Oxymercuration stereochemistry

One of the features that makes the hydrobora ( ion reaction so useful is the regiochemistry that results when an unsymmetrical alkene is hydroborated. For example, hydroboration/oxidation of 1-methylcyclopentene yields trans-2-methylcydopentanol. Boron and hydrogen both add to the alkene from the same face of the double bond—that is, with syn stereochemistry, the opposite of anti—with boron attaching to the less highly substituted carbon. During the oxidation step, the boron is replaced by an -OH with the same stereochemistry, resulting in an overall syn non-Markovnikov addition of water. This stereochemical result is particularly useful because it is complementary to the Markovnikov regiochemistry observed for oxymercuration. 

Hydration of an alkene—the addition of water—is carried out by either of two procedures, depending on the product desired. Oxymercuration involves electrophilic addition of Hg2+ to an alkene, followed by trapping of the cation intermediate with water and subsequent treatment with NaBH4. Hydroboration involves addition of borane (BH3) followed by oxidation of the intermediate organoborane with alkaline H202- The two hydration methods are complementary oxymercuration gives the product of Markovnikov addition, whereas hydroboration/oxidation gives the product with non-Markovnikov syn stereochemistry. 

Monoalkylthallium(III) compounds can be prepared easily and rapidly by treatment of olefins with thallium(III) salts, i.e., oxythallation (66). In marked contrast to the analogous oxymercuration reaction (66), however, where treatment of olefins with mercury(II) salts results in formation of stable organomercurials, the monoalkylthallium(III) derivatives obtained from oxythallation are in the vast majority of cases spontaneously unstable, and cannot be isolated under the reaction conditions employed. Oxythallation adducts have been isolated on a number of occasions (61, 71,104,128), but the predominant reaction pathway which has been observed in oxythallation reactions is initial formation of an alkylthallium(III) derivative and subsequent rapid decomposition of this intermediate to give products derived by oxidation of the organic substrate and simultaneous reduction of the thallium from thallium(III) to thallium(I). The ease and rapidity with which these reactions occur have stimulated interest not only in the preparation and properties of monoalkylthallium(III) derivatives, but in the mechanism and stereochemistry of oxythallation, and in the development of specific synthetic organic transformations based on oxidation of unsaturated systems by thallium(III) salts. 

Formation of mixtures of products in these reactions can be attributed largely to the properties of the acetate group. The reactions of a number of cycloalkenes with thallium(III) salts have been investigated in some detail and the results obtained have served both to elucidate the stereochemistry of oxythallation and to underline the important role assumed by the anion of the metal salt in these oxidations. The most unambiguous evidence as to the stereochemistry of oxythallation comes from studies by Winstein on the oxythallation of norbornene (VII) and norbornadiene (VIII) with thal-lium(III) acetate in chloroform, in which the adducts (IX) and (X) could be precipitated from the reaction mixture by addition of pentane 128) (Scheme 11). Both by chemical means and by analogy with the oxymercuration... 

The stereochemistry of oxymercuration has been examined in a number of systems. Conformationally biased cyclic alkenes such as 4-r-butylcyclohexene and 4-f-butyl-l-methycyclohexene give exclusively the product of anti addition, which is consistent with a mercurinium ion intermediate.17,22... 

The stereochemical outcome is replacement of the C—B bond by a C—O bond with retention of configuration. In combination with stereospecific syn hydroboration, this allows the structure and stereochemistry of the alcohols to be predicted with confidence. The preference for hydroboration at the least-substituted carbon of a double bond results in the alcohol being formed with regiochemistry that is complementary to that observed by direct hydration or oxymercuration, that is, anti-Markovnikov. 

On the basis of the mechanistic pattern for oxymercuration-demercuration, predict the structure and stereochemistry of the alcohol(s) to be expected by application of the reaction to each of the following substituted cyclohexenes. 

The stereochemical outcome would also be different as the hydroboration adds syn to the alkene, whereas oxymercuration gives the anti product though in this case the stereochemistry is lost in the reduction step. 

Markovnikov regiochemistry and anti stereochemistry are observed, (d) Addition of water by oxymercuration (Section 7.4)... 

Fig. 7). The ring closure also proved to be remarkably stereoselective. Thus intramolecular oxymercuration, followed by reductive demercuration, provided the tetrahydropyran (22, ring A of X-206) with the desired 2,6-cis-relative stereochemistry in excellent overall yield as a single diastereomer. 

No tetracyclic products were isolated. The importance of the vinyl group stereochemistry in cyclisation is shown " by the oxymercuration-demercuration of methyl pimarate and methyl sandaracopimarate. The former affords an... 

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