Transition state five-center

The microwave-specific effect is more apparent in the case of demethylation (Sn2). The microwave acceleration clearly is more pronounced with the difficulty of the reaction, thus constituting a clear example of an increased microwave effect with a more difficult reaction, indicative of a later TS position along the reaction coordinate. The microwave effect may also be connected to the more localized charge in the Sn2 transition state (three centers) when compared to that of p-E2 (charge developed over five centers). 

This study suggests a radically new explanation for the nature of Lewis acid activation in the Simmons-Smith cyclopropanation. The five-centered migration of the halide ion from the chloromethylzinc group to zinc chloride as shown in TS2 and TS4 has never been considered in the discussion of a mechanism for this reaction. It remains to be seen if some experimental support can be found for this unconventional hypothesis. The small energy differences between all these competing transition states demand caution in declaring any concrete conclusions. 

However, when (+)-methylneophylphenyltin deuteride, (+)-(56) ([ot] s + 10.7) is kept in the dark mixed with five equivalents of diethylaluminum hydride for ten hours at room temperature in benzene, optically inactive (72) is formed 44). (In the absence of (Et2AlH)2 less than 3 % of (12) is racemized under these conditions). The four-center transition state is therefore very unlikely. 

An interesting stereochemical profile of this cyclization is that in the five-membered product structures, substituents PhS and OH groups are placed cis to each other, whereas in six-membered products the placement is trans (Table 6, entry 7). The cis selectivity in the five-membered ring systems is not affected by a and fi-substituents of the alkoxides (entries 2, 3 and 4), indicating that the steric effect is not the dominant factor. Instead, interaction between the oxido and carbene center composes a five- (or seven-) membered transition state 28, which allows the carbene to abstract the nearest quasi axial hydrogen as a hydride to produce a carbonyl intermediate 29, leading to the cyclization products 27 and 30 (Scheme 13, Eq. 1). Similarly, the stereoselective stepwise cyclization of cis- and rra s-2-(3,3-dithiopropyl)cyclohexanol to 2-phenylthio-... 

The addition of a hydride donor to an a-chiral aldehyde with an O or an N atom in the a position or to an analogous ketone takes place through the so-called Felkin-Anh transition state provided that the heteroatom at C-a is not incorporated in a five-membered chelate ring together with the O atom of the carbonyl group. This transition state is also shown in Figure 10.16 (center Nu = H ), both as a Newman projection and in the sawhorse... 

Methyl-p-nitrophenyl phosphate coordinated to the two metal centers in 37 undergoes hydrolysis by a two-step addition-elimination mechanism [73]. The free phosphate hydrolyzes by a concerted mechanism. In both phosphate monoester and diester hydrolysis, the two Co(m) centers in 32 and 37 stabilize the five-coordinate phosphate species (transition state or intermediate) by bringing the phosphate and nucleophile together. This stabilization leads to a change in mechanism from dissociative to concerted for a phosphate monoester hydrolysis [96] and from concerted to stepwise for phosphate diester hydrolysis [73]. 

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