[reaction: see text] A combination of NMR, IR, and ab initio techniques reveals the striking structural similarities of an exemplary H-bonded complex of an N-acyloxazolidinone with an N,N'-disubstituted electron-poor thiourea and the corresponding Lewis acid complex. Although the H-bond association constant is lower than for the Lewis acid adduct, Diels-Alder reactions are accelerated and stereochemically altered in a fashion similar to weak Lewis acids.

We examined the catalytic activity of substituted thioureas in a series of Diels-Alder reactions and 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions. The kinetic data reveal that the observed accelerations in the relative rates are more dependent on the thiourea substituents than on the reactants or solvent. Although the catalytic effectiveness is the strongest in noncoordinating, nonpolar solvents, such as cyclohexane, it is also present in highly coordinating polar solvents, such as water. In 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, the thiourea catalysts demonstrate only very moderate selectivity for reactions with inverse electron demand. Our experiments emphasize that both hydrophobic and polar interactions can co-exist, making these catalysts active, even in highly coordinating solvents. This class of catalysts increases the reaction rates and endo-selectivities of Diels-Alder reactions, in a similar manner to weak Lewis acids, without concomitant product inhibition.

Apart from the well-known Bergman, Myers-Saito, and Schmittel ring closure reactions of parent enediyne (4) and enyne-allene (3), novel cyclization modes were identified using density functional (DFT) and coupledcluster methods. The geometries obtained with several DFT functionals are quite similar; for consistency's sake, we employed BLYP/6-31G* geometries; Brueckner double energy single points [BCCD(T)/cc-pVDZ] on these geometries were used to determine the relative energies. The C 1 -C 5 cyclization of 4 leading to fulvene biradical 8 is 40 kcal mol -1 endothermic, and the product lies 31 kcal mol -1 above 1,4-didehydrobenzene 7 because of the lack of aromatic stabilization. The heat of formation (∆ f H°) of 8 is predicted to be 172.0 ( 1.0 kcal mol -1 . Yet another ring closure of 4 leading to dimethylenecyclobutene biradical 12 is 69 kcal mol -1 endothermic and is hardly of preparative interest. A new cyclization of 3 should lead to the sevenmembered ring biradical 13, which is located 33 kcal mol -1 above 3 and 24 kcal mol -1 above the Schmittel product 6. As the transition structure for both cyclizations differ by 11 kcal mol -1 , 13 may form under suitable conditions. All other possible modes of cyclization of 4 did not lead to stable products. Benzannelation has a significant effect on the endothermicities of the Bergman and Myers-Saito cyclizations, which are 8-9 kcal mol -1 above the parent reactions due to reduced aromatization energy in the naphthalene derivatives. The endothermicities of the other cyclization pathways are largely unaffected by benzannelation.

The Bergman cyclization of (Z)-hex-3-ene-1,5-diynes (1, enediynes), which produces pharmacologically important DNA-cleaving biradicals (1,4-benzyne, 2), was studied by using Hartree-Fock (HF) and density-functional theory (DFT) based valence bond (VB) methods (VB-HF and VB-DFT, respectively). We found that only three VB configurations are needed to arrive at results not too far from complete active space [CASSCF(6 x 6)] computations, while the quality of VB-DTF utilizing the same three configurations improves upon CASSCF(6 x 6) analogous to CASPT2. The dominant VB configuration in 1 contributes little to 2, while the most important biradical configuration in 2 plays a negligible role in 1. The avoided crossing of the energy curves of these two configurations along the reaction coordinate leads to the transition state (TS). As a consequence of the shape and position of the crossing section, the changes in geometry and in the electronic wavefunction along the reaction coordinate are non-synchronous; the TS is geometrically approximately 80% product-like and electronically approximately 70% reactant-like. While the pi resonance in the TS is very small, it is large (64.4 kcal mol(-1)) for 2 (cf. benzene=61.5 kcal mol(-1)). As a consequence, substituents operating on the sigma electrons should be much more effective in changing the Bergman reaction cyclization barrier. Furthermore, additional sigma resonance in 2 results in unusually high values for the nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICS, a direct measure for aromaticity). Similarly, the high NICS value of the TS is due mostly to sigma resonance to which the NICS procedure is relatively sensitive.