Dienes The Diels-Alder Reaction

CHAPTER 6 CYCLOADDITIONS, UNIMOLECULAR REARRANGEM ENTS, AND THERMAL ELIMINATIONS 

Simple dienes react readily with good dienophiles in Diels-Alder reactions. As discussed earlier, steric effects can play a role in their reactivity. Functionalized dienes have become important in organic synthesis. One example which illustrates the versatility of such reagents is l-methoxy-3-trimethylsiloxy-l,3-butadiene Danishefsky s diene). Its Diels-Alder adducts are trimethylsilyl enol ethers and can be readily hydrolyzed to ketones. The )8-methoxy group is often eliminated after hydrolysis. 

Related transformations of the adduct with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate lead to dimethyl 4-hydroxyphthalate. 

Unstable dienes can also be generated in situ in the presence of a dienophile. Among the most useful examples of this type of diene are the quinodimethanes. These compounds are exceedingly reactive as dienes because the cycloaddition reestablishes a benzenoid ring and results in aromatic stabilization.  

Eliminations from a,a -ortho-disubstituted benzenes can be carried out with various potential leaving groups. 

The corresponding enamine shows a similar reactivity pattern. 

There are several general routes to quinodimethanes. One is pyrolysis of benzocyclobu- 

Danishefsky s diene with methyl acetylenedicarboxylate gives the phenol, dimethyl 4-hydroxy- 9-phthalate on hydrolysis. 

Another example of a diene with extraordinarily high reactivity is diphenyl-benzo[c]furan (diphenylisobenzofuran).  

Here again, the high reactivity can be traced to the gain of aromatic stabilization in the adduct. 

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The Diels-Alder reaction (diene synthesis) is the addition of compounds containing double or triple bonds (dienophiles) to the 1,4 positions of conjugated dienes with the formation of six-membered hydroaromatic rings. Hydrocarbons most often used in the reaction are 1,3-butadiene, cyclopentadiene, and isoprene, and dienophiles used include maleic anhydride, acrolein, and acrylic acid. The literature on this process is thoroughly reviewed by Alder (1), Kloetzel (59), Holmes (48), and Norton (82). 

In order to achieve the necessary geometry in the Diels-Alder transition state, the diene must be able to adopt the 5-cis conformation. In Section 10.10, we saw that the s-cis conformation of 1,3-butadiene is 12 kJ/mol (2.8 kcal/mol) less stable than the 5-trans form. This is a relatively small energy difference, so 1,3-butadiene is reactive in the Diels-Alder reaction. Dienes that cannot readily adopt the s-cis conformation are less reactive. For example, 4-methyl-1,3-pentadiene is a thousand times less reactive in the Diels-Alder reaction than ra/25-1,3-pentadiene because its 5-cis conformation is destabilized by the steric effect imposed by the additional methyl group. 

Different kinds of diene and dienophile are used in the Diels-Alder reactions. Dienes and dienophiles with a heteroatom such as N, O, or S in their Jt systems are known as heterodienes and heterodienophiles, and their cycloaddition reactions are called the hetero-Diels-Alder reactions. Some highly reactive dienes and dienophiles used in Diels-Alder reactions are listed in Table 3.4. 

CH = CH — CH = CH — are said to have conjugated double bonds and react somewhat differently from the other diolefins. For instance, bromine or hydrogen is often added so that a product of the type -CHBr-CH=CH-CHBr- is formed. Also, these hydrocarbons participate in the Diels-Alder reaction see diene reactions). They show a tendency to form rubber-like polymers. Hydrocarbons not falling into these two classes are said to have isolated double... 

An intense purple crystalline solid m.p. 219-220 C. One of the few monomeric cyclo-pentadienone derivatives, most of which spontaneously undergo self Diels-Alder type dimerization. Used as a diene in many studies of various aspects of the Diels-Alder reaction. ... 

As an example, we shall discuss the Diels-Alder reaction of 2-methoxybuta-l,3-diene with acrylonitrile. Figure 3-7 gives the reaction equation, the correlation diagram of the HOMOs and LUMOs, and the orbital coefficients of the correlated HOMO and LUMO. 

The Diels-Alder Reaction consists in the direct combination of a compound containing a conjugated diene system u ith a reagent which possesses a double or triple bond activated bj suitable adjacent groups. Examples of such reagents are maleic anhydride, p-benzoquinone, acraldehyde and acetylene dicarboxylic esters. Combination always occurs at the 1,4 positions of the diene system ... 

The Diels-Alder Reaction usually occurs readily it is of great value (a) for diagnosing the presence of a conjugated diene grouping, (6) for synthetic purposes in the preparation of cyclic systems. 

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. 

