Vinyl Diels-Alder reaction, rate

It has been established that alkoxy alkenylcarbene complexes participate as dienophiles in Diels-Alder reactions not only with higher rates but also with better regio- and stereoselectivities than the corresponding esters [95]. This is clearly illustrated in Scheme 51 for the reactions of an unsubstituted vinyl complex with isoprene. This complex reacts to completion at 25 °C in 3 h whereas the cycloaddition reaction of methyl acrylate with isoprene requires 7 months at the same temperature. The rate enhancement observed for this complex is comparable to that for the corresponding aluminium chloride-catalysed reactions of methyl acrylate and isoprene (Scheme 51). 

It is believed that clay minerals promote organic reactions via an acid catalysis [2a]. They are often activated by doping with transition metals to enrich the number of Lewis-acid sites by cationic exchange [4]. Alternative radical pathways have also been proposed [5] in agreement with the observation that clay-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions are accelerated in the presence of radical sources [6], Montmorillonite K-10 doped with Fe(III) efficiently catalyzes the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene (1) with methyl vinyl ketone at room temperature [7] (Table 4.1). In water the diastereoselectivity is higher than in organic media in the absence of clay the cycloaddition proceeds at a much slower rate. 

Rideout and Breslow first reported [2a] the kinetic data for the accelerating effect of water, for the Diels Alder reactions of cyclopentadiene with methyl vinyl ketone and acrylonitrile and the cycloaddition of anthracene-9-carbinol with N-ethylmaleimide, giving impetus to research in this area (Table 6.1). The reaction in water is 28 to 740 times faster than in the apolar hydrocarbon isooctane. By adding lithium chloride (salting-out agent) the reaction rate increases 2.5 times further, while the presence of guanidinium chloride decreases it. The authors suggested that this exceptional effect of water is the result of a combination of two factors the polarity of the medium and the... 

An ab initio MO calculation by Jorgensen revealed enhanced hydrogen bonding of a water molecule to the transition states for the Diels-Alder reactions of cyclopentadiene with methyl vinyl ketone and acrylonitrile, which indicates that the observed rate accelerations for Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous solution arise from the hydrogenbonding effect in addition to a relatively constant hydrophobic term.7,76 Ab initio calculation using a self-consistent reaction field continuum model shows that electronic and nuclear polarization effects in solution are crucial to explain the stereoselectivity of nonsymmetrical... 

The first report suggesting specific activation of an organic reaction by MW was that of Berlan et al. [28] who observed that some Diels-Alder reactions occurred more rapidly on MW heating than under conventional heating at the same temperature (95 °C). The reactions were performed in two different solvents, xylene and dibutyl ether and the rate enhancements were slightly higher in xylene, the less polar solvent. For example the rate enhancement of the reaction of 2,3-dimethyl-l,3-butadiene 21 with methyl vinyl ketone 22 was 8 times in xylene and 2.3 times in dibutyl ether, based on the half lives of the reactions. Reaction of anthracene 3 with diethyl maleate 23 in xylene (Scheme 4.12) resulted in an approximately fourfold rate in-... 

TABLE 1. Rate constants for the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene and methyl vinyl ketone in different solvents... 

A particular example is the Diels-Alder reaction,21,22 which attracted interest after a publication23 reporting large rate enhancement and a change in stereochemistry in water for the reaction between cyclopentadiene and methyl vinyl ketone. Hydrophobic interactions between the reacting molecules and hydrogen bonding of water to the carbonyl moiety were found to play the major role in the observed phenomena.14,24,25... 

As already mentioned, hetero Diels-Alder reactions can be accelerated by applying Lewis acids and high pressure. However, also the application of microwaves can increase the reaction rate [574], Thus, the usually little reactive methyl vinyl ketone 9-19 cycloadded to highly sensitive ketene acetals such as 9-18 within 10 min at 20 °C under microwave irradiation to give the dihydropyran 9-20 in 69% yield. Using other ketene acetals yields of up to 95% could be achieved (Fig. 9-6). 

Much larger effects of this type are observed in cycloadditions of enol ethers to tetrazines (Fig. 26), a reaction shown by Sauer and co-workers to be an example of a Diels-Alder reaction with inverse electron demand 75. The rates of 3,6-di-(2 -pyridyl)-s-tetrazine to various enol ethers and styrenes are summarized in Fig. 27. These were obtained by measuring the disappearance of the 540 nm band in the absorption spectra of the tetrazine76. These results are of particular interest, since there is little or no correspondence between the electron-donor ability of the enol ether, as measured by the ir ionization potentials (Table 5), and the rate of reaction of the enol ether. For example, although the conversion of methyl vinyl ether to 1,1-dimethoxyethylene results in a 4.3 times increase in rate, in line with the 0.2 — 0.3 eV decrease in IP, the 1,2-dimethoxyethylenes are 13 to 25 times less reactive than methyl vinyl ether, even though the IPs of these molecules are much lower... 

The beneficial effect of water as a reaction medium for Diels-Alder reactions was first described in 1939, but was not generally recognized for more than 40 years. In the early 1980s, Breslow and coworkers reported that the [4 + 2] cycloaddition of cyclopentadiene to mediyl vinyl ketone is accelerated by a factor of 700 when carried out in water compart with isooctane. Hiis rate enhancement, paralleled by an increase of the endo/exo selectivity from 80 20 to % 4, was ascribed to a hydrophobic association of the diene with the dienophile in water. 

