The dienophile

It should be noted, however, that there are a number of Diels-Alder reactions for which the above generalization does not hold, in which reaction takes place between an electron-rich dienophile and an electron-deficient diene. The essential feature is that the two components should have complementary electronic character. These Diels-Alder reactions with inverse electron demand, as they are called, also have their uses in synthesis, but the vast majority of reactions involve an electron-rich diene and an electron-deficient dienophile. 

The most commonly encountered activating substituents for the normal Diels-Alder reaction are COR, CO2R, CN and NO2. Dienophiles that contain one or more 

Substituents exert a pronounced steric effect on the reactivity of dienophiles. Comparative experiments show that the yields of adducts obtained in the reaction 

Another important group of dienophiles of the a,p-unsaturated carbonyl class are quinones. 1,4-Benzoquinone reacts readily with butadiene at room temperature to give a high yield of the mono-adduct, tetrahydronaphthaquinone (3.8) under more vigorous conditions a bis-adduct is obtained which can be converted into anthraquinone by oxidation of an alkaline solution with atmospheric oxygen. As with other dienophiles, alkyl substitution on the double bond leads to a decrease in activity and cycloaddition of monoalkyl 1,4-benzoquinones with dienes occurs preferentially at the unsubstituted double bond. In addition to steric effects, electronic effects can play a part, such that cycloaddition occurs at the more electron-deficient double bond of the benzoquinone. The first step in an approach to the steroid ring system makes use of such selectivity (3.9).  

Isolated carbon-carbon double or triple bonds do not usually take part in inter-molecular Diels-Alder reactions, but a number of cyclic alkenes and alkynes with pronounced angular strain are reactive dienophiles. The driving force for these reactions is thought to be the reduction in angular strain associated with the transition state for the addition. Thus, cyclopropene reacts rapidly and stereoselectively with cyclopentadiene at 0°C to form the endo adduct 7 in 97% yield, and butadiene gives norcarene 8 in 37% yield (3.13).  

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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. 

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

D-A rxns are sensitive to steric effects of the dienephiles, particularly at the I- and 2-postions. Steric bulk at the I-position may prevent approach of the dienophile while steric bulk at the 2-position may prevent the diene from adopting the s-cis conformation. 

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). 

Diels-Alder reactions can be divided into normal electron demand and inverse electron demand additions. This distinction is based on the way the rate of the reaction responds to the introduction of electron withdrawing and electron donating substituents. Normal electron demand Diels-Alder reactions are promoted by electron donating substituents on the diene and electron withdrawii substituents on the dienophile. In contrast, inverse electron demand reactions are accelerated by electron withdrawing substituents on the diene and electron donating ones on the dienophile. There also exists an intermediate class, the neutral Diels-Alder reaction, that is accelerated by both electron withdrawing and donating substituents. 

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.

Theoretical work by the groups directed by Sustmann and, very recently, Mattay attributes the preference for the formation of endo cycloadduct in solution to the polarity of the solvent Their calculations indicate that in the gas phase the exo transition state has a lower energy than the endo counterpart and it is only upon introduction of the solvent that this situation reverses, due to the difference in polarity of both transition states (Figure 1.2). Mattay" stresses the importance of the dienophile transoid-dsoid conformational equilibrium in determining the endo-exo selectivity. The transoid conformation is favoured in solution and is shown to lead to endo product, whereas the cisoid conformation, that is favoured in the gas phase, produces the exo adduct This view is in conflict with ab initio calculations by Houk, indicating an enhanced secondary orbital interaction in the cisoid endo transition state . 

The regioselectivity benefits from the increased polarisation of the alkene moiety, reflected in the increased difference in the orbital coefficients on carbon 1 and 2. The increase in endo-exo selectivity is a result of an increased secondary orbital interaction that can be attributed to the increased orbital coefficient on the carbonyl carbon ". Also increased dipolar interactions, as a result of an increased polarisation, will contribute. Interestingly, Yamamoto has demonstrated that by usirg a very bulky catalyst the endo-pathway can be blocked and an excess of exo product can be obtained The increased di as tereo facial selectivity has been attributed to a more compact transition state for the catalysed reaction as a result of more efficient primary and secondary orbital interactions as well as conformational changes in the complexed dienophile" . Calculations show that, with the polarisation of the dienophile, the extent of asynchronicity in the activated complex increases . Some authors even report a zwitteriorric character of the activated complex of the Lewis-acid catalysed reaction " . Currently, Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions is everyday practice in synthetic organic chemistry. 

In a Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction, the first step is coordination of the catalyst to a Lewis-basic site of the reactant. In a typical catalysed Diels-Alder reaction, the carbonyl oxygen of the dienophile coordinates to the Lewis acid. The most common solvents for these processes are inert apolar liquids such as dichloromethane or benzene. Protic solvents, and water in particular, are avoided because of their strong interactions wifti the catalyst and the reacting system. Interestingly, for other catalysed reactions such as hydroformylations the same solvents do not give problems. This paradox is a result of the difference in hardness of the reactants and the catalyst involved... 

Hydrogen bonding of water to the activating group of (for normal-electron demand Diels-Alder reactions) the dienophile constitutes the second important effect". Hydrogen bonds strengthen the electron-withdrawing capacity of this functionality and thereby decrease the HOMO-LUMO gap... 

