Olefinic carbon centers, nucleophilic reactions

III. NUCLEOPHILIC REACTIONS AT UNSATURATED CARBONS A. Olefinic Carbon Centers... 

The initial step of olefin formation is a nucleophilic addition of the negatively polarized ylide carbon center (see the resonance structure 1 above) to the carbonyl carbon center of an aldehyde or ketone. A betain 8 is thus formed, which can cyclize to give the oxaphosphetane 9 as an intermediate. The latter decomposes to yield a trisubstituted phosphine oxide 4—e.g. triphenylphosphine oxide (with R = Ph) and an alkene 3. The driving force for that reaction is the formation of the strong double bond between phosphorus and oxygen ... 

In 1982, a new reaction was reported by Tamura and Ono namely, allylic nitro compounds undergo replacement of the nitro group by various nucleophiles in the presence of a palladium (0) catalyst.17a b 18a b The details of these reactions are discussed in Ref. 2b here, only some typical examples are presented. Carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorous centered nucleophiles replace the nitro groups at the allylic positions. The reaction of allylic nitro compounds with triphenylphosphine is applied to the highly stereoselective olefination of aldehydes (Eqs. 7.15-7.18).19... 

Upon oxidation, the subsequent radical cation can decompose in a number of different ways to generate reactive intermediates (Scheme 10.1). The first possibility involves direct H-atom abstraction of the a-C-H bond of the oxidized amine (I) to generate an iminium ion (II), which is susceptible to nucleophilic attack via polar reaction mechanisms (pathway a). Deprotonation of I may also form a carbon-centered radical species (III) that can react with typical radical traps, such as olefins or arenes (pathway b). Generation of the iminium ion may also occur indirectly through oxidation of III via SET to the photocatalyst or another oxidant (pathway c). Finally, radical cation I can undergo non-productive pathways such as back-electron transfer with the reduced photocatalyst (PC" ) to re-generate the neutral amine and PC" (pathway d). 

This may suggest that fully conjugated charge centers are an important aspect in directing nucleophilic attack to the terminal carbon. Thus, the superacid promoted reactions of the olefinic pyrazines (and related systems) may be viewed as the superelectrophilic version of Michael addition. 

The mechanism for the stereoselective polymerization of a-olefins and other nonpolar alkenes is a Ti-complexation of monomer and transition metal (utilizing the latter s if-orbitals) followed by a four-center anionic coordination insertion process in which monomer is inserted into a metal-carbon bond as described in Fig. 8-10. Support for the initial Tt-com-plexation has come from ESR, NMR, and IR studies [Burfield, 1984], The insertion reaction has both cationic and anionic features. There is a concerted nucleophilic attack by the incipient carbanion polymer chain end on the a-carbon of the double bond together with an electrophilic attack by the cationic counterion on the alkene Ti-electrons. 

The intrinsic stability of the aromatic n system has two major consequences for the course of reactions involving it directly. First, the aromatic ring is less susceptible to electrophilic, nucleophilic, and free-radical attack compared to molecules containing acyclic conjugated n systems. Thus, reaction conditions are usually more severe than would normally be required for parallel reactions of simple olefins. Second, there is a propensity to eject a substituent from the tetrahedral center of the intermediate in such a way as to reestablish the neutral (An + 2)-electron system. Thus, the reaction is two step, an endothermic first step resulting in a four-coordinate carbon atom and an exothermic second step, mechanistically the reverse of the first, in which a group is ejected. The dominant course is therefore a substitution reaction rather than an addition. 

Scheme 10.17 shows an imusual disproportionation of thiiranes. These strained sulfides react, in the presence of catalytic amounts of 4, to afford 1,2,3-trithiolanes and 1,2,3,4-tetrathianes and alkenes [28]. Monosubstituted thiiranes such as styrene sulfide and propene sulfide react to form the corresponding olefin and the 4-substi-tuted 1,2,3-trithiolane in a 2 1 ratio in isolated yields in excess of 90% (Scheme 10.17). The reaction is thought to arise through initial thiirane coordination to the ruthenium center and subsequent nucleophilic attack of free thiirane on the carbon of coordinated thiirane.

As we saw in Section 8.2, the active center in cationic polymerization is a cation and the monomer must therefore behave as a nucleophile (electron donor) in the propagation reaction. Suitability of monomers for cationic polymerization was also discussed in that section and compared in Table 8.1. In short, olefinic monomers with an electron-releasing or electron-donating substituent on the a-carbon can undergo cationic polymerization, while the possibility of resonance stabilization of the carbocationic species increases the reactivity of the monomer (see Problem 8.15). 

C.i.a. Sequential Hydroarylation (Hydroalkenylation)/Cyclization. Since the cis stereochemistry of addition pushes the substituents of the acetylenic moiety to the same side of the olefinic double bond, a cyclization reaction can follow the addition step when these substituents bear suitable nucleophilic and electrophilic centers, and the whole process resembles a valuable straightforward methodology for the preparation of cyclic compounds (Scheme 20). Cyclization can occur under hydroarylation(hydroalkenylation) conditions—either before or after the substitution of the carbon-hydrogen bond for the carbon-palladium bond—or by subjecting the isolated hydroarylation(hydroalkenylation) product to suitable reaction conditions. This strategy has been employed successfully to develop new routes to various heterocycles. 

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