The diene synthesis Diels-Alder reaction

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

The last example is an interesting application of the diene synthesis, for the adduct upon dehydrogenation (most simply by the action of oxygen upon its solution in alcoholic potash) yields 2 3-dimethylanthraquinone. 

The mechanism of the diene synthesis appears to involve an electron transfer from the diene to the dienophile, t. e., it is initiated by an ionic reaction. The following scheme may represent the addition of 2 3-dimethylbutadiene to maleic anhydride  

The Diels-Alder reaction is a purely cis-addition the relative positions of the substituents are retained in the adduct (compare anthracene and maleic anhydride above).  

2 3-Dimethylbutadiene and maleic anhydride. Add 4 g. of freshly distilled 2 3-dimethyM 3-butadiene (Section 111,147) to 5 g. of finely powdered maleic anhydride (Section 111,93) contained in a small ccxiical flask. Reaction occurs in a few minutes (indicated by evolution of heat). Allow to stand until the mixture attains room temperature. Remove the excess of maleic anhydride by extraction with cold water until the aqueous extract no longer gives an acid reaction to Congo red paper. Dry the residual white crystals upon filter paper in the air, and then recrystalliso from light petroleum (b.p. 40-60°). The yield of 

Anthracene and maleic anhydride. In a 50 ml. round-bottomed flask fitted with a reflux condenser, place 2 0 g. of pure anthracene, I 1 g. of maleic anhydride (Section 111,93) and 25 ml. of dry xylene. Boil the mixture under reflux for 20 minutes with frequent shaking during the first 10 minutes. Allow to cool somewhat, add 0 5 g. of decolourising carbon and boil for a further 5 minutes. Filter the hot solution through a small, preheated Buchner funnel. Collect the solid which separates upon coohng by suction filtration, and dry it in a vacuum desiccator containing paraffin wax shavings (to absorb traces of xylene). The yield of adduct (colourless crystals), m.p. 262-263° (decomp.), is 2-2 g. Place the product (9 10-dihydroanthracene-9 10-cndo-ap-succinic anhydride) in a weU-stoppered tube, since exposure to air tends to cause hydration of the anhydride portion of the molecule. 

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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. 

In the clay-catalysed reaction even oleate will furnish a cyclic dimer along with monomer which is a mixture of saturated and unsaturated (mainly tram), straight-chain and branched-chain Cis compounds formed by hydrogen transfer and rearrangement. Dimers are formed by diene synthesis (Diels Alder reaction) between a monoene and a conjugated diene produced from monoene by hydrogen transfer. The cyclohexene derivatives are converted by hydrogen transfer to cyclohexane and benzene derivatives. These monocyclic dimers are accompanied by acyclic and bicyclic dimers such as those formulated below. Linoleate reacts in a similar manner. 

A great advantage of catalyst 24b compared with other chiral Lewis acids is that it tolerates the presence of ester, amine, and thioether functionalities. Dienes substituted at the 1-position by alkyl, aryl, oxygen, nitrogen, or sulfur all participate effectively in the present asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction, giving adducts in over 90% ee. The reaction of l-acetoxy-3-methylbutadiene and acryloyloxazolidinone catalyzed by copper reagent 24b, affords the cycloadduct in 98% ee. The first total synthesis of ewt-J -tetrahydrocannabinol was achieved using the functionalized cycloadduct obtained [23, 33e] (Scheme 1.39). 

The aqueous aza-Diels-Alder reaction of an aldehyde and an amine hydrochloride with a diene is catalyzed by lanthanide(III) trifluoromethane sulfonates (Ln(OTf)3, triflates [24]). Some examples are reported in Schemes 6.12 and 6.13. With respect to uncatalyzed reactions, the lanthanide catalyst allows milder reaction conditions, increases the reaction yield and does not affect the diaster-eoselectivity of the reaction, but influences the regiochemistry as in the cycloaddition of 25 with 1,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene (Schemes 6.10 and 6.12). These results have been applied [24b-d] to the synthesis of azasugars (Scheme 6.14). 

The use of chiral bis(oxazoline) copper catalysts has also been often reported as an efficient and economic way to perform asymmetric hetero-Diels-Alder reactions of carbonyl compounds and imines with conjugated dienes [81], with the main focus on the application of this methodology towards the preparation of biologically valuable synthons [82]. Only some representative examples are listed below. For example, the copper complex 54 (Scheme 26) has been successfully involved in the catalytic hetero Diels-Alder reaction of a substituted cyclohexadiene with ethyl glyoxylate [83], a key step in the total synthesis of (i )-dihydroactinidiolide (Scheme 30). 

Jorgensen et al. [84] studied how solvent effects could influence the course of Diels-Alder reactions catalyzed by copper(II)-bisoxazoline. They assumed that the use of polar solvents (generally nitroalkanes) improved the activity and selectivity of the cationic copper-Lewis acid used in the hetero Diels-Alder reaction of alkylglyoxylates with dienes (Scheme 31, reaction 1). The explanation, close to that given by Evans regarding the crucial role of the counterion, is a stabilization of the dissociated ion, leading to a more defined complex conformation. They also used this reaction for the synthesis of a precursor for highly valuable sesquiterpene lactones with an enantiomeric excess superior to 99%. 

Benzo[c]furans (isobenzofurans) are reactive molecules usually employed as reactive dienes in the synthesis of more complex molecules. In the synthesis of spiro compounds related to fredericamycin A, Kumar generated the trimethylsiloxytrimethylsilylbenzo[c]furan 125 from phthalide via two consecutive deprotonations and silylations of the resulting anions. Diels-Alder reaction of the isobenzofuran as shown below with a spiroenedione leads to the formation of an endo-exo mixtures that can be smoothly converted to the dihydroxydione <00IJC(B)738>. 

