Vinyl carbon substitution, addition-elimination mechanisms

Nucleophilic substitution at a vinylic carbon is difficult (see p. 433), but many examples are known. The most common mechanisms are the tetrahedral mechanism and the closely related addition-elimination mechanism. Both of these mechanisms are impossible at a saturated substrate. The addition-elimination mechanism has... 

Alkenyl(phenyl)iodonium salts are highly reactive in vinylic nucleophilic substitution reactions because of the excellent leaving group ability of the phenyliodonium moiety. Only a few examples of non-catalytic alkenylation of carbon nucleophiles are known [50,51]. In most cases these reactions proceed with predominant retention of configuration via the addition-elimination mechanism or ligand coupling on the iodine [42,50]. 

Nucleophilic vinylic substitutions of 4//-pyran-4-onc and 2,6-dimethyl-4//-pyran-4-one with a hydroxide ion in aqueous solution were calculated by the density functional theory (B3LYP) and ab initio (MP2) methods using the 6-31+G(d) and 6-31G (d) basis sets. The aqueous solution was modelled by a supermolecular approach, where 11 water molecules were involved in the reaction system. The calculations confirmed a different addition-elimination mechanism of the reaction compared with that in the gas phase or non-polar solution. Addition of OH- at the C(2) vinylic carbon of the pyranone ring with an activation barrier of 10-11 kcalmol-1 (B3LYP) has been identified as the rate-determining step, in good quantitative and qualitative agreement with experimental kinetics. Solvent effects increase the activation barrier of the addition step and, conversely, decrease the barrier of the elimination step.138... 

Stereospecificity in the addition-elimination mechanism Towards Carbon Nucleophiles and Vinyl Cation Equivalents Vinyl cation equivalents Conjugate Substitution... 

Study of structure-activity relationships in nucleophilic vinylic substitution reactions (S nV) that proceed by the addition-elimination mechanism has been furthered by the study of acid-catalysed breakdown of alkoxide and thiolate ion adducts of benzylidene Meldrum s acid (36a), methoxybenzylidene Meldrum s acid (36b), and thiomethoxybenzylidene Meldrum s acid (36c). Catalysis of alkoxide or thiolate expulsion is in competition with protonation of the a-carbon or one of the carbonyl oxygens to form an enolate. The positive Ag values for H+-catalysed RO and RS departure imply an imbalanced transition state in which proton transfer leads C-O or C-S bond cleavage. The pA values of the various adducts are much lower than for Meldrum s acid, in view of the stabilizing influence of OR, SR, and OMe groups on the carbanion. 

None of these difficulties arise when hydrosilylation is promoted by metal catalysts. The mechanism of the addition of silicon-hydrogen bond across carbon-carbon multiple bonds proposed by Chalk and Harrod408,409 includes two basic steps the oxidative addition of hydrosilane to the metal center and the cis insertion of the metal-bound alkene into the metal-hydrogen bond to form an alkylmetal complex (Scheme 6.7). Interaction with another alkene molecule induces the formation of the carbon-silicon bond (route a). This rate-determining reductive elimination completes the catalytic cycle. The addition proceeds with retention of configuration.410 An alternative mechanism, the insertion of alkene into the metal-silicon bond (route b), was later suggested to account for some side reactions (alkene reduction, vinyl substitution).411-414... 

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