Reversible reactivity inversion

In using the "reactivity inversion" strategy, three different approaches may be considered the simple, the reversible and the use of "inversion operators". 

You have in fact met one example of each of the unnatural synthons with a2 and d1 reactivity. Such synthons are given the German name Umpolung, meaning inverse polarity because their natural reactivity is reversed, and umpolung reagents are the key to the synthesis of 1,2- and 1,4-difunc-tionalized compounds. 

In another aspect of the mechanism, the effects of electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents (p. 1065) indicate that the diene is behaving as a nucleophile and the dienophile as an electrophile. However, this can be reversed. Perchlorocyclopentadiene reacts better with cyclopentene than with maleic anhydride and not at all with tetracyanoethylene, though the latter is normally the most reactive dienophile known. It is apparent, then, that this diene is the electrophile in its Diels-Alder reactions. Reactions of this type are said to proceed with inverse electron demand ... 

Limited observations are available to indicate the influence of a selenium atom on reactivity. For the two comparisons available, the effect of this atom relative to an NMe group is variable. In the case of 41,123 the compound containing selenium is more reactive than the aza substrate, but with 3844 (Table III) the reverse order is found. Reasons for the inversion are not apparent. 

The parameter r2 is independent of the initiator type for the emulsion, however, and is slightly higher than that obtained in benzene (r2=1.23) (Table 3). This behavior results from good compatibility of the macromonomer with poly-BzMA. Therefore the reactivity of the macromonomer does not depend so much on the reaction medium type. In contrast, reversed apparent reactivity was observed in heptane in which the clear solution of monomer turned into a polymer suspension upon polymerization. Since BzMA is soluble in the medium, it has been suggested that the polymerization occurs preferentially on the (inverse) micelle surface which is enriched by the macromonomers. 

The Corey-Seebach Reaction allows a reversal of the normal reactivity of acyl carbon atoms, which combine only with nucleophiles. The German term Umpolung is widely used for this inversion of reactivity. 

Interesting heteroatom-substituted derivatives such as 67 have also been synthesized via the reaction of bis enol ether 66 with thiol-containing dicarbonyl electrophiles, Eq. 54 [81]. Compound 68 bearing a bridgehead silyl substituent was produced from the reaction of 65 with a ketoacylsilane [82], Subsequent decarboxylation and desilylation of 68 generates 69, Eq. 55. The overall sequence represents a method to obtain the product of a formal inversion of the usual reactivity of 65 with ketoaldehydes. Extensive studies failed to reverse the observed regio selectivity. 

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