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Concept
Nucleophilic conjugate addition
Summary
Nucleophilic conjugate addition is a type of organic reaction. Ordinary nucleophilic additions or 1,2-nucleophilic additions deal mostly with additions to carbonyl compounds. Simple alkene compounds do not show 1,2 reactivity due to lack of polarity, unless the alkene is activated with special substituents. With α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds such as cyclohexenone it can be deduced from resonance structures that the β position is an electrophilic site which can react with a nucleophile. The negative charge in these structures is stored as an alkoxide anion. Such a nucleophilic addition is called a nucleophilic conjugate addition or 1,4-nucleophilic addition. The most important active alkenes are the aforementioned conjugated carbonyls and acrylonitriles.
Conjugate addition is the vinylogous counterpart of direct nucleophilic addition. A nucleophile reacts with a α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compound in the β position. The negative charge carried by the nucleophile is now delocalized in the alkoxide anion and the α carbon carbanion by resonance. Protonation leads through keto-enol tautomerism to the saturated carbonyl compound. In vicinal difunctionalization the proton is replaced by another electrophile.
Conjugated carbonyls react with secondary amines to form 3-aminocarbonyls (3-ketoamines). For example, the conjugate addition of methylamine to cyclohexen-2-one gives the compound 3-(N-methylamino)-cyclohexanone.
Conjugated carbonyls react with hydrogen cyanide to 1,4-keto-nitriles. See hydrocyanation of unsaturated carbonyls. In the Nagata reaction the cyanide source is diethylaluminum cyanide.
The Gilman reagent is an effective nucleophile for 1,4-additions to conjugated carbonyls.
The Michael reaction involves conjugate additions of enolates to conjugated carbonyls.
The Stork enamine reaction involves the conjugate addition of enamines to conjugated carbonyls.
Conjugate addition is effective in the formation of new carbon-carbon bonds with the help of organometallic reagents such as the organozinc iodide reaction with methylvinylketone.
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Related concepts (8)
Α,β-Unsaturated carbonyl compound
α,β-Unsaturated carbonyl compounds are organic compounds with the general structure (O=CR)−Cα=Cβ-R. Such compounds include enones and enals. In these compounds the carbonyl group is conjugated with an alkene (hence the adjective unsaturated). Unlike the case for carbonyls without a flanking alkene group, α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds are susceptible to attack by nucleophiles at the β-carbon. This pattern of reactivity is called vinylogous. Examples of unsaturated carbonyls are acrolein (propenal), mesityl oxide, acrylic acid, and maleic acid.
Allyl group
In organic chemistry, an allyl group is a substituent with the structural formula . It consists of a methylene bridge () attached to a vinyl group (). The name is derived from the scientific name for garlic, Allium sativum. In 1844, Theodor Wertheim isolated an allyl derivative from garlic oil and named it "Schwefelallyl". The term allyl applies to many compounds related to , some of which are of practical or of everyday importance, for example, allyl chloride. Allylation is any chemical reaction that adds an allyl group to a substrate.
Enolate
In organic chemistry, enolates are organic anions derived from the deprotonation of carbonyl () compounds. Rarely isolated, they are widely used as reagents in the synthesis of organic compounds. Enolate anions are electronically related to allyl anions. The anionic charge is delocalized over the oxygen and the two carbon sites. Thus they have the character of both an alkoxide and a carbanion. Although they are often drawn as being simple salts, in fact they adopt complicated structures often featuring aggregates.