Reactions in water

The remainder of this chapter will provide the necessary background, from which the incentive of catalysing Diels-Alder reactions in water and the aims of the study will become apparent. 

The extreme influence water can exert on the Diels-Alder reaction was rediscovered by Breslow in 1980, much by coincidence . Whale studying the effect of p-cyclodextrin on the rate of a Diels-Alder reaction in water, accidentally, the addition of the cyclodextrin was omitted, but still rate constants were observed that were one to two orders of magnitude larger than those obtained in organic solvents. The investigations that followed this remarkable observation showed that the acceleration of Diels-Alder reactions by water is a general phenomenon. Table 1.2 contains a selection from the multitude of Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous media that have been studied Note that the rate enhancements induced by water can amount up to a factor 12,800 compared to organic solvents (entry 1 in Table 1.2). 

Table 1.2. Relative rate constants of some selected Diels-Alder reactions in water compared to organic solvents of different hydrogen bond donor capacities.

Tire importance of hydrophobic interactions in the aqueous acceleration is further demonstrated by a qualitative study described by Jenner on the effect of pressure on Diels-Alder reactions in water and a number of organic solvents. Invariably, the reactions in water were less accelerated by pressure than those in organic solvents, which is in line with the notion that pressure diminishes hydrophobic interactions. 

The effect of additives on the selectivity of the Diels-Alder reaction in water has not received much... 

A few years after the first articles of Breslow had appeared, Grieco elegantly demonstrated that the astonishing rate and selectivity enhancements of Diels-Alder reactions in water can be exploited sirccessfully in organic synthesis. He extensively studied the reactivity of dienes containing... 

In summary, water is clearly an extremely bad solvent for coordination of a hard Lewis acid to a hard Lewis base. Hence, catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water is expected to be difficult due to the relative inefficiency of the interactions between the Diels-Alder reactants and the Lewis-acid catalyst in this medium. 

A combination of the promoting effects of Lewis acids and water is a logical next step. However, to say the least, water has not been a very popular medium for Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reactions, which is not surprising since water molecules interact strongly with Lewis-acidic and the Lewis-basic atoms of the reacting system. In 1994, when the research described in this thesis was initiated, only one example of Lewis-acid catalysis of a Diels-Alder reaction in water was published Lubineau and co-workers employed lanthanide triflates as a catalyst for the Diels-Alder reaction of glyoxylate to a relatively unreactive diene . No comparison was made between the process in water and in organic solvents. 

What is the scope of Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water An approach of extending the scope by making use of a temporary secondary coordination site is described in Chapter 4. 

Mechanistic studies have tried to unravel the origin of the special effect of water. Some authors erroneously have held aggregation phenomena responsible for the observed acceleration, whereas others have hinted at effects due to the internal pressure. However, detailed studies have identified two other effects that govern the rate of Diels-Alder reactions in water. 

In order to be able to provide answers to these questions, a Diels-Alder reaction is required that is subject to Lewis-acid catalysis in aqueous media. Finding such a reaction was not an easy task. Fortunately the literature on other Lewis-acid catalysed organic reactions in water was helpful to some extent... 

Bcamples of metal-ion catalysed organic reactions in water where the catalyst acts exclusively as Lewis acid are the hromination of diketones" " and the decarboxylation of oxaloacetate. The latter reaction has been studied in detail. In 1941 it was demonstrated that magnesium(II) ions catalyse this reaction" Later also catalysis by other multivalent metal ions, such as Zn(II), Mn(II), Cu(II), Cd(ir), Fe(II), Pb(II), Fe(III)... 

Scheme 2.3. Unsuccessful attempts " to catalyse Diels-Alder reactions in water. M = Zri or Cti. ...

It is obvious that the reaction is accelerated markedly by water. However, for the first time, the Diels-Alder reaction is not fastest in water, but in 2,2,2-trifiuoroethanol (TFE). This might well be a result of the high Bronsted acidity of this solvent. Indirect evidence comes from the pH-dependence of the rate of reaction in water (Figure 2.1). Protonation of the pyridyl nitrogen obviously accelerates the reaction. 

The mechanism by which Lewis-acids can be expected to affect the rate of the Diels-Alder reaction in water is depicted in Scheme 2.6. The first step in the cycle comprises rapid and reversible coordination of the Lewis-acid to the dienophile, leading to a complex in which the dienophile is activated for reaction with the diene. After the irreversible Diels-Alder reaction, the product has to dissociate from the Lewis-acid in order to make the catalyst available for another cycle. The overall... 

