Bridged and unbridged norbornyl cations

The solvolysis rates and products of 6-substituted 2-norbornyl-p-toluene-sulfonates $\text{1}$ and $\text{5}$ are controlled by 1,3-bridging, i.e. by the degree of bonding between C(6) and C(2) in the intermediate norbornyl cations.     

Localization of stress-induced molecular rearrangements in collagen

Molecular rearrangements in native fibres of rat-tail tendons (RTT) and human finger flexor tendons are registered with the help of short time diffraction spectra using synchrotron radiation. There is a tension-induced increase of the 67 nm long period as well as changes in the intensities of some meridional small angle reflections (fig. 1). Both effects are reversible when unloading the fibre, but are preserved when the load is held constant until the fibre tears. The increase in the long period is due partly to an inhomogeneous molecular process as indicated by the change in the intensities and partly to a stretching of the triple helices themselves. The inhomogeneous behaviour is due to an increase of the D-stagger from 234 to for example 236 amino acid residues, caused by sliding of the triple helices relative to each other, which results in a change of the length of the gap and overlap regions. This sliding of triple helices which are aligned according to the scheme of Hodge and Petruska is coupled with a stretching of the cross-linked telopeptides. This interpretation is supported by calculated axial electron density distributions under consideration of the relative intensities derived from models with varying length of gap and overlap regions, as well as by comparison with model calculations which include telopeptides.The relevance of the molecular changes induced physically is to obtain information about the cross-linking peptides (telopeptides) by comparing these data to those obtained from pathologically altered tendon fibres, since telopeptides essentially contribute to the flux of force between sliding molecules during loading.Dedicated to Professor R. Bonart on the occasion of his 60th birthday.     

Novel molecular rearrangements of 4-hydroxy-2-cyclopentenones

Novel rearrangements of hydroxycyclopentenone derivatives 1 and 24 to 7,9,11 and 31,33,35 are reported. The stereochemistry of the rearrangement is interpreted as the result of synchronous enolate induced [1.5]-sigmatropic rearrangement and stepwise addition-elimination process. Preparation of the various substrates and structural elucidation of new products are also described.     

The mass spectra of some methyl norbornyl chlorides

The mass spectra of exo-2-norbornyl chloride, 1- and 2-methyl exo-2-norbornyl, exo-camphenilyl, apoisobornyl, bornyl and isobornyl chloride, and camphene hydrochloride, α- and β-fenchyl chloride and fenchene hydrochloride, and exo-isofenchyl chloride and 2,5,5-trimethyl exo-2-norbornylchloride, and camphene and α-fenchene have been examined at 12 to 16 and 80° eV and at 30 to 49 and 80°, or higher temperatures. Wagner-Meerwein rearrangements occur very readily in the ion source and compounds related by these rearrangements give very similar fragmentation patterns. Thermal decompositions are important with the tertiary chlorides especially at higher source temperatures. The rates of methanolysis of some of these chlorides were measured.     

Skeletal rearrangements of protonated molecular ions of some ethers

Skeletal rearrangements are reported of protonated molecular ions in the chemical ionization mass spectra of allyl cyclohexyl ether, benzyl cyclohexyl ether, t-butyl cyclohexyl ether and dibenzyl ether.     

Chelation-controlled molecular morphology: aminal to imine rearrangements

Reactions between the tripodal hydroxytriamine, 2,2-bis(aminomethyl)-3-aminopropan-1-ol, "hytame", and the isomeric pyridine aldehydes generate in all cases the tris(aminal) species based on a 1,3,5-triaza-adamantane skeleton. In all cases also, the product from water under basic conditions consists of an approximately 1:9 mixture of the triequatorial and monoaxial-diequatorial isomers. While all these tripyridyltriaza-adamantanes appear capable of acting as Lewis bases, in particular cases metal ion binding leads to a radical structural rearrangement. These cases involve the pyridine-2-aldehyde derivatives only and certain transition metal ions (notably Fe(II)), and result in the conversion of the tris(aminal) into its isomeric tris(imine) form. This is apparently favoured because it can act as a hexadentate ligand towards a single metal ion, although kinetic influences are clearly important in this chemistry because template reactions of the triamine, pyridine-2-aldehyde and several metal ions give much better yields of the tris(imine) complex than do analogous rearrangement reactions. For the low-spin, kinetically inert Fe(II) complex of the tris(imine), its formation is apparently so favourable that it is generated via aldehyde unit exchange when the aza-adamantanes derived from pyridine-3- and -4-aldehyde are heated with a mixture of Fe(II) and pyridine-2-aldehyde. When the kinetically labile Zn(II) complex is treated with EDTA, the metal ion is extracted but the released ligand does not undergo valence tautomerisation to what would be expected to be the triaxial isomer of the tripyridyltriaza-adamantane but instead rapidly undergoes partial hydrolysis before slowly forming the mixture of triequatorial and monoaxial-diequatorial isomers.     

