Electrophilic allenes participate in polar Diels–Alder reactions: study of the reactivity and site-, regio- and stereoselectivity from a molecular electron density theory perspective

Description

Alicja Bigosińska, Dominika Gondek, Luis Domingo, and Agnieszka Kącka-Zych use computer models to study how certain ring-forming reactions choose their products. Their study was published in twenty twenty-six. The reactions pair electron-hungry allenes, a class of carbon chains, with ring-shaped partners in a classic reaction type called Diels-Alder.

Working within a theory that tracks electron density, the team compared two sulfonyl allenes with two ring partners. Computed reactivity scores cast the allenes as strong electron takers and the rings as strong givers. One pairing needed little energy to start and gave off much heat, picking a single site every time. A second pairing, with an added methoxy group, started even more easily and picked one arrangement fully. The models explain the choices by which carbon forms the new bond first.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13227494