Ring opening methylene acetals

Stansbury and Bailey. A review by Colombam on addition-fragmentation processes is also relevant. Monomers used in ring-opening are typically vinyl (e.g. vinylcyclopropane - Scheme 4.20 Section 4.4.2.1) or methylene substituted cyclic compounds (e.g. ketene acetals - Section 4.4.2.2) where addition to the double bond is followed by p-scission. 

Various methylene derivatives of spiroorthocarbonates and spiroorthocstcrs have been reported to give double ring-opening polymerization e.g. Scheme 4.36). Like the parent monocyclic systems, these monomers can be sluggish to polymerize and reactivity ratios are such that they do not undergo ready copolymerization with acrylic and styrenic monomers. Copolymerizations with VAc have been reported.170 These monomers, like other acetals, show marked acid sensitivity. 

Ring-opening polymerization of 2-methylene-l,3-dioxepane (Fig. 6) represents the single example of a free radical polymerization route to PCL (51). Initiation with AIBN at SO C afforded PCL with a of 42,000 in 59% yield. While this monomer is not commercially available, the advantage of this method is that it may be used to obtain otherwise inaccessible copolymers. As an example, copolymerization with vinyl monomers has afforded copolymers of e-caprolactone with styrene, 4-vinylanisole, methyl methacrylate, and vinyl acetate. 

Diol monoacetates are obtained from the diols via the intermediate formation of the bromomethyl acetals and their conversion into cyclic methylene acetals, which undergo acid-catalysed ring-opening to yield the acetate ester [31]. The ring-opening is regio-specific to form the ester at the least hindered hydroxyl group. 

In a search for other cyclic acetals that would undergo quantitative ring opening even at room temperature we prepared the seven-membered ketene acetal, 2-methylene-l,3-dioxepane (V), which underwent essentially complete ring opening at room temperature. 

This indicates the possibility of making addition polymers biodegradable by the introduction of ester linkages in to the backbone. Since the free radical ring-opening polymerization of cyclic ketene acetals, such as 2-methylene-1,3-dioxepane (1, Scheme I), made possible the introduction of ester groups into the backbone of addition polymers, this appeared to be an attractive method for the synthesis of biodegradable addition polymers. 

Commercial polymers of formaldehyde are also produced using cationic polymerization. The polymer is produced by ring opening of trioxane. Since the polyacetal, POM, is not thermally stable, the hydroxyl groups are esterified (capped) by acetic anhydride (structure 5.22). These polymers are also called poly(methylene oxides). The commercial polymer is a... 

The crucial methylenation step in this synthesis undoubtedly gave the 3,5-methylene acetal, not the 2,3-acetal (or the highly improbable 2,5-methylene acetal), because, otherwise, a 6-0-methyl-2(or 3)-0-p-tolylsulfonyl compound would have been obtained which could only have formed an epoxide (oxirane). The oxirane ring might have been opened under the conditions of the saponification the product would not then have been a dianhydride. 

Free radical polymerization of cyclic ketene acetals has been used for the synthesis of polyfy-butyrolactone), which cannot be prepared by the usual lactone route due to the stability of the five-membered ring. The polymerization of 2-methylene-l,3-dioxalane at high temperatures (above 120 °C) gave a high molecular mass polyester [59,79]. Only 50% of the rings opened when the polymerization was carried out at 60 °C, and this led to the formation of a random copolymer. The presence of methyl substituents at the 4- or 5-position facilitated the reaction. The free radical initiators generally used in such polymerizations are ferf-butyl hydroperoxide, ferf-butyl peroxide, or cumene hydroperoxide. The various steps involved are described in Scheme 5 [59]. 

In addition to the construction of the amidine structure iV-alkylation reactions can occur,ring opening in the case of heterocyclic amines and formylation of acidic methylene or methyl groups. 76i,793 jjjg reaction of formamide with excess /V,N-dialkylformamide acetals deviates from this reaction pattern, here azavinylogous formamide acetals (358 Scheme 62) are formed. A, A -Dialkyl-iV -formylformamidines (359) can be prepared either by action of A, N-dialkylformamide acetals on bis(trimethylsilyl)formamide or by treatment of azavinylogous amide acetds (358) with trimethyl-chlorosilane. ... 

Since the 4-phenyl-2-methylene-l,3-dioxolane (XXl) underwent much more extensive ring opening than did the unsubstituted 2-methylene-l,3-dioxolane (I), it was reeisoned that a benzyl ketene acetal would be a more effective chain transfer agent than diethyl ketene acetal. Thus vhen methyl benzyl ketene acetal was used with styrene, a complete addition-elimination occurred to produce an oligomer of styrene. 

Narasaka found that optically enriched oxabicydic substrate 277 bearing a vinyl sulfide moiety reacts with a silyl enol ether or ketene silyl acetal in the presence of a Lewis acid to afford the protected cyclohexenols 278a and 278b, Eq. 175 [18]. The reaction was proposed to occur via a ring-opening and alkylation sequence which is equivalent to overall nucleophilic substitution with retention of configuration. Presumably, the nucleophile attacked the carbocationic intermediate from the exo face, because the methylene-OTIPS substituent was blocking the endo side. 

Silyloxycyclopropanecarboxylates are masked homoenolate equivalents which can also add to dimethyl(methylene)iminium salts. In one of several examples reported by Reissig and Lorey, methyl 2-f-butyl-2-(trimethylsilyloxy)cyclopropanecarboxylate and triflate salt (33) react to produce methylaminomethyl-y-oxo ester (64 Scheme 14). The reactive intermediate has not been precisely determined but is most likely a ring-opened enolate (63) or its silyl ketene acetal derivative. The reaction can also be performed using the chloride iminium salt (31) in the presence of TiCU, but the reproducibility is poor due to reduced solubility. The products of these reactions are convenient precursors to a-methylene-8-lactones and acrylic acid derivatives. 

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