Ketones, a-halo

Acid chlorides and bromides, allyl halides, a-halo-ketones, esters, amides and nitriles react at 25° within 3 minutes. Vinyl and aryl halides are inert. 

Alkyl Halides, Polyhalides, a-Halo Ketones and Esters... 

Once formed this enol reacts rapidly with the halogen to form an a halo ketone OH O... 

The cationic intermediate is simply the protonated form (conjugate acid) of the a halo ketone Deprotonation of the cationic intermediate gives the products... 

Analyzing the target molecule in this way reveals that the required alkyl halide IS an a halo ketone Thus a suitable starting material would be bromomethyl phenyl ketone... 

Among compounds other than simple alkyl halides a halo ketones and a halo esters have been employed as substrates m the Gabriel synthesis Alkyl p toluenesul fonate esters have also been used Because phthalimide can undergo only a single alkyl ation the formation of secondary and tertiary amines does not occur and the Gabriel synthesis is a valuable procedure for the laboratory preparation of primary amines... 

Various alkylating agents are used for the preparation of pyridazinyl alkyl sulfides. Methyl and ethyl iodides, dimethyl and diethyl sulfate, a-halo acids and esters, /3-halo acids and their derivatives, a-halo ketones, benzyl halides and substituted benzyl halides and other alkyl and heteroarylmethyl halides are most commonly used for this purpose. Another method is the addition of pyridazinethiones and pyridazinethiols to unsaturated compounds, such as 2,3(4//)-dihydropyran or 2,3(4//)-dihydrothiopyran, and to compounds with activated double bonds, such as acrylonitrile, acrylates and quinones. 

The possible ambiguities that may arise in ring syntheses based upon nueleophilic reaetions with a-halo ketones are also exemplified by the reactions with a-lithioaldimines leading to pyrrole formation, as shown in Scheme 73a 73TL3517). A simitar problem could well arise in the related carbazole synthesis indicated in Scheme 73b if a less symmetrical substrate was employed 81TL1475). 

A reaction which is of considerable importance for the selective labeling of a position adjacent to a carbonyl group is the treatment of a-halo ketones (mainly bromides) with zinc in acetic acid-OD, or deuteriobromic acid at... 

This approach has been most useful for the preparation of vinylogous a-halo ketones (see section II-H). 

Halogenation of the double bond usually prevents the satisfactory preparation of vinylogous a-halo ketones by direct reaction of unsaturated ketones with... 

Mattox and Kendall have suggested that loss of bromide from the initially formed hydrazone of the a-halo ketone is facilitated by participation of the electron pair on the amine nitrogen atom. The same group has shown that semicarbazones are often superior to 2,4-dinitro-phenylhydra-zones since they can be obtained in higher yields and undergo cleavage more... 

Tosylates also undergo elimination upon treatment with lithium salts in amide solvents. The a,/ -unsaturated ketone (106) is formed from the a-hy-droxy ketone tosylate in a fashion analogous to a-halo ketone eliminations. 

The ability of chromous ion to efficiently reduce a-halo ketone impurities may be the reason for superior results. 

The reductive elimination of halohydrins provides a means of introduction of double bonds in specific locations, particularly as the halohydrin may be obtained from the corresponding a-halo ketone. This route is one way of converting a ketone into an olefin. (The elimination of alcohols obtainable by reduction has been covered above, and other routes will be discussed in sections IX and X.) An advantage of this method is that it is unnecessary to separate the epimeric alcohols obtained on reduction of the a-bromo ketone, since both cis- and tran -bromohydrins give olefins (ref. 185, p. 251, 271 cf. ref. 272). Many examples of this approach have been recorded. (For recent examples, see ref. 176, 227, 228, 242, 273.) The preparation of an-drost-16-ene (123) is illustrative, although there are better routes to this compound. 

Borohydrides reduce a-substituted ketones to the corresponding a-substituted alcohols, and such products can be further reduced to olefins (see section VIII). Other reagents serve, through participation of the carbonyl group, to remove the substituent while leaving the ketone intact. The zinc or chromous ion reduction of a-halo ketones is an example of this second type, which is not normally useful for double bond introduction. However, when the derivative being reduced is an a,jS-epoxy ketone, the primary product is a -hydroxy ketone which readily dehydrates to the a,jS-unsaturated ketone. Since... 

Formation of oxiranes on the sterically more hindered side of the steroid ring system is usually carried out via /raw -halohydrins which afford oxiranes on treatment with base (c -Halohydrins yield ketones on exposure to base). Two general methods are available for the synthesis of tm s-halohydrins (1) the reduction of a-halo ketones and (2) the addition of a hypohalous acid to unsaturated steroids. 

The procedure involving a-halo ketone intermediates has been used for the synthesis of 11, 12 - and oxiranes of 5a-steroids... 

In the initial step " the a-halo ketone 1 is deprotonated by the base at the a -carbon to give the carbanion 4, which then undergoes a ring-closure reaction by an intramolecular substitution to give the cyclopropanone derivative 2. The halogen substituent functions as the leaving group ... 

With cyclic a-halo ketones, e.g. 2-chloro cyclohexanone 6, the Favorskii rearrangement leads to a ring contraction by one carbon atom. This type of reaction has for example found application as a key step in the synthesis of cubane by Eaton and Cole for the construction of the cubic carbon skeleton ... 

The rearrangement with ring contraction probably is the most important synthetic application of the Favorskii reaction it is for example used in the synthesis of steroids. Yields can vary from good to moderate. As solvents diethyl ether or alcohols are often used. With acyclic a-halo ketones bearing voluminous substituents in a -position, yields can be low a tcrt-butyl substituent will prevent the rearrangement. 

In general the Stork reaction gives moderate yields with simple alkyl halides better yields of alkylated product are obtained with more electrophilic reactants such like allylic, benzylic or propargylic halides or an a-halo ether, a-halo ester or a-halo ketone. An example is the reaction of 1-pyrrolidino-l-cyclohexene 6 with allyl bromide, followed by aqueous acidic workup, to yield 2-allylcyclohexanone ... 

The imidazole nucleus is often found in biologically active molecules,3 and a large variety of methods have been employed for their synthesis.4 We recently needed to develop a more viable process for the preparation of kilogram quantities of 2,4-disubstituted imidazoles. The condensation of amidines, which are readily accessible from nitriles,5 with a-halo ketones has become a widely used method for the synthesis of 2,4-disubstituted imidazoles. A literature survey indicated that chloroform was the most commonly used solvent for this reaction.6 In addition to the use of a toxic solvent, yields of the reaction varied from poor to moderate, and column chromatography was often required for product isolation. Use of other solvents such as alcohols,7 DMF,8 and acetonitrile9 have also been utilized in this reaction, but yields are also frequently been reported as poor. 

We found that the optimal reaction protocol was to add a solution of a-bromo ketone in THF to the amidine in aqueous THF in the presence of potassium bicarbonate under vigorous reflux. Using this procedure, 2,4-disubstituted imidazoles were isolated in excellent yields with >95% purity without column chromatography. Aromatic and aliphatic a-halo ketones participate in this reaction with a variety of aromatic amidines, as indicated in Table 1. Particularly noteworthy is that reactions involving pyridylamidines or chloroacetone are substantially more robust using this process (entries 3 and 4). We have successfully used this protocol on a multi-kilogram scale. 

In conclusion, a scaleable process for the preparation of 2,4-subsituted imidazole from amidines and a-halo ketones is described. This method avoids the use of chloroform as solvent and affords the desired products in consistently good to excellent yields. 

Amidine a-Halo ketone Product Isolated Yields Lit. Yields... 

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