Transition states oxiranes

Alkyl groups under nonacidic conditions sterically deflect nucleophiles from C, but under acidic conditions this steric effect is to some extent offset by an electronic one the protonated oxirane opens by transition states (Scheme 40) which are even more 5Nl-like than the borderline Sn2 one of the unprotonated oxirane. Thus electronic factors favor cleavage at the more substituted carbon, which can better support a partial positive charge the steric factor is still operative, however, and even under acidic conditions the major product usually results from Cp attack. 

The hydroxy oxygen of a peracid has a higher electrophilicity as compared to a carboxylic acid. A peracid 2 can react with an alkene 1 by transfer of that particular oxygen atom to yield an oxirane (an epoxide) 3 and a carboxylic acid 4. The reaction is likely to proceed via a transition state as shown in 5 (butterfly mechanism), where the electrophilic oxygen adds to the carbon-carbon n-hond and the proton simultaneously migrates to the carbonyl oxygen of the acid ... 

As seen above, /3-deprotonation implies a six-center transition state. Recent computational studies show an important variation of the H —C—C—O dihedral angle from reactant to transition state . Thus, the ground state geometry of the oxirane cannot be used to predict its reactivity. However, for structural reasons, some oxiranes cannot adopt a suitable conformation for -deprotonation and furnish exclusively a-deprotonation products. This concept is well illustrated by the norbornene oxide 17, which gives exclusively the transannular 1,3 insertion product 18 in the presence of lithium amide (Scheme 5) . 

Based on this feature, aggregation states of transition-state structures for base-promoted isomerization of oxiranes have been established by kinetic studies of LDA-mediated isomerizations of selected oxiranes in nonpolar media in the presence of variable concentrations of coordinating solvents (ligands). Results reported provide the idealized rate law V = [ligand]" [base] [oxtrane] for a-deprotonation and v = fc[ligand]°[base] / [oxirane]... 

As shown by these equations, the different deprotonation pathways differ in their transition-state structures a 2/1 base-oxirane trimer of type 30 for a-deprotonation, compared with a 1/1 base-oxirane dimer of type 31 for yS-deprotonation (Scheme 13). Similar results have been reported for the -deprotonation of cyclohexene oxide by proline-derivated amides. ... 

The treatment of the deuteriated cis oxirane 32 by EDA in HMPA yields exclusively the nondeuteriated alcohol 33. Indeed, complexation of the lithium cation by HMPA prevents the formation of the six-center transition state. The isomerization thus follows a more common E2 process, i.e. anti -elimination. 

The origin of the enantiodiscrimination appears to be strongly dependent on the structure of the HCLA employed. For HCLA bases of type A (53 to 56), stereoselectivity has been empirically deduced to arise [in the transition state (TS)] from the difference of energy between the two diastereoisomeric 1/1 HCLA/oxirane complexes TSl and TS2 (Scheme 27). Indeed, the steric repulsions between cyclohexene oxide and the pyrrolidinyl substituents in TS 1 favor TS 2, as proposed by Asami in 1990 for enantioselective rearrangement of cyclohexene oxide by HCLA 53 (Scheme 26) . ... 

Organometallic compounds asymmetric catalysis, 11, 255 chiral auxiliaries, 266 enantioselectivity, 255 see also specific compounds Organozinc chemistry, 260 amino alcohols, 261, 355 chirality amplification, 273 efficiency origins, 273 ligand acceleration, 260 molecular structures, 276 reaction mechanism, 269 transition state models, 264 turnover-limiting step, 271 Orthohydroxylation, naphthol, 230 Osmium, olefin dihydroxylation, 150 Oxametallacycle intermediates, 150, 152 Oxazaborolidines, 134 Oxazoline, 356 Oxidation amines, 155 olefins, 137, 150 reduction, 5 sulfides, 155 Oxidative addition, 5 amine isomerization, 111 hydrogen molecule, 16 Oxidative dimerization, chiral phenols, 287 Oximes, borane reduction, 135 Oxindole alkylation, 338 Oxiranes, enantioselective synthesis, 137, 289, 326, 333, 349, 361 Oxonium polymerization, 332 Oxo process, 162 Oxovanadium complexes, 220 Oxygenation, C—H bonds, 149... 

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