Trifluoroacetic acid, addition to alkenes

Trifluoroacetic acid adds to alkenes without the necessity of a stronger acid catalyst. The mechanistic features of this reaction are similar to addition of water catalyzed by strong acids. For example, there is a substantial isotope effect when CF3CO2D is used ( h/ d = 4.33) and the reaction rates of substituted styrenes are... 

A hydroxy and an arylthio group can be added to a double bond by treatment with an aryl disulfide and lead tetraacetate in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid." Manganese and copper acetates have been used instead of Pb(OAc)4. ° Addition of the groups OH and RSO has been achieved by treatment of alkenes with O2 and a thiol (RSH)." Two RS groups were added, to give vie- dithiols, by treatment of the alkene with a disulfide RSSR and Bp3-etherate."° This reaction has been carried... 

Peterson and co-workers have carried out a careful investigation of the electrophilic addition of trifluoroacetic acid to a series of aliphatic alkynes (38) and alkenes (39,40). Of particular interest is the behavior of 3-hexyne. At. 1 M concentrations of 3-hexyne, nearly equal amounts of the cis- and trans-3-hexen-3-yl trifluoroacetates are formed in 98% yield, together with about 2%... 

Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is strong enough to react with alkenes under relatively mild conditions.11 The addition is regioselective in the direction predicted by Markovnikov s rule. 

Application of catalysts allows sometimes executing this addition/elimination process even with alkenes without any electron-deficient substituent attached. Such case is illustrated by an example in Scheme 15. In the presence of mercury-(n) acetate and trifluoroacetic acid, 1,2,3-triazoles 146 react with vinyl acetate at 70 °G to give vinyl derivatives 148 in good yields (70-88%) <2002RJ01056>. Adducts 147 are presumed to be intermediates in this process. 

The effect of monofluorination on alkene or aromatic reactivity toward electrophiles is more difficult to predict Although a-fluonne stabilizes a carbocation relative to hydrogen, its opposing inductive effect makes olefins and aromatics more electron deficient. Fluorine therefore is activating only for electrophilic reactions with very late transition states where its resonance stabilization is maximized The faster rate of addition of trifluoroacetic acid and sulfuric acid to 2-fluoropropene vs propene is an example [775,116], but cases of such enhanced fluoroalkene reactivity in solution are quite rare [127] By contrast, there are many examples where the ortho-para-dueeting fluorine substituent is also activating in electrophilic aromatic substitutions [128]... 

The addition of trifluoroacetic acid to the palladium or platinum peroxide adducts with electrophilic alkenes results in the formation of epoxide in high yield and with high stereoselectivity.143,148 The mechanism shown in equation (51) has been suggested for this reaction.148... 

The acyloxymercuration-demercuration of alkenes provides an alternative route to esters which is probably less prone to caibon skeleton rearrangements than the direct addition of carboxylic acids to alkenes (equation 282). This reaction has recently been reviewed.477 The reaction is most commonly run using mercury(II) acetate in acetic acid, though other mercury salts may be used and aprotic solvents can also be employed. Equilibria have been measured for the reaction of mercury(II) trifluoroacetate and alkenes in tetrahydrofuran, and were found to be solvent dependent.478... 

The selective oxidation of C—H bonds in alkanes under mild conditions continues to attract interest from researchers. A new procedure based upon mild generation of perfluoroalkyl radicals from their corresponding anhydrides with either H2O2, m-CPBA, AIBN, or PbEt4 has been described. Oxidation of ethane under the reported conditions furnishes propionic acid and other fluorinated products.79 While some previously reported methods have involved metal-mediated functionalization of alkanes using trifluoroacetic acid/anhydride as solvent, these latter results indicate that the solvent itself without metal catalysis can react as an oxidant. As a consequence, results of these metal-mediated reactions should be treated with caution. The absolute rate constants for H-abstraction from BU3 SnH by perfluorinated w-alkyl radicals have been measured and the trends were found to be qualitatively similar to that of their addition reactions to alkenes.80 a,a-Difluorinated radicals were found to have enhanced reactivities and this was explained as being due to their pyramidal nature while multifluorinated radicals were more reactive still, owing to their electrophilic nature.80... 

