Benzyloxy(4-substituted benzyloxy)carbenes. Generation from oxadiazolines and fragmentation to radical pairs in solution

Abstract

Thermolysis of 2,2-dibenzyloxy-5,5-dimethyl-Δ3-1,3,4-oxadiazoline in benzene at 110°C leads to dibenzyloxycarbene. The carbene was trapped with tert-butyl alcohol to afford dibenzyl-tert-butyl orthoformate. In the absence of a trapping agent for the carbene, it fragmented to benzyloxycarbonyl and benzyl radicals, as shown by trapping the latter with TEMPO. In the absence of both TEMPO and tert-butyl alcohol, the radicals were partitioned between coupling to benzyl phenylacetate and decarboxylation, with subsequent formation of bibenzyl. The preferred sense of fragmentation of the analogous carbenes from benzyloxy-(p-substituted-benzyloxy)carbenes was determined by comparing the yields of the two possible esters, ArCH2O(CO)CH2Ph and PhCH2O(CO)CH2Ar. It was found that an electron-withdrawing group in the para position favoured fragmentation to the benzylic radical containing that group. A Hammett plot of the data gave a best fit with σ- substituent constants (r = 0.994, ρ(PhH, 110°C) = 0.7) suggesting that the fragmentation involves charge separation in the sense that increases electron density on the group that is becoming a benzylic radical and decreases electron density on the carbonyl group that is becoming the benzyloxycarbonyl radical.Key words: carbene, dibenzyloxycarbene, fragmentation, substituent effect, radical pair, TEMPO.