In the Diels-Alder reaction (in older literature referred to as the diene synthesis ) a six-membered ring is fonned through fusion of a four-tt component, usually a diene and a two-7C component, which is commonly referred to as the dienophile (Scheme 1.1). 

Despite this overwhelming body of evidence, two-step mechanisms have been suggested for the Diels-Alder reaction, probably inspired by special cases, where highly substituted dienes and/or dienophiles have been found to react through zwitterionic or biradicalintermediates (Scheme 1.2). 

Another form of selectivity can arise when substitirted dienes and dienophiles are employed in the Diels-Alder reaction. Two different cycloadducts denoted as endo and exo can then be formed (Figure 1.2). 

Figure 1.2. Endo and exo pathway for the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene with methyl vinyl ketone. As was first noticed by Berson, the polarity of the endo activated complex exceeds that of the exo counterpart due to alignment of the dipole moments of the diene and the dienophile K The symmetry-allowed secondary orbital interaction that is only possible in the endo activated complex is usually invoked as an explanation for the preference for endo adduct exhibited by most Diels-Alder reactions.

In 1961 Berson et al. were the first to study systematically the effect of the solvent on the endo-exo selectivity of the Diels-Alder reaction . They interpreted the solvent dependence of the endo-exo ratio by consideririg the different polarities of the individual activated complexes involved. The endo activated complex is of higher polarity than the exo activated complex, because in the former the dipole moments of diene and dienophile are aligned, whereas in the latter they are pointing in... 

The extensive work of Lubineau further demonstrated the merits of water with respect to the rates and selectivities of the Diels-Alder reaction. Since 1985 he has published a large number of articles dealirig mainly with dienes that were rendered water soluble through the temporary introduction of a... 

A combination of the promoting effects of Lewis acids and water is a logical next step. However, to say the least, water has not been a very popular medium for Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reactions, which is not surprising since water molecules interact strongly with Lewis-acidic and the Lewis-basic atoms of the reacting system. In 1994, when the research described in this thesis was initiated, only one example of Lewis-acid catalysis of a Diels-Alder reaction in water was published Lubineau and co-workers employed lanthanide triflates as a catalyst for the Diels-Alder reaction of glyoxylate to a relatively unreactive diene . No comparison was made between the process in water and in organic solvents. 

The mechanism by which Lewis-acids can be expected to affect the rate of the Diels-Alder reaction in water is depicted in Scheme 2.6. The first step in the cycle comprises rapid and reversible coordination of the Lewis-acid to the dienophile, leading to a complex in which the dienophile is activated for reaction with the diene. After the irreversible Diels-Alder reaction, the product has to dissociate from the Lewis-acid in order to make the catalyst available for another cycle. The overall... 

In summary, when using a ligand catalyst ratio of 1.75 1 at pH 5-6 the enantioselectivity of the Diels-Alder reaction between 3.8c and 3.9 is dictated by the activated complexes involving ligand, copper(ir) ion, dienophile and diene. Considering that four different products are formed in this reaction (see Scheme 3.5), at least four different activated complexes are involved However, each of these complexes hus two degrees of freedom that determine the stereochemical outcome of the... 

The Diels-Alder reaction of dienophiles 5.1a-e, containing neutral, cationic or anionic substituents, with diene 5.2 in the absence of Lewis acids is retarded by micelles of CTAB, SDS and C12E7. In the situation where the dienophile does not bind to the micelle, the reaction is inhibited because uptake of... 

Note that the stereochemistry comes out right. H s a and b are cis because they were cis in the starting quinone and the Diels-Alder reaction is stereospecific in this respect. H is also cis to and H " because the Diels-Alder reaction is stereoselectively endo. These points are described in more detail in Norman p.284-6 and explained in Ian Fleming Frontier Orbitals and Organic Chemical Reactions, Wiley 1976, p. 106-109. How would you make diene A ... 

A major difficulty with the Diels-Alder reaction is its sensitivity to sterical hindrance. Tri- and tetrasubstituted olefins or dienes with bulky substituents at the terminal carbons react only very slowly. Therefore bicyclic compounds with polar reactions are more suitable for such target molecules, e.g. steroids. There exist, however, several exceptions, e. g. a reaction of a tetrasubstituted alkene with a 1,1-disubstituted diene to produce a cyclohexene intermediate containing three contiguous quaternary carbon atoms (S. Danishefsky, 1979). This reaction was assisted by large polarity differences between the electron rich diene and the electron deficient ene component. 

A particular kind of conjugate addition reaction earned the Nobel Prize in chemistry for Otto Diels and Kurt Alder of the University of Kiel (Germany) m 1950 The Diels-Alder reaction is the conjugate addition of an alkene to a diene Using 1 3 buta diene as a typical diene the Diels-Alder reaction may be represented by the general equation... 

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