heterocyclic
(adjective)
Having one or more atoms other than carbon in at least one of its rings.
Examples of heterocyclic in the following topics:
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Nomenclature
- Consistent use of "etine" and "oline" as a suffix for 4 & 5-membered unsaturated heterocycles is prevented by their former use for similar sized nitrogen heterocycles.
- Polycyclic compounds incorporating one or more heterocyclic rings are well known.
- The two quinolines illustrate another nuance of heterocyclic nomenclature.
- Heterocyclic rings are found in many naturally occurring compounds.
- In the diagram below, some other examples of heterocyclic natural products will be displayed.
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Some Polycyclic Heterocycles
- Heterocyclic structures are found in many natural products.
- Derivatives of the simple fused ring heterocycle purine constitute an especially important and abundant family of natural products.
- Sulfur heterocycles are found in nature, but to a lesser degree than their nitrogen and oxygen analogs.
- Two members of the B-vitamin complex, biotin and thiamine, incorporate such heterocyclic moieties.
- These are shown together with other heterocyclic B-vitamins in the following diagram.
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Five-Membered Rings
- Many other procedures leading to substituted heterocycles of this kind have been devised.
- Indole is probably the most important fused ring heterocycle in this class.
- Other possible reactions are suggested by the structural features of these heterocycles.
- The most important condensed ring system related to these heterocycles is indole.
- Whether the indole nitrogen is substituted or not, the favored site of attack is C-3 of the heterocyclic ring.
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Four-Membered Rings
- Several methods of preparing four-membered heterocyclic compounds are shown in the following diagram.
- Reactions of four-membered heterocycles also show the influence of ring strain.
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Nomenclature and Structure of Amines
- Many aromatic and heterocyclic amines are known by unique common names, the origins of which are often unknown to the chemists that use them frequently.
- There is a systematic nomenclature of heterocyclic compounds, but it will not be discussed here.
- The chloro aziridine can invert, but requires a higher activation energy to do so, compared with larger heterocyclic amines.
- The rough estimate of angle strain is made using a C-N-C angle of 60º as an arbitrary value for the three-membered heterocycle.
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Biosynthesis of Tetrapyrroles
- Porphyrins are heterocyclic macrocycles composed of four modified pyrrole subunits interconnected at their α carbon atoms via methine bridges (=CH-).
- Several other heterocycles are related to porphyrins.
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Three-Membered Rings
- Oxiranes (epoxides) are the most commonly encountered three-membered heterocycles.
- The second diagram above shows four additional examples of three-membered heterocycle reactivity or intermediacy.
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Six-Membered Rings
- The chemical reactivity of the saturated members of this class of heterocycles: tetrahydropyran, thiane and piperidine, resemble that of acyclic ethers, sulfides, and 2º-amines, and will not be described here. 1,3-Dioxanes and dithianes are cyclic acetals and thioacetals.
- Fully unsaturated six-membered nitrogen heterocycles, such as pyridine, pyrazine, pyrimidine and pyridazine, have stable aromatic rings.
- The fused ring heterocycles quinoline and isoquinoline provide additional evidence for the stability of the pyridine ring.
- By contrast, the heterocyclic ring in both compounds undergoes preferential catalytic hydrogenation to yield tetrahydroproducts.
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Other Aromatic Compounds
- The aromatic heterocycle pyridine is similar to benzene, and is often used as a weak base for scavenging protons.
- Furan and pyrrole have heterocyclic five-membered rings, in which the heteroatom has at least one pair of non-bonding valence shell electrons.
- The second and third compounds are heterocycles having aromatic properties.
- The last compound is imidazole, a heterocycle having two nitrogen atoms.
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A Useful Mnemonic for Regioselectivity
- A novel group of [4s + 2s] cycloaddition reactions leading to five-membered heterocyclic adducts are classified as dipolar cycloadditions.