Alkenes, reactivity

Heterocycles which provide the NOC or CNO component synthon Isoxazoles can be prepared by the thermal or photolytic cleavage of a number of heterocycles, such as 1,3,5-dioxazolidone, furazans, furoxans and 1,3,2,4-dioxathiazole 2-oxides, in the presence of a reactive alkene or alkyne. 

The notion that car bocation formation is rate-determining follows from our previous experience and by obser-ving how the reaction rate is affected by the structure of the alkene. Table 6.2 gives some data showing that alkenes that yield relatively stable carbocations react faster than those that yield less stable carbocations. Protonation of ethylene, the least reactive alkene in the table, yields a primary carbocation protonation of 2-methylpropene, the most reactive in the table, yields a tertiary car bocation. As we have seen on other occasions, the more stable the car bocation, the faster is its rate of formation. 

Like ethylene, propylene (propene) is a reactive alkene that can be obtained from refinery gas streams, especially those from cracking processes. The main source of propylene, however, is steam cracking of hydrocarbons, where it is coproduced with ethylene. There is no special process for propylene production except the dehydrogenation of propane. 

Most alkenes used in industry are produced during the refining of petroleum. One of the first refining steps is a reaction that converts some of the abundant alkanes into the more reactive alkenes ... 

Method G is used to introduce the alkyl fragment when less reactive alkenes are employed or for cases where functionality within the dienophilic alkene undergoes reaction with the Grignard reagent. Following this procedure, a lithium anion is first added to the aldehyde 5 at 78 °C.27 After consumption of the aldehyde has been determined by TLC, the dienophile is added and magnesium bromide is introduced. The cycloaddition occurs as the reaction warms to room temperature. In the case of... 

The more reactive alkenes are characterized by addition reactions to the double bond, many of which occur easily at room temperature. The carbon-carbon double bond is a reaction site and is classified as a functional group. The n portion of the double bond can be utilized to accommodate two incoming atoms, converting the double bond into one single o bond between the carbon atoms and the n portion into two single a bonds between each carbon and one of the two incoming atoms. 

The direct protonation of isobutane, via a pentacoordinated carbonium ion, is not likely under typical alkylation conditions. This reaction would give either a tertiary butyl cation (trimethylcarbenium ion) and hydrogen, or a secondary propyl cation (dimethylcarbenium ion) and methane (37-39). With zeolites, this reaction starts to be significant only at temperatures higher than 473 K. At lower temperatures, the reaction has to be initiated by an alkene (40). In general, all hydrocarbon transformations at low temperatures start with the adsorption of the much more reactive alkenes, and alkanes enter the reaction cycles exclusively through hydride transfer (see Section II.D). 

We initially observed an addition reaction of tertiary phosphines to unactivated alkynes. The method was then applied to reactive alkenes, allenes and 1,3-dienes, and finally to unactivated alkenes (Scheme 4). Such a step-up methodology turned out to be effective in this study. 

In a rather remarkable reaction, methylene groups activated by two electron-withdrawing substituents react with non-activated alkenes under soliddiquid phase-transfer conditions in the presence of a molar equivalent of iodine to yield cyclopropane derivatives (Scheme 6.29) [62, 63], The reaction fails, when the catalyst is omitted or if iodine is replaced by bromine or chlorine. The intermediate iodomethylene systems are unstable in the absence of the reactive alkene and dimerize to produce, for example, ethane-1,1,2,2-tetracarboxylie esters and ethene-1,1,2,2-tetracarboxy lie esters. 

The generation of the dichloromethane under phase-transfer conditions may be facilitated by the addition of a trace of ethanol. Alkoxide anions, generated under the basic conditions, are more readily transferred across the two-phase interface than are hydroxide ions (see Chapter 1). Although this process may result in the increased solvolysis of the chloroform, it also produces a higher concentration of the carbene in the organic phase and thereby increases the rate of formation of the cyclopropane derivatives from reactive alkenes. 

Method C TBA-HS04 (2.04 g, 6 mmol) in aqueous NaOH (50%, 150 ml), or a mixture of TBA-HS04 (0.68 g, 2 mmol) and powdered NaOH (8 g), is added to the appropriate 1,1-dibromocycIopropane (3 mmol) and reactive alkene (12 mmol) in PhH (100 ml). The mixture is stirred vigorously for 24 h at room temperature and flash chromatography of the concentrated organic phase yields the alkenylidenecyclopropane. 

Several arylations involving reactive alkenes such as norbomene or allenes have been reported. Togni and coworkers have shown that norbomene is selectively added to the ortho positions of phenols to produce a mixture of 30 and 31 in 69% and 13% yield, respectively, after 72 hours at 100°C (22) [108, 109]. 1,1-dimethylallene also reacts with aromatic carboxamides (33) to produce prenylation products (34) in the presence of cationic iridium complexes (23) [110]. In both cases, initial ortho C-H bond activation in arenes directed by coordinating groups followed by olefin insertion has been proposed. 

Radicals formed by fragmentation of xanthate and related thiono esters can also be trapped by reactive alkenes.217 The mechanism of radical generation from thiono esters was discussed in connection with the Barton deoxygenation method in Section 5.4. 

For alkenes ll- and 11-Z, the syn methyl groups have lower rotational barriers than the corresponding anti ones by 0.5 kcalmoG. This is in the opposite direction to the proposed theoretical model. However, for alkene 4 there is a correlation between rotational barriers and ene reactivity. Alkenes 12 and 59 also demonstrate impressively that there is... 

This approach has also been applied to sources other than automobiles to assess the relative importance of various organics and sources. For example, Blake and Rowland (1995) used the concept of maximum incremental reactivity to assess the relative importance of various organics in Mexico City. They concluded that liquefied petroleum gas was a major contributor to ozone formation and that relatively small fractions of highly reactive alkenes in the gas contributed disproportionately to ozone formation. 

Extreme cases were reactions of the least stabilized, most reactive carbene (Y = CF3, X = Br) with the more reactive alkene (CH3)2C=C(CH3)2, and the most stabilized, least reactive carbene (Y = CH3O, X = F) with the less reactive alkene (1-hexene). The rate constants, as measured by LFP, were 1.7 x 10 and 5.0 X lO M s, respectively, spanning an interval of 34,000. In agreement with Houk s ideas,the reactions were entropy dominated (A5 —22 to —29e.u.). The AG barriers were 5.0 kcal/mol for the faster reaction and 11 kcal/ mol for the slower reaction, mainly because of entropic contributions the AH components were only —1.6 and +2.5 kcal/mol, respectively. Despite the dominance of entropy in these reactive carbene addition reactions, a kind of de facto enthalpic control operates. The entropies of activation are all very similar, so that in any comparison of the reactivities of alkene pairs (i.e., ferei)> the rate constant ratios reflect differences in AA//t, which ultimately appear in AAG. Thus, car-benic philicity, which is the pattern created by carbenic reactivity, behaves in accord with our qualitative ideas about structure-reactivity relations, as modulated by substiment effects in both the carbene and alkene partners of the addition reactions. " Finally, volumes of activation were measured for the additions of CgHsCCl to (CH3)2C=C(CH3)2 and frani-pentene in both methylcyclohexane and acetonitrile. The measured absolute rate constants increased with increasing pressure Ayf ranged from —10 to —18 cm /mol and were independent of solvent. These results were consistent with an early, and not very polar transition state for the addition reaction. 

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