Anionic N-heterocyclic carbenes by decarboxylation of sydnone-4-carboxylates

Unstable N-heterocyclic carbenes can be masked and stabilized as pseudo-cross-conjugated hetarenium-carboxylates which decarboxylate on warming. This study deals with the decarboxylation of carboxylates of mesoionic compounds to generate anionic N-heterocyclic carbenes. Lithium sydnone-4-carboxylates were therefore prepared via 4-bromosydnones by halogen-lithium exchange with nBuLi and subsequent treatment with carbon dioxide. Protonation gave the corresponding sydnone-4-carboxylic acids. Thermogravimetric measurements in addition to temperature dependent IR spectroscopy proved the decarboxylation of lithium sydnone-4-carboxylates and formation of the corresponding sydnone anions which can be represented as anionic N-heterocyclic carbenes. In DMSO-d6 solution, water favors the decarboxylation. Calculations have been performed to elucidate the mechanism of the decarboxylation in the absence and presence of water.     

The Gold(I)‐Catalysed Protodecarboxylation Mechanism

A mechanistic study of the gold‐catalysed protodecarboxylation is described. Each reaction step has been investigated experimentally and computationally. More specifically, the activation parameters for the decarboxylation step have been determined through kinetic studies. Further experimental studies on the hydrolysis of the arylgold intermediate have revealed that the protodeauration can become competitive with the decarboxylation process at high conversions. This switch in rate‐limiting step has been shown to be pK_a‐dependent. These studies have been supported by DFT calculations and permit a better understanding of which prevalent features of the reaction mechanism account for the decarboxylation process.     

The influence of modified EK2010 catalyst to the decarboxylation of oleic acid

It is known that the zeolite type catalytic system is the main catalyst of decarboxylation process. However, the influence of modification of acid–base properties of this type of catalyst to the decarboxylation reaction of organic acids is not investigated widely. Therefore, the modification of the bifunctional “EK2010” catalyst with MgO is conducted in the submitted paper. The influence of this modification to the route of decarboxylation process of organic acids and yield of target products have been investigated in the example of oleic acid. It is found out that, when the basicity is increasing, the modification occurs on the surface of catalyst and the activity of the catalyst is rising and decarboxylation reaction of oleic acid is going very well. The catalysts was investigated with XRD, XRF, TGA and IR techniques.     

Density functional theory study of the mechanism of the acid-catalyzed decarboxylation of pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid and mesitoic acid

The mechanisms of the acid-catalyzed decarboxylation of pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid and mesitoic acid have been investigated based on density functional theory calculations at the B3LYP/6-311G (d,p) level. A polarizable continuum model (PCM) has been established in order to evaluate the effects of solvents on these reactions. The results of the calculations indicate that the first step of the acid-catalyzed decarboxylation of the pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid has two possible pathways,that is,the proton of H3O+ a...     

Studies on decarboxylation reactions. Part 6 . Kinetic study of decarboxylation of 5-amino-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-carboxylic acid and its N-phenyl derivatives at high hydrochloric acid concentrations

The dissociation constants (K₁) of both acids 4a-c and esters 5a-c and the rate constants of the decarboxylation reaction of acids 4a-c have been measured at various high concentrations of hydrochloric acid (0.5-8.0 M range). The results obtained have enabled us to suggest the probable structure of the zwitterion which undergoes decarboxylation.     

Making thiamin work faster: acid-promoted separation of carbon dioxide

The conjugate of thiamin and benzoylformate, mandelylthiamin (MTh), undergoes decarboxylation about 106 times slower than the analogous enzymic intermediate. It has now been discovered that the decarboxylation of MTh is accelerated by the acid component of pyridine and 4-picoline buffers. There is no role for a proton donor to stabilize the transition state for decarboxylation: catalysis must be achieved by the acid's trapping the product carbanion, preventing recarboxylation. This requires that diffusion of CO2 is rate-determining, and that protonation of the carbanion allows this to occur. This interpretation correctly predicts that the same acid components will prevent a fragmentation reaction by protonating the intermediate, which fragments only as the conjugate base.     

