An AM1 theoretical study on the effect of Zn2+ Lewis acid catalysis on the mechanism of the cycloaddition between 3-phenyl-1-(2-pyridyl)-2-propen-1-one and cyclopentadiene

Cobalt(II)-Catalyzed Intermolecular Diels−Alder Reaction of Piperine

[reaction: see text] An intermolecular cobalt-phosphine-catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction of piperine is described. The dimerization of piperine in the presence of cobalt-phosphine complexes gave much better yields than that in the presence of only cobalt, which, combined with the result under the purely thermal conditions, indicates that addition of phosphine ligands changes the inhibition of cobalt to the reaction into promotion. For elucidation of the distinction, different cobalt-catalyzed mechanisms were proposed for the Diels-Alder dimerization of piperine.

Kinetics study and theoretical modeling of the Diels-Alder reactions of cyclopentadiene and cyclohexadiene with methyl vinyl ketone. The effects of a novel organotungsten catalyst

The Diels-Alder reaction rate constants of methyl vinyl ketone with cyclopentadiene and cyclohexadiene in the presence of a novel organotungsten catalyst, [P(2-py)(3)W(CO)(NO)(2)](2+), have been measured experimentally and modeled theoretically at several temperatures. The uncatalyzed systems were also studied for direct comparison. When 0.0022 M of catalyst is present at room temperature, the rate constants were found to be approximately 5.3 and 5300 times higher than the corresponding uncatalyzed reactions for cyclopentadiene and cyclohexadiene systems, respectively. Experimental data suggested that the catalyst reduced the activation energies by 5-10 kcal/mol. However, the preexponential factors showed reduction of more than 3 orders of magnitude upon catalysis due to the entropic effects. The energy barriers and the rate constants of the uncatalyzed systems were accurately modeled by correlated electronic structure and dual-level variational transition state theory calculation. The calculated endo selectivity is in good agreement with the observed product distribution. Theoretical calculation also suggested the catalyzed reactions proceeded in a highly asynchronous or even stepwise fashion.