Rearrangement ring exchange

A more highly substituted pyrrolidone, doxapram, shows activity as a respiratory stimulant. Preparation of this agent involves an interesting rearrangement, which in effect results in a ring exchange reaction. Alkylation of the anion from diphenylacetonitrile with the chloropyrrolidine 14 affords 15. Hydrolysis of the nitrile function leads to the... 

The rearrangement (automerization) of Dewar thiophene 5-oxide (61), observed by NMR, occurs so much more rapidly than that of the corresponding episulfide that special mechanisms have been invoked. The one which involves a zwitterionic intermediate (Scheme 108) is favored over a pseudopericyclic sulfur-walk mechanism in which the electrons of the carbon-sulfur o--bond and the pair of electrons on sulfur exchange places as the sulfur atom migrates around the ring (80JA2861). 

The Cornforth rearrangement involves the thermal interconversion of 4-carbonyl substituted oxazoles, with exchange between the C-C-O side-chain and the C-C-O fragment of the oxazole ring. These reactions generally involve compounds where a heteroatom (-OR, -SR, -Cl) is attached to the 5-position (R2) of the starting oxazole. 

The cyclopropanone intermediate (81) undergoes subsequent addition of eOH, followed by ring-opening to yield the more stable of the two possible carbanions (83, benzyl > primary), followed by proton exchange to yield the rearranged carboxylate anion end-product (84). 

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