The photoreactions of some aryl esters Photo-Fries rearrangement vs photodecarboxylation—substituent and solvent effects

A number of substituted phenyl acetates have been irradiated by UV light. The reactions observed are: (1) cleavage of the O-acyl bond, leading to phenols, (2) photo-Fries rearrangements, leading to toluene derivatives. Methoxy substituents at the o- and/or p-positions were found to be displaced by the acyl moiety. The decarboxylation reaction is considerably enhanced by substitution at the o- and/or m-positions. In i-propanol and in cyclohexane no (or hardly any) decarboxylation is observed. In ether, however, the decarboxylation is pronounced. All these reactions proceed from the same excited state, the first excited singlet.     

Radical Chemistry Based on (+)-cis-Pinononic and (+)-CIS-Pinonic Acids

A high yield method for the preparation of (+)-cis-pinononic acid starting from the inexpensive (+)-α-pinene has been developed. The capture of the cyclobutyl radical from decarboxylation of (+)-cis-pinononic acid has been investigated. Moreover the radical decarboxylation of (+)-cis-pinonic acid to the corresponding nor-alkane was studied.     

A computational study on the decomposition of formic acid catalyzed by (H2O)x, x = 0-3: comparison of the gas-phase and aqueous-phase results

The mechanisms for the water-catalyzed decomposition of formic acid in the gas phase and aqueous phase have been studied by the high-level G2M method. Water plays an important role in the reduction of activation energies on both dehydration and decarboxylation. It was found that the dehydration is the main channel in the gas phase without any water, while the decarboxylation becomes the dominant one with water catalyzed in the gas phase and aqueous phase. The kinetics has been studied by the microcanonical RRKM in the temperature range of 200-2000 K. The predicted rate constant for the (H 2O) 3-catalyzed decarboxylation in the aqueous phase is in good agreement with the experimental data. The calculated CO 2/CO ratio is 200-74 between 600-700 K and 178-303 atm, which is consistent with the average ratio of 121 measured experimentally by Yu and Savage (ref 3).     

Kinetic isotope effects of L-Dopa decarboxylase

A mixed centroid path integral and free energy perturbation method (PI-FEP/UM) has been used to investigate the primary carbon and secondary hydrogen kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) in the amino acid decarboxylation of L-Dopa catalyzed by the enzyme L-Dopa decarboxylase (DDC) along with the corresponding uncatalyzed reaction in water. DDC is a pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) dependent enzyme. The cofactor undergoes an internal proton transfer between the zwitterionic protonated Schiff base configuration and the neutral hydroxyimine tautomer. It was found that the cofactor PLP makes significant contributions to lowering the decarboxylation barrier, while the enzyme active site provides further stabilization of the transition state. Interestingly, the O-protonated configuration is preferred both in the Michaelis complex and at the decarboxylation transition state. The computed kinetic isotope effects (KIE) on the carboxylate C-13 are consistent with that observed on decarboxylation reactions of other PLP-dependent enzymes, whereas the KIEs on the α carbon and secondary proton, which can easily be validated experimentally, may be used as a possible identification for the active form of the PLP tautomer in the active site of DDC.     

Enantioselective catalysis,C. Decarboxylation of malonic acids in the presence of copper(I) compounds — Not a copper(I) catalysis but a base effect

Summary The catalytic decarboxylation of malonic acids, claimed to be catalyzed by copper(I) compounds, has been investigated. Decarboxylation of different malonic acid derivatives (1–5) in acetonitrile was far more effective with Cu₂O than with CuCl. Thus, the decarboxylation is obviously influenced by the basicity of the anion. In the decarboxylation of phenylmalonic acid (3),bis(tricyclohexylphosphane)copper(I) hydrogenphenylmalonate (6) and potassium hydrogenphenylmalonate (7) show nearly identical rate constants. It is concluded that the monoanions of the malonic acid derivatives are the reactive species undergoing decarboxylation. Further experiments are presented which demonstrate that everything that increases the concentration of the monoanions also increases the rate of decarboxylation. In the enantioselective decarboxylation of the monoethyl ester of methylphenylmalonic acid (2), the enantiomeric excess of (S)-(+)-ethyl 2-phenylpropionate could be raised to 34.5%ee using the alkaloid cinchonine.Dedicated to Prof. Dr.J. Müller on the occasion of his 60^th birthday.     

