In organic chemistry, an alkene, or olefin, is a hydrocarbon containing a carbon–carbon double bond. The double bond may be internal or in the terminal position. Terminal alkenes are also known as α-olefins.
Elias James Corey is an American organic chemist. In 1990, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis", specifically retrosynthetic analysis.
The Wittig reaction or Wittig olefination is a chemical reaction of an aldehyde or ketone with a triphenyl phosphonium ylide called a Wittig reagent. Wittig reactions are most commonly used to convert aldehydes and ketones to alkenes. Most often, the Wittig reaction is used to introduce a methylene group using methylenetriphenylphosphorane (Ph3P=CH2). Using this reagent, even a sterically hindered ketone such as camphor can be converted to its methylene derivative.
The Shapiro reaction or tosylhydrazone decomposition is an organic reaction in which a ketone or aldehyde is converted to an alkene through an intermediate hydrazone in the presence of 2 equivalents of organolithium reagent. The reaction was discovered by Robert H. Shapiro in 1967. The Shapiro reaction was used in the Nicolaou Taxol total synthesis. This reaction is very similar to the Bamford–Stevens reaction, which also involves the basic decomposition of tosyl hydrazones.
The Peterson olefination is the chemical reaction of α-silyl carbanions with ketones to form a β-hydroxysilane (2) which eliminates to form alkenes (3).
The Barton–Kellogg reaction is a coupling reaction between a diazo compound and a thioketone, giving an alkene by way of an episulfide intermediate. The Barton–Kellogg reaction is also known as Barton–Kellogg olefination and Barton olefin synthesis.
The Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons (HWE) reaction is a chemical reaction used in organic chemistry of stabilized phosphonate carbanions with aldehydes to produce predominantly E-alkenes.
The Prins reaction is an organic reaction consisting of an electrophilic addition of an aldehyde or ketone to an alkene or alkyne followed by capture of a nucleophile or elimination of an H+ ion. The outcome of the reaction depends on reaction conditions. With water and a protic acid such as sulfuric acid as the reaction medium and formaldehyde the reaction product is a 1,3-diol (3). When water is absent, the cationic intermediate loses a proton to give an allylic alcohol (4). With an excess of formaldehyde and a low reaction temperature the reaction product is a dioxane (5). When water is replaced by acetic acid the corresponding esters are formed.
Tebbe's reagent is the organometallic compound with the formula (C5H5)2TiCH2ClAl(CH3)2. It is used in the methylidenation of carbonyl compounds, that is it converts organic compounds containing the R2C=O group into the related R2C=CH2 derivative. It is a red solid that is pyrophoric in the air, and thus is typically handled with air-free techniques. It was originally synthesized by Fred Tebbe at DuPont Central Research.
Asymmetric induction describes the preferential formation in a chemical reaction of one enantiomer or diastereoisomer over the other as a result of the influence of a chiral feature present in the substrate, reagent, catalyst or environment. Asymmetric induction is a key element in asymmetric synthesis.
The Corey–Winter olefin synthesis is a series of chemical reactions for converting 1,2-diols into olefins. It is named for the American chemist and Nobelist Elias James Corey and the American-Estonian chemist Roland Arthur Edwin Winter.
In organic chemistry, the Ei mechanism, also known as a thermal syn elimination or a pericyclic syn elimination, is a special type of elimination reaction in which two vicinal (adjacent) substituents on an alkane framework leave simultaneously via a cyclic transition state to form an alkene in a syn elimination. This type of elimination is unique because it is thermally activated and does not require additional reagents, unlike regular eliminations, which require an acid or base, or would in many cases involve charged intermediates. This reaction mechanism is often found in pyrolysis.
Takai olefination in organic chemistry describes the organic reaction of an aldehyde with a diorganochromium compound to form an alkene. It is a name reaction, named for Kazuhiko Takai, who first reported it in 1986. In the original reaction, the organochromium species is generated from iodoform or bromoform and an excess of chromium(II) chloride and the product is a vinyl halide. One main advantage of this reaction is the E-configuration of the double bond that is formed. According to the original report, existing alternatives such as the Wittig reaction only gave mixtures.
The [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement is the transformation of an allylic ether into a homoallylic alcohol via a concerted, pericyclic process. Because the reaction is concerted, it exhibits a high degree of stereocontrol, and can be employed early in a synthetic route to establish stereochemistry. The Wittig rearrangement requires strongly basic conditions, however, as a carbanion intermediate is essential. [1,2]-Wittig rearrangement is a competitive process.
Desulfonylation reactions are chemical reactions leading to the removal of a sulfonyl group from organic compounds. As the sulfonyl functional group is electron-withdrawing, methods for cleaving the sulfur–carbon bonds of sulfones are typically reductive in nature. Olefination or replacement with hydrogen may be accomplished using reductive desulfonylation methods.
In organic chemistry, the Baylis–Hillman, Morita–Baylis–Hillman, or MBH reaction is a carbon-carbon bond-forming reaction between an activated alkene and a carbon electrophile in the presence of a nucleophilic catalyst, such as a tertiary amine or phosphine. The product is densely functionalized, joining the alkene at the α-position to a reduced form of the electrophile.
In organic chemistry, a vinyl iodide functional group is an alkene with one or more iodide substituents. Vinyl iodides are versatile molecules that serve as important building blocks and precursors in organic synthesis. They are commonly used in carbon-carbon forming reactions in transition-metal catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, such as Stille reaction, Heck reaction, Sonogashira coupling, and Suzuki coupling. Synthesis of well-defined geometry or complexity vinyl iodide is important in stereoselective synthesis of natural products and drugs.
William Clark Still is an American organic chemist. As a distinguished professor at Columbia University, Clark Still made significant contributions to the field of organic chemistry, particularly in the areas of natural product synthesis, reaction development, conformational analysis, macrocyclic stereocontrol, and computational chemistry. Still and coworkers also developed the purification technique known as flash column chromatography which is widely used for the purification of organic compounds.
Carbonyl olefin metathesis is a type of metathesis reaction that entails, formally, the redistribution of fragments of an alkene and a carbonyl by the scission and regeneration of carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen double bonds respectively. It is a powerful method in organic synthesis using simple carbonyls and olefins and converting them into less accessible products with higher structural complexity.
