Silver catalysis rearrangements

Although acyloxy, phosphatyloxy, and tosyl allenones were obtained from the corresponding propargyl alcohol derivatives via silver catalysis through an overall process that resembled [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement (see Sections 3.41 and 3.43), the mechanism was not fully proved and is still in question. 

The use of transition metal species can lower appreciably the decomposition temperature of ot-diazo-carbonyl compounds they can also alter the reactivity of the carbene intermediate (resulting from the initial nitrogen elimination see Section 3.9.2.1) by complex formation. Hence, the Wolff rearrangement may occur with difficulty or, usually, not at all. Thus, some copper species (excepting, for example, Cul), or Rh and Pd catalysts are inappropriate. Freshly prepared silver(I) oxide has been used most frequently, but silver salts (especially silver benzoate) are sometimes preferred.Silver-based catalysts are usually employed in combination with an alkaline reagent e.g. sodium carbonate or a tertiary amine). Even under silver catalysis competing reactions may be observed, and sometimes the products of Wolff rearrangement may not be obtained (see Section 3.9.2.3). 

Scheme 10.14 gives some other examples of Wolff rearrangement reactions. Entries 1 and 2 are reactions carried out under the classical silver ion catalysis conditions. Entry 3 is an example of a thermolysis. Entries 4 to 7 are ring contractions done under photolytic conditions. Entry 8, done using a silver catalyst, was a step in the synthesis of macbecin, an antitumor antibiotic. Entry 9, a step in the synthesis of a drug candidate, illustrates direct formation of an amide by trapping the ketene intermediate with an amine. 

Upon flash vacuum pyrolysis or under silver nitrate catalysis, a variety of 2-ethenyl-sub-stituted cydopropylamines 146 cleanly undergo a vinylcyclopropane to cyclopentene rearrangement [129] and afford high yields (up to 95%) of 4-aminocyclopent-l-enes 147, some of which have unprecedented substitution patterns (Scheme 11.37) [130],... 

Apart from the rearrangement of the tricyclo[4.1.0.03/7]heptane to the bicyclo[2.2.1]hept-2-ene system under acid catalysis, it can be effected by silver(I) perchlorate [silver(I) assisted ionization]19 and by photolysis at 185 nm.20... 

The key step of the Amdt-Eistert Homologation is the Wolff-Rearrangement of the diazoketones to ketenes, which can be accomplished thermally (over the range between r.t. and 750°C, photochemically or by silver(I) catalysis. The reaction is conducted in the presence of nucleophiles such as water (to yield carboxylic acids), alcohols (to give alcohols) or amines (to give amides), to capture the ketene intermediate and avoid the competing formation of diketenes. 

The silver ion, then, does not exhibit the same degree of back-bonding that the more familiar transition elements do. Since back-bonding is an essential factor in the forbidden-to-aUowed process and, in particidar, in direct oxidative addition, silver s function in this chemistry could differ. It may be that the silver ion (and other similar metallic species) stands apart from the other transition elements (W, Mo, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Rh, etc.) in its mode of catalysis. In the valence isomerization of quadricyclene, some oxidation occurs as evidenced by the deposition of metallic silver 45). Certainly, irreversible redox cannot be a feature of the actual catalytic path, since silver s role is definitely catalytic and the isomerization itself precludes it i.e., the oxidation state of the system remains fixed). Some electron transfer, however, clearly proceeds and may be a critical feature of the catalysis. One could speculate on the possibility of intermediate ion radicals generated through electron transfer from a reactant to Ag(I) followed by electron recapture by the rearranged species in the catal5dic system. 

Formulate a mechanism for the catalysis by silver ion of the rearrangement shown below ... 

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