The reaction of benzenesulfonyl azides with oxabicyclic alkenes to form aziridines could either proceed via initial [3 + 2] cycloaddition to form triazoline intermediates which then leads to aziridines, or via initial dinitrogen cleavage of the benzenesulfonyl azide to afford a nitrene intermediate followed by addition of this nitrene species across the olefinic C-C bond of the oxabicyclic alkene. Calculations at the DFT M06-2X/6-311G(d,p) level indicate that the initial [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction of benzenesulfonyl azide and oxabicyclic alkene has barriers of 15.0kcal/mol (endo) and 10.3kcal/mol (exo) and rate constants of 5.23 × 103s-1 (endo) and 3.86 × 106s-1 (exo) whereas the pathway involving initial formation of nitrene species has a high activation barrier of 39.2kcal/mol and rate constant of 8.92 × 10-12s-1, indicating that the reaction will go through the former route to form an exo triazoline intermediate. The exo triazoline can either undergo a concerted C-C, N-N bond cleavage to form a ring-opened intermediate, a reaction that has a barrier of 23.4kcal/mol, followed by dinitrogen extrusion and C-C, C-N bond regeneration with barriers of 29.1 and 23.5kcal/mol respectively to form endo aziridines, or it can undergo direct nitrogen extrusion to form the exo product, a reaction with a barrier of 38.3kcal/mol. Since the rate-determining step of the former route is 9.2kcal/mol more favored than the latter, the former route rate is favored. The rate constants of the rate-determining steps are 1.30 × 10-5s-1 (endo) and 3.16 × 10-11s-1 (exo), indicating that endo aziridine would be formed as the major product and this is in conformity with the experimental observations of Chen et al. (J. Org. Chem. 18:11863-11872, 2019). The position of substituents on the benzene group of the benzenesulfonyl azide affects the endo/exo diastereoselectivity.Graphical abstract.
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