The first step is a vinylogous aldol condensation at C5 of the unsaturated lactam. Number nitrogen N1, the lactam carbonyl C2, and then the methoxy-substituted alkene C3=C4 and the methylene group C5.
hydroxide reversibly removes a C5 proton. The resulting vinylogous enolate is delocalized through C5–C4–C3–C2–O: it is not necessary to create an unstabilized isolated carbanion beside nitrogen. Its C5 nucleophilic contributor attacks acetone. protonation gives a C5-linked tertiary alcohol, . Further removal of the remaining C5 hydrogen and elimination through an aldol-dehydration sequence forms C5=C(Me)2, leaving the original methoxy enol ether in place.
In the second step, aqueous acid hydrolyses that enol ether to a ketone at C4. protonation at C3 gives an oxygen-stabilized cation at C4. water attacks C4, proton transfers form a hemiacetal-like intermediate, and loss of methanol followed by deprotonation produces C4=O and the C3 methylene group.
The lactam carbonyl and N–H group remain, as does the exocyclic isopropylidene group. This accounts for replacement of the C3=C4–OMe unit by C3H2–C4=O without inserting a new oxygen into the ring skeleton.
Two molecules of the aminopyridine form a self-complementary dimer through two N–H···N contacts. In each direction, one exocyclic amino hydrogen is the donor and the pyridine ring nitrogen of the other molecule is the acceptor.
Orient the two amino/pyridine-N edges toward one another, as in the second panel of the original homodimer drawing. Each molecule donates one NH and accepts at one ring N; the second amino H remains available for additional packing contacts. The chlorine substituent is retained but is not one of the two principal donor–acceptor sites.
Treat the reacting carbon skeletons as an activated glycosyl donor and a 3-substituted indole. The new linkage is an anomeric-carbon–indole-C2 carbon–carbon bond, not a bond to indole nitrogen. A plausible purely chemical pathway is a dissociative electrophilic aromatic substitution:
The drawn donor and product have opposite anomeric faces: the anomeric leaving group is on the same face as the hydroxymethyl substituent, while the new carbon substituent is on the opposite face. Thus the target has net inversion at the anomeric carbon. A tight ion pair with the departing group shielding its original face can rationalize opposite-face capture in this proposed pathway. A freely solvated planar oxocarbenium ion would not by itself guarantee exclusive inversion; competing faces, hydrolysis and other products remain possible without an experimentally specified chemical promoter. This is a plausible non-enzymatic mechanism, not a claim that the uncatalysed reaction is rapid or clean in neutral water.
Figure 1.
Original non-enzymatic C–C bond-forming mechanism with explicit reactive atoms
. Details.
Each thiocyanate is a three-metal bridge, -: its nitrogen donates to one metal and its sulfur donates to two other metals. Thus the coordination ligand is ambidentate, but the structure uses both ends and shares the sulfur donor. Each metal receives two nitrogen and four sulfur donors, giving an approximately octahedral coordination sphere. Six donor contacts per metal are consistent with two coordination ligands per metal because each coordination ligand contributes three contacts across the lattice. Sharing these contacts produces a coordination polymer within each layer; the interlayer Van der Waals force does not add coordination bonds. The index counts metal centres, whereas a hapticity label would count adjacent coordinated coordination ligand atoms and would not describe this connectivity correctly.[ref]
At fixed oxidation state, increasing effective nuclear charge across the first transition series generally contracts the ionic radius. The first expectation is therefore shorter average metal–nitrogen and metal–sulfur distances toward copper. This is a trend in comparable coordination environments, rather than a requirement that every individual contact shorten monotonically. The occupation of metal–coordination ligand antibonding orbitals, donor identity and lattice distortion all affect the observed distances.
The high-spin and ions both have two electrons in the strongly sigma-antibonding set, so adding the sixth electron to does not itself introduce another sigma-antibonding electron. Copper(II), however, has occupation and is subject to the Jahn-Teller effect. A tetragonal Jahn-Teller distortion commonly gives four shorter and two longer contacts, so an elongated copper contact can oppose the overall size trend. Here the nitrogen and sulfur donors are already chemically inequivalent; the supplied schematic alone does not determine which trans pair becomes longest. One should compare actual M–N and M–S sets separately, rather than infer a unique axis or a numerical distance from the magnetic moments. The experimentally determined structures illustrate why the donor geometry and individual contacts matter.[ref]
For A, linear nitrogen coordination with predominantly nitrile-like bonding is consistent with all three measurements:
The short C–N and long C–S distances correspond approximately to a triple bond and a single bond. An approximately nitrogen donor has its donor lone pair directed along the N–C axis, explaining the linear M–N–C angle.
