Click the structures and reaction arrows in sequence to view the 3D models and animations respectively
Why is the forward reaction favoured in the Claisen rearrangement if sigmatropic reactions are reversible? A carbonyl group results in the product (compare keto-enol stability).The [3,3] sigmatropic rearrangement can be further enhanced by having an oxygen outside the ring. This is employed in the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement, where a silyloxy group is included in the Claisen rearrangement. This has wide applications synthetically, since the silyloxy group can be easily hydrolysed, overall creating a new C-C bond in the product.
Richard Windsor – Undergraduate Final Year Project 2008
Y. Chai, S. Hong, H. A. Lindsay, C. McFarland and M. C. McIntosh, Tetrahedron, 2002, 58, 2905–2928.