Orbital symmetry and Diels-Alder reaction

Fig. 4 Symmetry-unique spin-coupled orbitals for the Diels-Alder reaction. The remaining orbitals can be obtained from those shown through reflections in the Oh plane passing through the middles of the ethene and central butadiene C-C bonds.

Figure 1.2. Endo and exo pathway for the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene with methyl vinyl ketone. As was first noticed by Berson, the polarity of the endo activated complex exceeds that of the exo counterpart due to alignment of the dipole moments of the diene and the dienophile K The symmetry-allowed secondary orbital interaction that is only possible in the endo activated complex is usually invoked as an explanation for the preference for endo adduct exhibited by most Diels-Alder reactions.

Cycloaddition involves the combination of two molecules in such a way that a new ring is formed. The principles of conservation of orbital symmetry also apply to concerted cycloaddition reactions and to the reverse, concerted fragmentation of one molecule into two or more smaller components (cycloreversion). The most important cycloaddition reaction from the point of view of synthesis is the Diels-Alder reaction. This reaction has been the object of extensive theoretical and mechanistic study, as well as synthetic application. The Diels-Alder reaction is the addition of an alkene to a diene to form a cyclohexene. It is called a [47t + 27c]-cycloaddition reaction because four tc electrons from the diene and the two n electrons from the alkene (which is called the dienophile) are directly involved in the bonding change. For most systems, the reactivity pattern, regioselectivity, and stereoselectivity are consistent with describing the reaction as a concerted process. In particular, the reaction is a stereospecific syn (suprafacial) addition with respect to both the alkene and the diene. This stereospecificity has been demonstrated with many substituted dienes and alkenes and also holds for the simplest possible example of the reaction, that of ethylene with butadiene ... 

Prior to the delineation of the concept of conservation of orbital symmetry by Woodward and Hoffmann, Bachmann and Deno reported that all Diels-Alder reactions... 

Mechanistically the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction very likely is a concerted one-step process via a cyclic transition state. The transition state is less symmetric and more polar as for a Diels-Alder reaction however the symmetry of the frontier orbitals is similar. In order to describe the bonding of the 1,3-dipolar compound, e.g. diazomethane 4, several Lewis structures can be drawn that are resonance structures ... 

Fora [4 + 2 -7r-electron cycloaddition (Diels-Aldei reaction), let s arbitrarily select the diene LUMO and the alkene HOMO. The symmetries of the two ground-slate orbitals are such that bonding of the terminal lobes can occur with suprafacial geometry (Figure 30.9), so the Diels-Alder reaction takes place readily under thermal conditions. Note that, as with electrocyclic reactions, we need be concerned only with the terminal lobes. For purposes of prediction, interactions among the interior lobes need not be considered. 

In contrast with the thermal [4 + 2] Diels-Alder reaction, the 2 + 2 cycloaddition of two alkenes to yield a cvclobutane can only be observed photo-chemically. The explanation follows from orbital-symmetry arguments. Looking at the ground-state HOMO of one alkene and the LUMO of the second alkene, it s apparent that a thermal 2 + 2 cycloaddition must take place by an antarafacial pathway (Figure 30.10a). Geometric constraints make the antarafacial transition state difficult, however, and so concerted thermal [2 + 2j cycloadditionsare not observed. 

According to frontier molecular orbital theory (FMO), the reactivity, regio-chemistry and stereochemistry of the Diels-Alder reaction are controlled by the suprafacial in phase interaction of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of one component and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the other. [17e, 41-43, 64] These orbitals are the closest in energy Scheme 1.14 illustrates the two dominant orbital interactions of a symmetry-allowed Diels-Alder cycloaddition. 

The chemical reactions through cyclic transition states are controlled by the symmetry of the frontier orbitals [11]. At the symmetrical (Cs) six-membered ring transition state of Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene and ethylene, the HOMO of butadiene and the LUMO of ethylene (Scheme 18) are antisymmetric with respect to the reflection in the mirror plane (Scheme 24). The symmetry allows the frontier orbitals to have the same signs of the overlap integrals between the p-or-bital components at both reaction sites. The simultaneous interactions at the both sites promotes the frontier orbital interaction more than the interaction at one site of an acyclic transition state. This is also the case with interaction between the HOMO of ethylene and the LUMO of butadiene. The Diels-Alder reactions occur through the cyclic transition states in a concerted and stereospecific manner with retention of configuration of the reactants. 

