Radical-chain addition to alkenes and alkynes

Reduction of the halides with a metal hydride such as lithium aluminium hydride, sodium borohydride, or poly(methylhydrosiloxane) gives the corresponding organotin hydrides These have an important place in organic synthesis for the reduction of halides to hydrides (hydrostannolysis) and the addition to alkenes and alkynes (hydrostannation), by radical chain reactions. Further reactions may intervene between the pairs of reactions shown in Equations (1.1.3) and (1.1.4), and (1.1.4) and (1.1.5), and these reactions are particularly useful for inducing ring-closure reactions. 

In contrast with the great wealth of information on both cationic and free-radical additions to alkenes and alkynes, not too much is known about analogous cation radical reactions. The most commonly known among these are additions of aminium radicals. The overall reaction is that of, say, an N-chloramine or N-nitros-amine in acid solution, brought about photochemically or by reaction with ferrous ion (eq. 23) ( ). A chain reaction occurs in... 

Organotin hydrides add to alkenes and alkynes (equations 22 and 23). Unless strongly electron-withdrawing groups are present in the unsaturated species, the additions have radical-chain mechanisms (Scheme 2). For l-aUcenes, tin usually adds predominantly to the terminal carbon (equations 24 and 25). 

Both intermolecular and intramolecular additions of carbon radicals to alkenes and alkynes continue to be a widely investigated method for carbon-carbon bond formation and has been the subject of a number of review articles. In particular, the inter- and intra-molecular additions of vinyl, heteroatomic and metal-centred radicals to alkynes have been reported and also the factors which influence the addition reactions of carbon radicals to unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds. The stereochemical outcome of such additions continues to attract interest. The generation and use of alkoxy radicals in both asymmetric cyclizations and skeletal rearrangements has been reviewed and the use of fi ee radical reactions in the stereoselective synthesis of a-amino acid derivatives has appeared in two reports." The stereochemical features and synthetic potential of the [1,2]-Wittig rearrangement has also been reviewed. In addition, a review of some recent applications of free radical chain reactions in organic and polymer synthesis has appeared. The effect of solvent upon the reactions of neutral fi ee radicals has also recently been reviewed. ... 

Reactions with Alkenes, Alkynes, and Allenes. Pentafluorosulfanyl chloride has been used in a free radical chain addition process to alkenes and alkynes. These free radical chain addition reactions have been accomplished thermally (eq 4) in an autoclave or via a room-temperature gas-phase or low-temperature solution-phase photochemical process (eq 5). A... 

Metzger and coworkers have shown in a series of papers (269-276) that alkanes can be added to alkenes and alkynes in thermally initiated free-radical chain reactions in the neat reactants at SCF conditions. These reactions have been demonstrated with a wide variety of substrates investigating various effects, including the influence of steric and polar substituents as well as product regioselectivity. The radical chain is initiated by a bimolecular reaction of the alkane with the alkene or alkyne to give two radicals. Addition, rearrangement, and elimination reactions have also been observed. No effect on the reaction rate constant near the critical point was observed on varying the physical state of the reaction mixture from liquid to supercritical to gas-phase conditions (276). 

There are many reagents that add to alkenes only by radical-chain mechanisms. A number of these are listed in Table 10-3. They have in common a relatively weak bond, X—Y, that can be cleaved homolytically either by light or by chemical initiators such as peroxides. In the propagation steps, the radical that attacks the double bond does so to produce the more stable carbon radical. For addition to simple alkenes and alkynes, the more stable carbon radical is the one with the fewest hydrogens or the most alkyl groups at the radical center. 

It was reported by Rozhkov and Chaplina130 that under mild conditions perfluorinated r-alkyl bromides (r-RfBr) in nonpolar solvents can be added across the n bond of terminal alkenes, alkynes and butadiene. Slow addition to alkenes at 20 °C is accelerated in proton-donating solvents and is catalyzed by readily oxidizable nucleophiles. Bromination of the it bond and formation of reduction products of t-RfBr, according to Rozhkov and Chaplina, suggest a radical-chain mechanism initiated by electron transfer to the t-RfBr molecule. Based on their results they proposed a scheme invoking nucleophilic catalysis for the addition of r-RfBr across the n bond. The first step of the reaction consists of electron transfer from the nucleophilic anion of the catalyst (Bu4N+Br , Na+N02, K+SCN , Na+N3 ) to r-RfBr with formation of an anion-radical (f-RfBr) Dissociation of this anion radical produces a perfluorocarbanion and Br, and the latter adds to the n bond thereby initiating a radical-chain process (equation 91). 

The free radical addition of a thiol to carbon-carbon double or triple bonds is a well-established reaction. It represents one of the most useful methods of synthesizing sulfides under mild conditions. Since its discovery [5] and its much later formulation as a free-radical chain reaction (Scheme 1) [6], the anti-Markovnikov addition of thiols to unsaturated compounds has been the subject of many reviews [8, 9]. These reactions were originally initiated by thermal decomposition of peroxides or azocompounds, by UV irradiation or by radiolysis [10]. (An example of addition of 1-thiosugar to alkenes initiated by 2,2 -azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) [11] is reported in equation (1)). More recently, organoboranes have been used as initiators and two examples (Et3B and 9-bora-bicyclo [3.3.1.] nonane) are reported in equations (2) and (3) [12,13]. Troyansky and co-workers [14a] achieved the synthesis of macrocycles like 12- and 13-membered sulfur-containing lactones by the double addition of thiyl radical to alkynes. An example is depicted in equation (4). The same approach has also been applied to the construction of 9- and 18-membered crown thioethers [14b]. The radical chain addition of thiyl radicals to differently substituted allenes has been considered in detail by Paste and co-workers [15], who found that preferential attack occurs at the central allenic carbon and gives rise to a resonance-stabilized ally radical. The addition of benzenethiol to allenic esters has been reported and the product formation has been similarly inferred (equation (5)) [16]. 

One of the mildest general techniques to extend a carbon chain entails the addition of a carbon-centered radical to an alkene or alkyne. The method for conducting these addition reactions often determines the types of precursors and acceptors that can be used and the types of products that are formed. In the following section, synthetically useful radical additions are grouped into chain and non-chain reactions and then further subdivided by the method of reaction. Short, independent sections that follow treat the addition of carbon-centered radicals to other multiple bonds and aromatic rings and the additions of hete-roatom-centered radicals. 

However, their intermolecular addition reactions with alkynes are mostly aimed at synthesizing substituted aLkenes, ° and only very few cascade reactions that are initiated by P radical addition to C = C triple bonds have been reported. Renaud and coworkers developed a simple one-pot procedure for the cyclization of terminal alkynes mediated by dialkyl phosphites (Scheme 2.35). In this radical chain procedure, dialkyl phosphite radicals, (R0)2P =0, undergo addition to the C = C triple bond in 190, which triggers a radical translocation (l,5-HAT)/5-eAO cyclization cascade. The sequence is terminated by hydrogen transfer from dialkyl phosphite to the intermediate 194 and regeneration of P-centered radicals. 

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