Selenophene aromaticity

In addition to benzene and naphthalene derivatives, heteroaromatic compounds such as ferrocene[232, furan, thiophene, selenophene[233,234], and cyclobutadiene iron carbonyl complexpSS] react with alkenes to give vinyl heterocydes. The ease of the reaction of styrene with sub.stituted benzenes to give stilbene derivatives 260 increases in the order benzene < naphthalene < ferrocene < furan. The effect of substituents in this reaction is similar to that in the electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions[236]. 

With its sextet of 7T electrons, thiophene possesses the typical aromatic character of benzene and other similarly related heterocycles. Decreasing orders of aromaticity have been suggested to reflect the strength of this aromatic character benzene > thiophene > pyrrole > furan (9) and benzene > thiophene > selenophene > teUurophene > fuian (10). 

In summary, most of the presently available criteria point to an order of decreasing aromaticity of benzene > thiophene > selenophene pyrrole > tellurophene > furan. 

The reactivity sequence furan > tellurophene > selenophene > thiophene is thus the same for all three reactions and is in the reverse order of the aromaticities of the ring systems assessed by a number of different criteria. The relative rate for the trifluoroacetylation of pyrrole is 5.3 x lo . It is interesting to note that AT-methylpyrrole is approximately twice as reactive to trifluoroacetylation as pyrrole itself. The enhanced reactivity of pyrrole compared with the other monocyclic systems is also demonstrated by the relative rates of bromination of the 2-methoxycarbonyl derivatives, which gave the reactivity sequence pyrrole>furan > selenophene > thiophene, and by the rate data on the reaction of the iron tricarbonyl-complexed carbocation [C6H7Fe(CO)3] (35) with a further selection of heteroaromatic substrates (Scheme 5). The comparative rates of reaction from this substitution were 2-methylindole == AT-methylindole>indole > pyrrole > furan > thiophene (73CC540). 

Rate data are also available for the solvolysis of l-(2-heteroaryl)ethyl acetates in aqueous ethanol. Side-chain reactions such as this, in which a delocalizable positive charge is developed in the transition state, are frequently regarded as analogous to electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions. In solvolysis the relative order of reactivity is tellurienyl> furyl > selenienyl > thienyl whereas in electrophilic substitutions the reactivity sequence is furan > tellurophene > selenophene > thiophene. This discrepancy has been explained in terms of different charge distributions in the transition states of these two classes of reaction (77AHC(21)119>. 

Thiophenes continue to play a major role in commercial applications as well as basic research. In addition to its aromatic properties that make it a useful replacement for benzene in small molecule syntheses, thiophene is a key element in superconductors, photochemical switches and polymers. The presence of sulfur-containing components (especially thiophene and benzothiophene) in crude petroleum requires development of new catalysts to promote their removal (hydrodesulfurization, HDS) at refineries. Interspersed with these commercial applications, basic research on thiophene has continued to study its role in electrocyclic reactions, newer routes for its formation and substitution and new derivatives of therapeutic potential. New reports of selenophenes and tellurophenes continue to be modest in number. 

The electronic structures of furan, thiophene, and selenophene, their protonated complexes, and their anions have been calculated by the extended Hiickel method.6 The results of these calculations have been used to determine the influence of the heteroatom on the degree of aromaticity and electron density. 

Selenophene was also obtained as the main component in the reaction between vinylacetylene and the selenium dianion, generated from elemental selenium (Se8), in dimethyl sulfoxide-potassium-water at 100-120°C.5° Bis-y,y-dimethylallenyl selenide (18) is converted by spontaneous cyclo-aromatization to 3-isopropenyl-4-isopropylselenophene (19).51 Two mechanisms are shown in Scheme 3. 

Individual substitutions may not necessarily be true electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions. Usually it is assumed that they are, however, and with this assumption the furan nucleus can be compared with others. For tri-fluoroacetylation by trifluoroacetic anhydride at 75 C relative rates have been established, by means of competition experiments 149 thiophene, 1 selenophene, 6.5 furan, 1.4 x 102 2-methylfuran, 1.2 x 105 pyrrole, 5.3 x 107. While nitrogen is usually a better source of electrons for an incoming electrophile (as in pyrrole versus furan) there are exceptions. For example, the enamine 63 reacts with Eschenmoser s salt at the 5-position and not at the enamine grouping.150 Also amusing is an attempted Fischer indole synthesis in which a furan ring is near the reaction site and diverted the reaction into a pyrazole synthesis.151... 

Structures and nomenclature for the most important five-membered monocycles with one or more heteroatoms are depicted in Scheme 1. The aromaticity scale in five-membered heterocycles has been long debated.97-101 The decreasing order of aromaticity based on various criteria is (DRE values in kcal/ mol) benzene (22.6) > thiophene (6.5) > selenophene > pyrrole (5.3) > tellurophene > fur an (4.3). Pyrrole and furan have comparable ring strains (Scheme 38). The aromaticity of furan is still controversial 100 the NMR shielding by ring current estimated it at about 60% of the aromaticity of benzene, and other methods reviewed earlier102 estimated it at less than 20%. 

Tellurophene, the most important member of chalcogenophenes, is a light yellow, bad smelling and toxic oil, rather stable in air. Its aromaticity follows the order benzene>thiophene>selenophene>tellurophene>furan." ... 

According to structural indices AN and I, the aromaticity of non-condensed heterocycles varies in the sequence thiophene > pyrrole selenophene > tellurophene > furan. 

The structural indices of aromaticity, I, of oxadiazoles (145-148), thiadiazoles (150-153) and selenadiazoles (155, 156) are compared with that of the parent furan (144), thiophene (149) and selenophene (154) (Scheme 11). 1,2,3-Oxadiazole (145) is the least stable among them since all attempts to synthesize this compound were unsuccessful, most likely because of its easy isomerization to the acyclic isomer. At the same time its sulfur analogue (150) possesses good stability and has been synthesized. Its 2,4-diaza- (151), 3,4-diaza- (152) and 2,5-diaza-(153) isomers demonstrate even more the extent of n-electron delocalization. There exists a well-known tendency of decreasing aromaticity depending on the type of pyrrole-like heteroatom S > Se > O. However, there is no uniformity in the change in aromaticity in the horizontal rows, i. e., dependence on heteroatom disposition. 

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