Nucleophilic addition unreactive compound

Alkanes have only strong a bonds. In addition, the electrons in the C—C and C—H cr bonds are shared equally by the bonding atoms, so none of the atoms in an alkane has any significant charge. This means that alkanes are neither nucleophiles nor electrophiles, so neither electrophiles nor nucleophiles are attracted to them. Alkanes, therefore, are relatively unreactive compounds. The failure of alkanes to undergo reactions prompted early organic chemists to call them paraffins, from the Latin parum affiinis, which means little affinity (for other compounds). 

If the potential leaving group is attached to unsaturated carbon, as in vinyl chloride or phenyl chloride, attack by nucleophiles is also extremely difficult, and these compounds are very unreactive in Sn2 reactions compared with simple alkyl halides. In these cases, the reason is not so much steric but electrostatic, in that the nucleophile is repelled by the electrons of the unsaturated system. In addition, since the halide is attached to carbon through an 5p -hybridized bond, the electrons in the bond are considerably closer to carbon than in an 5/ -hybridized bond of an alkyl halide (see Section 2.6.2). Lastly, resonance stabilization in the halide gives some double bond character to the C-Hal bond. This effectively strengthens the bond and makes it harder to break. This lack of reactivity is also tme for SnI reactions (see Section 6.2). 

Swern oxidations produce the quite unreactive side compounds carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, dimethyl sulfide and an amine hydrochloride. Therefore, it is very often possible to perform the in situ addition of a nucleophile to the aldehyde or ketone, resulting from the oxidation. This is particularly useful when the aldehyde or ketone is difficult to isolate, because of possessing an unusually high reactivity. 

Conjugated unsaturated ketones are unreactive to peracids because of the depletion of electronic charge in the olefiinic bond, but epoxyketones are readily prepared by using the nucleophilic hydroperoxide ion (H02"") [284], In simple aliphatic compounds the epoxidation follows kinetics first order with respect to hydroperoxide ion and unsaturated ketone [28s]- According to House [286], the reaction should be represented as a reversible addition of hydroperoxide ion, followed by closure of the epoxide ring in a slow step, with expulsion of hydroxide ion. The over-all rate will be determined both by the equilibrium constant in the first step and by the rate constant for the second. 

The difference is interestingly exemplified in the differing modes of reaction of hydrazoic acid with some alkylidene (and arylidene) oxazolone derivativesThe alkylidene compound 174 behaves as an a, -unsaturated carbonyl compound with the hydrazoic acid adding to the exocyclic double bond. A subsequent ring opening with further addition leads to the formation of the diazide 175 (equation 75). In contrast the exocyclic double bond of the arylidene compound 176 is unreactive, and nucleophilic attack occurs at the... 

If you want to do a conjugate addition of a carbonyl compound without having a second anion-stabilizing group, you need some stable and relatively unreactive enol equivalent. In Chapters 27 and 28 you saw how enamines are useful in alkylation reactions. These neutral species are also perfect for conjugate addition as they are soft nucleophiles but are more reactive than ends and can be prepared quantitatively in advance. The reactivity of enamines is such that heating the reactants together, sometimes neat, is all that is required. Protic or Lewis acid catalysis can also be used to catalyse the reaction at lower temperature. 

Addition of an electrophile to the lone pair of oxo-, thioxo- and imino-vinylidenephosphoranes transforms the nucleophilic system into the dipolar ir -ir system of a ketene. The resulting phosphonium salt becomes a true dipolar ketene which, as such, reacts in a known manner (equation 101). Whenever the anion Nu is a stronger nucleophile than the original cumulated ylide, the new alkylidene-phosphorane will be formed, in which compound ElNu has added to the parent vinylidenephosphorane. If the starting phosphacumulene ylide is a stronger nucleophile than Nu , the intermediate salt always reacts with a second molecule of unreacted ylide in a [2 + 2] cycloaddition to give 1,3-cyclobutanedione derivatives. 

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