An extensive review of the hetero-Diels-Alder reactions of 1-oxabuta-1,3-dienes has been published. Ab initio calculations of the Diels-Alder reactions of prop-2-enethial with a number of dienophiles show that the transition states of all the reactions are similar and synchronous.Thio- and seleno-carbonyl compounds behave as superdienophiles in Diels-Alder reactions with cyclic and aryl-, methyl-, or methoxy-substituted open-chain buta-1,3-dienes.The intramolecular hetero-Diels-Alder reactions of 4-benzylidine-3-oxo[l,3]oxathiolan-5-ones (100) produce cycloadducts (101) and (102) in high yield and excellent endo/exo-selectivity (Scheme 39). A density functional theoretical study of the hetero-Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene and acrolein indicates that the endo s-cis is the most stable transition structure in both catalysed and uncatalysed reactions.The formation and use of amino acid-derived chiral acylnitroso hetero-Diels-Alder reactions in organic synthesis has been reviewed. The 4 + 2-cycloadditions of A-acylthioformamides as dienophiles have been reviewed. ... 

Among the methods of organic synthesis, Diels-Alder reaction holds an important position. The cycloaddition of 1,3-dienes with olefins is one of the most thoroughly studied reactions in organic chemistry. 

A further method for the synthesis of o-diaroylbenzenes has been described by Ried and Bdnninghausen. Tetracyclone (145), a potent diene for Diels-Alder reactions, together with dibenzoylacetylene (146) gives 147. This method has proved of value in a number of other cases and is also applicable when the cyclopentadienone derivative is dimeric ° as in the case of 2,5-dialkyl-3,4-diarylcyclopentadienones. °... 

Diels-Alder reactions are, of course, reversible, and the pathway followed for the reverse reaction (2,3 arrows) can sometimes be as telling as the pathway for the forward reaction. The direction in which any pericyclic reaction takes place is determined by thermodynamics, with cycloadditions, like the Diels-Alder reaction, usually taking place to form a ring because two n-bonds on the left are replaced by two Diels-Alder reaction can be made to take place in reverse when the products do not react with each other rapidly, as in the pyrolysis of cyclohexene 2.3 at 600°. It helps if either the diene or the dienophile has some special stabilization not present in the starting material, as in the formation of the aromatic ring in anthracene 2.15 in the synthesis of diimide 2.16 from the adduct 2,14, and in... 

A similar chiral bis(oxazoline)/Cu(II) catalyst is useful for the asymmetric hetero Diels-Alder reaction of Danishefsky s diene and glyoxylates [63] (Eq. 8A.39). Other bis(oxa-zoline)/M(OTf)2 (M = Sn, Mg) complexes are not effective. This method provides new routes to asymmetric aldol synthesis upon hydrolysis of the resulting adducts. 

The chiral boron complex prepared in situ from chiral binaphthol and B(OPh)3 is utilized for the asymmetric aza-Diels-Alder reaction of Danishefsky s diene and imines [67] (Eq. 8A.43). Although the asymmetric reaction of prochiral imine affords products with up to 90% ee, the double asymmetric induction with chiral imine by using oc-benzylamine as a chiral auxiliary has achieved almost complete diastereoselectivity for both aliphatic and aromatic aldimines. This method has been successfully applied to the efficient asymmetric synthesis of anabasine and coniine of piperidine alkaloides. 

DFT calculations on the intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction of penta-l,3-dienyl acrylates predict stereoselectivities that are in good agreement with the experimen- (g) tal results.85 Another DFT study at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level of the intramolecular Diels-Alder cycloaddition of 5-vinylcyclohexa-1,3-dienes has been reported. Reaction rates are influenced by dienophile twisting and substituent effects.86 The intramolecular dehydro-Diels-Alder reactions of ynamides (79) provides a new synthesis of benzo[fc]-, tetrahydrobenzo[fc]-, naphtho[l,2-/j -, and dibenzo[a,c]carbazoles... 

Pyrrole has also been utilized to some extent as a diene in Diels-Alder reactions to give functionalized 7-azabicylo[2.2.1]heptenes and 7-azabi-cyclo[2.2.1]heptadienes.4 While the synthetic utility of this reaction is limited by the aromatic stability of the pyrrole ring, the use of Lewis acids, electron-withdrawing groups on the pyrrole, alkyne dienophiles, and high pressures have allowed pyrroles to be employed in the synthesis of several azanorbomane targets.4... 

The copper catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions of a variety of dienes have been elegantly exploited by Evans as a key step in the synthesis of natural products (Sch. 49). The synthesis of tetrahydrocannabinol (219) [92] employs the acyclic diene 217 furan is used as a diene in the synthesis of shikimic acid (222) [93]. Although the methodology uses the very reactive catalyst 188, the reactions are still slow, suggesting that less reactive dienes require longer reaction times and higher temperatures for completion. A copper Lewis acid-mediated intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction has served as a key step in the total synthesis of isopulo upone [94]. 

The radical cation Diels-Alder reaction has been the subject of many mechanistic and theoretical investigations and has been shown to have much synthetic potential. With regard to heteroaromatics, the reaction has been exploited by Steckhan in the cycloaddition of indoles and 1,3-dienes. This reaction occurs smoothly upon photosensitization by triarylpyrrilium tetrafluoroborates. The reaction is satisfactory rationalized as involving addition of the indole radical cation to electron-rich dienes (Scheme 35), and the regioselectivity is in accord with theoretical predictions [104]. The reaction with exocyclic dienes has been developed for the synthesis of carbazole derivatives such as 52 and 53 [105]. 

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