Syn-periplanar

Effects that arise because one spatial arrangement of electrons (or orbitals or bonds) IS more stable than another are called stereoelectronic effects There is a stereoelec tromc preference for the anti coplanar arrangement of proton and leaving group in E2 reactions Although coplanarity of the p orbitals is the best geometry for the E2 process modest deviations from this ideal can be tolerated In such cases the terms used are syn periplanar and anti periplanar... 

The stereochemistry at C-20 does not affect the reaction. However, the 16j5-mesyloxy analogs give poor yields of fragmentation product, as would be predicted from the syn periplanar arrangement of the bonds involved. 

Periplanar (Section 11.8) A conformation in which bonds to neighboring atoms have a parallel arrangement. In an eclipsed conformation, the neighboring bonds are syn periplanar in a staggered conformation, the bonds are anti periplanar. 

Syn periplanar (Section 11.8) Describing a stereochemical relationship in which two bonds on adjacent carbons lie in the same plane and are eclipsed. 

Syn elimination and the syn-anti dichotomy have also been found in open-chain systems, though to a lesser extent than in medium-ring compounds. For example, in the conversion of 3-hexyl-4-d-trimethylammonium ion to 3-hexene with potassium ec-butoxide, 67% of the reaction followed the syn-anti dichotomy. In general syn elimination in open-chain systems is only important in cases where certain types of steric effect are present. One such type is compounds in which substituents are found on both the P and the y carbons (the unprimed letter refers to the branch in which the elimination takes place). The factors that cause these results are not completely understood, but the following conformational effects have been proposed as a partial explanation. The two anti- and two syn-periplanar conformations are, for a quaternary ammonium salt ... 

With acylic molecules elimination could be envisaged as taking place from one or other of two limiting conformations—the anti-periplanar (24a) or the syn-periplanar (24b) ... 

ANTI elimination [(32) — (33)] was found to proceed only 14 times faster than SYN elimination [(31)— (33)] reflecting the fact that the energy needed to distort the ring, so that (32) can assume an approximately anti-periplanar conformation, almost outweighs the normal energetic advantage of the staggered conformation over the, syn-periplanar, eclipsed one, i.e. (31). 

The six-membered rings in these T.S.s are more flexible than the five-membered T.S.—(81) above—and need not be planar (cf cyclohexanes v. cyclopentanes). Elimination may thus proceed, in part at least, from conformations other than the syn-periplanar, with the result that the degree of SYN stereoselectivity in these eliminations may sometimes be lower than that observed in the Cope reaction. Both reactions require higher temperatures than for the Cope reaction, carboxylic esters particularly so. 

Syn periplanar transition state (only with certain rigid molecules)... 

Fig. 7. Secondary interactions for anti- and syn-periplanar attacks (taken from Ref. , with permission of the publisher)...

High diastereofacial selectivities are observed in cycloadditions and Michael additions with ot,(3-unsaturated esters having chiral heterocyclic auxiliary at the p-position, as shown in Schemes 11.20, 11.21, and 11.25, and cannot be well-explained using Kozikowski s awfi-periplanar model (124,125) or Houk s inside alkoxy model (126,127). Both the anti-periplanar conformation and the syn-periplanar conformation of the acceptors participate in the transition structures, depending on nonbonding interactions in the dipole-chiral auxiliary pair (121). 

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