[jena]

Hi,

Does anyone know where I could get a good picture of the Wittig mechanism? I looked every where and I couldn't find a good one.

Thank You

[AWK]

http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/anisamples/chemistry/wittig.html
http://www.tulane.edu/~murthy/c242/wittig.pdf
http://clem.mscd.edu/~wiederm/401chp/unit3chp/ylideschp/
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mwalter/web_05/resources/phos_chem/org_phosph_chem.shtml
http://www.mnstate.edu/jasperse/Chem365/Wittig.doc.pdf

[ksr985]

There are actually a few interpretations of the Wittig rxn mechanism, depending on the solvent, and some special mechanisms have also been proposed. There are also arguements regarding whether the betaine actually exists in solution, and NMR studies have been performed to determine that. A simplified idea of the mechanism can be found in Clayden Wothers. However i suggest you look up the following papers:

 Bestmann, Pure Appl. Chem. 52,  771-788 (1980)
 Speziale, Bissing, JACS ,85, 3878 (1963)
 Olah, K’murthy JACS, 104, 3987 (1982)
 Allean, Heatley, Hutley, Mellor, J. Chem. Soc. Perkin rans 1, 2529 (1976

There are other papers too, but i found these particularly interesting.

This is actually one of my, um, favourite reactions. If you are really interested, check out the following papers. i found them very interesting:

Ando, J. Org. Chem., 62, 1934-1939 (1997)

Blanchette, Choy, Davis, Essenfeld, Masamune, Roush, Sakai, Tetrahedron Lett., 25, 2183-2186 (1984)

Schlosser, Christmann, Piskala, Coffinet, Synthesis, 29 (1971)

Boden, Synthesis, 784 (1975)

[Mitch]

I've added it to our name reactions section. Link is to your left.