Bulger AS, Turner DW, Zhou Q, Houk KN, Garg NK. Evaluation of Retro-Aldol vs Retro-Carbonyl-Ene Mechanistic Pathways in a Complexity-Generating C-C Bond Fragmentation.
Org Lett 2024;
26:3602-3606. [PMID:
38648196 PMCID:
PMC11068157 DOI:
10.1021/acs.orglett.4c01037]
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Abstract
We report an experimental and computational investigation of the likely mechanism of a cascade reaction. The reaction involves an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction, followed by a C-C bond cleavage, to afford a complex bridged bicyclic product. As multiple reaction pathways could be envisioned for the latter step, the mechanism of the C-C bond cleavage step was investigated. Two reasonable reaction pathways were evaluated. Both computations and experiments indicate that the C-C bond cleavage step proceeds by a retro-carbonyl-ene pathway rather than a retro-aldol pathway. This report underscores the synergy between computational and experimental studies and establishes the mechanism of an interesting complexity-generating transformation.
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