Stereochemistry of addition

A dihaloalkene is an intermediate and is the isolated product when the alkyne and the halogen are present m equimolar amounts The stereochemistry of addition is anti... 

Reactions of alkynes with electrophiles are generally similar to those of alkenes. Because the HOMO of alkynes (acetylenes) is also of n type, it is not surprising that there IS a good deal of similarity between alkenes and alkynes in their reactivity toward electrophilic reagents. The fundamental questions about additions to alkynes include the following. How reactive are alkynes in comparison with alkenes What is the stereochemistry of additions to alkynes And what is the regiochemistry of additions to alkynes The important role of halonium ions and mercurinium ions in addition reactions of alkenes raises the question of whether similar species can be involved with alkynes, where the ring would have to include a double bond ... 

The stereochemistry of addition is usually anti for alkyl-substituted alkynes, whereas die addition to aryl-substituted compounds is not stereospecific. This suggests a termo-iecular mechanism in the alkyl case, as opposed to an aryl-stabilized vinyl cation mtermediate in the aryl case. Aryl-substituted alkynes can be shifted toward anti addition by including bromide salts in the reaction medium. Under these conditions, a species preceding the vinyl cation must be intercepted by bromide ion. This species can be presented as a complex of molecular bromine with the alkyne. An overall mechanistic summary is shown in the following scheme. 

The preferred stereochemistry of addition to cyclic alkenes is anti The additions are not as highly stereoselective as hydrogen bromide addition, however. 

A number of groups have criticized the ideas of Dauben and Noyce, especially the concept of PDC. Kamernitzsky and Akhrem, " in a thorough survey of the stereochemistry of addition reactions to carbonyl groups, accepted the existence of SAC but not of PDC. They point out that the reactions involve low energies of activation (10-13 kcal/mole) and suggest that differences in stereochemistry involve differences in entropies of activation. The effect favoring the equatorial alcohols is attributed to an electrostatic or polar factor (see also ref. 189) which may be determined by a difference in the electrostatic fields on the upper and lower sides of the carbonyl double bond, connected, for example, with the uncompensated dipole moments of the C—H bonds. The way this polar effect is supposed to influence the attack of the hydride is not made clear. 

The course of each of the free radical reactions shown in equations 19-21, where fluorine substitution alters the normal trans stereochemistry of addition, is ascnbed to endo fluonne stenc effects... 

An explanation for the observed anti stereochemistry of addition was suggested in 1937 by George Kimball and Irving Roberts, who proposed that the... 

How does the formation of a bromonium ion account for the observed anti stereochemistry of addition to cyclopentene If a bromonium ion is formed as an intermediate, we can imagine that the large bromine atom might "shield" one side of the molecule. Reaction with Br ion in the second step could then occur only from the opposite, unshielded side to give trans product. 

There is also clear evidence that penultimate group effects are important in determining the stereochemistry of addition in many homopolymerizations and copolymerizations. This is made evident from the fact that most homopolymers have tacticity (i.e. P(/ i)f0.5, Section 4.2). Indeed, for some homopolyinerizations there is evidence that the configuration of the pcnpcnultimatc unit may also influence the stereochemistry of addition/9 If penpen- and penultimate units... 

Vinylsilanes react readily with a range of electrophiles to give products of substitution (1). The overall stereochemistry of such substitution will depend on a number of factors, including the stereochemistry of addition and subsequent elimination when 1,2-adducts are discrete species. However, the regiochemistry of substitution is normally unambiguous, the -effect ensuring that carbonium-ion development on attack by the electrophile will occur at the carbon terminus remote, i.e. /3, to silicon ... 

We are almost ready to begin learning the actual reactions. But first, we must explore one more subtlety associated with the stereochemistry of addition reactions. Consider the following example ... 

The stereochemistry of addition reactions of Br2 to olefins is difficult to control. For example, the reaction of ( )-stilbene (1) with Br2 in CH2CI2 gives a 84 16 mixture of meso- (2) and rac-l,2-dibromo-l,2-diphenylethane (3) in 98%... 

Examples of the use of dimethylsulfonium methylide and dimethylsulfoxonium methylide are listed in Scheme 2.21. Entries 1 to 5 are conversions of carbonyl compounds to epoxides. Entry 6 is an example of cyclopropanation with dimethyl sulfoxonium methylide. Entry 7 compares the stereochemistry of addition of dimethylsulfonium methylide to dimethylsulfoxonium methylide for nornborn-5-en-2-one. The product in Entry 8 was used in a synthesis of a-tocopherol (vitamin E). 