A major advantage is the potential to lock (and protect) written information in the photobistable material. A number of chemical gated systems involving mutual regulation of the photochromic event and, for instance, fluorescence, ion binding, or electrochemical properties have been reported.1501 Scheme 19 illustrates a chiral gated response system based on donor-acceptor substituted alkene 17.[511 The photochemical isomerization process of both the M-ds and the P-trans form was effectively blocked by the addition of trifluoroacetic acid. Protonation of the dimethyl-amine donor unit of M-rfs-17a and P-trons-17b resulted in an ineffective acceptor-acceptor (nitro and ammonium) substituted thioxanthene lower half. Since the stereoselective photoisomerization of 17 relies on the presence of both a donor and acceptor unit, photochemical switching could be restored by deprotonation by the addition of triethylamine. 

In our attempt to extend the coupling reaction of arenes with alkenes to the coupling with alkynes, as shown in Scheme 4, it was found that the reaction of arenes with ethyl propiolate in TFA (trifluoroacetic acid) gave addition products instead of a coupling product [3]. This addition reaction has been extended to various alkynes and various arenes and also to intramolecular reactions for synthesis of heterocycles such as coumarins, quinolines, and thiocoumarins. 

The oxidation of cyclohexene under the same conditions afforded a variety of products including cyclohexenyl and cyclohexyl trifluoroacetates, 1,2-cyclo-hexanediol ditrifluoroacetate, and a number of unidentified components. The complex mixture of products is probably formed via rearrangement of various cationic intermediates subsequent to the initial electron transfer process. As a preparative method, the oxidation of alkenes under these conditions also suffers from the competitive addition of trifluoroacetic acid to the olefin ... 

On the basis of theoretical studies by Bach and co-workers,17 it was found that the nucleophilic 71-bond of the alkene attacks the 0-0 cr-bond in an Sn2 fashion with displacement of a neutral carboxylic acid. There are, however, some mechanistic anomalies. For example, a protonated peracid should be a much more effective oxygen transfer agent over its neutral counterpart, but experiments have shown only modest rate enhancements for acid catalysed epoxidation. Early attempts to effect acid catalysis in alkene epoxidation where relatively weak acids such as benzoic acid were employed proved unsuccessful.18 The picture is further complicated by contradictory data concerning the influence of addition of acids on epoxidation rates.19 Trichloroacetic acid catalyses the rate of epoxidation of stilbene with perbenzoic acid, but retards the rate of a double bond containing an ester constituent such as ethyl crotonate.20 Recent work has shown that a seven-fold increase in the rate of epoxidation of Z-cyclooctene with m-chloroperbenzoic acid is observed upon addition of the catalyst trifluoroacetic acid.21 Kinetic and theoretical studies suggest that the rate increase is due to complexation of the peroxy acid with the undissociated acid catalyst (HA) rather than protonation of the peroxy acid. Ab initio calculations have shown that the free energy of ethylene with peroxy-formic acid is lowered by about 3 kcal mol-1 upon complexation with the catalyst.21... 

Aziridine formation fix>m arylnitrenes, rather than via triazolines, is known for highly fluorinated arenes. Phenyl azide with trifluoroacetic acid generates a nitrenium ion which adds stereospecifically to alkenes to give aziridines. Yields are rather low, partly due to concurrent ring opening of the aziridine by addition of trifluoroacetic acid. Similar reactions can be achieved with Lewis acids such as AlCb Enamines with aryl azides can yield either 2-aminoaziridines or amidines. ... 

Methanesulfenyl trifluoroacetate, formed in situ by treatment of 5-methyl methanethiosulfi-nate with trifluoroacetic acid anhydride at — 20 °C, undergoes stereoselective addition to a variety of alkenes affording the franj-product 1025. 

The rate-determining step in the ionic hydrogenation reaction of carbon-carbon double bonds involves protonation of the C==C to form a carbocation intermediate, followed by the rapid abstraction of hydride from the hydride source (equation 45). ° There is a very sensitive balance between several factors in order for this reaction to be successful. The proton source must be sufficiently acidic to protonate the C—C to form the intermediate carbocation, yet not so acidic or electrophilic as to react with the hydride source to produce hydrogen. In addition, the carbocation must be sufficiently electrophilic to abstract the hydride from the hydride source, yet not react with any other nucleophile source present, i.e. the conjugate anion of the proton source. This balance is accomplished by the use of trifluoroacetic acid as the proton source, and an alkylsilane as the hydride source. The alkene must be capable of undergoing protonation by trifluoroacetic acid, which effectively limits the reaction to those alkenes capable of forming a tertiary or aryl-substituted carbocation. This essentially limits the application of this reaction to the reduction of tri- and tetra-substituted alkenes, and aryl-substituted alkenes. 

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