Pyrazolines from dipolar cycloaddition reactions

Due to the electrophilic character of carbenes, they are not expected to easily react with electron-poor alkenes, and the only reported examples concern reactions with diazo compounds (i.e., diazomethane, 56 157 diazofluorenc.158 ethyl diazoacetate,159 and phenyldiazomethane160). However, depending on the reaction conditions, carbenes arc not always the reactive species. Cyclopropanes are often obtained by decomposition of pyrazolines which arise from 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions (see Section 2.1.1.6.2.3.1.). Even when reactions are performed under irradiation, pyrazolines can be obtained as the result of a diradical addition.156... 

The reaction is illustrated by the intramolecular cycloaddition of the nitrilimine (374) with the alkenic double bond separated from the dipole by three methylene units. The nitrilimine (374) was generated photochemically from the corresponding tetrazole (373) and the pyrrolidino[l,2-6]pyrazoline (375) was obtained in high yield 82JOC4256). Applications of a variety of these reactions will be found in Chapter 4.36. Other aspects of intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions leading to complex, fused systems, especially when the 1,3-dipole and the dipolarophile are substituted into a benzene ring in the ortho positions, have been described (76AG(E)123). 

Pyrazoles can be synthesized by thermal cycloreversion of adducts formed in the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of alkyldiazoacetates with norbornadiene. The rate of the primary process of cycloaddition is accelerated by iron pentacarbonyl (Scheme 88)155 a similar catalytic effect has been observed during the formation of ethyl 5-phenyl-A2-pyrazoline-3-carboxylate from cycloaddition of ethyl diazoacetate and styrene.155 Reactions of this type are catalyzed presumably because of coordination of one or both reactants to the transition metal, and a wider study of the effect of a variety of complexes on 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition processes would be valuable. 

Diazoacetaldehyde dimethylacetal (12) has been used as a substitute for diazoacetaldehyde in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions with l-benzopyran-2(//)-ones (40), styrene, methyl methacrylate, 1-cyanocyclopentene, and methyl cyclohexene-1-carboxylate (41). The resulting A -pyrazolines were readily transformed in two steps into cyclopropanecarbaldehydes [e.g., 13 —> 14 (Scheme 8.4)]. In a similar manner, 3-phenylcyclopropane-l,2-dicarbaldehyde was obtained from the reaction of 12 with dimethyleneketal of cinnamic aldehyde. 

Camera and co-workers (287) described the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of trimethylsilyldiazomethane 171 with 165 (Note Opposite enantiomers are shown here). The intermediate 1-pyrazoline obtained from this reaction rearranged after acidic work up to furnish the 2-pyrazolines 172 with 80-88% de (Scheme 12.52). By further conversion of these products, optically active azaprolines were synthesized. 

The reaction of diazomethane with a,p-xmsaturated carbonyl compounds under classical protic conditions has been shown to produce pyrazoline products arising from 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition [3, 4]. Limited examples of a,p-xmsaturated carbonyl substrates undergoing ring expansion in the presence of Lewis acid promoters have been reported. It was not until the introduction of Lewis acids for diazoalkane ring expansion that these types of substrates were even reactive. In Drege s... 

Not much is known about the reactivity of the phosphinocarbene 2i. Problems arise, at least in part, from the high 1,3-dipolar reactivity of the diazo precursor li, which hides any carbene reactivity. Indeed, although li is stable in a toluene solution at 60°C for hours, the addition of an electron-poor olefin, such as a perfluoroalkyl-monosubstituted alkene, induces the exclusive formation of the thermodynamically more stable anti-isomer of the cyclopropane 14 (see Section V,B,3,a).36 This clearly demonstrates that the cyclopropanation reaction does not involve the carbene 2i, but that an initial [2 + 3]-cycloaddition occurs leading to the pyrazoline 13, which subsequently undergoes a classical N2 elimination.37... 

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