The stereochemistry of addition of hydrogen halides to alkenes depends on the structure of the alkene and also on the reaction conditions. Addition of hydrogen bromide to cyclohexene and to E- and Z-2-butene is anti.6 The addition of hydrogen chloride to 1 -methylcyclopentene is entirely anti when carried out at 25° C in nitromethane.7... 

Dimethylcyclohexene is an example of an alkene for which the stereochemistry of hydrogen chloride addition is dependent on the solvent and temperature. At —78° C in dichloromethane, 88% of the product is the result of syn addition, whereas at 0° C in ether, 95% of the product results from anti addition.8 Syn addition is particularly common with alkenes having an aryl substituent. Table 4.1 lists several alkenes for which the stereochemistry of addition of hydrogen chloride or hydrogen bromide has been studied. 

The stereochemistry of addition depends on the details of the mechanism. The addition can proceed through an ion pair intermediate formed by an initial protonation step. Most alkenes, however, react via a complex that involves the alkene, hydrogen halide, and a third species that delivers the nucleophilic halide. This termolecular mechanism is generally pictured as a nucleophilic attack on an alkene-hydrogen halide complex. This mechanism bypasses a discrete carbocation and exhibits a preference for anti addition. 

Table 4.1. Stereochemistry of Addition of Hydrogen Halides to Alkenes...

In agreement with this mechanism is the fact that the stereochemistry of addition is syn.44 The rate of reaction with diimide is influenced by torsional and angle strain in the alkene. More strained double bonds react at accelerated rates.45 For example, the more strained trans double bond is selectively reduced in Z,K-1,5-cyclodecadiene. 

The stereochemistry of addition of organometallic reagents to chiral carbonyl compounds parallels the behavior of the hydride reducing agents, as discussed in Section 5.3.2. Organometallic compounds were included in the early studies that established the preference for addition according to Cram s rule.118... 

For ketones and aldehydes in which adjacent substituents permit the possibility of chelation with a metal ion, the stereochemistry can often be interpreted in terms of the steric requirements of the chelated TS. In the case of a-alkoxyketones, for example, an assumption that both the alkoxy and carbonyl oxygens are coordinated with the metal ion and that addition occurs from the less hindered face of this chelate correctly predicts the stereochemistry of addition. The predicted product dominates by as much as 100 1 for several Grignard reagents.120 Further supporting the importance of chelation is the correlation between rate and stereoselectivity. Groups that facilitate chelation cause an increase in both rate and stereoselectivity.121 This indicates that chelation not only favors a specific TS geometry, but also lowers the reaction barrier by favoring metal ion complexation. 

With internal alkynes, the stereochemistry of addition is anti. 

Although the allylation reaction is formally analogous to the addition of allylic boranes to carbonyl derivatives, it does not normally occur through a cyclic TS. This is because, in contrast to the boranes, the silicon in allylic silanes has little Lewis acid character and does not coordinate at the carbonyl oxygen. The stereochemistry of addition of allylic silanes to carbonyl compounds is consistent with an acyclic TS. The -stereoisomer of 2-butenyl(trimethyl)silane gives nearly exclusively the product in... 

Entry 2 was reported as part of a study of the stereochemistry of addition of allyltrimethylsilane to protected carbohydrates. Use of BF3 as the Lewis acid, as shown, gave the product from an open TS, whereas TiCl4 led to the formation of the alternate stereoisomer through chelation control. Similar results were reported for a protected galactose. 

The orientation of the groups along the carbon chain, its stereochemistry, is critical to the properties of the product. The stereochemistry of addition polymerization can be controlled by the use of catalysts. A polymer where repeating units have the same relative orientation is termed stereoregular. 

The stereochemistry of addition of these substrates to olefins can be rationalized by three limiting cases of addition to trans olefins which yield intermediates (52), (53), and (54) ... 

If one examines the minimal sequences of reaction steps for [2+2] cycloadditions, Eqs. 12—18, 32—35, one concludes that stereochemistry of addition, and perhaps relative reactivities might be calculable at several points. Oriented complexes could control regiospecificity, or the transition state leading to a biradical could be the important stage. Relative rates of product formation would be derived from relative perturbation stabilization energies for different configurations of the two reactants. 

Ring size, R Additive X % Yield Stereochemistry of addition... 

Table 9. Stereochemistry of addition of diphenyl-carbene to styrene as a function of added hexa-flurobenzene...

The stereochemistry of addition of a variety of electrophilic reagents to 7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]heptadiene derivatives has been described in a... 

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