Pyrrole frontier orbitals

Frontier orbital theory predicts that electrophilic substitution of pyrroles with soft electrophiles will be frontier controlled and occur at the 2-position, whereas electrophilic substitution with hard electrophiles will be charge controlled and occur at the 3-position. These predictions may be illustrated by the substitution behaviour of 1-benzenesulfonylpyr-role. Nitration and Friedel-Crafts acylation of this substrate occurs at the 3-position, whereas the softer electrophiles generated in the Mannich reaction (R2N=CH2), in formylation under Vilsmeier conditions (R2N=CHC1) or in formylation with dichloromethyl methyl ether and aluminum chloride (MeO=CHCl) effect substitution mainly in the 2-position (81TL4899, 81TL4901). Formylation of 2-methoxycarbonyl-l-methylpyrrole with... 

For pyrroles with electron acceptor substituents in the 1-position electrophilic substitution with soft electrophiles can be frontier orbital controlled and occur at the 2-position, whereas electrophilic substitution with hard electrophiles can be charge controlled and occur at the 3-position. 

A DFT study of the reactivity of pyridine and the diazabenzenes towards electrophilic substitution, assuming frontier orbital control of the reactions, predicts their low reactivity as the HOMOs of these substrates are not n-orbitals.5 For pyridine-N-oxide, however, the HOMO is an aromatic orbital. DFT studies giving Fukui indices predict6 the preferred sites of electrophilic attack on pyrrole, furan, and thiophene and calculation of the local softness of the reactive sites rationalizes relative reactivities. 

The frontier orbital argument, weak as it is, is clear in predicting attack at C-2. The n molecular orbitals of pyrrole are representative of all three—they have been shown earlier [see (Section 1.7.5) page 52], where i/j3 is the HOMO 4.53 (with a node running through the heteroatom, it is the same as i/j2 of butadiene). An estimate of the total n charge 4.54 can be calculated from the sums of the squares of the coefficients. 

Since perfluoroalkyl-substituted olefins and alkynes possess low-lying frontier orbitals, [4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions to oxazoles and thiazoles without strongly electron-donating substituents are unfavorable. On the other hand, five-membered heteroaromatic compounds possessing an electron-rich diene substructure, like furans, thiophenes, and pyrroles, should be able to add perfluoroalkyl-substituted olefins as well as alkynes in a normal Diels-Alder process. A reaction sequence consisting of a Diels-Alder reaction with perfluoroalkyl-substituted alkynes as dienophile, and a subsequent retro-Diels-Alder process of the cycloadduct initially formed, represents a preparatively valuable method for regioselective introduction of perfluoroalkyl groups into five-membered heteroaromatic systems. 

Let us now explore the reactivity of these compounds as dienes (furan, pyrrole, thiophene) with a dienophile (benzyne) in Diels-Alder reactions. One approach that, for a long time, has been widely employed by chemists, is the use of Frontier Molecular Orbital (FMO) [19] energy gap between two of the reactants. According to this theory, the most reactive reactant pair will be the one that has a lower FMO energy gap. The reaction is predicted to be HOMO diene-controlled. If... 

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