Singlet oxygen as dienophile

Table 6(a) [4+2] Cycloaddition of dienes with singlet oxygen as dienophile... 

As in 4-9, it is not the ground-state oxygen (the triplet), that reacts, but the excited singlet state,782 so the reaction is actually a Diels-Alder reaction (see 5-47) with singlet oxygen as dienophile 783... 

The emphasis in this work is on the scope and preparative synthetic utility of the hetero Diels-Alder reaction. No attempt has been made to carefully define or delineate the important mechanistic questions, many of which are as yet unanswered, of the various [4 -I- 2] cycloaddition reactions other than to try to provide a rationale for the facility with which the cycloadditions proceed and to provide a basis for the stereo- and regio-chemical observations. We have purposely excluded reactions of singlet oxygen as a dienophile, since extensive surveys are available elsewhere. Many miscellaneous heterodienophiles and heterodienes have not been covered if in our opinion they are not of general synthetic value. A comprehensive treatment of all recorded hetero [4 + 2] cycloadditions is beyond the scope of this monograph. However, we do hope to provide a broad survey of this reaction type as it exists today in order to furnish a foundation for continued development. 

Sulphines with electron-withdrawing substituents appeared to be the most reactive dienophiles, and the reaction was found to occur largely stereo-specifically. The methylene-blue-sensitized photo-oxygenation of sulphines resulted in the formation of the corresponding ketone and sulphur dioxide. This reaction was considered to involve singlet oxygen as the reactive species and to proceed via the cyclic intermediate (118), and is... 

Adam, W., Gilthlein, M., Peters, E.M., Peters, K., and Wirth, T, Chiral-auxihary-induced diaster-eoselectivity in the [4 + 2]-cycloaddition of optically active 2,2-dimethyloxazolidine derivatives of sorbic acid a model study with singlet oxygen as smallest dienophile,/. Am. Chem. Soc., 120,4091, 1998. 

While both hydrogenation and epoxidation reactions of (7) (and substituted forms) occur on the oxepin valence tautomer, cycloaddition reactions proceed more readily on the arene oxide form (where the diene is closer to planarity). Thus the dienophiles DM AD and maleic anhydride (MA) readily yielded [4 + 2] cycloadducts with (7) as shown in Scheme 22 (67AG(E)385). A similar type of singlet oxygen cycloaddition reaction gave an unstable endoperoxide (106) which upon heating yielded trans-benzene trioxide quantitatively (equation 14). (75JOC3743). 

Conjugated dienes (and compounds that behave like conjugated dienes in the Diels-Alder reaction) react with singlet oxygen to form cyclic peroxides as if molecular oxygen acted as a dienophile. The yields of the peroxides, prepared by photochemical oxidation [13, 55] or by chemical oxidations with hydrogen peroxide and sodium hypochlorite, alkaline hydrogen peroxide and bromine, alkaline salts of peroxy acids [14, 26], or the ozonide of triphenyl phosphite [29], are comparable. 

The cyclopentadienyltin(IV) compounds undergo Diels-Alder cycloadditions with reactive dienophiles such as maleic anhydride, diethyl maleate, and diethyl acetylenedi-carboxylate," and an endoperoxide has been identified from the reaction with singlet oxygen.123... 

The oxazoles also display a number of characteristics that are typical of the furans and are explained by the structural similarity of these heterocyclic systems. The ease with which they undergo Diels-Alder reactions with dienophiles and autooxidation with singlet oxygen (see Sections IV, D and E) clearly demonstrates that oxazoles are not fully aromatic. This fact and ultraviolet data (Section III, E) suggest that oxazoles should be considered partly as conjugated dienes. 

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as anthracenes, tetracenes, and pentacenes, as well as cyclopentadienes, cyclohexa-l,3-dienes, cyclo-hepta-l,3-dienes, and furans, have been found to be suitable diene systems to which the singlet oxygen adds as a dienophile in a 1,4-cycloaddition reaction. Thus, endoperoxides (transannular peroxides) and, in the case of furans, ozonides of the corresponding cyclobutadienes are the primarily produced, more or less stable addition products (2, 21, 22). 

Aromatic hydrocarbons 50 and 51 react with oxygen under the influence of light to give cyclic peroxides. Oxygen in its singlet state serves as a dienophile. 

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