Diels-Alder reactions are allowed by orbital symmetry in the delocalization band and so expected to occur on the surface. In fact, [4-1-2] cycloaddition reaction occurs on the clean diamond (100)-2 x 1 surface, where the surface dimer acts as a dienophile. The surface product was found to be stable up to approximately 1,000 K [59, 60], 1,3-Butadiene attains high coverage as well as forms a thermally stable adlayer on reconstructed diamond (100)-2 x 1 surface due to its ability to undergo [4h-2] cycloaddition [61],... 

The reaction is carried out simply by heating a diene or another conjugated system of n bonds with a reactive unsaturated compound (dienophile). Usually the reaction is not sensible to catalysts and light does not affect the course. Depending on the specific components, either carboxylic or heterocyclic products can be obtained. The stereospecificity of the reaction was firmly established even before the importance of orbital symmetry was recognized. In terms of orbital symmetry classification, the Diels-Alder reaction is a k4s + n2s cycloaddition, an allowed process. 

The mechanism of the Diels-Alder reaction involves a-overlap of the n-orbitals of two unsaturated systems. One molecule must donate electrons, from its highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the other. Also, the two interacting orbitals must have identical symmetry i.e. the phases of the terminal p-orbitals of each molecular orbital must match. There are two possible ways for this to happen the HOMO of the diene combining with the LUMO of the dienophile, and the LUMO of the diene with the HOMO of the dienophile (Figure 7.1). 

The reactivity and selectivity of the Diels-Alder reaction can be understood in terms of Frontier Molecular Orbital (FMO) theory which evolved during studies of the role of orbital symmetry in pericyclic reactions by Woodward and Hoffmann58 and, independently, by Fukui59. FMO theory explains the driving force of a reaction between two compounds by the efficiency with which the molecular orbitals of the two partners overlap. This orbital interaction is maximized when their energy separation is small. FMO theory further states that the two most important interacting orbitals are the Highest Occupied... 

The distance between the two terminal carbon atoms at the TS (central point on the IRC segment) is already 2.291 A, which results in very perceptible changes in the orbital shapes, spin-coupling pattern and overlaps between neighbouring orbitals. Orbital /i (see the central column of orbitals in Fig. 5) becomes less distorted towards the orbital at the other terminal carbon, /g, and this is reflected in a decrease in their overlap (see Fig. 7). Orbitals /2 and /3 (and their symmetry-related counterparts, /5 and /4) attain shapes which are very similar to those of /2 from the TS of the Diels-Alder reaction (see the central column of orbitals in Fig. 1) and of a SC orbital for benzene [8-10]. These changes are accompanied by a tendency towards equalization of the nearest-... 

Figure 1. Symmetry-unique SC orbitals for the gas-phase Diels-Alder reaction along the CASSCF(6,6) IRC at IRC = -0.6 amu bohr (leftmost column), TS (IRC = 0) and IRC +0.6 amu bohr (rightmost column). Three-dimensional isovalue surfaces, corresponding to / = 0.08, were drawn from virtual reality modelling language (VRML) files produced by MOLDEN [31J.

We have emphasized that the Diels-Alder reaction generally takes place rapidly and conveniently. In sharp contrast, the apparently similar dimerization of olefins to cyclobutanes (5-49) gives very poor results in most cases, except when photochemically induced. Fukui, Woodward, and Hoffmann have shown that these contrasting results can be explained by the principle of conservation of orbital symmetry,895 which predicts that certain reactions are allowed and others forbidden. The orbital-symmetry rules (also called the Woodward-Hoffmann rules) apply only to concerted reactions, e.g., mechanism a, and are based on the principle that reactions take place in such a way as to maintain maximum bonding throughout the course of the reaction. There are several ways of applying the orbital-symmetry principle to cycloaddition reactions, three of which are used more frequently than others.896 Of these three we will discuss two the frontier-orbital method and the Mobius-Huckel method. The third, called the correlation diagram method,897 is less convenient to apply than the other two. 

The photochemical dimerization of unsaturated hydrocarbons such as olefins and aromatics, cycloaddition reactions including the addition of 02 ( A ) to form endoperoxides and photochemical Diels-Alders reaction can be rationalized by the Woodward-Hoffman Rule. The rule is based on the principle that the symmetry of the reactants must be conserved in the products. From the analysis of the orbital and state symmetries of the initial and final state, a state correlation diagram can be set up which immediately helps to make predictions regarding the feasibility of the reaction. If a reaction is not allowed by the rule for the conservation of symmetry, it may not occur even if thermodynamically allowed. 

It turns out that the orbitals for any diene and any olefin have the same symmetry properties so that all Diels-Alder reactions are symmetry allowed. 

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