Open AccessMigratory Aptitudes in Rearrangements of Destabilized Vinyl Cations
Author(s) -
Sarah Cleary,
Magenta J Hensinger,
ZhiXin Qin,
Xin Hong,
Matthias Brewer
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of organic chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.2
H-Index - 228
eISSN - 1520-6904
pISSN - 0022-3263
DOI - 10.1021/acs.joc.9b02130
Subject(s) - chemistry , alkene , substituent , cationic polymerization , lewis acids and bases , cope rearrangement , medicinal chemistry , photochemistry , stereochemistry , organic chemistry , catalysis
The Lewis acid-promoted generation of destabilized vinyl cations from β-hydroxy diazo ketones leads to an energetically favorable 1,2-shift across the alkene followed by an irreversible C-H insertion to give cyclopentenone products. This reaction sequence overcomes typical challenges of counter-ion trapping and rearrangement reversibility of vinyl cations and has been used to study the migratory aptitudes of nonequivalent substituents in an uncommon C(sp 2 ) to C(sp) vinyl cation rearrangement. The migratory aptitude trends were consistent with those observed in other cationic rearrangements; the substituent that can best stabilize a cation more readily migrates. However, density functional theory calculations show that the situation is more complex. Selectivity in the formation of one conformational isomer of the vinyl cation and facial selective migration across the alkene due to an electrostatic interaction between the vinyl cation and the adjacent carbonyl oxygen work in concert to determine which group migrates. This study provides valuable insight into predicting migration preferences when applying this methodology to the synthesis of structurally complex cyclopentenones that are differentially substituted at the α and β positions.