Ammonium 2026-10-20
Hydrolytic deamination 2026-10-20
Hydrolytic deamination replaces an amino group using water, releasing ammonia or ammonium according to pH. Adenosine deaminase introduces solvent oxygen at the C6 position of adenosine.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 B2 b iii Solution 2026-10-20
Warm C with dilute aqueous acid to hydrolyse the iminium ion to the second ketone. water attacks the iminium carbon, proton transfers give a carbinolamine, and C–N cleavage releases pyrrolidine, present predominantly as its ammonium salt in the acidic medium. The two carbon–carbon bonds constructed in the preceding Michael additions remain intact. This replaces the iminium nitrogen substituent by oxygen and gives the diketone D; neither oxidation of the skeleton nor reduction of the original ketone is required.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2024 Paper 2 B10 a Solution 2026-10-20
The reactive fragment is the C6 amidine-like portion of the purine ring; the N9–ribose attachment is retained. Write it locally as , with the rest of the fused ring understood. One productive acid catalysis route protonates N1, making C6 more electrophilic. water then adds at C6 while the C6=N1 pi electrons move onto N1. Subsequent proton transfers generate a carbinolamine and then a protonated amino leaving group:These are local bonding fragments: C6 retains its bond to the adjoining ring carbon at every step. In the addition step, an oxygen lone pair forms C6–O and the C6=N1 pi bond opens. During collapse, an oxygen lone pair reforms C6=O and the C6–N6 bond breaks toward the departing nitrogen. Solvent mediates each proton transfer; no direct unsupported transfer across a long distance is required.
water supplies the new C6 oxygen, and ammonia is expelled after protonation of the leaving group. Final deprotonation gives the lactam form of inosine. In acidic bulk solution the released ammonia is largely trapped as ammonium. The catalytic proton transfers regenerate acid around the substitution cycle; ammonium trapping separately affects the net proton balance. This is hydrolytic deamination, not cleavage of the glycosidic bond.
For the ordinary ester, the carbon nucleophile of a grignard reagent attacks the carbonyl carbon and moves the C=O pi pair onto oxygen. Collapse of the tetrahedral intermediate expels ethoxide, transiently giving . This ketone is more electrophilic than the starting ester because it lacks an alkoxy group's stabilizing resonance donation. A second equivalent of the grignard reagent therefore adds to it before isolation:The negatively charged intermediates are associated with magnesium counterions. Merely reducing the amount of reagent to one equivalent does not generally trap the ketone selectively; it can leave unreacted ester together with the double-addition product.
In the first successful preparation, magnesium insertion into the primary C–Br bond gives n-butylmagnesium bromide. The carbon chain has four carbons, so its acetylation produces hexan-2-one, , not pentan-2-one. Attack on acetic anhydride forms . Coordination of the anhydride-derived oxygens to magnesium can stabilize this tetrahedral addition complex. Under suitably cold, controlled-addition conditions it survives sufficiently to delay release of the free ketone until aqueous work-up has destroyed the remaining grignard reagent. Protonation followed by collapse releases acetate/acetic acid and the ketone.
This interpretation has direct experimental precedent: Melvin S. Newman and William T. Booth Jr. obtained methyl ketones by cold addition of grignard reagents to acetic anhydride, attributing selectivity to a persistent addition complex. The temperature and reagent-addition regime are genuine conditions on the explanation, rather than proof that an anhydride can never undergo overaddition; the exam scheme omits them.[ref]
The Preparation of Ketones from Grignard Reagents by Melvin S. Newman and William T. Booth Jr.. 1945, printed p. 154: proposed intermediate I and low-temperature dependence
For the benzonitrile route, n-butyl attacks the nitrile carbon and one C≡N pi pair moves to nitrogen, producing the magnesium ketimine salt . This anionic nitrogen-containing intermediate resists a second nucleophilic addition much more than a neutral carbonyl does. The ketone appears only during acidic aqueous work-up, after organomagnesium has been quenched. Protonation gives the iminium ion; water attacks its carbon, proton transfers give a carbinolamine, and C–N cleavage from its nitrogen-protonated form produces the protonated ketone and ammonia, followed by deprotonation. In the acidic mixture ammonia is present largely as ammonium. This sequence explains why nitrile addition stops at a ketone without requiring the ketone itself to be resistant to grignard reagents.
The atom-labelled hydrolysis sequence isWater's lone pair attacks the iminium carbon while its C=N pi pair moves to nitrogen; the carbinolamine oxygen then reforms C=O while the C–N pair moves to the departing protonated amino group. Final deprotonation gives the neutral ketone. The arrows involving protonation and hydrolysis also exchange protons with the acidic aqueous reservoir; the condensed sequence tracks the carbon–nitrogen and carbon–oxygen transformations rather than displaying every solvent molecule.
The target is 5-Aminohexanoic acid, . Disconnect its terminal amine/carboxylic-acid relationship through hydrolysis of 6-methylpiperidin-2-one. This six-membered lactam follows from a regioselected Beckmann ring expansion of 2-methylcyclopentanone oxime.
Start with cyclopentanone. Form its enolate with lithium diisopropylamide in dry THF at low temperature, add methyl iodide, then quench to obtain 2-methylcyclopentanone. Control the methyl iodide/base stoichiometry to suppress a second alkylation. React the ketone with hydroxylamine to form its oxime and select the geometrical oxime isomer in which the bond to the methyl-substituted adjacent ring carbon is anti to the departing oxime oxygen group.
Activate the oxime, for example under appropriate acid-promoted Beckmann conditions. The anti methyl-bearing C–C bond migrates onto nitrogen as the N–O-derived leaving group departs, inserting nitrogen between the original carbonyl carbon and the methyl-substituted ring carbon. Hydration/tautomerization gives 6-methylpiperidin-2-one. The opposite oxime geometry would insert nitrogen on the other side and ultimately place methyl at a different position in the amino acid; oxime geometry is therefore an essential part of this proposal.
Hydrolyse the lactam with aqueous acid and heat, then adjust the work-up to the desired acid/ammonium form. Cleavage of its acyl–nitrogen bond opens the ring to after suitable neutralization. All five original cyclopentanone carbons are retained, and the one methyl carbon comes from methyl iodide. A racemic mixture product is appropriate to the stereochemically unspecified target. The reaction sequence is an organic ring-expansion synthesis and requires no biological transformation.
Pyramidal inversion 2026-10-20

