Acids, hydrolysis of acetals

Historically, simple Vz-alkyl ethers formed from a phenol and a halide or sulfate were cleaved under rather drastic conditions (e.g., refluxing HBr). New ether protective groups have been developed that are removed under much milder conditions (e.g., via nucleophilic displacement, hydrogenolysis of benzyl ethers, and mild acid hydrolysis of acetal-type ethers) that seldom affect other functional groups in a molecule. 

Of all the selective, deprotection procedures that are available to carbohydrate chemists, the partial hydrolysis of polyacetals is probably the most familiar. Articles by de Beider4,5 and Brady6 contained examples of this type of reaction for aldose and ketose derivatives, respectively, and an article by Barker and Bourne7 gave useful information from the early literature on the graded, acid hydrolysis of acetal derivatives of polyols. A discussion of the stereochemistry of cyclic acetals of carbohydrates was included in an article by Mills 70 and in one by Ferrier and Overend,76 and a survey of the formation and migration of carbohydrate cyclic acetals was made by Clode.7c... 

Many examples were earlier reported of acid hydrolysis of acetals and glycosides of sugar sulfonates in which no loss of a sulfonate group occurred in addition, by suitable choice of acidic conditions, deacetalation may be performed without concurrent hydrolysis of a... 

Many other metabolic degradation pathways are either initiated by reactions involving generation of transient carbocations or pass through a transition state with highly positive charge density on a carbon center. Reactions in this category are the acidic hydrolysis of acetals, aminals, or enol ethers, and the oxidation of alcohols to ketones via a hydride-transfer mechanism. 

Yet a further method of cleaving acetals is to treat them with acid anhydrides, such as acetic or benzoic anhydride, in the presence of hydrogen ions 95 equimolar amounts of acetal and anhydride give the aldehyde and the ester. Oximes, hydrazones, and Schiff bases can be obtained directly on acid hydrolysis of acetals in the presence of, e.g.9 hydroxylamine, hydrazine, or amines, respectively. 

Li S, Kirby AJ, Deslongchamps P (1993) First expraimcmtal evidence for a synperiplanar stereoelectronic effect in the acid hydrolysis of acetaL Tetrahedron Lett 34 7757-7758... 

The disadvantages attending the use of acetic anhydride alone are absent when the acetylation is conducted in aqueous solution according to the following procedure. The amine is dissolved in water containing one equivalent of hydrochloric acid, slightly more than one equivalent of acetic anhydride is added to the solution, followed by enough sodium acetate to neutralise the hydrochloric acid, and the mixture is shaken. The free amine which is liberated is at once acetylated. It must be pointed out that the hydrolysis of acetic anhydride at room temperature is extremely slow and that the free amine reacts much more readily with the anhydride than does the water this forms the experimental basis for the above excellent method of acetylation. 

The acetylation reaction, [1], is carried out in pyridine to avoid the hydrolysis of acetic anhydride by water. After the acetylation is complete, water is added to convert the remaining acetic anhydride to acetic acid, [2]. 

Bromoacetic acid can be prepared by the bromination of acetic acid in the presence of acetic anhydride and a trace of pyridine (55), by the HeU-VoUiard-Zelinsky bromination cataly2ed by phosphoms, and by direct bromination of acetic acid at high temperatures or with hydrogen chloride as catalyst. Other methods of preparation include treatment of chloroacetic acid with hydrobromic acid at elevated temperatures (56), oxidation of ethylene bromide with Aiming nitric acid, hydrolysis of dibromovinyl ether, and air oxidation of bromoacetylene in ethanol. 

Isoxazole was first synthesized by Claisen in 1903 from propargylaldehyde diethyl acetal and hydroxylamine (03CB3664). It has also been obtained by addition of fulminic acid to acetylene in methanol-dilute sulfuric acid solution, by acidic hydrolysis of 5-acetoxyisoxazo-line, by reaction of /S-chloroacrolein or/3-alkoxyacrolein with hydroxylamine hydrochloride... 

These derivatives are prepared to protect a-hydroxy carboxylic acids they are cleaved by acidic hydrolysis of the acetal structure (HCl, DMF, 50°, 7 h, 71% yield), or basic hydrolysis of the lactone. ... 

The TCBOC group is stable to the alkaline hydrolysis of methyl esters and to the acidic hydrolysis of r-butyl esters. It is rapidly cleaved by the supemucleophile lithium cobalt(I)phthalocyanine, by zinc in acetic acid, and by cobalt phthalocy-anine (0.1 eq., NaBH4, EtOH, 77-90% yield). 

Problem 17.8 asked you to write details of the mechanism describing formation of benzaldehyde diethyl acetal from benzaldehyde and ethanol. Write a stepwise mechanism for the acid hydrolysis of this acetal. 

Alkylthio, arylthio, and thioxo. The thioxo group in pyrimidine-2,4-dithione can be displaced by amines, ammonia, and amine acetates, and this amination is specific for the 4-position in pyrimidines and quinazolines. 2-Substitution fails even when a 5-substituent (cf. 134) sterically prevents reaction of a secondary amine at the 4-position. Acid hydrolysis of pyrimidine-2,4-dithione is selective at the 4-position. 2-Amination of 2-thiobarbituric acid and its /S-methyl derivative has been reported. Under more basic conditions, anionization of thioxo compounds decreases the reactivity 2-thiouracil is less reactive toward hot alkali than is the iS-methyl analog. Hydrazine has been reported to replace (95°, 6 hr, 65% 3deld) the 2-thioxo group in 5-hexyl-6-methyl-2-thiouracil. Ortho and para mercapto- or thio- azines are actually in the thione form. ... 

In the case of acid hydrolysis of the acetal 191 the yield of spiroketals 192 and 193 approaches 85% (under sonification). 

A further observation is the fact that differences in rates of nitration between the reagents prepared at different temperatures tended to zero as the water concentration of the added nitric acid was decreased to zero73. It has been argued that, since the acid-catalysed hydrolysis of acetic anhydride must be very rapid at 25 °C and removes water which initially competes with acetic anhydride and acetyl nitrate for protons, this removal permits equilibria (30) and (31) to be displaced towards products. The more anhydrous the nitric acid, the less important is this initial hydrolysis of the acetic anhydride and so the difference in the nitrating power of the differently prepared mixtures becomes less. When reagents are mixed at low temperatures, the hydrolysis of the anhydride is very slow, but once this is accomplished, formation of the protonated acetyl nitrate and subsequent nitration is rapid as observed73. 

Enol ethers are readily hydrolyzed by acids the rate-determining step is protonation of the substrate. However, protonation does not take place at the oxygen but at the p carbon, because that gives rise to the stable carbocation 104. After that, the mechanism is similar to the A1 mechanism given above for the hydrolysis of acetals. 

Acid hydrolysis of the epoxide (233) obtained from 46 gave, after acetylation, the acetate (234), which, on treatment with DBU, yielded the diene (235), useful for preparation of the azides (237 and 238), the precursors of valienamine analogs. Treatment of 46 with DBU in toluene resulted in... 

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