Pericyclic reactions sigmatropic rearrangements

Keywords Diels-Alder reactions, dipolar cycloadditions, electrocyclic reactions, ene reactions, pericyclic reactions, sigmatropic rearrangements... 

In this primer, Ian Fleming leads you in a more or less continuous narrative from the simple characteristics of pericyclic reactions to a reasonably full appreciation of their stereochemical idiosyncrasies. He introduces pericyclic reactions and divides them into their four classes in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2 he covers the main features of the most important class, cycloadditions—their scope, reactivity, and stereochemistry. In the heart of the book, in Chapter 3, he explains these features, using molecular orbital theory, but without the mathematics. He also introduces there the two Woodward-Hoffmann rules that will enable you to predict the stereochemical outcome for any pericyclic reaction, one rule for thermal reactions and its opposite for photochemical reactions. The remaining chapters use this theoretical framework to show how the rules work with the other three classes—electrocyclic reactions, sigmatropic rearrangements and group transfer reactions. By the end of the book, you will be able to recognize any pericyclic reaction, and predict with confidence whether it is allowed and with what stereochemistry. 

Pericyclic processes comprise a broad and important class of concerted reactions of both theoretical and practical interest. These transformations, which are especially useful in the construction of carbon-carbon bonds,93 include electrocyclic reactions, sigmatropic rearrangements, and cycloadditions. Because they are not typically subject to general acid-general base chemistry but can be highly sensitive to strain and proximity effects, they are attractive targets for antibody catalysis. 

So far, cycloadditions have been our only examples of pericyclic reactions. There are several other classes of pericyclic reactions, of which the most notable are cheletropic reactions, sigmatropic rearrangements and electrocyclic reactions. In essence, frontier orbital theory treats each of them as a cycloaddition reaction. 

Pericyclic reactions are concerted processes that occur by way of a cyclic transition state in which more than one bond is formed or broken within the cycle. The classic example of such a process is the Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction, one of the most common and useful synthetic reactions in organic chemistry. Cycloaddition reactions, sigmatropic rearrangements and electrocyclic reactions all fall into the category of pericyclic processes, representative examples of which are given in Schemes 3.1-3.3. This chapter will discuss these reactions and their use in synthesis. 

Two other important sigmatropic reactions are the Claisen rearrangement of an allyl aryl ether discussed in Section 18.4 and the Cope rearrangement of a 1,5-hexadiene. These two, along with the Diels-Alder reaction, are the most useful pericyclic reactions for organic synthesis many thousands of examples of all three are known. Note that the Claisen rearrangement occurs with both allylic aryl ethers and allylic vinylic ethers. 

A pericyclic reaction is one that takes place in a single step through a cyclic transition state without intermediates. There are three major classes of peri-cyclic processes electrocyclic reactions, cycloaddition reactions, and sigmatropic rearrangements. The stereochemistry of these reactions is controlled by the symmetry of the orbitals involved in bond reorganization. 

Chapter 6 looks at concerted pericyclic reactions, including the Diels-Alder reaction, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, [3,3]- and [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements, and thermal elimination reactions. The carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions are emphasized and the stereoselectivity of the reactions is discussed in detail. 

The combination of pericyclic transformations as cycloadditions, sigmatropic rearrangements, electrocydic reactions and ene reactions with each other, and also with non-pericyclic transformations, allows a very rapid increase in the complexity of products. As most of the pericyclic reactions run quite well under neutral or mild Lewis acid acidic conditions, many different set-ups are possible. The majority of the published pericyclic domino reactions deals with two successive cycloadditions, mostly as [4+2]/[4+2] combinations, but there are also [2+2], [2+5], [4+3] (Nazarov), [5+2], and [6+2] cycloadditions. Although there are many examples of the combination of hetero-Diels-Alder reactions with 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions (see Section 4.1), no examples could be found of a domino all-carbon-[4+2]/[3+2] cycloaddition. Co-catalyzed [2+2+2] cycloadditions will be discussed in Chapter 6. 

The second largest group of pericyclic domino reactions starts with a sigmatropic rearrangement, which is most often a Claisen or an oxa- and aza-Cope rearrangement however, some processes also exist with a 2,3-sigmatropic rearrangement as the second step. 

Since the number of domino processes which start with a Diels-Alder reaction is rather large, we have subdivided this section of the chapter according to the second step, which might be a second Diels-Alder reaction, a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, or a sigmatropic rearrangement. However, there are also several examples where the following reaction is not a pericyclic but rather is an aldol reaction these examples will be discussed under the term Mixed Transformations . 

Pericyclic reactions are concerted reactions that take place in a single step without any intermediates, and involve a cyclic redistribution of bonding electrons. The concerted nature of these reactions gives fine stereochemical control over the generation of the product. The best-known examples of this reaction are the Diels-Alder reaction (cyclo-addition) and sigmatropic rearrangement. 

The three principal types of pericyclic reactions are cycloaddition, electro-cyclic rearrangement, and sigmatropic rearrangement ... 

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