Furthermore, the number of diene - dienoplrile combinations that can be expected to undergo a Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reaction is limited. Studies by Wijnen leave little doubt that the rate of typical Diels-Alder reactions, where the dienophile is activated by one or more carbonyl functionalities, does not respond to the presence of Lewis acids in aqueous solution , at least not beyond the extent that is expected for non-specific interactions (salt effects). No coordination of the Lewis acid to the dienophile was observed in these cases, which is perhaps not surprising. Water is... 

The rate of the uncatalysed reaction in all four solvents is rather slow. (The half-life at [2.5] = 1.00 mM is at least 28 hours). However, upon complexation of Cu ion to 2.4a-g the rate of the Diels-Alder reaction between these compounds and 2.5 increases dramatically. Figure 2.2 shows the apparent rate of the Diels-Alder reaction of 2.4a with 2.5 in water as a lunction of the concentration of copper(II)nitrate. At higher catalyst concentrations the rate of the reaction clearly levels off, most likely due to complete binding of the dienophile to the catalyst. Note that in the kinetic experiments... 

The rate constants for the catalysed Diels-Alder reaction of 2.4g with 2.5 (Table 2.3) demonstrate that the presence of the ionic group in the dienophile does not diminish the accelerating effect of water on the catalysed reaction. Comparison of these rate constants with those for the nonionic dienophiles even seems to indicate a modest extra aqueous rate enhancement of the reaction of 2.4g. It is important to note here that no detailed information has been obtained about the exact structure of the catalytically active species in the oiganic solvents. For example, ion pairing is likely to occur in the 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 the kinetic runs always a large excess of catalyst was used. Under these conditions IQ does not influence the apparent rate of the Diels-Alder reaction. Kinetic studies by UV-vis spectroscopy require a low concentration of the dienophile( 10" M). The use of only a catalytic amount of Lewis-acid will seriously hamper complexation of the dienophile because of the very low concentrations of both reaction partners under these conditions. The contributions of and to the observed apparent rate constant have been determined by measuring k pp and Ka separately. ... 

Catalysis by the four metal ions was also compared with respect to their sensitivity towards substituents in the dienophile. To this end the equilibrium constants for complexation of2.4a-g to the four different ions were determined. The results are shown in Table 2.6. 

Herein d(A2,4)/dtis the slope of the plot of the absorption of the dienophile versus time during the first... 

Endo-exo product mixtures were isolated using the following procedure. A solution of cyclopentadiene (concentration 2-10" M in water and 0.4 M in oiganic solvents) and the dienophile (concentration 1-5 mM) in the appropriate solvent, eventually containing a 0.01 M concentration of catalyst, was stirred at 25 C until the UV-absorption of the dienophile had disappeared. The reaction mixture (diluted with water in the case of the organic solvents) was extracted with ether. The ether layer was washed with water and dried over sodium sulfate. After the evaporation of the ether the... 

Evans and co-workers investigated the effect of a number of -symmetric bis(oxazoline) ligands on the copper(II)-catalysed Diels-Alder reaction of an N-acyloxazolidinone with cyclopentadiene. Enantiomeric excesses of up to 99% have been reported (Scheme 3.4). Evans et al." suggested transition state assembly 3.7, with a square planar coordination environment around the central copper ion. In this scheme the dienophile should be coordinated predominantly in an cisoid fashion in... 

Interestingly, the rate constants for Diels-Alder reaction of the ternary complexes with 3.9 are remarkably similar. Only with 2,2 -bipyridine and 1,10-phenanthroline as ligands, a significant change in reactivity is observed. It might well be that the inability of these complexes to adopt a planar geometry hampers the interaction between the copper ion and the dienophile, resulting in a decrease of the rate of the catalysed Diels-Alder reaction. 

In summary, for the most active of catalysts, the copper(II) ion, the diamine ligands that were investigated seriously hamper catalysis mainly by decreasing the efficiency of coordination of the dienophile. With exception of the somewhat deviant behaviour of N,N -dimethylethylenediamine, this conclusion also applies to catalysis by Ni" ions. Hence, significant ligand-accelerated catalysis using the diamine ligands appears not to be feasible. 

In summary, the groups of Espenson and Loh observe catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions involving monodentate reactants by Lewis acids in water. If their observations reflect Lewis-acid catalysis, involvirg coordination and concomitant activation of the dienophile, we would conclude that Lewis-acid catalysis in water need not suffer from a limitation to chelating reactants. This conclusion contradicts our observations which have invariably stressed the importance of a chelating potential of the dienophile. Hence it was decided to investigate the effect of indium trichloride and methylrhenium trioxide under homogeneous conditions. 

Inspired by the work of Burk and Feaster ) we attempted to use (2-pyridyl)hydrazine (4.36) as a coordinating auxiliary (Scheme 4.10). Hydrazines generally react effidently with ketones and aldehydes. Hence, if satisfactory activation of the dienophile can be achieved through coordination of a Lewis acid to the (2-pyridyl)hydrazone moiety in water. Lewis-add catalysis of a large class of ketone- and aldehyde-activated dienophiles is antidpated Subsequent conversion of the hydrazone group into an amine functionality has been reported previously by Burk and Feaster ... 

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