Optical activity configuration

Lactic acid is a compound that plays a key role in several biochemical processes. For instance, lactate is constantly produced and eliminated during normal metabolism and physical exercise. Lactic acid has been produced on an industrial scale since the end of the nineteenth century and is mainly used in the food industry to act, for example, as an acidity regulator, but also in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and animal feed. It is, additionally, the monomeric precursor of PLA. It can be obtained either by carbohydrate fermentation or by common chemical synthesis. Also known as milk acid , lactic acid is the simplest hydroxyl acid with an asymmetric carbon atom and two optically active configurations, namely the L and D isomers (Fig. 21.2), which can be produced in bacterial systems, whereas mammalian organisms only produce the L isomer, which is easily assimilated during metabolism. 

This section gives a brief overview of PLA matrix (for further reading, readers should refer to Chapters 1,4 and 5). As with other commodity polymers, PLA actually refers to a large family of compounds that includes copolymers with other monomers. The monomer, that is, lactic acid (2-hydroxy propanoic acid) is the simplest hydroxy acid with an asymmetric carbon atom and exists in two optically active configurations (d and l). Generally, two major routes are followed for the synthesis of PLA, such as polycondensation... 

As mentioned above, the basic building block for PLA is lactic acid, which exists in two optically active configurations L(+) lactic acid and D(-) lactic acid. Another intermediate monomer for PLA synthesis is a lactide and obtained by the depolymerization of low molecular weight PLA under reduced pressure to give a mixture of L-lactide, D-lactide, or meso-lactide as shown in Figure 13. 

As for the.<4Acl mechanism, in this case, O from OH2 is transited into the acid but hydrolysis is accompanied by the emichment of nonhydrolyzed ester in as well due to die reversibility of die second step. The hydrolysis rate better correlates with 1 05 than with hg. The ac2 mechanism is characterized by lower values of activation entropy. The optically active configuration R is retained. The steric effect... 

Furthermore, the catalytic allylation of malonate with optically active (S)-( )-3-acetoxy-l-phenyl-1-butene (4) yields the (S)-( )-malonates 7 and 8 in a ratio of 92 8. Thus overall retention is observed in the catalytic reaction[23]. The intermediate complex 6 is formed by inversion. Then in the catalytic reaction of (5 )-(Z)-3-acetoxy-l-phenyl-l-butene (9) with malonate, the oxidative addition generates the complex 10, which has the sterically disfavored anti form. Then the n-a ir rearrangement (rotation) of the complex 10 moves the Pd from front to the rear side to give the favored syn complex 6, which has the same configuration as that from the (5 )-( )-acetate 4. Finally the (S)-( )-mal-onates 7 and 8 are obtained in a ratio of 90 10. Thus the reaction of (Z)-acetate 9 proceeds by inversion, n-a-ir rearrangement and inversion of configuration accompanied by Z to isomerization[24]. 

Which of these two opposite stereochemical possibilities operates was determined in experiments with optically active alkyl halides In one such experiment Hughes and Ingold determined that the reaction of 2 bromooctane with hydroxide ion gave 2 octanol having a configuration opposite that of the starting alkyl halide... 

For example the hydrolysis of optically active 2 bromooctane in the absence of added base follows a first order rate law but the resulting 2 octanol is formed with 66% inversion of configuration... 

Partial but not complete loss of optical activity m S l reactions probably results from the carbocation not being completely free when it is attacked by the nucleophile Ionization of the alkyl halide gives a carbocation-hahde ion pair as depicted m Figure 8 8 The halide ion shields one side of the carbocation and the nucleophile captures the carbocation faster from the opposite side More product of inverted configuration is formed than product of retained configuration In spite of the observation that the products of S l reactions are only partially racemic the fact that these reactions are not stereospecific is more consistent with a carbocation intermediate than a concerted bimolecular mechanism... 

An advantage that sulfonate esters have over alkyl halides is that their prepara tion from alcohols does not involve any of the bonds to carbon The alcohol oxygen becomes the oxygen that connects the alkyl group to the sulfonyl group Thus the configuration of a sulfonate ester is exactly the same as that of the alcohol from which It was prepared If we wish to study the stereochemistry of nucleophilic substitution m an optically active substrate for example we know that a tosylate ester will have the same configuration and the same optical purity as the alcohol from which it was prepared... 