For B, bent nitrogen coordination with increased chemical resonance character accounts for the longer C–N and shorter C–S bonds. In this limiting description both internal bonds have substantial double-bond character and nitrogen is approximately . One nitrogen lone pair can bind a metal with an M–N–C angle near ; alternatively, donation of both nitrogen lone pairs can give a trigonal, nitrogen-bridging unit:
The nitrogen-bridging drawing is a compatible proposed bonding mode, but the listed internal distances and one angle alone do not prove the number of attached metals. In particular, B cannot be identified simply as terminal sulfur coordination: the specified angle explicitly contains an M–N bond. resonance structures explain relative bond orders; they do not imply an isolated coordination ligand with permanently localized integer bonds.
Photoinduced CO loss gives a 16-electron fragment. In the ester-substituted complex the pendant ester carbonyl oxygen can reach chromium and capture that vacant site. A suitable structure is , retaining the coordinated arene and adding intramolecular coordination of its ester oxygen. The added oxygen lone-pair donation restores an 18-electron count. The gaseous by-product is carbon monoxide.
heptane is a poor donor, but intramolecular ligand trapping avoids needing a donor solvent. Benzene has no pendant donor. Although the methoxy group has oxygen lone pairs, its directly attached oxygen does not have the same reach and favourable geometry as the projecting ester carbonyl oxygen; possession of a lone pair alone is insufficient. For these two substrates, acetonitrile can trap the unsaturated fragment through nitrogen to give . Without a suitable trap, CO recombination can reverse the initial photochemical dissociation.
Direct iodide attack at the terminal CH2–OMs would replace the leaving group without disturbing the adjacent stereocentre, so it cannot by itself explain racemization. sulfur participation produces an intermediate with two equivalent methylene paths. Label the original S-adjacent methylene A, the stereogenic carbon C, and its CH2–OMs substituent B. The thioether sulfur attacks B intramolecularly and expels mesylate, forming a four-membered thietanium circuit S–A–C–B–S. The rest of the original six-membered ring remains as the other path between S and C.
In this bridged sulfonium ion, A and B are both CH2 groups joining the same S and C centres. Exchanging them no longer changes the labelled molecular connectivity: the distinction that made C stereogenic has been removed. iodide can open the strained intermediate by backside attack at either A or B. Opening one S–CH2 bond gives one configuration of the six-membered product, while opening its equivalent partner exchanges which methylene is in the ring and which is the iodomethyl substituent, giving the opposite configuration.
The carbon iodinated in each opening is a methylene; racemization appears at the adjacent carbon through exchange of equivalent paths. It is not inversion at a CH2 stereocentre, nor does the mesylate carbon have to form a primary free carbocation. An achiral intermediate in an achiral medium gives equal mirror-related outcomes. nitrogen participation alone in a simple terminal displacement would not provide this specific equivalent-path explanation.
Distinguish the original thiirane sulfur from the sulfur supplied by thiocyanate. sulfur attack by at one thiirane carbon opens its C– bond with inversion. This produces a thiolate at the neighbouring carbon and a C––CN group at the attacked carbon. The OH-bearing remote carbon is unaffected.
The original thiolate now attacks the nitrile carbon intramolecularly. Shift one C≡N pi pair onto nitrogen. The resulting cyclic imidodithiocarbonate has the five-membered sequence ring carbon––C(=N)––adjacent ring carbon; its two carbon atoms are also part of the original six-membered carbocycle, exactly giving the hinted bicyclic intermediate.
Collapse can reform C≡N while breaking the nitrile-carbon– bond. This transfers the CN group to and generates as the thiolate on the other ring carbon. That thiolate attacks the remaining C– bond from the back, expelling and reclosing the thiirane. Each thiirane carbon has undergone one inversion, so the new sulfur bridge lies on the opposite face; the OH configuration is retained. The thiocyanate sulfur has entered the ring and the original ring sulfur has left as thiocyanate. This atom-labelled exchange mechanism explains how the same elemental formula can conceal sulfur replacement; isotope labelling would be needed to test that exchange experimentally. A single epimerization at the OH carbon would give the wrong stereochemical outcome.
Four equivalents of base remove the four carboxylic-acid protons from two ligand molecules, giving two dianionic pyridine-2,5-dicarboxylate linkers per Pt/Mn pair. The ring nitrogen and neighbouring 2-carboxylate supply a five-membered N,O chelate. A consistent chain has Pt(II), NO, with square planar molecular geometry, and Mn(II), O, with octahedral molecular geometry.