Overlap partitioning as a tool for predicting molecular rearrangements

A partitioned total diatomic overlap is suggested as a tool for predicting the course of rearrangements in carbonium ions and other reactive intermediates by use of CNDO molecular orbital calculations.

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Zusammenfassung Ein Aufteilungsmodus für die zweiatomige Gesamt-Überlappung wird vorgeschlagen. Damit läßt sich der Verlauf von Carbonium-Umlagerungen, bzw. anderer reaktiver Zwischenstufen, mittels CNDO-Rechnungen voraussagen.

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Résumé Proposition d'un procédé de partition du recouvrement diatomique total pour la prédiction du cours des réarrangements dans les ions carbonium et autres intermédiaires réactifs par l'emploi de calculs d'orbitales moléculaires CNDO.

     

Gosteli-Claisen rearrangement of propargyl vinyl ethers: cascading molecular rearrangements

The ambivalent reactivity of 2-alkoxycarbonyl-substituted propargyl vinyl ethers has been explored. Depending on the conditions, the catalyzed and uncatalyzed Gosteli-Claisen rearrangement triggers downstream transformations that cascade from initially formed γ-allenyl α-keto esters to highly substituted furanes and cyclopentenes. In support of a mechanistic hypothesis, the results of a DFT study using the B1B95 and B3LYP functionals are revealed.     

Indium-mediated regio- and diastereoselective reduction of norbornyl alpha-diketones

A novel, efficient, and regio- as well as diastereoselective conversion of non-enolizable bicyclic alpha-diketones into synthetically useful acyloins mediated by indium metal is described. The reduction is highly diastereoselective, leading exclusively to endo-acyloins (endo-hydroxyl groups) in excellent yields, and tolerates a variety of sensitive substituents, such as acetate, ester, and bridgehead halogens. The regioselectivity in the reductions of monosubstituted alpha-diketones varied from 70:30 to 100:0 for the two possible isomeric alcohols. The methodology is extended to the synthesis of highly functionalized cyclopentane carboxaldehydes, potential building blocks in organic syntheses, by cleavage of the acyloins by treating them with Pb(OAc)4 in MeOH/PhH. Allylindium additions to carboxaldehydes 22 have been found to be highly diastereoselective.     

Isomerization of 2,5-divinyltetrahydropyran and acid-catalyzed rearrangements of isomeric novel dihydropyrans

2,5-Divinyltetrahydropyran (1) can be isomerized using a ruthenium trichloride- triphenylphosphine catalyst to give 3,4-dihydro-3-vinyl-6-ethyl-2H-pyran (2) and 3,4-dihydro-3- ethylidene-6-ethyl-2H-pyran (3). These products give a variety of rearranged products on treatment with acid. The course of the reactions can be controlled by reaction conditions to give 4-ethyltoluene (5) or 3-hydroxymethyl-1-octen-6-one (4) from 2, and 3,4-dihydro-2-methyl-3-methylene-(6-ethyl-2H- pyran (7), 2,3,4-trimethyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one (8), or 3-hydroxymethyl-2-octen-6-one (6) from 3. All of these products (4–8) can be explained as arising by the initial opening of the dihydropyran to generate an unsaturated hydroxy ketone which then cyclizes to carbocyclic products.     

Mechanism of novel consecutive rearrangements of cyclobutene-fused diphenylhomobenzoquinones catalyzed by lewis acids

Lewis acid catalyzed rearrangements of highly strained [2 + 2] photoadducts 1a-d of diphenylhomobenzoquinone with various acetylenes were investigated under the influence of AlCl(3), SnCl(4), BF(3), and TiCl(4). With the relief of steric strain, these tricyclo[5.2.0.0(3,5)]non-8-ene-2,6-diones underwent the three steps of consecutive skeletal transformations. The first step was the two-way cyclobutene ring-cleavage reaction with a Wagner-Meerwein vinyl migration to either Lewis acid activated carbonyl function. This process virtually occurred under the anchimeric assistance of the endo-phenyl ring to give, after proton transfer, the phenylene-bridged tetracyclic keto alcohols 2 and 3, respectively. The next step was the acid-induced cyclopropane ring cleavage of only 3 to lead to bicyclic diones 4 via a following stereoselective proton transfer. The last one involved a Michael-type intramolecular cyclization of 4 accompanied by a proton transfer to afford thermodynamically less stable tricyclic diones 5alpha which epimerized to 5beta only by TiCl(4). The factors that control the selectivity and the reactivity of these tandem reactions were addressed on the basis of the X-ray crystal analyses as well as the PM3 calculations. It was found the present Lewis acid-catalyzed rearrangements were very dependent on the substituents of 1a-d and the nature of the Lewis acids.