Silyl-substituted carbocations methods

This chapter deals with silyl-substituted carbocations. In Section II results of quantum chemical ab initio calculations of energies and structures of silyl-substituted carbocations are summarized1. Throughout the whole chapter results of ab initio calculations which relate directly to the experimental observation of silyl-substituted carbocations and their reactions are reviewed. Section m reports on gas phase studies and Section IV on solvolytic investigations of reactions which involve silyl-substituted carbocation intermediates and transition states. Section V summarizes the structure elucidation studies on stable silyl-substituted carbocations. It includes ultra-fast optical spectroscopic methods for the detection of transient intermediates in solution, NMR spectroscopic investigations of silyl-substituted carbocations in superacids and non-nucleophilic solvents, concomitant computational studies of model cation and X-ray crystallography of some silyl-substituted carbocations which can be prepared as crystals of salts. 

Ab initio DFT calculations were performed using the B3LYP/6-31G(d) hybrid method for the analogous l-p-anisyl-2-SiH3-substituted ethyl cation 324, which is a close model for the experimentally observed cation 323 with alkyl groups at silicon. It has been shown that different alkyl groups at silicon have no significant impact on the electronic stabilization in a-aryl-/l-silyl-substituted carbocations. 

Silyl enol ethers and silyl ketene acetals also offer both enhanced reactivity and a favorable termination step. Electrophilic attack is followed by desilylation to give an a-substituted carbonyl compound. The carbocations can be generated from tertiary chlorides and a Lewis acid, such as TiCl4. This reaction provides a method for introducing tertiary alkyl groups a to a carbonyl, a transformation that cannot be achieved by base-catalyzed alkylation because of the strong tendency for tertiary halides to undergo elimination. 

The ability of fluoro-2 -phosphanes to transform silyl ethers into fluorides was first observed during a study of the reactions of phosphorus pentafluoride and its derivatives R PF5 (n = 1, 2, 3 R = hydrocarbon group) with trimethylsilyl ethers. Subsequently, this reaction was proposed as a new method for the preparation of C-F compounds from silyl ethers or silicic acid esters with fluoro-A -phosphanes. Pentafluorophenyl-substituted fluoro-A -phos-phanes were found to react similarily, Other workers found that tctrafluoro(phenyl)-A -phos-phane. which was chosen as the most convenient reagent with regard to reactivity and stability, gave considerable amounts of elimination products, especially with primary and cyclic alcohols. Good yields of fluorinated products are obtained when stable carbocations can be formed at the site of substitution, such as in tertiary alcohols, but 2-phcnylethanol. benzyl alcohol and diphcnylmethanol, on the other hand, give only poor yields of fluorinated products ethers and polymers are the main products. ... 

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