Transition state butadiene Diels-Alder reactions

The chemical reactions through cyclic transition states are controlled by the symmetry of the frontier orbitals [11]. At the symmetrical (Cs) six-membered ring transition state of Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene and ethylene, the HOMO of butadiene and the LUMO of ethylene (Scheme 18) are antisymmetric with respect to the reflection in the mirror plane (Scheme 24). The symmetry allows the frontier orbitals to have the same signs of the overlap integrals between the p-or-bital components at both reaction sites. The simultaneous interactions at the both sites promotes the frontier orbital interaction more than the interaction at one site of an acyclic transition state. This is also the case with interaction between the HOMO of ethylene and the LUMO of butadiene. The Diels-Alder reactions occur through the cyclic transition states in a concerted and stereospecific manner with retention of configuration of the reactants. 

Theoretical calculations (6-31G ) have been used to compare the energies of four possible transition states for Diels-Alder reaction of the BF3 complex of methyl acrylate with 1,3-butadiene. The results are summarized in Fig. 6.4. The endo transition state with the s-trans conformation of the dienophile is preferred to the others by about 2kcal/mol.14... 

Butadienes with alkyl substituents in the 2-position favor the formation of the so-called para-products (Figure 15.25, X = H) in their reactions with acceptor-substituted dienophiles. The so-called mefa-product is formed in smaller amounts. This regioselectivity increases if the dienophile carries two geminal acceptors (Figure 15.25, X = CN). 2-Phenyl-1,3-butadiene exhibits a higher para -selectivity in its reactions with every unsymmetrical dienophile than any 2-alkyl-1,3-butadiene does. This is even more true for 2-methoxy- 1,3-butadiene and 2-(trimethylsilyloxy)-l,3-butadiene. Equation 15.2, which describes the stabilization of the transition states of Diels-Alder reactions in terms of the frontier orbitals, also explains the para "/"meta "-orientation. The numerators of both fractions assume different values depending on the orientation, while the denominators are independent of the orientation. 

Ab initio calculations have been performed by Birney and Houk to define the transition state in Diels-Alder reactions catalyzed by boron derivatives [38]. As a model, the authors studied the reaction between butadiene and acrolein complexed with BH3. The preferred route is endo addition of the anti complex of s-cis acrolein. 

Fig. 5.35 Geometry predicted by CASSCF ab initio calculations of the two possible transition structure geometries for the Diels-Alder reaction between ethene and butadiene. (Figure adapted from Houk KN, J Gonzalez and Y Li 1995. Pericyclic Reaction Transition States Passions and Punctilios 1935-1995. Accounts of Chemical Research 28 81-90.)...

The carbo-Diels-Alder reaction of acrolein with butadiene (Scheme 8.1) has been the standard reaction studied by theoretical calculations in order to investigate the influence of Lewis acids on the reaction course and several papers deal with this reaction. As an extension of an ab-initio study of the carbo-Diels-Alder reaction of butadiene with acrolein [5], Houk et al. investigated the transition-state structures and the origins of selectivity of Lewis acid-catalyzed carbo-Diels-Alder reactions [6]. Four different transition-state structures were considered (Fig. 8.4). Acrolein can add either endo (N) or exo (X), in either s-cis (C) or s-trans (T), and the Lewis acid coordinates to the carbonyl in the molecular plane, either syn or anti to the alkene. 

The mechanism of the carbo-Diels-Alder reaction has been a subject of controversy with respect to synchronicity or asynchronicity. With acrolein as the dieno-phile complexed to a Lewis acid, one would not expect a synchronous reaction. The C1-C6 and C4—C5 bond lengths in the NC-transition-state structure for the BF3-catalyzed reaction of acrolein with butadiene are calculated to be 2.96 A and 1.932 A, respectively [6]. The asynchronicity of the BF3-catalyzed carbo-Diels-Alder reaction is also apparent from the pyramidalization of the reacting centers C4 and C5 of NC (the short C-C bond) is pyramidalized by 11°, while Cl and C6 (the long C-C bond) are nearly planar. The lowest energy transition-state structure (NC) has the most pronounced asynchronicity, while the highest energy transition-state structure (XT) is more synchronous. 