At each Pt, two ligands bind through their ring N and one O of the adjacent 2-carboxylate; their remote 5-carboxylates point toward successive Mn sites. At each Mn, a remote carboxylate from each of two neighbouring Pt-containing units binds through both O atoms. Two coordinated water molecules complete Mn's six-coordinate sphere. The repeating connectivity, with each bracket denoting a single organic linker, is
Each Pt has a second N,O chelate extending in the opposite chain direction; each Mn similarly receives two carboxylate chelates. The original donor-connectivity diagram makes those counts explicit.
Figure 1.
A charge-balanced Pt–Mn chain model with N,O chelates at Pt and oxygen donors at Mn
. Details.
Pt(II) is and strongly favours square planar molecular geometry. Its affinity for the pyridyl N donor and the chelate effect select the mixed N,O pocket. Mn(II) is high-spin , is harder, and favours the carboxylate and water O donors; six-coordinate octahedral molecular geometry is natural in water. Charge balance per repeat is . A suitable repeat formulation is . This is a justified proposed coordination chain, not a unique crystal structure established from stoichiometry alone; water content, carboxylate bridging modes and actual porosity require structural characterization.
The anionic nitrogen donor replaces iodide to give
Here Cp denotes cyclopentadienyl and specifies attachment through the ring nitrogen of the pyrrolyl anion, . Fe(II), , receives six electrons from Cp, four from the two CO ligands and two from an N-bound pyrrolyl ligand: .
Two coupled CO stretching modes, approximately symmetric and antisymmetric combinations, account for the two strong carbonyl-region absorptions. The bent two-CO arrangement of this piano-stool complex permits both combinations to be infrared active. They are not evidence for two different chemical products.
Heating expels two CO molecules and changes the binding of the pyrrolyl ligand from to , giving the sandwich azaferrocene,
The four electrons lost with CO are replaced by the four additional electrons donated on changing the hapticity of the pyrrolyl ligand. Thus is also Fe(II), , and 18-electron: . Each complex has one time-averaged Cp proton environment, two pairs of protons from the pyrrolyl ligand, one adjacent to N and one farther from N. Hence three proton environments, with integrals , fit both structures. For proton nuclear magnetic resonance, three signals means three chemical shift environments; the individual resonances can still show coupling.
Both coordinated frequencies are substantially lower than that of free N. In a local harmonic model,
Thus coordination lowers the approximate N–N stretching force constant by about 27%, with B marginally more activated than A by this measure. Donation into N pi-antibonding orbitals provides the natural explanation: the M–N bond has an important backbonding component and N–N loses some multiple-bond character.
The same qualitative red shift occurs for CO when metal-to-CO backbonding populates CO orbitals. N is generally a poorer pi acceptor than CO, so low-valent electron-rich metal fragments are particularly helpful for stabilizing its complexes. A numerical claim that N always shifts more or less than CO would require a matched metal/ligand comparison. Neither the two frequencies nor the local-force approximation establish integer N–N bond orders, complete N–N cleavage, or catalytic nitrogen conversion; they establish significant weakening of intact coordinated N.
Number the ring with chlorine at C1 and the methylsulfonyl group at C4. The new nitro group is at C2, equivalently C6 by the starting ring's symmetry: the product is 1-chloro-2-nitro-4-(methylsulfonyl)benzene. Both substituents favour this site. Although chlorine deactivates the ring inductively, its lone pair donation stabilizes ortho/para Wheland intermediates. The sulfone is strongly electron withdrawing and meta directing; attack ortho or para to it produces especially unfavourable cationic contributors to resonance in chemistry. C2 is ortho to chlorine and meta to sulfone, whereas C3 has the opposite, less favourable relationship.
sulfuric acid protonates nitric acid, followed by loss of water to produce the nitronium ion. A ring pi bond attacks nitrogen, giving the Wheland intermediate with the new C–N bond. deprotonation at the attacked carbon restores aromaticity. This is electrophilic aromatic substitution: the aryl chloride and the sulfone both remain attached. The formula check is . It confirms replacement of one ring hydrogen rather than chlorine, but directing effects, rather than the formula alone, establish the position.
Figure 1.
Independently drawn aromatic substitution products and the sites selected by protodebromination
. Details.
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.
Number the cyclopentanone ring at its carbonyl, then at the methyl-bearing carbon, at the mesylate-bearing carbon, at the carbon joined to cyclohexane , and at the remaining methylene. B has a enone and the enamine. triethylamine removes the hydrogen at while the –O bond breaks to release mesylate. An E2 elimination, with approximately antiperiplanar geometry in the puckered ring, gives the conjugated cyclopentenone. Elimination towards instead would give a nonconjugated alkene.
