Acid Halides to Amides

Conversion of Acid Halides into Amides Aminolysis Acid chlorides react rapidly with ammonia and amines to give amides. As with the acid chloride plus alcohol method for preparing esters, this reaction of acid chlorides with amines is the most commonly used laboratory method for preparing amides. Both monosubstituted and disubstituted amines can be used, but not trisubstituted amines (R3N). 

Instead of carboxylic acids, other carbonyl compounds can be used acid halides, esters, amides, etc. The commonly accepted general mechanism for these reactions consists of the initial nucleophilic addition of an active hydrogen compound to the electron-poor carbonyl carbon atom of the R COOI I molecule, with the formation of a metastable intermediate that can undergo a subsequent elimination reaction ... 

A number of 1,2-dithiolecarboxylic acid derivatives are known. These appear to have typical carboxylic acid reactivity and form acid halides, esters, amides, etc. (67ZC275,72BSF1840), and undergo internal Friedel-Crafts acylation with aromatic substituents (72BSF1840,73BSF721). 

Primary and secondary amines react with acid halides to form amides. This reaction is a nucleophilic acyl substitution the replacement of a leaving group on a carbonyl carbon by a nucleophile. We will study nucleophilic acyl substitution in detail in Chapters 20 and 21. In this case, the amine replaces chloride ion. 

Imidazole carboxylic acids are readily converted into hydrazides,436 acid halides,437 amides,437-439 and esters,439-440 and they may be reduced to alcohols with lithium aluminum hydride,441 and to aldehydes by controlled potential reduction.442 Anodic oxidation of l-methylimidazole-5-acetic acid (94) using cooled platinum electrodes yields l,2-bis(l-methylimidazol-5-yl)ethane (95).443... 

Amlnofysts Conversion of Acid Halides Into Amides (RCOX RCOMH2) Acid chtoridea react rapidly with ammonia and amines to r amides in flood yield. Both mono and disubatitutod amines can be usoj. but One tnaubstiCuted amines... 

A different approach toward preparation of phosphinous and phosphonous iodides uses the reaction of iodoalkanes with either PI3 or PI5. This reaction is specific for iodoalkanes and phosphorus iodides and is not applicable to other halides. From the resultant highly reactive phosphinous and phosphonous iodides, the full range of the parent acid derivatives may be prepared (esters, other acid halides, anhydrides, amides). We will not be concerned here with these preparations of derivatives of the parent acids, topics that are considered in other reports. ... 

Chapters 20 through 24 of this text discuss carbonyl compounds—aldehydes, ketones, acid halides, esters, amides, and carboxylic acids. The carbonyl group is perhaps the most important Functional group in organic chemistry, because its electron-deficient carbon and easily broken 7t bond make it susceptible to a wide variety of useful reactions. 

Furthermore, by the aid of these structures, it is possible to recognize the relationship between acid halides, esters, amides, and the acids themselves, more readily ... 

Acid halides react readily with ammonia and 1 ° and 2° amines to form amides. For complete conversion of an acid halide to an amide, two equivalents of ammonia or amine are used, one to form the amide and one to neutralize the hydrogen halide formed. 

The process of substitution undertaken on carboxylic acids and the derivatives of carboxylic acids (anhydrides, acid halides, esters, amides, and nitriles) generally involves a series of replacement processes. Thus, individually, substitution may involve replacement of (a) the proton attached to oxygen of the -OH group (i.e., ionization of the acid) (b) the hydroxyl (-OH) portion of the carboxylic acid (or derivative) (e.g., esterification) (c) the carbonyl oxygen and the hydroxyl (-OH) (e.g., orthoester formation, vide infra) (d) the entire carboxylic acid functionality (e.g., the Hunsdiecker reaction, already discussed Scheme 9.101) and the decarboxylation of orotic acid (as orotidine monophosphate) to uracil (as uridine monophosphate)—catalyzed by the enzyme orotidine monophosphate decarboxylase (Scheme 9.115) or (e) the protons (if any) on the carbon to which the carboxylic acid functional group is attached (e.g., the Dieckman cycUzation, already discussed earlier, c Equation 9.91). Indeed, processes already discussed (i.e., reduction and oxidation) have also accomplished some of these ends. Some additional substitutions for the carboxylic acid group itself are presented in Table 9.6, while other substitutions for derivatives of carboxylic acids are shown in Tables 9.7-9.10 and discussed subsequently. 

