Reactivity onium carbanion

The exact pathway for generating the reactive onium carbanion species remains the subject of controversy, typically among Starks extraction mechanism (Scheme 1.2) and the Makosza interfacial mechanism (Scheme 1.3). 

Unlike the nucleophilic substitution reactions which generate stable onium halide after the reaction, nucleophilic additions to electrophilic C=X double bonds (X=C, N, O) provide rather basic onium anion species as an initial product. If the anion is sufficiently stable under the reaction conditions, onium anion will then exchange the counter ion for the other metal carbanion at the interface to regenerate the reactive onium carbanion Q+R. In another scenario, the basic onium anion may abstract the acidic hydrogen atom of the other substrate to provide Q 1 R directly. Such a reaction system ideally requires only a catalytic amount of the base although, in general, a substoichiometric or excess amount of the base is used to lead the reaction to completion. An additional feature of this system is the substantial possibility of a retro-process at the crucial asymmetric induction step, which might be problematic in some cases. 

Figure 14.1 Pathways for generating the reactive onium carbanion species.

The representative reaction system applied in asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis is the biphasic system composed of an organic phase containing an acidic methylene or methine compound and an electrophile, and an aqueous or solid phase of inorganic base such as alkaline metal (Na, K, Cs) hydroxide or carbonate. The key reactive intermediate in this type of reaction is the onium carbanion species, mostly onium enolate or nitronate, which reacts with the electrophile in the organic phase to afford the product. 

Cation exchange from the metal cation to the onium carbanion improves the intrinsic reactivity of the latter due to formation of the naked anion . At the same time, the... 

Organic cations (carbocations and onium ions) are important reactive intermediates in organic synthesis. From an experimental point of view, it is noteworthy that the manner in which we carry out reactions of organic cations is different from that for carbanions (Scheme 1). Usually, carbanions are generated and accumulated in a solution in the absence of electrophiles. After the generation process is complete, an electrophile is added to the solution of the pre-formed carbanion to achieve a desired transformation. In contrast, organic cations are usually generated in the presence of nucleophiles. This is probably... 

Among a series of trifluoromethyl dibenzoheterocyclic onium salts derived from chalcogens, a small number of tellurium compounds have been prepared. As electrophilic trifluoromethylating agents, the tellurium compounds appeared as the least reactive. With a very reactive carbanion, the unsubstituted dibenzotellurophenium salt (81) gave only 9% of the trifluoromethylated product. With the p-diketone enolate, (81) did not react. However, the 3,7-dinitrotellurophenium salt (82) showed a relative activity similar to that of the unsubstituted selenium compound (47). 1... 

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