The first branching point in porphyrin biosynthesis: a systematic docking, molecular dynamics and quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical study of substrate binding and mechanism of uroporphyrinogen-III decarboxylase

In humans, uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase is intimately involved in the synthesis of heme, where the decarboxylation of the uroporphyrinogen-III occurs in a single catalytic site. Several variants of the mechanistic proposal exist; however, the exact mechanism is still debated. Thus, using an ONIOM quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical approach, the mechanism by which uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase decarboxylates ring D of uroporphyrinogen-III has been investigated. From the study performed, it was found that both Arg37 and Arg50 are essential in the decarboxylation of ring D, where experimentally both have been shown to be critical to the catalytic behavior of the enzyme. Overall, the reaction was found to have a barrier of 10.3 kcal mol(-1) at 298.15 K. The rate-limiting step was found to be the initial proton transfer from Arg37 to the substrate before the decarboxylation. In addition, it has been found that several key interactions exist between the substrate carboxylate groups and backbone amides of various active site residues as well as several other functional groups.     

Rapid Conventional and Microwave-Assisted Decarboxylation of L-Histidine and Other Amino Acids via Organocatalysis with R-Carvone Under Superheated Conditions

This article reports a new methodology taking advantage of superheated chemistry via either microwave or conventional heating for the facile decarboxylation of alpha amino acids using the recoverable organocatalyst, R-carvone. The decarboxylation of amino acids is an important synthetic route to biologically active amines, and traditional methods of amino acid decarboxylation are time consuming (taking up to several days in the case of L-histidine), are narrow in scope, and make use of toxic catalysts. Decarboxylations of amino acids including L-histidine occur in just minutes while replacing toxic catalysts with green catalyst, spearmint oil. Yields are comparable to or exceed previous methods and purification of product ammonium chloride salts is aided by an isomerization reaction of residual catalyst to phenolic carvacrol. The method has been shown to be effective for the decarboxylations of a range of natural, synthetic, and protected amino acids.     

Studies on decarboxylation reactions. Part 5 . Micellar catalysis and mixed solvents effects on the decarboxylation of some N-alkyl- or N-aryl-substituted 5-amino-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-carboxylic acids

The effect of micelles and mixed solvents on the decarboxylation of some N-alkyl- or N-aryl-substituted 5-amino-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-carboxylic acids has been studied. The data support the unimolecular decarboxylation mechanism proposed by us. Moreover, they show that mixed solvents and micelles have different effects on reactivity of the amino acids under study.     

QM/MM metadynamics study of the direct decarboxylation mechanism for orotidine-5'-monophosphate decarboxylase using two different QM regions: acceleration too small to explain rate of enzyme catalysis

Despite decades of study, the mechanism by which orotidine-5'-monophosphate decarboxylase (ODCase) catalyzes the decarboxylation of orotidine monophosphate remains unresolved. A computational investigation of the direct decarboxylation mechanism has been performed using mixed quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) dynamics simulations. The study was performed with the program CP2K that integrates classical dynamics and ab initio dynamics based on the Born-Oppenheimer approach. Two different QM regions were explored. The free energy barriers for direct decarboxylation of orotidine-5'-monophosphate (OMP) in solution and in the enzyme (using the larger QM region) were determined with the metadynamics method to be 40 and 33 kcal/mol, respectively. The calculated change in activation free energy (DeltaDeltaG++) on going from solution to the enzyme is therefore -7 kcal/mol, far less than the experimental change of -23 kcal/ mol (for k(cat.)/k(uncat.): Radzicka, A.; Wolfenden, R., Science 1995, 267, 90-92). These results do not support the direct decarboxylation mechanism that has been proposed for the enzyme. However, in the context of QM/MM calculations, it was found that the size of the QM region has a dramatic effect on the calculated reaction barrier.     

