An MEDT Study of the Reaction Mechanism and Selectivity of the Hetero-Diels-Alder Reaction Between 3-Methylene-2,4-Chromandione and Methyl Vinyl Ether.

The hetero-Diels-Alder (HDA) reaction between the ambident heterodiene 3-methylene-2,4-chromandione (MCDO) and non-symmetric methyl vinyl ether (MVE) is investigated using the molecular electron density theory (MEDT) at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) computational level. The aim of this study is to gain insight into its molecular mechanism and to elucidate the factors that control the selectivity found experimentally. DFT-based reactivity indices reveal that MCDO exhibits strong electrophilic characteristics, while MVE displays a strong nucleophilic character. Meanwhile, the Parr function explains the regioselectivity of this HDA reaction. The highly polar nature of this HDA reaction, supported by the high global electron density transfer (GEDT) taking place at the transition state structures (TSs), accounts for the very low activation energy associated with the most favorable . The ambident nature of MCDO allows for the formation of two constitutional isomeric cycloadducts. In the case of MVE, selectivity is attained using a thermodynamic control. This polar HDA reaction displays an stereoselectivity and a complete regioselectivity. A comparative relative interacting atomic energy (RIAE) analysis of the two diastereomeric structures and indicates a high degree of likeness, which explains the low selectivity under kinetic control.