In summary, the effects of a number of important parameters on the catalysed reaction between 2.4 and 2.5 have been examined, representing the first detailed study of Lewis-acid catalysis of a Diels-Alder reaction in water. Crucial for the success of Lewis-acid catalysis of this reaction is the bidentate character of 2.4. In Chapter 4 attempts to extend the scope of Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water beyond the restriction to bidentate substrates will be presented. 

To our knowledge, the results presented in this chapter provide the first example of enantioselective Lewis-acid catalysis of an organic reaction in water. This discovery opens the possibility of employing the knowledge and techniques from aqueous coordination chemistry in enantioselective catalysis. This work represents an interface of two disciplines hitherto not strongly connected. 

Studies of ligand effects on Lewis-acid catalysed reactions in water... 

Note that the reaction time in water is considerably shorter than that in organic solvents, despite the fact that the concentration of diene used for the reaction in water was less than one third of that for the reaction in the organic solvents. Contrary to the organic solvents, the reaction mixture in water is heterogeneous. It might well be that the low solubility of the Diels-Alder product (3.10c) in this solution reduces inhibition of the reaction by this compound. Consequently, product inlribition is likely to be more pronounced in the organic media. 

Due to the prolonged reaction times in organic solvents, cKmerisation of the diene occurs during the reaction, resulting in contaminated product mixtures after work-up. In contrast the reactions in water yield quantitatively the H-NMR-pure Diels-Alder adducts. 

The merits of (enantioselective) Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous solution have been highlighted in Chapters 2 and 3. Both chapters focused on the Diels-Alder reaction of substituted 3-phenyl-1-(2-pyr idyl)-2-prop ene-1-one dienophiles. In this chapter the scope of Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water is investigated. Some literature claims in this area are critically examined and requirements for ejfective Lewis-acid catalysis are formulated. Finally an attempt is made to extend the scope of Lewis-acid catalysis in water by making use of a strongly coordinating auxiliary. 

In a second attempt to extend the scope of Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water, we have used the Mannich reaction to convert a ketone-activated monodentate dienophile into a potentially chelating p-amino ketone. The Mannich reaction seemed ideally suited for the purpose of introducing a second coordination site on a temporary basis. This reaction adds a strongly Lewis-basic amino functionality on a position p to the ketone. Moreover, the Mannich reaction is usually a reversible process, which should allow removal of the auxiliary after the reaction. Furthermore, the reaction is compatible with the use of an aqueous medium. Some Mannich reactions have even been reported to benefit from the use of water ". Finally, Lewis-acid catalysis of Mannich-type reactions in mixtures of organic solvents and water has been reported ". Hence, if both addition of the auxiliary and the subsequent Diels-Alder reaction benefit from Lewis-acid catalysis, the possibility arises of merging these steps into a one-pot procedure. 

A second question involves the influence of ligands on the rate and selectivity of the Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction in water. In Chapter 3 we have demonstrated that nearly all the ligands studied induce a significant decrease in the affinity of the catalyst for the dienophile. This effect is accompanied by a modest reduction of the rate of the Diels-Alder reaction of the ternary dienophile -catalyst - ligand complex. 

In summary, the work in this thesis provides an overview of what can be achieved with Lewis-acid and micellar catalysis for Diels-Alder reactions in water as exemplified by the reaction of3-phenyl-l-(2-pyridyl)-2-propene-l-ones with cyclopentadiene. Extension of the observed beneficial effect of water on rates and particularly enantioselectivities to other systems is envisaged. 

This thesis describes a study of catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water. No studies in this field had been reported at the start of the research, despite the well known beneficial effects of acpieous solvents as well as of Lewis-add catalysts on rate and endo-exo selectivity of Diels-Alder reactions in organic solvents. We envisaged that a combination of these two effects might well result in extremely large rate enhancements and improvements of the endo-exo selectivity. 

The rate of the Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction in water has been compared to that in other solvents. The results demonstrate that the expected beneficial effect of water on the Lewis-acid catalysed reaction is indeed present. However, the water-induced acceleration of the Lewis-add catalysed reaction is not as pronounced as the corresponding effect on the uncatalysed reaction. The two effects that underlie the beneficial influence of water on the uncatalysed Diels-Alder reaction, enforced hydrophobic interactions and enhanced hydrogen bonding of water to the carbonyl moiety of 1 in the activated complex, are likely to be diminished in the Lewis-acid catalysed process. Upon coordination of the Lewis-acid catalyst to the carbonyl group of the dienophile, the catalyst takes over from the hydrogen bonds an important part of the activating influence. Also the influence of enforced hydrophobic interactions is expected to be significantly reduced in the Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction. Obviously, the presence of the hydrophilic Lewis-acid diminished the nonpolar character of 1 in the initial state. 

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