Cyclopropylketenes: preparation and nucleophilic additions

Phenylcyclopropylketene (4), tert-butylcyclopropylketene (5), and dicyclopropylketene (6) were formed by dehydrochlorination of the corresponding acyl chlorides by Et3N in THF, and are the first cyclopropylketenes to be isolated and purified. Reaction of 4 with n-BuLi and capture of the intermediate enolates with Me3SiCl gave the stereoisomeric silyl enol ethers c-PrCPh=C(OSiMe3)-n-Bu with a 79:21 preference for formation of the Z isomer resulting from nucleophilic attack syn to cyclopropyl, whereas the corresponding reaction of t-BuLi gave a 9:91 preference for attack anti to cyclopropyl. Some isopropyl-, cyclopentyl-, and cyclohexylketenes gave comparable results. Analyses of the relative sizes of the ketene substituents in the ground state by steric parameters, and of the product stabilities by molecular mechanics, both fail to predict the observed similarities in the results with different secondary alkyl groups. The hydration reactivities of 4 and 6 show that, in neutral H2O/CH3CN, c-PrCPh=C=O is more reactive than i-PrCPh=C=O, a result ascribed as mainly due to the smaller size of cyclopropyl. c-Pr2C=C=O has the same reactivity in neutral water as Et2C=C=O, but is 22 times less reactive with acid, a result attributed to the inability of the β-cyclopropyl groups to directly stabilize the cationic transition state for protonation. Key words: cyclopropylketenes, ketenes, nucleophilic addition, hydration kinetics.