Fig. 8.5 The calculated transition-state structure for the reaction of acrolein with butadiene leading to carbo-Diels-Alder adduct catalyzed by BH3 using a RHF/3-21G basis set [6]...

An important contribution for the endo selectivity in the carho-Diels-Alder reaction is the second-order orbital interaction [1], However, no bonds are formed in the product for this interaction. For the BF3-catalyzed reaction of acrolein with butadiene the overlap population between Cl and C6 is only 0.018 in the NC-transi-tion state [6], which is substantially smaller than the interaction between C3 and O (0.031). It is also notable that the C3-0 bond distance, 2.588 A, is significant shorter than the C1-C6 bond length (2.96 A), of which the latter is the one formed experimentally. The NC-transition-state structure can also lead to formation of vinyldihydropyran, i.e. a hetero-Diels-Alder reaction has proceeded. The potential energy surface at the NC-transition-state structure is extremely flat and structure NCA (Fig. 8.6) lies on the surface-separating reactants from product [6]. 

The endo exo selectivity for the Lewis acid-catalyzed carbo-Diels-Alder reaction of butadiene and acrolein deserves a special attention. The relative stability of endo over exo in the transition state accounts for the selectivity in the Diels-Alder cycloadduct. The Lewis acid induces a strong polarization of the dienophile FMOs and change their energies (see Fig. 8.2) giving rise to better interactions with the diene, and for this reason, the role of the possible secondary-orbital interaction must be considered. Another possibility is the [4 + 3] interaction suggested by Singleton... 

The influence of alkyl substituents on the asynchronous transition-state structure of the BF3-catalyzed carbo-Diels-Alder reaction of a,/ -unsaturated aldehydes with 1,1-dimethyl-l,3-butadiene derivatives has been investigated by Dai et al. [13]. 

The transition-state structure of the hetero-Diels-Alder reaction is generally found to be unsymmetrical. Houk et al. have for the reaction of formaldehyde with 1,3-butadiene calculated the C-C and C-0 bond lengths to be 2.133 A and 1.998 A, respectively, in the transition state using ab-initio calculations shown in Fig. 8.12 [25 bj. The reaction of formaldimine follows the same trend for the transition-state structure. 

The hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of formaldehyde with 1,3-butadiene has been investigated with the formaldehyde oxygen atom coordinated to BH3 as a model for a Lewis acid [25 bj. Two transition states were located, one with BH3 exo, and one endo, relative to the diene. The former has the lowest energy and the calculated transition-state structure is much less symmetrical than for the uncatalyzed reaction shown in Fig. 8.12. The C-C bond length is calculated to be 0.42 A longer, while the C-0 bond length is 0.23 A shorter, compared to the uncatalyzed reac-... 

Fig. 8.12 Calculated transition-state structure for the hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of formaldehyde with butadiene [25 bj...

Most Diels-Alder reactions, particularly the thermal ones and those involving apolar dienes and dienophiles, are described by a concerted mechanism [17]. The reaction between 1,3-butadiene and ethene is a prototype of concerted synchronous reactions that have been investigated both experimentally and theoretically [18]. A concerted unsymmetrical transition state has been invoked to justify the stereochemistry of AICI3-catalyzed cycloadditions of alkylcyclohexenones with methyl-butadienes [12]. The high syn stereospecificity of the reaction, the low solvent effect on the reaction rate, and the large negative values of both activation entropy and activation volume comprise the chemical evidence usually given in favor of a pericyclic Diels-Alder reaction. 

