Density functional theory study of the mechanism of zinc carbenoid promoted cyclopropanation of allenamides

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The mono- and bis-cyclopropanation of allenamides with the zinc carbenoid Zn(CH2Cl)2 have been studied using density functional theory calculations employing the M06 functional. The monomeric and dimeric precursor complexes were both constructed to model the reaction processes. In the monomeric reaction, the formation of the endo-monocyclopropyl species takes place via a methylene transfer pathway rather than a carbometalation pathway. The formation of the exo-monocyclopropyl species does not readily occur via a methylene transfer pathway due to a high activation barrier. The corresponding carbometalation pathway was not able to be found. Following the monocyclopropanation step, the biscyclopropanation of the endo-monocyclopropyl species is facile to form amidospiro[2.2]pentane. In the aggregation model, the allenamides and the zinc carbenoid form a dimer aggregate that is then followed by two pathways. One pathway takes place via transition states inside the aggregate structure (denoted here as a closed-mode process) while the other pathway introduces another zinc carbenoid molecule from outside the aggregation species (denoted here as an open-mode process). The aggregate mechanisms are not favored because the dimeric reactant of the open-mode process is not stable to coexist with the monomer and the activation barriers of the two aggregate pathways are higher than those of the monomeric pathways. The calculation results show that the key factors in the reaction mechanisms are the co-planarity of the allenic moiety with the oxazolidinone ring, the torsional strain in the butterfly-type transition state, the ring strain in the substrate–carbenoid complexes and the coordination between the carbenoid-Zn and O(CO) atoms and other long-distance interactions.