Activating substituents, and electrophilic

A hydroxyl group is a very powerful activating substituent and electrophilic aro matic substitution m phenols occurs far faster and under milder conditions than m ben zene The hrst entry m Table 24 4 for example shows the monobrommation of phenol m high yield at low temperature and m the absence of any catalyst In this case the reac tion was carried out m the nonpolar solvent 1 2 dichloroethane In polar solvents such as water it is difficult to limit the brommation of phenols to monosubstitution In the fol lowing example all three positions that are ortho or para to the hydroxyl undergo rapid substitution... 

The hydroxyl group of a phenol is a strongly activating substituent and electrophilic aromatic substitution occurs readily m phenol and its deriv atives Typical examples were presented m Table 24 4... 

Thiadiazoles like oxadiazoles are 7r-electron deficient systems. When fused to azines, electrophilic substitution on carbon is only to be expected in the presence of strongly electron-donating substituents. Thus the lactams (666) and (667) are activated for electrophilic substitution (74BCJ2813), whereas in the absence of an activating substituent the electrophile may attack an aromatic side-chain as in the case of (668) (70JOC1965). 

If acetoxylation were a conventional electrophilic substitution it is hard to understand why it is not more generally observed in nitration in acetic anhydride. The acetoxylating species is supposed to be very much more selective than the nitrating species, and therefore compared with the situation in (say) toluene in which the ratio of acetoxylation to nitration is small, the introduction of activating substituents into the aromatic nucleus should lead to an increase in the importance of acetoxylation relative to nitration. This is, in fact, observed in the limited range of the alkylbenzenes, although the apparently severe steric requirement of the acetoxylation species is a complicating feature. The failure to observe acetoxylation in the reactions of compounds more reactive than 2-xylene has been attributed to the incursion of another mechan-104... 

A methyl group is an electron releasing substituent and activates all of the ring carbons of toluene toward electrophilic attack The ortho and para positions are activated more than the meta positions The relative rates of attack at the various positions m toluene compared with a single position m benzene are as follows (for nitration at 25°C)... 

Table 12 2 summarizes orientation and rate effects m electrophilic aromatic sub stitution reactions for a variety of frequently encountered substituents It is arranged m order of decreasing activating power the most strongly activating substituents are at the top the most strongly deactivating substituents are at the bottom The mam features of the table can be summarized as follows... 

Activating substituent (Sections 12 10 and 12 12) A group that when present in place of a hydrogen causes a particular reaction to occur faster Term is most often applied to sub stituents that increase the rate of electrophilic aromatic sub stitution... 

The reactivity of the individual O—P insecticides is determined by the magnitude of the electrophilic character of the phosphoms atom, the strength of the bond P—X, and the steric effects of the substituents. The electrophilic nature of the central P atom is determined by the relative positions of the shared electron pairs, between atoms bonded to phosphoms, and is a function of the relative electronegativities of the two atoms in each bond (P, 2.1 O, 3.5 S, 2.5 N, 3.0 and C, 2.5). Therefore, it is clear that in phosphate esters (P=0) the phosphoms is much more electrophilic and these are more reactive than phosphorothioate esters (P=S). The latter generally are so stable as to be relatively unreactive with AChE. They owe their biological activity to m vivo oxidation by a microsomal oxidase, a reaction that takes place in insect gut and fat body tissues and in the mammalian Hver. A typical example is the oxidation of parathion (61) to paraoxon [311-45-5] (110). 

The N-oxide function has proved useful for the activation of the pyridine ring, directed toward both nucleophilic and electrophilic attack (see Amine oxides). However, pyridine N-oxides have not been used widely ia iadustrial practice, because reactions involving them almost iavariably produce at least some isomeric by-products, a dding to the cost of purification of the desired isomer. Frequently, attack takes place first at the O-substituent, with subsequent rearrangement iato the ring. For example, 3-picoline N-oxide [1003-73-2] (40) reacts with acetic anhydride to give a mixture of pyridone products ia equal amounts, 5-methyl-2-pyridone [1003-68-5] and 3-methyl-2-pyridone [1003-56-1] (11). 

Toluene (methylbenzene) is similar to benzene as a mononuclear aromatic, but it is more active due to presence of tbe electron-donating metbyl group. However, toluene is much less useful than benzene because it produces more polysubstituted products. Most of tbe toluene extracted for cbemical use is converted to benzene via dealkylation or disproportionation. Tbe rest is used to produce a limited number of petro-cbemicals. Tbe main reactions related to tbe cbemical use of toluene (other than conversion to benzene) are the oxidation of the methyl substituent and the hydrogenation of the phenyl group. Electrophilic substitution is limited to the nitration of toluene for producing mono-nitrotoluene and dinitrotoluenes. These compounds are important synthetic intermediates. 

A Summary of Substituent Effects in Aromatic Substitution A summary of the activating and directing effects of substituents in electrophilic aromatic substitution is shown in Table 16.2. 

The hydroxyl group is a strongly activating, ortho- and para-directing substituent in electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions (Section 16.4). As a result, phenols are highly reactive substrates for electrophilic halogenation, nitration, sulfonation, and lTiedel-Crafts reactions. 

Bromination of 136 in methanol gave the 3-bromo derivative, identical with the product of Sandmeyer reaction of the 3-diazonium salt. When the reactive 3-position was blocked, electrophilic bromination would not take place (66JOC265). Chlorination appears to occur by addition [83AHC(34)79], and perhalides are known [84MI25 90AHC(47)1]. Activating substituents are able to induce some bromination in the pyridine ring. 

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