In contrast with exo (top) facial selectivity in the additions to norbomene 80 [41], Diels-Alder reaction between isodicyclopentadiene 79 takes place from the bottom [40] (see Scheme 32). To solve this problem, Honk and Brown calculated the transition state of the parent Diels-Alder reaction of butadiene with ethylene [47], They pointed ont that of particular note for isodicyclopentadiene selectivity issue is the 14.9° out-of-plane bending of the hydrogens at C2 and C3 of butadiene. The bending is derived from Cl and C4 pyramidalization and rotation inwardly to achieve overlap of p-orbitals on these carbons with the ethylene termini. To keep the tr-bonding between C1-C2 and C3-C4, the p-orbitals at C2 and C3 rotate inwardly on the side of the diene nearest to ethylene. This is necessarily accompanied by C2 and C3 hydrogen movanent toward the attacking dienophile. They proposed that when norbomene is fused at C2 and C3, the tendency of endo bending of the norbomene framework will be manifested in the preference for bottom attack in Diels-Alder reactions (Schane 38). 

FIGURE 3. Schematic representation of the transition state of the Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene and ethylene... 

In addition to conventional ab initio methods, techniques based on the density functional theory (DFT) have also been used to study the Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene and ethylene97-99. With these kinds of methods, a concerted mechanism through a symmetric transition state is also predicted. Several kinds of density functionals have been used. The simplest one is based on the Local Density Approach (LDA), in which all the potentials depend only on the density. More sophisticated functionals include a dependence on the gradient of the density, such as that of Becke, Lee, Yang and Parr (BLYP). 

Figure 5.60 The transition-state region of the reaction profile (along the IRC) for the model butadiene + ethylene Diels-Alder reaction. (The zero of energy corresponds to the cyclohexene product.)...

The Diels-Alder reaction is the best known and most widely used pericyclic reaction. Two limiting mechanisms are possible (see Fig. 10.11) and have been vigorously debated. In the first, the addition takes place in concerted fashion with two equivalent new bonds forming in the transition state (bottom center, Fig. 10.11), while for the second reaction path the addition occurs stepwise (top row, Fig. 10.11). The stepwise path involves the formation of a single bond between the diene (butadiene in our example) and the dienophile (ethylene) and (most likely) a diradical intermediate, although zwitterion structures have also been proposed. In the last step, ring closure results with the formation of a second new carbon carbon bond. Either step may be rate determining. 

Fig. 10.11 The stepwise and concerted mechanisms for the Diels-Alder reaction between butadiene and ethylene. The reactants (lower left) proceed to the product, cyclohexene (lower right) either through a two step, two transition state mechanism involving the formation of a diradical intermediate (top center), or more directly through the symmetric synchronous transition state (bottom center) (Storer, J. W., Raimondi, L., and Houk, K. N., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 116, 9675 (1994))...

The behavior described above has been verified by experiment and calculation on numerous substituted dienes and dienophiles. For example Fig. 10.13 shows results for 2°-D isotope effects on Diels-Alder reactions of 2-methyl-butadiene with cyano-ethylene and 1,1-dicyano-ethylene. The calculated and experimental isotope effects are in quantitative agreement with each other and with the results on (butadiene + ethylene). In each case the excellent agreement between calculated and observed isotope effects validates the concerted mechanism and establishes the structure of the transition state as that shown at the bottom center of Fig. 10.11 and the left side of Fig. 10.12a. 

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. ... 

For an unsymmetrical dienophile, there are two possible stereochemical orientations with respect to the diene. The two possible orientations are called endo and exo, as illustrated in Fig. 6.3. In the endo transition state, the reference substituent on the dienophile is oriented toward the % orbitals of the diene. In the exo transition state, the substituent is oriented away from the % system. For many substituted butadiene derivatives, the two transition states lead to two different stereoisomeric products. The endo mode of addition is usually preferred when an electron-attracting substituent such as a carbonyl group is present on the dienophile. The empirical statement which describes this preference is called the Alder rule. Frequently, a mixture of both stereoisomers is formed, and sometimes the exo product predominates, but the Alder rule is a useful initial guide to prediction of the stereochemistry of a Diels-Alder reaction. The endo product is often the more sterically congested. The preference for the endo transition state... 

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