Electronic and Torsional Effects

Nucleophilic additions to cyclic carbonyl compounds differ greatly from those of acyclic systems. In acyclic systems, only the configuration at an adjacent (1,2-asymmetric induction) or nea y center (remote asymmetric induction) is usually considered in predicting the outcome of nucleophilic attack. In cyclic systems, the conformation of the entire molecule (which is in part determined by the individual substituents) must be considered when predicting the mode of nucleophilic attack. Furthermore, a number of other factors such as torsional and electronic effects also play a role in the stereochemical course of additions to cyclic substrates. The relative importance of all of these effects (as well as others) has been the subject of considerable debate in the literature, and has not as yet been adequately resolved. ... 

It should now be clear that protecting groups profoundly affect the reactivities of carbohydrates through torsional and electronic effects. The size of this effect varies with the position and nature of the protecting group and for multiple protecting groups the effects are additive. 

Since equatorial attack is roughly antiperiplanar to two C-C bonds of the cyclic ketone, an extended hypothesis of antiperiplanar attack was proposed39. Since the incipient bond is intrinsically electron deficient, the attack of a nucleophile occurs anti to the best electron-donor bond, with the electron-donor order C—S > C —H > C —C > C—N > C—O. The transition state-stabilizing donor- acceptor interactions are assumed to be more important for the stereochemical outcome of nucleophilic addition reactions than the torsional and steric effects suggested by Felkin. 

Molecular mechanics as a minimization of strain energy makes a rigid distinction between steric and electronic effects. Electronic effects are introduced in the form of empirical constants such as characteristic bond lengths and angles, the corresponding force constants, torsional rigidity of even-order bonds, planarity of aromatic systems and the coordination symmetry at transition-metal centres. These constants are accepted, without proof, to summarize the ensual of electronic interactions and used without further optimization. 

The stereochemistry and mechanism of reduction of cyclic ketones by metal hydride reagents provided a unique Of rtunity for comparison of experimental results with theoretical expectation. The models proposed by Cram, Comforth and Karabatsos described above were inadequate to explain the stereochemical outcome, and so a wide range of models was developed to explain the dichotomy between cyclic and acyclic results. The theoretical basis, applications and limitations of these models have been critically reviewed. The effect of steric influences, torsional and electronic factors, and the nature of the cation on the rate of reduction, stereochemical outcome and position of the transition state have also been surveyed. ... 

In this chapter, we first present a brief overview of the experimental techniques that we and others have used to study torsional motion in S, and D0 (Section II). These are resonant two-photon ionization (R2PI) for S,-S0 spectroscopy and pulsed-field ionization (commonly known as ZEKE-PFI) for D0-S, spectroscopy. In Section HI, we summarize what is known about sixfold methyl rotor barriers in S0, S, and D0, including a brief description of how the absolute conformational preference can be inferred from spectral intensities. Section IV describes the threefold example of o-cholorotoluene in some detail and summarizes what is known about threefold barriers more generally. The sequence of molecules o-fluorotoluene, o-chlorotoluene, and 2-fluoro-6-chlorotoluene shows the effects of ort/io-fluoro and ortho-chloro substituents on the rotor potential. These are approximately additive in S0, S, and D0. Finally, in Section V, we present our ideas about the underlying causes of these diverse barrier heights and conformational preferences, based on analysis of the optimized geometries and electronic wavefunctions from ab initio calculations. 

In this section, we present a unified picture of the different electronic effects that combine to determine methyl rotor potentials in the S0, Sp and D0 electronic states of different substituted toluenes. Our approach is based on analysis of ab initio wavefunctions using the natural bond orbitals (NBOs)33 of Weinhold and cowork-ers. We will attempt to decompose the methyl torsional potential into two dominant contributions. The first is repulsive steric interactions, which are important only when an ortho substituent is present. The second is attractive donor-acceptor interactions between CH bond pairs and empty antibonding orbitals vicinal to the CH bonds. In the NBO basis, these attractive interactions dominate the barrier in ethane (1025 cm-1) and in 2-methylpropene (1010 cm-1) see Figure 3. By analogy, donor-acceptor attractions are important in toluenes whenever there is a substantial difference in bond order between the two ring CC bonds adjacent to the C-CH3 bond. Viewed the other way around, we can use the measured methyl rotor potential as a sensitive probe of local ring geometry. 

Figure 3.51 also contains a dissection of the total energy ( totai) into Lewis (ii(L)) and non-Lewis (ElSL>) components. The localized Lewis component E" corresponds to more than 99.3% of the full electron density, and so incorporates steric and classical electrostatic effects in nearly exact fashion. Yet, as shown in Fig. 3.51, this component predicts local minima (at 70° and 180°) and maxima (at = 0° and 130 ) that are opposite to those of the full potential. In contrast, the non-Lewis component E (NL) exhibits a stronger torsional dependence that is able to cancel out the unphysical behavior predicted by (L), leading to minima correctly located near 0° and 120°. Thus, the hyperconjugative interactions incorporated in E(SL> clearly provide the surprising stabilization of 0° and 120° conformers that counter the expected steric and electrostatic effects contained in ElL>. 

The principle aim of the reported studies was to model structures, conformational equilibria, and fluxionality. Parameters for the model involving interactionless dummy atoms were fitted to infrared spectra and allowed for the structures of metallocenes (M = Fe(H), Ru(II), Os(II), V(U), Cr(II), Cofll), Co(ni), Fe(III), Ni(II)) and analogues with substituted cyclopentadienyl rings (Fig. 13.3) to be accurately reproduced 981. The preferred conformation and the calculated barrier for cyclopentadienyl ring rotation in ferrocene were also found to agree well with the experimentally determined data (Table 13.1). This is not surprising since the relevant experimental data were used in the parameterization procedure. However, the parameters were shown to be self-consistent and transferable (except for the torsional parameters which are dependent on the metal center). An important conclusion was that the preference for an eclipsed conformation of metallocenes is the result of electronic effects. Van der Waals and electrostatic terms were similar for the eclipsed and staggered conformation and the van der Waals interactions were attractive 981. It is important to note, however, that these conclusions are to some extent dependent on the parameterization scheme, and particularly on the parameters used for the nonbonded interactions. 

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