 32, respectively, in good yields and with high diastereoselectivities (Scheme 9.22) [105]. 

With a-alkyl-substituted chiral carbonyl compounds bearing an alkoxy group in the -position, the diastereoselectivity of nucleophilic addition reactions is influenced not only by steric factors, which can be described by the models of Cram and Felkin (see Section 1.3.1.1.), but also by a possible coordination of the nucleophile counterion with the /J-oxygen atom. Thus, coordination of the metal cation with the carbonyl oxygen and the /J-alkoxy substituent leads to a chelated transition state 1 which implies attack of the nucleophile from the least hindered side, opposite to the pseudoequatorial substituent R1. Therefore, the anb-diastereomer 2 should be formed in excess. With respect to the stereogenic center in the a-position, the predominant formation of the anft-diastereomer means that anti-Cram selectivity has occurred. 

The Mukaiyama aldol reaction refers to Lewis acid-catalyzed aldol addition reactions of silyl enol ethers, silyl ketene acetals, and similar enolate equivalents,48 Silyl enol ethers are not sufficiently nucleophilic to react directly with aldehydes or ketones. However, Lewis acids cause reaction to occur by coordination at the carbonyl oxygen, activating the carbonyl group to nucleophilic attack. 

We would expect the C=0 linkage, by analogy with C=C (p. 178), to undergo addition reactions but whereas polar attack on the latter is normally initiated only by electrophiles, attack on the former— because of its bipolar nature—could be initiated either by electrophilic attack of X or X on oxygen or by nucleophilic attack of Y or Yt on carbon (radical-induced addition reactions of carbonyl compounds are rare). In practice, initial electrophilic attack on oxygen is of little significance except where the electrophile is an acid (or a Lewis acid), when rapid, reversible protonation may be a prelude to slow, rate-limiting attack by a nucleophile on carbon, to complete the addition, i.e. the addition is then acid-catalysed. 

Phenylthio)nitroalkenes are also excellent intermediates for the synthesis of other heterocyclic ring systems. For example, tetrahydropyran carboxylic acid derivatives are formed by the intramolecular addition of oxygen nucleophile to l-(phenylthio)nitroalkene predominantly as the m-isomer (9.1 1) (see Eq. 4.40). The reaction may proceed via the chair-like transition state with two pseudo-equatorial substituents.50... 

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... 

The electron-donor N -oxide oxygen atom of a nitrone makes it suitable for com-plexation and protonation. Such properties of nitrones have been widely used to influence their reactivity, using Lewis acids and protonation in nucleophilic addition reactions (see Section 2.6.6). In this chapter, the chemistry of nitrones with various metal ions [Zn (II), Cu(II), Mn (II), Ni (II), Fe (II), Fe (III), Ru (II), Os (II), Rh (I), UO2 2 ] (375, 382, 442-445), and diarylboron chelates is described (234—237, 446). Accurate descriptions of the structures of all complexes have been established by X-ray analysis. 

Recently, Trost et al. reported the vanadium-catalyzed addition reaction of 2,3-allenols [180], Here the oxygen in 401 served as an intramolecular nucleophile to attack the center carbon atom of allene to form a vanadium enolate 402. Aldol condensation of 402 with an aldehyde afforded (2-hydroxy)alkyl vinylic ketones 403. 

The number of reports about addition reactions of oxygen nucleophiles to acceptor-substituted dienes is rather limited. Coffman111 and Kurtz17 examined the reaction of 2,4-pentadienenitrile with sodium methoxide and isolated the 2 1 adduct 3,5-dimethoxypen-tanenitrile formed by successive 1,6- and 1,4-additions (equation 34). Analogous treatment... 

This is a further example of a carbonyl-electrophile complex, and equivalent to the conjugate acid, so that the subsequent nucleophilic addition reaction parallels that in hemiacetal formation. Loss of the leaving group occurs first in an SNl-like process with the cation stabilized by the neighbouring oxygen an SN2-like process would be inhibited sterically. It is also possible to rationalize why base catalysis does not work. Base would simply remove a proton from the hydroxyl to initiate hemiacetal decomposition back to the aldehyde - what is needed is to transform the hydroxyl into a leaving group (see Section 6.1.4), hence the requirement for protonation. 

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