The same cannot be said about reactions with alkyl halides as substrates The conver Sion of optically active 2 octanol to the corresponding halide does involve a bond to the chirality center and so the optical purity and absolute configuration of the alkyl halide need to be independently established... 

Reaction of lithium diphenylcuprate with optically active 2 bromobutane yields 2 phenylbu tane with high net inversion of configuration When the 2 bromobutane used has the stereostruc ture shown will the 2 phenylbutane formed have the R or the S configuration" ... 

Identical conclusions come from stereochemical studies 8aponification of esters of optically active alcohols proceeds with retention of configuration... 

As shown for the aldotetroses an aldose belongs to the d or the l series accord mg to the configuration of the chirality center farthest removed from the aldehyde func tion Individual names such as erythrose and threose specify the particular arrangement of chirality centers within the molecule relative to each other Optical activities cannot be determined directly from the d and l prefixes As if furns ouf bofh d eryfhrose and D fhreose are levorofafory buf d glyceraldehyde is dexfrorofafory... 

Optically active 2-arylalkanoic acid esters have been prepared by the Friedel-Crafts alkylation of arenes with optically active a-sulfonyloxy esters (40). Friedel-Crafts alkylation of ben2ene with (5)-methyl 2-(chlorosulfonyloxy)- or 2-(mesyloxy)propionate proceeded with predorninant inversion of configuration (<97%) to give (5)-methyl 2-phenylpropionate. 

Chemical Properties. Because of its chiral center, malic acid is optically active. In 1896, when tartaric acid was first reduced to malic acid, the levorotatory enantiomer, S(—), was confirmed as having the spatial configuration (1) (5,6). The other enantiomer (2) has the R configuration. A detailed discussion of configuration assignment by the sequence rule or the R and S system is available (7). 

Chemical Properties. The notation used by Chemical Abstracts to reflect the configuration of tartaric acid is as follows (R-R, R )-tartaric acid [S7-69A-] (4) (S-R, R )-tartaric acid [147-71-7] (5) and y j O-tartaric acid [147-73-9] (6). Racemic acid is an equimolar mixture of the two optically active enantiomers and, hence, like the meso acid, is optically inactive. 

Butyl alcohols encompass the four stmcturaHy isomeric 4-carbon alcohols of empirical formula C H qO. One of these, 2-butanol, can exist in either the optically active R — ) or configuration or as a racemic ( ) mixture [15892-23-6]. 

For the 1,2- and 3,4-addition, a chiral carbon (marked by an asterisk) is formed which has an R or 3 configuration, but there is no net optical activity, because equal amounts of the R and S configurations are formed. The R and S configurations along the polymer chains lead to diastereomeric isomers called isotactic, syndiotactic, and atactic. In isotactic polyisoprene all monomer units have the same configuration as illustrated for isotactic... 

X-ray analysis of an optically active oxaziridine substituted at nitrogen with the 1-phenylethyl group of known configuration led to the absolute configuration (+)-(2R,3R)-2-(5-l-phenylethyl)-3-(p-bromophenyl)oxaziridine of the dextrorotatory compound as expected, C-aryl and A-alkyl groups were trans to each other (79MI50800). 

Although unsynunetrically substituted amines are chiral, the configuration is not stable because of rapid inversion at nitrogen. The activation energy for pyramidal inversion at phosphorus is much higher than at nitrogen, and many optically active phosphines have been prepared. The barrier to inversion is usually in the range of 30-3S kcal/mol so that enantiomerically pure phosphines are stable at room temperature but racemize by inversion at elevated tempeiatuies. Asymmetrically substituted tetracoordinate phosphorus compounds such as phosphonium salts and phosphine oxides are also chiral. Scheme 2.1 includes some examples of chiral phosphorus compounds. 

When bicyclo[2.2.2]octyl brosylate was solvolyzed in acetic acid containing sodium acetate, the products were a mixture of bicyclo[2.2.2]octyl acetate and bicyclo[3.2.1]octyl acetate, each of which was optically active. The formation of bicyclo[2.2.2]octyl acetate was found to proceed with 82 15% retention of configuration, a result which is in... 

Fragment B was synthesized in optically active form with the required absolute configuration through resolution of the epoxy acid C as shown below. 

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