Stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions

LUMO (Sections 14.4, 30.2) An acronym for lowest unoccupied molecular orbital. The symmetries of the LUMO and the HOMO are important in determining the stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions. 

The Woodward-Hoffmann rules also allow the prediction of the stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions. The Diels-Alder reaction is an example of (re4s + re2s) cycloaddition. The subscript s, meaning suprafacial, indicates that both elements of the addition take place on the same side of the re-system. Addition to opposite sides is termed antarafacial. The Woodward-Hoffmann rules apply only to concerted reactions and are derived from the symmetry properties of the orbitals involved in the transition state. These rules may be summarised as shown in Table 7.1. 

Understanding the Mechanism, Selectivity, and Stereochemistry of Pericyclic Reactions... 

Woodward-Hoffmann orbital symmetry rules (Section 30.9) a series of rules for predicting the stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions. Even-electron species react thermally through either antarafacial or conrotatory pathways, whereas odd-electron species react thermally through either suprafacial or disrotatory pathways. 

These orbital correlation diagrams subsequently played a very important role in the development of Walsh diagrams and most importantly in the elucidation of the orbital symmetry rules developed by Woodward and Hoffmann which accounted for the stereochemistries of pericyclic reactions of organic molecules [174—184]. 

This simple extension of the rules given above (p. 100) extends the PMO treatment to hydrocarbons of all types, both Hiickel and anti-Hiickel. The distinction between the aromaticity of Hiickel and anti-Hiickel systems is crucial to the understanding of the stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions (Sections 5.6 and 6.16) which prefer to proceed through o-n delocalized aromatic transition states. 

Several other important contributions by theoretical chemists have been made, from time to time, in discussions on the stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions. Unfortunately space does not permit discussion of these ideas here. 

There are several general classes of pericyclic reactions for which orbital symmetry factors determine both the stereochemistry and relative reactivity. The first class that we will consider are electrocyclic reactions. An electrocyclic reaction is defined as the formation of a single bond between the ends of a linear conjugated system of n electrons and the reverse process. An example is the thermal ring opening of cyclobutenes to butadienes ... 

These selection rules are summarized in Table 30.4, thereby giving you the ability to predict the stereochemistry of literally thousands of pericyclic reactions. 

A pericyclic reaction is one that takes place in a single step through a cyclic transition state without intermediates. There are three major classes of peri-cyclic processes electrocyclic reactions, cycloaddition reactions, and sigmatropic rearrangements. The stereochemistry of these reactions is controlled by the symmetry of the orbitals involved in bond reorganization. 

In this primer, Ian Fleming leads you in a more or less continuous narrative from the simple characteristics of pericyclic reactions to a reasonably full appreciation of their stereochemical idiosyncrasies. He introduces pericyclic reactions and divides them into their four classes in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2 he covers the main features of the most important class, cycloadditions—their scope, reactivity, and stereochemistry. In the heart of the book, in Chapter 3, he explains these features, using molecular orbital theory, but without the mathematics. He also introduces there the two Woodward-Hoffmann rules that will enable you to predict the stereochemical outcome for any pericyclic reaction, one rule for thermal reactions and its opposite for photochemical reactions. The remaining chapters use this theoretical framework to show how the rules work with the other three classes—electrocyclic reactions, sigmatropic rearrangements and group transfer reactions. By the end of the book, you will be able to recognize any pericyclic reaction, and predict with confidence whether it is allowed and with what stereochemistry. 

As chemists we can pose a simple, focussed question how do the Woodward-Hoffmann rules (WHR) [18] arise from a purely electron density formulation of chemistry The WHR for pericyclic reactions were expressed in terms of orbital symmetries particularly transparent is their expression in terms of the symmetries of frontier orbitals. Since the electron density function lacks the symmetry properties arising from nodes (it lacks phases), it appears at first sight to be incapable of accounting for the stereochemistry and allowedness of pericyclic reactions. In fact, however, Ayers et al. [19] have outlined how the WHR can be reformulated in terms of a mathematical function they call the dual descriptor , which encapsulates the fact that nucleophilic and electrophile regions of molecules are mutually friendly. They do concede that with DFT some processes are harder to describe than others and reassure us that Orbitals certainly have a role to play in the conceptual analysis of molecules . The wavefunction formulation of the WHR can be pictorial and simple, while DFT requires the definition of and calculations with some nonintuitive ( ) density function concepts. But we are still left uncertain whether the successes of wavefunctions arises from their physical reality (do they exist out there ) or whether this successes is merely because their mathematical form reflects an underlying reality - are they merely the shadows in Plato s cave [20]. 