Kinetics and mechanism of decarboxylation of aspartic acid with ninhydrin

The kinetic study of the decarboxylation of aspartic acid has been carried out at various [ninhydrin], [H⁺] and at different temperature ranging from 60–95°C. The reaction follows an irreversible first-order reaction path under pseudo first-order kinetic conditions. The variation of pseudo first-order rate constant (k_obs) with ninhydrin concentration was found to be in agreement with equation 1/k_obs = B₁ + B₂/[Ninhydrin]. One mol of carbondioxide evolved from decarboxylation of α-COOH and second mol of carbondioxide comes from the decarboxylation of β-keto acid which is an intermediate and formed during the course of ninhydrin and aspartic acid reaction. On the basis of the observed data, a possible mechanism has been proposed.     

Iron‐Catalyzed Decarboxylation of Trifluoroacetate and Its Application to the Synthesis of Trifluoromethyl Thioethers

Nucleophilic CF₃ has been generated by decarboxylation of potassium trifluoroacetate, arguably the most easy‐to‐handle, inexpensive, and sustainable source of trifluoromethyl groups. Simple iron(II) chloride catalyzes the decarboxylation as well as a subsequent trifluoromethylation of organothiocyanates, resulting in a straightforward synthesis of trifluoromethyl thioethers. The KCN byproduct is absorbed by iron(II) with formation of nontoxic potassium hexacyanoferrate. An analogous trifluoromethylation of aldehydes with trifluoroacetate underlines the synthetic potential of such iron‐catalyzed decarboxylative trifluoromethylations.     

An improved radiometric assay of plant peroxidases based in the decarboxylation of indole-3-[1-14C]acetic acid

A radiometric microassay has been developed to measure the indole-3-acetic acid oxidizing activity of plant peroxidases. This was based in a reappraisal of the pre-existing assay of the indole-3-acetic acid oxidase activity based in the decarboxylation of indole-3-[1-¹⁴C]acetic acid. The improvement consists in the measurement of the indole-3-acetic acid decarboxylation by the determination of the decrease of radioactivity due to the decarboxylation of indole-3-[1-¹⁴C]acetic acid carried out in open vessels, during the steady-state (peroxidative) phase of the oxidation rate. In contrast to the previously reported radiometric methods, the reliability (kinetic stoichiometry of the decarboxylation) of our microassay was studied, and it was supported by the fact that, for steady-state conditions, a kinetic correlation between the disappearance of labelled substrate and the appearance of the first decarboxylate product takes place. The sensitivity and reproducibility of the improved assay was tested with crude protein samples taken from cellular homogenates of lupin hypocotyls.     

Carbon-13 fractionation observed in thermal decarboxylation of pure phenylpropiolic acid (PPA) dissolved in phenylacetylene

The determinations of the ¹³C fractionation in the decarboxylation of pure phenylpropiolic acid (PPA) above its melting point has been extended to higher degrees of decomposition of PPA by carrying out two-step decarboxylations to establish the maximum possible yield of carbon dioxide in the temperature interval of 423-475 K (58%). The result was compared with the yields of CO₂ for decarboxylation of PPA in phenylacetylene solvent (PA) (much smaller, temperature dependent, and equal to 11% at 406 K). The ratios of carbon isotope ratios, R _so/R _pf, all smaller than 1.009 in the temperature interval 405-475 K, have been analyzed formally within the branched decomposition scheme of PPA, providing carbon dioxide and a decarboxylation resistant solid chemical compound enriched in ¹³C with respect to CO₂. A general discussion of the ¹³C fractionation in the decarboxylation of pure PPA and PPA dissolved in PA is supplemented by the model calculation of the maximized skeletal ¹³C KIEs, in the linear chain propagation of the acetylene polymerization process. Further studies of the ¹³C fractionation in condensed phases and in different hydrogen defficient and hydrogen rich media have been suggested.     

Decarboxylation of indole-3-carboxylic acids under metal-free conditions

Abstract

Two reaction systems have been developed for the decarboxylation of indole-3-carboxylic acids. The decarboxylation can be achieved smoothly under K₂CO₃-catalyzed or acetonitrile-promoted basic conditions. It provided an efficient and simple method for the transformation of indole-3-carboxylic acids and the corresponding indoles were isolated with good to excellent yields. From the experimental facts, we put forward the possible reaction mechanism.