Scheme 61 and Table 10 illustrate the influence of SnCU or solid supports on the Diels-Alder reactions of methyl vinyl ketone or acrolein with isoprene. Apart from the reaction rate, the regiochemical control was substantially increased, e.g. from 59 41 to 99.5 0.5 (entries 5/7) in favor of the para products (260). 

Closely related to these investigations, Breslow and co-workers studied the Diels-Alder reaction of CP with methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) in water-like solvents, ethylene glycol and formamide, in the presence of lithium salts. They found clear differences and similarities between water and these two solvent systems. In the absence of Li salts, the second-order rate constant for the reaction at 20 °C increased in formamide ( 2 = 3184 X 10 m s" ), and even more in ethylene glycol (480 x 10 m" s" ), relative to a polar solvent such as methanol (75.5 x 10 m" s ) or non-polar solvent such as isooctane (5.940.3 x 10 m s ). The reactions in both polar solvents were faster in the presence of LiC104 than in the presence of LiCl, although the perchlorate ion has less salting-out effect than chloride ion in water [41]. 

Scheme 33. Kinetic studies of the cation radical Diels-Alder reactions of aryl vinyl sulfides with cyclopentadiene and of aryl propenyl ethers with 2,3-dimethyl 1,3-butadiene. In both solvents, both extended reaction series have rates which correlate excellently with the Hammett a parameters and poorly with the Hammett-Brown o-+ values. The preference is statistically significant at or above the 95 % confidence level.

Titanium complexes containing polymerizable vinyl-substituted aryloxide ligands have been employed to prepare polystyrene/divinylbenzene-based polymers that incorporate Ti aryloxide fragment into the matrix 446 Such materials have been used to catalyze Diels-Alder reactions with high diastereoselectivity and at rates only three to five times slower than the corresponding homogeneous reactions. ... 

On the basis of Monte Carlo simulations [40] and molecular orbital calculations [26a], hydrogen bonding was proposed as the key factor controlling the variation of the acceleration for Diels-Alder reactions in water. Experimental differences of rate acceleration in water-promoted cycloadditions were recently observed [41]. Cycloadditions of cyclopentadiene with acridizinium bromide, acrylonitrile and methyl vinyl ketone were investigated in water and in ethanol for comparison (Scheme 3). Only a modest rate acceleration of 5.3 was found with acridizinium bromide, which was attributed to the absence of hydrogenbonding groups in the reactants. The acceleration factor reaches about 14 with acrylonitrile and 60 with methyl vinyl ketone, which is the best hydrogen-bond acceptor [41]. 

Montmorillonite K-10 doped with Fe(III) efficiently catalyzes the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene (1) with methyl vinyl ketone at room temperature [7] (Table 4.1). In water the diastereoselectivity is higher than in organic media in the absence of clay the cycloaddition proceeds at a much slower rate. 

In this pioneering work [la], Breslow studied the kinetics of the cycloaddition between cyclopentadiene and methyl vinyl ketone (Eq. (1) and Table 1). The implication of the hydrophobic effect in Diels-Alder reactions was extensively supported by the effect of cyclodextrins [26] and additives, such as lithium chloride (salting-out agent) or guanidinium chloride (salting-in agent), which respectively increases or decreases the rate of the reaction [27]. 

Pyrazol-3-one derivatives have taken part in both 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition and Diels-Alder reactions. The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between (Z)-pyrazol-3-ones 694a g with an excess of ethyl vinyl ether gave the pyrazol-3-one-4-spiro-3-isoxazolidines 695a-g, in nearly quantitative yield (82G483) (Scheme 203). The kinetics of this reaction was studied by quantitative spectroscopic analysis. The rate of reaction increases with the electron-withdrawing character of the substituent on the aromatic ring and a linear relationship is obtained between logk and op constants. The LUMO nitrone-HOMO vinyl ether is taken as the dominant interaction. 

The thermal and photochemical [4 + 2] cycloadditions of o-quinones with olefinic and acetylenic dienophiles have been extensively reviewed4,5,200 and include their 4tt heterodiene Diels-Alder reactions with olefins,201-204 vinyl ethers,205 enamines,206 selected dienes,207-209 dipheny-lketenimines,210 ketenes,209,210 fulvenes,211 and selected heterocycles including furan,207-209,212 benzofuran,209,212,215 indoles,213 azepines,214 and 1,2-diazepines.214 The tetrahalo-substituted o-quinones, tetrachloro- and tetrabromo-o-quinone, generally participate in heterodiene [4 + 2] cycloadditions at an increased rate over the unsubstituted systems and generally provide higher overall yields of the Diels-Alder products.4,5 With simple olefins, the dienophile geometry is maintained in the course of the thermal [4 4- 2] cycloadditions [Eq. (52)],203,204... 

Since the thermal dimerizations of acrolein and methyl vinyl ketone were shown to provide the 3,4-dihydro-2//-pyrans l,12 an extensive range of related observations have been disclosed. This work has been the subject of several reviews.3 14 Only the work reported since the extensive Desimoni and Tacconi account5 of the Diels-Alder reaction of a,/3-unsatu-rated carbonyl compounds, 1-oxabutadienes bearing an oxygen atom at the diene terminus, has been detailed herein. The prior reviews should be consulted for an excellent discussion of the mechanism, scope, and application of the [4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions of a,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds as well as for extensive tabular compilations of the work through 1974.3-6... 

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