Many carbonyl compounds, including aldehydes and ketones, acids, esters, acid halides, and amides, can be reduced with lithium aluminum hydride. For example, hthium aluminum hydride reduces esters to primary alcohols. 

A special problem arises in the preparation of secondary amines. These compounds are highly nucleophilic, and alkylation of an amine with alkyl halides cannot be expected to stop at any specifle stage. Secondary amides, however, can be monoalkylated and lydrolyzed or be reduced to secondary amines (p. 11 If.). In the elegant synthesis of phenyl- phrine an intermediate -hydroxy isocyanate (from a hydrazide and nitrous acid) cyclizes to pve an oxazolidinone which is monomethylated. Treatment with strong acid cleaves the cyclic irethan. 

Thiazolecarboxylic acid hydrazides are prepared by the same general methods used to prepare amides, that is, by treating acids, esters, amides, anhydrides, or acid halides with hydrazine or substitued hydrazines. For example, see Scheme 21 (92). The dihydrazides are obtained in the same way (88). With diethyl 2-chloro-4,5-thiazoledicarboxylate this reaction gives the mono hydr azide monoester of 2-hydrazine-4,5-... 

The acidity of acetylene and terminal alkynes permits them to be converted to their conjugate bases on treatment with sodium amide These anions are good nucleophiles and react with methyl and primary alkyl halides to form carbon-carbon bonds Secondary and tertiary alkyl halides cannot be used because they yield only elimination products under these conditions... 

Substituted Amides. Monosubstituted and disubstituted amides can be synthesized with or without solvents from fatty acids and aLkylamines. Fatty acids, their esters, and acid halides can be converted to substituted amides by reaction with primary or secondary aLkylamines, arylamines, polyamines, or hydroxyaLkylamines (30). Di- -butylamine reacts with oleic acid (2 1 mole ratio) at 200—230°C and 1380 kPa (200 psi) to produce di-A/-butyloleamide. Entrained water with excess -butylamine is separated for recycling later (31). 

In most other reactions the azolecarboxylic acids and their derivatives behave as expected (cf. Scheme 52) (37CB2309), although some acid chlorides can be obtained only as hydrochlorides. Thus imidazolecarboxylic acids show the normal reactions they can be converted into hydrazides, acid halides, amides and esters, and reduced by lithium aluminum hydride to alcohols (70AHC(12)103). Again, thiazole- and isothiazole-carboxylic acid derivatives show the normal range of reactions. 

Properly substituted isoxazolecarboxylic acids can be converted into esters, acid halides, amides and hydrazides, and reduced by lithium aluminum hydride to alcohols. For example, 3-methoxyisoxazole-5-carboxylic acid (212) reacted with thionyl chloride in DMF to give the acid chloride (213) (74ACS(B)636). Ethyl 3-ethyl-5-methylisoxazole-4-carboxylate (214) was reduced with LAH to give 3-ethyl-4-hydroxymethyl-5-methylisoxazole (215) (7308(53)70). 

Nitriles are similar in some respects to carboxylic acids and are prepared either by SN2 reaction of an alkyl halide with cyanide ion or by dehydration of an amide. Nitriles undergo nucleophilic addition to the polar C=N bond in the same way that carbonyl compounds do. The most important reactions of nitriles are their hydrolysis to carboxylic acids, reduction to primary amines, and reaction with organometallic reagents to yield ketones. 

Closely related to the carboxylic acids and nitriles discussed in the previous chapter are the carboxylic acid derivatives, compounds in which an acyl group is bonded to an electronegative atom or substituent that can net as a leaving group in a substitution reaction. Many kinds of acid derivatives are known, but we ll be concerned primarily with four of the more common ones acid halides, acid anhydrides, esters, and amides. Esters and amides are common in both laboratory and biological chemistry, while acid halides and acid anhydrides are used only in the laboratory. Thioesters and acyl phosphates are encountered primarily in biological chemistry. Note the structural similarity between acid anhydrides and acy) phosphates. 

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