Wacker nucleophilic

Although Pd is cheaper than Rh and Pt, it is still expensive. In Pd(0)- or Pd(ll)-catalyzed reactions, particularly in commercial processes, repeated use of Pd catalysts is required. When the products are low-boiling, they can be separated from the catalyst by distillation. The Wacker process for the production of acetaldehyde is an example. For less volatile products, there are several approaches to the economical uses of Pd catalysts. As one method, an alkyldi-phenylphosphine 9, in which the alkyl group is a polyethylene chain, is prepared as shown. The Pd complex of this phosphine has low solubility in some organic solvents such as toluene at room temperature, and is soluble at higher temperature[28]. Pd(0)-catalyzed reactions such as an allylation reaction of nucleophiles using this complex as a catalyst proceed smoothly at higher temperatures. After the reaction, the Pd complex precipitates and is recovered when the reaction mixture is cooled. 

A common property of coordinated alkenes is their susceptibility to attack by nucleophiles such as OH , OMe , MeC02, and Cl , and it has long been known that Zeise s salt is slowly attacked by non-acidic water to give MeCHO and Pt metal, while corresponding Pd complexes are even more reactive. This forms the basis of the Wacker process (developed by J. Smidt and his colleagues at Wacker Chemie, 1959-60) for converting ethene (ethylene) into ethanal (acetaldehyde) — see Panel overleaf. 

In the Wacker process, the coordinated ethene undergoes nucleophilic attack by OH-. In the course of the redox reaction, palladium(II) is reduced... 

The relative reactivity profile of the simple alkenes toward Wacker oxidation is quite shallow and in the order ethene > propene > 1-butene > Zi-2-butene > Z-2-butene.102 This order indicates that steric factors outweigh electronic effects and is consistent with substantial nucleophilic character in the rate-determining step. (Compare with oxymercuration see Part A, Section 5.8.) The addition step is believed to occur by an internal ligand transfer through a four-center mechanism, leading to syn addition. 

The latest example of a Pdn-catalyzed Wacker/Heck methodology was published by Rawal and coworkers. During the total synthesis of mycalamide A, an inter-molecular Wacker oxidation with methanol acting as nucleophile and a subsequent ring closure via Heck reaction led to a tetrahydropyran moiety in a 5.7 1 diastereom-eric mixture [184]. 

Since nucleophilic addition to a metal-coordinated alkene generates a cr-metal species bonded to an -hybridized carbon, facile 3-H elimination may then ensue. An important example of pertinence to this mechanism is the Wacker reaction, in which alkenes are converted into carbonyl compounds by the oxidative addition of water (Equation (108)), typically in the presence of a Pd(n) catalyst and a stoichiometric reoxidant.399 When an alcohol is employed as the nucleophile instead, the reaction produces a vinyl or allylic ether as the product, thus accomplishing an etherification process. 

A survey of Wacker-type etherification reactions reveals many reports on the formation of five- and six-membered oxacycles using various internal oxygen nucleophiles. For example, phenols401,402 and aliphatic alcohols401,403-406 have been shown to be competent nucleophiles in Pd-catalyzed 6- TZ /fl-cyclization reactions that afford chromenes (Equation (109)) and dihydropyranones (Equation (110)). Also effective is the carbonyl oxygen or enol of a 1,3-diketone (Equation (111)).407 In this case, the initially formed exo-alkene is isomerized to a furan product. A similar 5-m -cyclization has been reported using an Ru(n) catalyst derived in situ from the oxidative addition of Ru3(CO)i2... 

When Wacker-type reactions are performed under a CO atmosphere, the (3-H elimination pathway can be suppressed in favor of CO insertion and subsequent nucleophilic cleavage of the acyl metal species.399 This alkoxycarbonylation process has found widespread utility, particularly in the synthesis of five- and six-membered oxacyclic natural products. For example, the THF core of tetronomycin was prepared by the Pd-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation of 4-alkenol derivatives (Equations (117) and (118)), where stereocontrol was achieved by utilizing either the directing ability of a free hydroxyl or the conformational bias imposed by a bulky silyl ether.420 Additional examples making... 

