Oxygen atoms, ring-opening

Cyclopropenones reacted with iran -carbonylbis(triphcnylphosphane)rhodium trifluoro-methanesulfonate at 20 C to give the cationic complexes 4. In these compounds, the cyclo-propenone is bound to rhodium through the oxygen atom without opening of the three-mem-bered ring. ... 

Phenol condenses with phthahc anhydride in the presence of concentrated sulphuric acid or anhydrous zinc chloride to yield the colourless phenolphthalein as the main product. When dilute caustic alkah is added to an alcoholic solution of phenolphthalein, an intense red colouration is produced. The alkali opens the lactone ring in phenolphthalein and forms a salt at one phenolic group. The reaction may be represented in steps, with the formation of a h3q)othetical unstable Intermediate that changes to a coloured ion. The colour is probably due to resonance which places the negative charge on either of the two equivalent oxygen atoms. With excess of concentrated caustic alkali, the first red colour disappears this is due to the production of the carbinol and attendant salt formation, rendering resonance impossible. The various reactions may be represented as follows ... 

Rea.ctlons, Butyrolactone undergoes the reactions typical of y-lactones. Particularly characteristic are ring openings and reactions in which ring oxygen is replaced by another heteroatom. There is also marked reactivity of the hydrogen atoms alpha to the carbonyl group. 

The ESR spectrum of the furan radical anion indicates that the Cem-0 bond is ruptured in the electron transfer process whereby the oxygen atom acquires the negative charge and the C-2 end of the open ring possesses a free radical character ... 

Optimization of the valence and dihedral angles yields planar cyclic structures for the 3- to 5-ring intermediates in contrast to a chair conformation for that of the 6-ring. In the cases of n = 4, 5, 6 the oxygen atom is placed almost in the plane of the three C-atoms directly bonded to it. Therefore, an intramolecular solvation of the cationic chain end by methoxy groups which are bonded to the polymer backbone is preferred in the gas phase. The calculations show that for a non-polar solvent such as CH2C12 a decrease in stability of the cyclic intermediates exists. But this decrease does not result in a total break of the intramolecular solvation (Table 13). An equilibrium between open chain and cyclic intermediates must only be taken into account in more polar solvents, due to the competition of intra- and intermolecular solvation. 

In this aforementioned Heine reaction the initial ring opening takes place by iodide ions. Subsequent ring closure by S 2 displacement of iodide by reaction with the negative oxygen center then leads to the products. This process proceeds with double inversion at the same carbon atom, thus with net retention. Hydrolysis of these oxazolines gives j9-hydroxy-a-amino acids (Scheme 31) [1,38]. The stereochemical course of ring expansion is the same as that observed in Scheme 29. 

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