Synthesis of conjugated acetylenes

Equation 11.19 Synthesis of conjugated acetylenic ketones with Cul-catalysis. 

The addition of secondary amines to acetylenes is most applicable to the synthesis of conjugated acyclic enamines (50,171,172). Particularly the addition to acetylenic esters and sulfones has been investigated (173-177) and it appears that an initial trans addition is followed by isomerization to more stable products where the amine and functional group are in a trans orientation (178). Enamines have also been obtained by addition of secondary amines to allenes (179). 

The successful synthesis of the acetylene-linked bis(ger-menes) posed a question whether analog compounds with conjugated Si=C double bonds could be isolated by the reaction of a silylene with 1,3-diynes. Although attempted reactions can postulate the existence of intermediary compounds consisting of bis(silenes) linked by an acetylene unit, no stable compounds having Si=C-C=C-C=Si conjugated systems have been obtained by such a synthetic strategy. ... 

The synthesis of conjugated diynes via the Glaser coupling reaction " is the classical method for homocoupling of terminal alkynes. The coupling reaction is catalyzed by CuCl or Cu(OAc)2 in the presence of an oxidant and ammonium chloride or pyridine to yield symmetrically substituted diynes. " The oxidative dimerization appears to proceed via removal of the acetylenic proton, formation of an alkynyl radical, and its dimerization. 

This polymerization has beei very successfully used to form several precursor polymers which will be discussed later. However ROMP has been applied to the direct synthesis of conjugated polymers as well, namely polyacetyloie. In this case, the appropriate monomer is a drde of 4 double bonds cyclooctatetraene (COT). This monomer, prepared by the tetramerization of acetylene with a nickel catalyst, has been polymerized, first using so-called "dcissical" but also Lewis-addle catalysts which... 

Compounds containing a double or triple bond, usually activated by additional unsaturation (carbonyl, cyano, nitro, phenyl, etc.) In the ap position, add to the I 4-positions of a conjugated (buta-1 3-diene) system with the formation of a ax-membered ring. The ethylenic or acetylenic compound is known as the dieTwphile and the second reactant as the diene the product is the adduct. The addition is generally termed the Diels-Alder reaction or the diene synthesis. The product in the case of an ethylenic dienophile is a cyctohexene and in that of an acetylenic dienophile is a cyctohexa-1 4-diene. The active unsaturated portion of the dienophile, or that of the diene, or those in both, may be involved in rings the adduct is then polycyclic. 

Polyacetylenes. The first report of the synthesis of a strong, flexible, free-standing film of the simplest conjugated polymer, polyacetylene [26571-64-2] (CH), was made in 1974 (16). The process, known as the Shirakawa technique, involves polymerization of acetylene on a thin-film coating of a heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta initiator system in a glass reactor, as shown in equation 1. 

This article summarizes efforts undertaken towards the synthesis of the cyclo[ ]carbons, the first molecular carbon allotropes for which a rational preparative access has been worked out. Subsequently, a diversity of perethynylated molecules will be reviewed together, they compose a large molecular construction kit for acetylenic molecular scaffolding in one, two and three dimensions. Finally, progress in the construction and properties of oligomers and polymers with a poly(triacetylene) backbone, the third linearly conjugated, non-aromatic all-carbon backbone, will be reviewed. 

The state of research on the two classes of acetylenic compounds described in this article, the cyclo[ ]carbons and tetraethynylethene derivatives, differs drastically. The synthesis of bulk quantities of a cyclocarbon remains a fascinating challenge in view of the expected instability of these compounds. These compounds would represent a fourth allotropic form of carbon, in addition to diamond, graphite, and the fullerenes. The full spectral characterization of macroscopic quantities of cyclo-C should provide a unique experimental calibration for the power of theoretical predictions dealing with the electronic and structural properties of conjugated n-chromophores of substantial size and number of heavy atoms. We believe that access to bulk cyclocarbon quantities will eventually be accomplished by controlled thermal or photochemical cycloreversion reactions of structurally defined, stable precursor molecules similar to those described in this review. 

Figure 13 shows the irreversible conversion of a nonconjugated poly (p-phenylene pentadienylene) to a lithiun-doped conjugated derivative which has a semiconducting level of conductivity (0.1 to 1.0 S/cm) (29). Obviously, the neutral conjugated derivative of poly (p-phenylene pentadienylene) can then be reversibly generated from the n-type doped material by electrochemical undoping or by p-type compensation. A very similar synthetic method for the conversion of poly(acetylene-co-1,3-butadiene) to polyacetylene has been reported (30), Figure 14. This synthesis of polyacetylene from a nonconjugated precursor polymer containing isolated CH2 units in an otherwise conjugated chain is to be contrasted with the early approach of Marvel et al (6) in which an all-sp3 carbon chain was employed.

If the alkenes and acetylenes that are subjected to the reaction mediated by 1 have a leaving group at an appropriate position, as already described in Eq. 9.16, the resulting titanacycles undergo an elimination (path A) as shown in Eq. 9.58 [36], As the resulting vinyltitaniums can be trapped by electrophiles such as aldehydes, this reaction can be viewed as an alternative to stoichiometric metallo-ene reactions via allylic lithium, magnesium, or zinc complexes (path B). Preparations of optically active N-heterocycles [103], which enabled the synthesis of (—)-a-kainic acid (Eq. 9.59) [104,105], of cross-conjugated trienes useful for the diene-transmissive Diels—Alder reaction [106], and of exocyclic bis(allene)s and cyclobutene derivatives [107] have all been reported based on this method. 

The transformations of compounds which are precursors for vitamin A and carotenoids have a special position among the rearrangements of the conjugated polyenes. Numerous isomerizations such as cw-fraws-isomerization, the dehydration of polyunsaturated acetylenic carbinols etc. were utilized to prepare the various carotenoides (e.g. /1-carotene, lycopene, cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin) (for reviews, see References 146 and 147). However, one of these rearrangements turned out to be a considerable hindrance for the synthesis of target products. 

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