Prins Reaction - Reaction Mechanism

Reaction Mechanism

The reaction mechanism for this reaction is depicted in scheme 5. The carbonyl reactant (2) is protonated by a protic acid and for the resulting oxonium ion 3 two resonance structures can be drawn. This electrophile engages in an electrophilic addition with the alkene to the carbocationic intermediate 4. Exactly how much positive charge is present on the secondary carbon atom in this intermediate should be determined for each reaction set. Evidence exists for neighbouring group participation of the hydroxyl oxygen or its neighboring carbon atom. When the overall reaction has a high degree of concertedness, the charge built-up will be modest.

The three reaction modes open to this oxo-carbenium intermediate are:

• in blue: capture of the carbocation by water or any suitable nucleophile through 5 to the 1,3-adduct 6.
• in black: proton abstraction in an elimination reaction to unsaturated compound 7. When the alkene carries a methylene group, elimination and addition can be concerted with transfer of an allyl proton to the carbonyl group which in effect is an ene reaction in scheme 6.

• in green: capture of the carbocation by additional carbonyl reactant. In this mode the positive charge is dispersed over oxygen and carbon in the resonance structures 8a and 8b. Ring closure leads through intermediate 9 to the dioxane 10. An example is the conversion of styrene to 4-phenyl-m-dioxane.
• in gray: only in specific reactions and when the carbocation is very stable the reaction takes a shortcut to the oxetane 12. The photochemical Paternò–Büchi reaction between alkenes and aldehydes to oxetanes is more straightforward.