Substrate effects branching

With the exception of para-substituted benzyloxy-/V-acyloxy-V-alkoxyamides, amide carbonyl 13C NMR values of 56 congeners differ from those of their precursor hydroxamic esters by on average +8.0( + 0.6)ppm. Steric and electronic effects influence hydroxamic esters and N- a c y 1 o x y - A- - a 1 k o x y a m i dc s similarly. This includes substrates with branching a to the amide carbonyl. Two classes of A -acy 1 o x y- A -a 1 koxyamides are worthy of mention ... 

Steiic effects of another kind become important in highly branched substrates, in which ionization is facilitated by relief of steric crowding in going from the tetrahedral groimd state to the transition state for ionization. The ratio of the hydrolysis rates in 8OV0 aqueous acetone of t-butyl /F-nitrobenzoate and 2,3,3-trimethyl-2-butyl p-nitrobenzoate is 1 4.4. 

Although /3-oxidation is universally important, there are some instances in which it cannot operate effectively. For example, branched-chain fatty acids with alkyl branches at odd-numbered carbons are not effective substrates for /3-oxidation. For such species, a-oxidation is a useful alternative. Consider phy-tol, a breakdown product of chlorophyll that occurs in the fat of ruminant animals such as sheep and cows and also in dairy products. Ruminants oxidize phytol to phytanic acid, and digestion of phytanic acid in dairy products is thus an important dietary consideration for humans. The methyl group at C-3 will block /3-oxidation, but, as shown in Figure 24.26, phytanic acid a-hydroxylase places an —OFI group at the a-carbon, and phytanic acid a-oxidase decar-boxylates it to yield pristanie add. The CoA ester of this metabolite can undergo /3-oxidation in the normal manner. The terminal product, isobutyryl-CoA, can be sent into the TCA cycle by conversion to succinyl-CoA. 

For some tertiary substrates, the rate of SnI reactions is greatly increased by the relief of B strain in the formation of the carbocation (see p. 366). Except where B strain is involved, P branching has little effect on the SnI mechanism, except that carbocations with P branching undergo rearrangements readily. Of course, isobutyl and neopentyl are primary substrates, and for this reason they react very slowly by the SnI mechanism, but not more slowly than the corresponding ethyl or propyl compounds. 

The combination of Ni(COD)2/NHC complexes with EtaSiH as the reducing agent has also proved to be effective in inter molecular couplings of aldehydes and alkynes (Scheme 9) [21]. A broad range of substrates underwent couplings, including aromatic, non-aromatic, and terminal alkynes as well as branched, unbranched, and aromatic aldehydes. The regioselectivity with... 

Trost et al 1 have observed product distribution to be dependent in part on the steric and electronic properties of the substrate. For example, linear enyne 48 (Equation (30)) cyclized exclusively to the Alder-ene product 49, whereas branching at the allylic position led to the formation of 1,3-diene 50 (Equation (31)) under similar conditions. Allylic ethers also give 1,3-dienes this effect was determined not to be the result of chelation, as methyl ethers and tert-butyldimethylsilyl ethers both gave dialkylidene cyclopentanes despite the large difference in coordinating ability. 

Eleven aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes have been alkylated with Et2Zn in the presence of homoannularyl bridged hydroxyamino ferrocene (—>123. The resulting carbinols have ee values varying from 66% to 97%. This new ferro-cenyl catalyst has been used successfully to alkylate aromatic and linear or branched chain aliphatic aldehydes to secondary alcohols with up to 97% ee. This ligand is effective even for -branched aliphatic substrate. 

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