Lewis acid-promoted cyclization of heteroatom-substituted enynes.

Lewis acid-promoted cyclizations of heteroatom-substituted enynes have been examined. The reaction of enynes and bearing silicon substituents on an alkyne afforded the halogenated five-membered gamma-lactones and gamma-lactams as the main products. The reaction of substrates and having 2-phosphonoacrylate instead of malonate also gave halogenated five-membered cyclic compounds and as the major products. The cyclized products are highly substituted and potentially useful for further synthetic transformations.

Hybrid density functional theory studies on the magnetic interactions and the weak covalent bonding for the phenalenyl radical dimeric pair.

The phenalenyl radical (1) is a prototype of the hydrocarbon radical. Recently, the single crystal of 2,5,8-tri-tert-butylphenalenyl (2) was isolated and showed that the two phenalenyl radicals form a staggered dimeric pair, giving rise to strong antiferromagnetic interactions. The origin of the antiferromagnetic interactions and the nature of the chemical bond for the dimeric pair are challenging issues for chemists. First, spin-polarized hybrid DFT (Becke's half and half LYP (UB2LYP)) and CASSCF calculations were performed for 2 and its simplified model, the staggered-stacking phenalenyl radical dimeric pair (3a), to elucidate the origin of the strong antiferromagnetic coupling and the characteristics of the chemical bond. The calculated results showed that a SOMO-SOMO overlap effect was responsible for the strong antiferromagnetic interactions and weak or intermediate covalent bonding between phenalenyl radicals. The tert-butyl groups introduced at three beta-positions hardly affected the magnetic coupling, mainly causing steric hindrances in the crystalline state. Next, to obtain insight into ferromagnetic stacking, we investigated the stacking effect of staggered (3a)- and eclipsed (3b)-stacking phenalenyl radical dimeric pairs with a change of the SOMO-SOMO overlap on the basis of the extended McConnell model. We found that the stacking mode of the dimeric pair with both a small SOMO-SOMO overlap and a ferromagnetic spin polarization effect provided a ferromagnetic coupling.

Lewis acid promoted cyclization of enyne triesters and diesters.

Reactions of enynes with three or two ester groups (1-4) in the presence of halogen-ligand Lewis acids gave cyclized products with halide incorporation (5-8) with high generality. The cyclization process was also analyzed in a theoretical study. Facile isomerization and dehydrohalogenation of five-membered products 5 and 8 by Al(2)O(3) or Et(3)N were also observed; this process introduces conjugated moieties into the products.

Lewis Acid Promoted [2 + 1] Cycloaddition Reactions of 1-Seleno-2-silylethene with Tricarbonyl-Substituted Olefins.

The reactions of 1-seleno-2-silylethenes 1 with highly electrophilic tricarbonyl-substitued olefins in the presence of Lewis acids have been investigated. The reaction of 1-(phenylseleno)-2-(trimethylsilyl)ethene (1a) with tris(alkoxycarbonyl) olefins 2 or 1,1-bis(alkoxycarbonyl)-2-acyl olefins 3 in the presence of ZnBr(2) at -30 degrees C gave cis-substituted cyclopropanes exclusively. The origin of the cis stereochemistry is ascribed to the synclinal addition path of the ZnBr(2)-coordinated electrophilic olefin to 1. Application of the highly functionalized selenium- and silicon-substituted cyclopropane products to the preparation of a useful synthetic intermediate 20 for the pyrethroid class of insecticides is also demonstrated.