N. De Kimpe

The Michael-induced ring closure (MIRC) of amines with 2-bromoalkylidenemalonates has been reinvestigated and the reaction products with primary amines have been identified as (2-iminoethyl)malonates and not 2-aminoalkylidenemalonates as previously reported. The (2-iminoethyl)malonates are formed by ring opening of the intermediate unstable 2-aminocyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylates (beta-ACCs) and were characterized spectroscopically and via chemical transformation.

The ring opening of 2-substituted N,N-dibenzylaziridinium ions by bromide is known to occur exclusively at the substituted aziridine carbon atom via an SN2 mechanism, whereas the opposite regioselectivity has been observed as the main pathway for ring opening by fluoride. Similarly, the hydride-induced ring opening of 2-substituted N,N-dibenzylaziridinium ions has been shown to take place solely at the less hindered position. To gain insight into the main factors causing this difference in regioselectivity, a thorough and detailed computational analysis was performed on the hydride- and halide-induced ring openings of 1-benzyl-1-(α-(R)-methylbenzyl)-2(S)-(phenoxymethyl)aziridinium bromide. Intramolecular π−π stacking interactions in the aziridinium system were investigated at a range of levels that enable a proper description of dispersive interactions; a T-stacking conformer was found to be the most stable. Ring-opening mechanisms were investigated with a variety of DFT and high level ab initio methods to test the robustness of the energetics along the pathway in terms of the electronic level of theory. The necessity to utilize explicit solvent molecules to solvate halide ions was clearly shown; the potential energy surfaces for nonsolvated and solvated cases differed dramatically. It was shown that in the presence of a kinetically viable route, product distribution will be dictated by the energetically preferred pathway; this was observed in the case of hard nucleophiles (both hydride donors and fluoride). However, for the highly polarizable soft nucleophile (bromide), it was shown that in the absence of a large energy difference between transition states leading to competing pathways, the formation of the thermodynamic product is likely to be the driving force. Distortion/interaction analysis on the transition states has shown a considerable difference in interaction energies for the solvated fluoride case, pointing to the fact that sterics plays a major role in the outcome, whereas for the bromide this difference was insignificant, suggesting bromide is less influenced by the difference in sterics.

The ring-opening reactions of 2-alkyl-substituted 1,1-bis(arylmethyl)- and 1-methyl-1-(1-phenylethyl)aziridinium salts with fluoride, chloride, bromide and iodide in acetonitrile have been evaluated for the first time in a systematic way. The reactions with fluoride afforded regioisomeric mixtures of primary and secondary fluorides, whereas secondary β-chloro, β-bromo and β-iodo amines were obtained as the sole reaction products from the corresponding halides by regiospecific ring opening at the substituted position. Both experimental and computational results revealed that the reaction outcomes in the cases of chloride, bromide and iodide were dictated by product stability through thermodynamic control involving rearrangement of the initially formed primary halides to the more stable secondary halides. The ring opening of the same aziridinium salts with fluoride, however, was shown to be mediated by steric interactions (kinetic control), with the corresponding primary β-fluoro amines being obtained as the main reaction products. Only for 2-acylaziridinium ions was the reaction outcome shown to be under full substrate control, affording secondary β-fluoro, β-chloro, β-bromo and β-iodo amines through exclusive attack at the activated α-carbonyl carbon atom.

The synthetic utility of N-alkylidene-(2,3-dibromo-2-methylpropyl)amines and N-(2,3-dibromo-2-methylpropylidene)benzylamines was demonstrated by the unexpected synthesis of 3-methoxy-3-methylazetidines upon treatment with sodium borohydride in methanol under reflux through a rare aziridine to azetidine rearrangement. These findings stand in contrast to the known reactivity of the closely related N-alkylidene-(2,3-dibromopropyl)amines, which are easily converted into 2-(bromomethyl)aziridines under the same reaction conditions. A thorough insight into the reaction mechanism was provided by both experimental study and theoretical rationalization.