Acetic anhydride self-condensation

Liquid crystal polyesters are made by a different route. Because they are phenoHc esters, they cannot be made by direct ester exchange between a diphenol and a lower dialkyl ester due to unfavorable reactivities. The usual method is the so-called reverse ester exchange or acidolysis reaction (96) where the phenoHc hydroxyl groups are acylated with a lower aHphatic acid anhydride, eg, acetic or propionic anhydride, and the acetate or propionate ester is heated with an aromatic dicarboxyHc acid, sometimes in the presence of a catalyst. The phenoHc polyester forms readily as the volatile lower acid distills from the reaction mixture. Many Hquid crystal polymers are derived formally from hydroxyacids (97,98) and thein acetates readily undergo self-condensation in the melt, stoichiometric balance being automatically obtained. 

Aromatic Ring Reactions. In the presence of an iodine catalyst chlorination of benzyl chloride yields a mixture consisting mostly of the ortho and para compounds. With strong Lewis acid catalysts such as ferric chloride, chlorination is accompanied by self-condensation. Nitration of benzyl chloride with nitric acid in acetic anhydride gives an isomeric mixture containing about 33% ortho, 15% meta, and 52% para isomers (27) with benzal chloride, a mixture containing 23% ortho, 34% meta, and 43% para nitrobenzal chlorides is obtained. 

Self-condensation of the substituted propiophenone, 15, by the pinacol reaction proceeds to give the glycol, 16, as the meso isomer. (If it is assumed that the transition state for this reaction resembles product, this stereoselectivity can be rationalized on the grounds of steric interaction compare A, which leads to the observed product, with B.) Dehydration under very specialized conditions (acetyl chloride, acetic anhydride) affords the bisstyrene-type diene (17). Removal of the acyl groups by means of base affords the synthetic estrogen, dien-... 

Benzofuran-3(2/f)-ones (396) exist in the keto form but undergo ready enolization. Acetylation with acetic anhydride and sodium acetate affords 3-acetoxybenzo[6]furans, but reaction under acidic conditions usually supplies these products admixed with 3-acetoxy-2-acetylbenzo[6]furans. Alkylation usually furnishes a mixture of O- and C-alkylated products. 3-Acetoxy-6-methoxy-4-methylbenzo[6]furan, on Vilsmeier reaction, supplies the 3-chlorobenzo[6]furan-2-carbaldehyde, the product expected from an enolizable ketone (72AJC545). Benzofuran-3(2//)-ones react normally with carbonyl reagents. Grignard reagents react in the expected way and dehydration of the intermediate affords a 3-substituted benzo[6]furan. The methylene group is reactive so that self condensation, condensation with aldehydes and ketones and reaction with Michael acceptors all occur readily. 

Moreover, it has been shown102 that under conditions of electrophilic catalysis by acetyl cations the addition of ketones to nitriles proceeds more rapidly than the self-condensation of ketones shown in equations 34-36. Thus, cyclohexanone reacts with both benzonitrile and acetonitrile in the presence of perchloric acid/acetic anhydride mixture to form Af-acyliminium salts 186 which are then converted to the Af-acylimines 187. The /Lacylaminoketones 9773 did not form the salts 186 in a control experiment... 

Classically, this separation of roles was accomplished by utilizing substrates that differed drastically in their ability to form enolate anions. In fact, the various name reactions mentioned above are distinguished not by basic differences in mechanism, but by the nature of the components preferentially utilized as substrates. For example, in the Perkin reaction, the condensation of an aromatic aldehyde with an aliphatic acid anhydride is based on the fact that the electrophilic component, e.g. benzaldehyde, lacks a-hydrogens and therefore is incapable of forming an enolate. At the same time the utilized electrophile, acetic anhydride, contains a carbonyl group with reduced propensity to interact with nucleophiles. Hence, it is incapable of undergoing self-condensa-... 

These facts strongly suggest Claisen-type condensation by formation of the carbanion of acetic anhydride. The structure of salicylaldehyde (shown below) reveals no a hydrogens, and thus only a crossed Claisen condensation is feasible, since the salicylaldehyde will not form a carbanion or undergo self-condensation. 

Dimethyl-4H-pyran-4-one (17), mp 132 °C, is water soluble. It is obtained by several methods, the simplest utilizing the self-condensation of acetic anhydride mediated by polyphosphoric add at elevated temperature a probable intermediate is the mixed anhydride of acetoacetate 16 ... 

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