N. De Kimpe

Metalated 3-halo-1-azaallylic anions are important building blocks for the preparation of a wide variety of heterocyclic and highly functionalized compounds. A theoretical description of the structural properties of halogenated 1-azaallylic anions in vacuo and in tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution is presented to gain insight into their reactivity behavior. The configurational flexibility of fluorinated and chlorinated 1-azaallylic anions is examined, and it is shown that these anions have far less configurational flexibility as compared with nonhalogenated analogues, with a strong preference to occur as Z/anti isomers. In addition, the driving force for transmetalation, that is, the replacement of the lithium cations with K+, Cu+, ZnCl+, CuCl+, or MgBr+ is studied. To obtain reliable results, the structures were modeled in THF using the combined implicit/explicit solvent approach resulting in different coordination numbers for lithium in the Z/anti and E/anti isomers. Calculations on dimerization energies show that coordination with THF is energetically preferred over aggregation.

A combined experimental and theoretical study is presented on 2-azetines, a class of azaheterocyclic compounds, which are difficult to access but have shown a unique reactivity as strained cyclic enamines. New highly substituted 2-azetines bearing aryl substituents at the 2- and 4-position were synthesized from 3,3-dichloroazetidines. Whereas 2-aryl-3,3-dichloroazetidines gave stable 2-aryl-3-chloro-2-azetines upon treatment with sodium hydride in DMSO, 2,4-diaryl-3,3-dichloroazetidines showed a remarkably different reactivity in that they afforded benzimidoyl-substituted alkynes under similar mild treatment with base. The formation of the alkynes involves electrocyclic ring opening of intermediate 2,4-diaryl-3-chloro-2-azetines and elimination of hydrogen chloride. Ab initio theoretical calculations confirmed the experimental findings and demonstrated that the 4-aryl substituent is responsible for this remarkably enhanced reactivity of 2-azetines toward electrocyclic conrotatory ring opening by a significant decrease in reaction barrier of about 30 kJ/mol. This activation effect by an aryl group in the allylic position toward electrocyclic ring opening of unsaturated four-membered rings is of general importance since a similar increased reactivity of 4-aryloxetes, 4-arylthiete-1,1-dioxides, and 3-arylcyclobutenes has been reported in literature as well.

Despite the specific importance of four-membered heterocycles with a carbon−heteroatom double bond at the 3-position in organic and medicinal chemistry, little attention has been given up to now to theoretical computational studies on these molecules. However, the overall geometry, and degree of ring puckering especially, could significantly influence the reactivity and biological properties of these four-membered ring compounds. In this paper, focus is made on the influence of different substituents on the equilibrium geometry, ring puckering potential, and thermodynamic quantities. It was found that these properties are mainly affected by the heteroatom (oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus) contained in the ring skeleton. Moreover, the correct description of the puckering potential with the hindered rotor treatment leads to substantial corrections on the thermodynamic properties in the harmonic oscillator approximation.