First, pericyclic reactions are defined, and an example of their unusual stereochemical selectivity is presented. A theoretical treatment of pericyclic reactions requires examination of the MOs for the conjugated molecules that participate in these reactions, so MO theory for these compounds is developed next. Then a theoretical explanation for the selectivity and stereochemistry observed in each of the three classes of pericyclic reactions is presented, along with a number of common examples of reactions of each kind. 

The [4 + 2] cycloaddition was discovered long before the theory of pericyclic reactions was developed. It is more commonly known as the Diels-Alder reaction, named after O. Diels and K. Alder, who shared the 1950 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing this reaction. The Diels-Alder reaction occupies a very important place among the tools of the synthetic organic chemist because it provides a method for the construction of six-membered rings from acyclic precursors with excellent control of stereochemistry. 

Between 1965 and 1969 Woodward and Hoffmann presented rules for each of the different classes of pericyclic reaction. They showed that the allowedness or otherwise of reactions depended critically upon their stereochemistry. We shall go through the rules twice first the rules class-by-class, and then again using the generalised mle that applies to all classes of pericyclic reactions. 

The Diels-Alder reaction of a diene and a dienophile has become one of the most powerful carbon-carbon bond-forming processes [81]. In normal Diels-Alder reactions of an electron-poor dienophile with an electron-rich diene, the main interaction is between the HOMO of the diene and the LUMO of the dienophile. Coordination of a Lewis acid to the dienophile reduces its frontier orbital energies, and this increases the rate of the reaction. Regio- and stereoselectivity are also markedly affected by the Lewis acid. Recent extensive studies on the design of chiral Lewis acids have led to fruitful results in the control of the stereochemistry of a variety of pericyclic reactions. Several chirally modified Lewis acids have been developed for the asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction [82,83] and spectacular advances have recently been achieved in this area. Various kinds of polymer-supported chiral Lewis acid have also been developed. Polymer-supported A1 Lewis acids such as 62 have been used in the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene and methacrolein (Eq. 20) [84] as has polymer-supported Ti alkoxide 63 [84]. These Ti catalysts are readily prepared and have high activity in the Diels-Alder reaction. 

For each class of pericyclic reactions two or more of the following characteristics will be discussed the typical reactions, regioselectivity, stereoselectivity, and stereospecificity. The discussions of typical reactions and stereospecificity will help you recognize when pericyclic reactions are occurring in a particular chemical reaction. The discussions of regioselectivity, stereoselectivity, and stereospecificity will allow you to predict the structures and stereochemistry of the products obtained from pericyclic reactions. 

Stereospecificity, the property that the stereochemistry of the starting materials determines the stereochemistry of the product, is one of the hallmarks of pericyclic reactions. It is possible to draw two-step nonconcerted, polar or free-radical mechanisms for many pericyclic reactions, but these two-step mechanisms fail to account for the stereospecificity of the reactions. For example, a two-step polar mechanism can be drawn for the Diels-Alder reaction between 2-methoxybutadiene (a nucleophile) and ethyl cA-crotonatc (an electrophile). This mechanism proceeds through a dipolar intermediate in which one new cr bond has formed. In this intermediate, there is free rotation about the two C atoms of the dienophile, so the cis stereochemical relationship between the Me and CC Et groups is expected to be lost in the product. In fact, though, the product is exclusively cis. This finding does not completely rule out a polar mechanism— it is possible that the intermediate exists but that ring closure occurs more quickly than rotation about the cr bond—but it does limit the lifetime of the dipolar intermediate to such an extent that one can say practically that it does not exist. 

This chapter is an introduction to qualitative molecular orbital theory and pericyclic reactions. Pericyclic reactions have cyclic transition states and electron flow paths that appear to go around in a loop. The regiochemistry and stereochemistry of these reactions are usually predictable by HOMO-LUMO interactions, so to understand them we need to understand molecular orbital theory, at least on a qualitative basis. 

To sum up the above discussion, we have witnessed that the orbital overlap component of the stereoelectronic effect is indeed a very powerful tool as it controls both the stereochemistry and the rates of a range of pericyclic reactions by allowing exclusively one of the two possible symmetry-allowed pathways for the very simple reason of better overlap of the breaking bonds. 

Stereospecificity, the property that the stereochemistry of the starting materials determines the stereochemistry of the product, is one of the hallmarks of pericyclic reactions. It is possible to draw two-step polar or free-radical mechanisms for many pericyclic reactions, but these two-step mechanisms fail to account for the stereospecificity of the reactions. For example, a two-step polar mechanism can be drawn for the Diels-Alder reaetion between... 

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