As indicated under section 2.2. the overall result is the same as that of an insertion reaction, the difference being that insertion gives rise to a yw-addition and nucleophilic attack to an anri-addition. Sometimes the two reaction types are called inner sphere and outer sphere attack. There is ample proof for the anti fashion the organic fragment can be freed from the complex by treatment with protic acids and the organic product can be analysed [19], Appropriately substituted alkenes will show the syn or anti fashion of the addition. The addition reaction of this type is the key-step in the Wacker-type processes catalysed by palladium. 

Acetaldehyde is the product of the Wacker process. At the end of the fifties oxidation of ethene to ethanal replaced the addition of water to acetylene, because the acetylene/coal-based chemistry became obsolete, and the ethene/petrochemistry entered the commercial organic chemicals scene. The acetylene route involved one of the oldest organometallics-mediated catalytic routes started up in the 1920s the catalyst system comprised mercury in sulfuric acid. Coordination of acetylene to mercury(II) activates it toward nucleophilic attack of water, but the reaction is slow and large reactor volumes of this toxic catalyst were needed. An equally slow related catalytic process, the zinc catalysed addition of carboxylic acids to acetylene, is still in use in paint manufacture. 

The Wacker-Hoechst process has been studied in great detail and in all textbooks it occurs as the example of a homogeneous catalyst system illustrating nucleophilic addition to alkenes. Divalent palladium is the oxidising agent and water is the oxygen donor according to the equation ... 

The reaction is highly exothermic as one might expect for an oxidation reaction. The mechanism is shown in Figure 15.1. Palladium chloride is the catalyst, which occurs as the tetrachloropalladate in solution, the resting state of the catalyst. Two chloride ions are replaced by water and ethene. Then the key-step occurs, the attack of a second water molecule (or hydroxide) to the ethene molecule activated towards a nucleophilic attack by co-ordination to the electrophilic palladium ion. The nucleophilic attack of a nucleophile on an alkene coordinated to palladium is typical of Wacker type reactions. 

The nucleophilic attack of the water or hydroxide species takes place in an anti fashion i.e. the oxygen attacks from outside the palladium complex and the reaction is not an insertion of ethene into the palladium oxygen bond. This has been demonstrated in a model reaction by Backvall [4], The reaction studied was the Wacker reaction of dideuterio-ethene (cis and trans) in the presence of excess of LiCl, which is needed to form 2-chloroethanol as the product instead of ethanal. The latter product would not reveal the stereochemistry of the attack Note that all of the mechanistic work has been carried out, necessarily, on systems deviating in one aspect or another from the real catalytic one. The outcome depends strongly on the concentration of chloride ions [5],... 

A development of the last two decades is the use of Wacker activation for intramolecular attack of nucleophiles to alkenes in the synthesis of organic molecules [9], In most examples, the nucleophilic attack is intramolecular, as the rates of intermolecular reactions are very low. The reaction has been applied in a large variety of organic syntheses and is usually referred to as Wacker (type) activation of alkene (or alkynes). If oxygen is the nucleophile, it is called oxypalladation [10], Figure 15.4 shows an example. During these reactions the palladium catalyst is often also a good isomerisation catalyst, which leads to the formation of several isomers. 

Figure 15.8 a simple example is presented of a subsequent insertion of CO and methanolysis of the palladium acyl intermediate [14], This is not a very common reaction, because both the ligand requirements and the redox conditions for Wacker and carbonylation chemistry are not compatible. For insertion reactions one would use cis coordinating diphosphines or diimines, which makes the palladium centre more electron-rich and thus the nucleophilic attack in the Wacker part of the scheme will be slowed down. In addition, the oxidants present may lead to catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide. 

Palladium-catalyzed addition of oxygen nucleophiles to alkenes dates back to the Wacker process and acetoxylation of ethylene (Sects. 1 and 2). In contrast, catalytic methods for intermolecular oxidative amination of alkenes (i.e., aza-Wacker reactions) have been identified only recently. Both O2 and BQ have been used as oxidants in these reactions. 

Alike olefins, allenes also undergo palladium mediated addition in the presence of N-H or O-H bonds. Although these reactions show some similarity to Wacker-type processes, from the mechanistic point of view they are quite different. Allenes, such as the cr-aminoallene in 3.69., usually undergo addition with palladium complexes (e.g. carbopalladation in 3.69. and 3.70., or hydropalladation in 3.71.), which leads to the formation of a functionalized allylpalladium complex. Subsequent intramolecular nucleophilic attack by the amino group leads to the closure of the pyrroline ring.87... 