The enamine carbon now attacks enone beta carbon intramolecularly. nitrogen donates into to give the iminium ion, while the enone electrons move onto the ketone oxygen. protonation of the ketone enolate gives C. The second new bond is ; the first was . These two connections account for the bridged skeleton without a concerted cycloaddition or an aldol step. The formula of B is : relative to A, elimination removes overall, namely methanesulfonic acid after proton transfers.
Figure 1.
Original atom-numbered reconstruction of intermediate B and the diaryl ether G; coloured bonds identify the subsequent cyclization and aryl migration
. Details.
The cyclohexanone enamine attacks the beta carbon of the cyclopentenone. Its nitrogen lone pair forms an iminium C=N bond as the enamine pi bond forms the new C–C bond; simultaneously the enone pi system shifts onto its oxygen. proton transfer converts the resulting cyclopentanone enolate back to the ketone.
A final iminium deprotonation regenerates an enamine, but the position of its double bond matters. Label the nitrogen-bearing cyclohexane carbon , its initially nucleophilic neighbour , and the other neighbour . After addition, bears the cyclopentanone substituent. deprotonation at gives , the less substituted, less hindered enamine drawn in A. Merely restoring the original bond would give a different regioisomer. Interconversion through the iminium ion permits this enamine regioisomerization under the reaction conditions. The methyl and mesylate substituents are spectators during this first Michael addition.
G is the diaryl ether . Here denotes the nitrogen of the intact morpholine ring; the phenoxy oxygen and phenylacetamide chain are ortho on their original ring. potassium carbonate first generates phenoxide from F. Its oxygen attacks the fluorine-bearing carbon of 1-fluoro-2-nitrobenzene, forming a Meisenheimer complex. Delocalization of its negative charge into the ortho nitro group stabilizes this addition intermediate. Fluoride elimination restores aromaticity and completes nucleophilic aromatic substitution.
This first step forms an O–aryl bond, rather than immediately arylating the less acidic alpha carbon. The neutral product has formula , obtained from the two substrates by net loss of HF. The connectivity is shown beside B in the independently drawn diagram above. The amide-substrate O-to-C migration strategy has direct primary precedent.[ref]
The phenolic O–H is most acidic; the benzylic CH2 adjacent to the amide carbonyl is second. Phenolic deprotonation gives a phenoxide stabilized by resonance in chemistry. Removing an alpha-amide C–H gives an enolate/carbanion stabilized by the carbonyl and the adjoining aryl group, but requires substantially stronger basicity for a comparable equilibrium concentration. The morpholine nitrogen is an acylated tertiary amide nitrogen and has no N–H proton. The other morpholine and aromatic C–H positions do not have the same direct carbonyl stabilization.
A and C are chiral; B is achiral. In A, a quaternary ammonium stereocenter occurs because nitrogen has four different substituents: phenyl, methyl, ethyl, and the sulfinylethyl chain. It has no nitrogen lone pair available for ordinary pyramidal inversion of an amine. The sulfoxide sulfur is also stereogenic: its pyramidal arrangement distinguishes oxygen, methyl, the nitrogen-containing chain, and the lone-pair direction. There are two independent stereocenters and no internal symmetry, giving four configurations in two pairs of enantiomers. This is chirality of the cation; a bromide counterion does not remove it.
B can adopt a trans-1,4-dimethylcyclohexane chair with both methyl groups equatorial. An inversion centre at the chair centre exchanges its opposite carbon atoms and methyl groups. Its mirror image is therefore superposable: trans substituents in a flat ring drawing do not by themselves prove chirality. ring inversion gives the less favourable diaxial conformer without changing the trans configuration.
In C, tetrahedral phosphorus has four different substituent directions: oxo, methoxy, ethoxy, and phenoxy. C has a phosphorus stereocenter. Delocalization in the P–O bonds does not make these four ligand environments identical. A tetrahedral drawing and its mirror cannot be superposed without exchanging two ligands.
Figure 1.
Original three-dimensional models of the two stereocenters in A, the inversion symmetry of trans-1,4-dimethylcyclohexane, and tetrahedral phosphorus in C
. Details.
The C–C bond anti to the activated N–O bond migrates. This is antiperiplanar migration in the Beckmann rearrangement. Donation from that sigma bond into the developing electron deficiency at nitrogen requires the appropriate antiperiplanar geometry. Migration and leaving-group departure are coupled, giving a nitrilium ion rather than an equilibrating free carbon carbocation. B places the aromatic-side bond in the migrating orientation and therefore gives D; C places the spiro-side bond in that orientation and gives E. The two products consequently record the oxime geometries. A rule based only on which group seems intrinsically more electron rich would miss this geometric constraint; retention of configuration in a migrating group is also consistent with concerted bond migration.