Protonated carbonate esters, chemistry

The chemistry of neutral nucleophiles with protonated carbonate esters differs in interesting ways from that of related carboxylate esters. In the first place, acyl transfer of m ethoxy carbonyl, MeOCO+, to added nucleophiles does not occur (16) ... 

Despite the presence of a formally divalent carbon atom, CO is not in fact a particularly reactive molecule and much of its chemistry depends on the use of either extreme conditions, energetic reagents or some form of catalysis. Perhaps the simplest examples of such catalysis are found in the reactions of carbon monoxide with protic reagents such as alcohols or secondary amines, affording esters or amides of formic acid. These reactions are catalyzed by alkoxide or amide anions, respectively, and, as shown in Scheme 1, the key step is nucleophilic attack on CO by the catalyst to give a strongly basic alkoxyacyl or aminoacyl anion which is immediately trapped by proton transfer from the alcohol or amine, so generating the catalytic species. 

Methylation of Heteroatoms. The most widely used feature of the chemistry of diazomethane is the methylation of carboxylic acids. Carboxylic acids are good substrates for reaction with diazomethane because the acid is capable of protonating the dia-zomethane on carbon to form a diazonium carboxylate. The car-boxylate can then attack the diazonium salt in what is most likely an Sn2 reaction to provide the ester. Species which are not acidic enough to protonate diazomethane, such as alcohols, require an additional catalyst, such as Boron Trifluoride Etherate, to increase their acidity and facilitate the reaction. The methylation reaction proceeds under mild conditions and is highly reliable and very selective for carboxylic acids. A typical procedure is to add a yellow solution of diazomethane to the carhoxylic acid in portions. When the yellow color persists and no more gas is evolved, the reaction is deemed complete. Excess reagent can be destroyed by the addition of a few drops of acetic acid and the entire solution concentrated to provide the methyl ester. 

Carbon-carbon bond formation by using metal enolates as synthons in organic chemistry and the protonation, alkylation, arylation, and vinylation of enolates have been reviewed. " The stereoselective carbon-carbon formation of bond through Mannich reaction has been detailed according to the type of Mannich base produced. Phosphine-catalysed asymmetric additions of malonate esters to y-substituted allenoates and aUenamides have been reported. ... 

Positive-Tone Imaging Chemistry. The ester, carbonate, and ketal acidol-ysis reactions that form the basis of most positive tone CA resists are thought to proceed by specific acid catalysis (28). In this mechanism (type AalI), illustrated here for the hydrolysis of tert-butyl acetate (29), the first step is a rapid equilibrium where the proton is transferred between the photogenerated acid and the ester ... 

---