The mechanism of vinyl acetate formation is closely related to that of the Wacker oxidation (Scheme 9.11) that is, acetoxypalladation-palladium hydride elimination takes place.498,503 The coordinated alkene is attacked by the external nucleophile acetate ion, or the attack may occur within the coordination sphere. p-Hydride elimination followed by dissociation of the coordinated molecule yields directly the vinyl acetate end product. 

In the case of certain diolefins, the palladium-carbon sigma-bonded complexes can be isolated and the stereochemistry of the addition with a variety of nucleophiles is trans (4, 5, 6). The stereochemistry of the addition-elimination reactions in the case of the monoolefins, because of the instability of the intermediate sigma-bonded complex, is not clear. It has been argued (7, 8, 9) that the chelating diolefins are atypical, and the stereochemical results cannot be extended to monoolefins since approach of an external nucleophile from the cis side presents steric problems. The trans stereochemistry has also been attributed either to the inability of the chelating diolefins to rotate 90° from the position perpendicular to the square plane of the metal complex to a position which would favor cis addition by metal and a ligand attached to it (10), or to the fact that methanol (nucleophile) does not coordinate to the metal prior to addition (11). In the Wacker Process, the kinetics of oxidation of olefins suggest, but do not require, the cis hydroxypalladation of olefins (12,13,14). The acetoxypalladation of a simple monoolefin, cyclohexene, proceeds by trans addition (15, 16). 

One of the earliest uses of palladium(II) salts to activate alkenes towards additions with oxygen nucleophiles is the industrially important Wacker process, wherein ethylene is oxidized to acetaldehyde using a palladium(II) chloride catalyst system in aqueous solution under an oxygen atmosphere with cop-per(II) chloride as a co-oxidant.1,2 The key step in this process is nucleophilic addition of water to the palladium(II)-complexed ethylene. As expected from the regioselectivity of palladium(II)-assisted addition of nucleophiles to alkenes, simple terminal alkenes are efficiently converted to methyl ketones rather than aldehydes under Wacker conditions. 

Various nucleophiles can attack coordinated alkenes. Typically the attack of OH anion on ethylene coordinated to Pd(II) as shown by 71 takes place in the Wacker process to afford acetaldehyde (72) [4], Also COD (73), coordinated to PdCl2, was shown to be attacked by carbon nucleophiles such as malonate to give 74. This reaction is the first example of carbopalladation of alkenes [5],... 

Figure 3.13 a Nucleophilic attack of water on coordinated ethene in the Wacker oxidation cycle b attack ofethoxide on coordinated... 

Occasionally hydroxylation of the carbon nucleophile is observed during Pd-cata-lyzed C-C bond formation (Scheme8.15 third reaction in Scheme8.14 [121]). These reactions may in some instances proceed by a mechanism analogous to the Wacker reaction [130], or to the hydroxylation of organometallic compounds or boranes by peroxides or air (Section 3.5). 

Wacker reactions, which is why we refer to them here [12, 15-17]. Finally, the general concept of a Wacker reaction could be regarded as the palladium-catalyzed oxidative coupling of heteronucleophiles and olefins, and this can obviously be extended to nitrogen nucleophiles and others [18] conversely, the principle of the Cu(I)/Cu(II)/02 reoxidation system for Pd(0) can be applied to other oxidation reactions (for example that of CO to C02), but the present overview is limited to sp2-C-H activation in olefins. 

If carboxylic acids and alcohols act as nucleophiles in the Wacker reaction, the products are vinyl esters or acetals, respectively. As mentioned, the substrate scope of these oxidations is usually limited to olefins not bearing hydrogen in allylic position, because of competing allylic oxidation. 

Table 5. Carboxylic acids and alcohols as nucleophiles in the Wacker oxidation ofsp -C-H bonds. 

Textbook chemistry (297,298) teaches that palladium is the preferred catalyst for aerobic oxidation of olefins. When water is the solvent, nucleophilic water addition to coordinated olefins is the key step in the so-called Wacker cycle. Wacker oxidation occurs regiospecifically because a carbonyl group is formed at that carbon atom of the double bond where the nucleophile in a Markovnikov-like addition would enter. The Wacker reaction thus yields methylketones from primary alkenes ... 

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