Wiberg-type silenes cycloadditions

The reactions with quadricyclane, shown in Eq. (31), gave products identical to those formed by the same silene reacting in a [2 + 2] manner with norbornene. Mixtures of exo endo isomers were frequently observed. Again, only silenes of the Auner type have been studied with this reagent,51-53,185,188 so it is not known whether the Wiberg- or Brook-type silenes will undergo this mode of cycloaddition. 

Wiberg and coworkers published relative rate constants and the products of reaction of silene 6 with a number of alkenes and dienes in ether solution at 100 °C6 106-108. These data are listed in Table 2 along with an indication of the type of product formed in each case. As is the norm in Diels-Alder additions by more conventional dienophiles, the rate of [2 + 4]-cycloaddition of 6 to dienes increases with sequential methyl substitution in the 2- and 3-positions of the diene, as is illustrated by the data for 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene (DMB), isoprene and 1,3-butadiene. The well-known effects of methyl substitution at the 1- and 4-positions of the diene in conventional Diels-Alder chemistry are also reflected with 6 as the dienophile. For example, lruns-1,3-pen tadiene reacts significantly faster than the f/.v-isorrier, an effect that has been attributed to steric destabilization of the transition state for [2 + 4]-cycloaddition. In fact, the reaction of c/s-l,3-pentadiene with 6 yields silacyclobutane adducts, while the trans-diene reacts by [2 + 4]-cycloaddition108. No detectable reaction occurs with 2,5-dimethyl-2,4-hexadiene. The reaction of 6 with isoprene occurs regioselectively to yield adducts 65a and 65b in the ratio 65a 65b = 8.5 (equation 50)106,107. 

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