Esters from acyl chlorides

Structure of Amides.—The formation of amides from acyl chlorides, esters, and cyanides can best be interpreted by... 

Carbonic acid, HO OH is an unstable compound that decomposes spontaneously to produce carbon dioxide and water and, therefore, cannot be isolated. However, many acyl chlorides, esters, and amides that are derived from carbonic acid are stable compounds that have important applications. 

In synthetic target molecules esters, lactones, amides, and lactams are the most common carboxylic acid derivatives. In order to synthesize them from carboxylic acids one has generally to produce an activated acid derivative, and an enormous variety of activating reagents is known, mostly developed for peptide syntheses (M. Bodanszky, 1976). In actual syntheses of complex esters and amides, however, only a small selection of these remedies is used, and we shall mention only generally applicable methods. The classic means of activating carboxyl groups arc the acyl azide method of Curtius and the acyl chloride method of Emil Fischer. 

As a catalyst for ester and amide formation from acyl chlorides or anhydrides, 4-(di-methylamino)pyridine has been recommended (DMAP G. Hdfle, 1978). In the presence of this agent highly hindered hydroxyl groups, e.g. of steroids and carbohydrates, are acylated under mild conditions, which is difficult to achieve with other catalysts. 

Regioselectivity becomes important, if unsymmetric difunctional nitrogen components are used. In such cases two different reactions of the nitrogen nucleophile with the open-chain educt may be possible, one of which must be faster than the other. Hydrazone formation, for example, occurs more readily than hydrazinoLysis of an ester. In the second example, on the other hand, the amide is formed very rapidly from the acyl chloride, and only one cyclization product is observed. 

The acylpalladium complex formed from acyl halides undergoes intramolecular alkene insertion. 2,5-Hexadienoyl chloride (894) is converted into phenol in its attempted Rosenmund reduction[759]. The reaction is explained by the oxidative addition, intramolecular alkene insertion to generate 895, and / -elimination. Chloroformate will be a useful compound for the preparation of a, /3-unsaturated esters if its oxidative addition and alkene insertion are possible. An intramolecular version is known, namely homoallylic chloroformates are converted into a-methylene-7-butyrolactones in moderate yields[760]. As another example, the homoallylic chloroformamide 896 is converted into the q-methylene- -butyrolactams 897 and 898[761]. An intermolecular version of alkene insertion into acyl chlorides is known only with bridgehead acid chlorides. Adamantanecarbonyl chloride (899) reacts with acrylonitrile to give the unsaturated ketone 900[762],... 

Since the exocyclic sulfur is more reactive in the ambident anion than in A-4-thiazoIine-2-thione. greater nucleophilic reactivity is to be expected. Thus a large variety of thioethers were prepared in good yields starting from alkylhalides (e.g.. Scheme 38 (54, 91, 111, 166-179). lactones (54, 160), aryl halides (54, 152. 180, 181), acyl chlorides (54. 149, 182-184). halothiazoles (54, 185-190), a-haloesters (149. 152. 177. 191-194), cyanuric chloride (151). fV.N-dimethylthiocarbamoyl chloride (151, 152. 195. 196), /3-chloroethyl ester of acrylic acid (197), (3-dimethylaminoethyl chloride (152). l,4-dichloro-2-butyne (152), 1,4-dichloro-2-butene (152), and 2-chloro-propionitrile (152). A general... 

The reaction of alcohols with acyl chlorides is analogous to their reaction with p toluenesulfonyl chloride described earlier (Section 8 14 and Table 15 2) In those reactions a p toluene sulfonate ester was formed by displacement of chloride from the sulfonyl group by the oxygen of the alcohol Carboxylic esters arise by displacement of chlonde from a carbonyl group by the alcohol oxygen... 

The chemistry of the carbonyl group is probably the single most important aspect of organic chemical reactivity Classes of compounds that contain the carbonyl group include many derived from carboxylic acids (acyl chlorides acid anhydrides esters and amides) as well as the two related classes discussed m this chapter aldehydes and ketones... 

Nucleophilic acyl substitutions at the ester carbonyl group are summarized m Table 20 5 on page 849 Esters are less reactive than acyl chlorides and acid anhydrides Nude ophilic acyl substitution m esters especially ester hydrolysis has been extensively mves tigated from a mechanistic perspective Indeed much of what we know concerning the general topic of nucleophilic acyl substitution comes from studies carried out on esters The following sections describe those mechanistic studies... 

From acyl chlorides (Sections 15 8 and 20 4) Alcohols react with acyl chlorides by nucleo philic acyl substitution to yield esters These reactions are typi cally performed in the presence of a weak base such as pyri dine... 

These thermal methods for preparing amides are limited m their generality Most often amides are prepared m the laboratory from acyl chlorides acid anhydrides or esters and these are the methods that you should apply to solving synthetic problems... 

Section 20 7 Esters occur naturally or are prepared from alcohols by Fischer estenfi cation or by acylation with acyl chlorides or acid anhydrides (see Table 20 3)... 

Section 20 21 Acyl chlorides anhydrides esters and amides all show a strong band for C=0 stretching m the infrared The range extends from about 1820 cm (acyl chlorides) to 1690 cm (amides) Their NMR spectra are characterized by a peak near 8 180 for the carbonyl carbon H NMR spectroscopy is useful for distinguishing between the groups R and R m esters (RCO2R ) The protons on the carbon bonded to O m R appear at lower field (less shielded) than those on the carbon bonded to C=0... 

As a dibasic acid, malic acid forms the usual salts, esters, amides, and acyl chlorides. Monoesters can be prepared easily by refluxing malic acid, an alcohol, and boron trifluoride as a catalyst (9). With polyhydric alcohols and polycarboxyUc aromatic acids, malic acid yields alkyd polyester resins (10) (see Alcohols, polyhydric Alkyd resins). Complete esterification results from the reaction of the diester of maUc acid with an acid chloride, eg, acetyl or stearoyl chloride (11). 

Cellulose esters of unsaturated acids, such as the acetate methacrylate, acetate maleate (34), and propionate crotonate (35), have been prepared. They are made by treating the hydrolyzed acetate or propionate with the corresponding acyl chloride in a pyridine solvent. Cellulose esters of unsaturated acids are cross-linkable by heat or uv light solvent-resistant films and coatings can be prepared from such esters. 

The carbonyl group of an fflnide is stabilized to a greater extent than that of an acyl chloride, acid anhydride, or ester fflnides are fonned rapidly and in high yield from each of these carboxylic acid derivatives. 

In a variation of the scheme above, alkylation of p-hydroxy-benzoic acid with cyclohexyl iodide affords the cyclohexyl ether, 55. (Under alkaline reaction conditions, the ester formed concurrently does not survive the reaction.) Acylation of the acid chloride obtained from 55 with the preformed side chain (56) gives cyclomethycaine (57). ... 

These reactions are most important for the preparation of acyl fluorides. " Acyl chlorides and anhydrides can be converted to acyl fluorides by treatment with polyhydrogen fluoride-pyridine solution" or with liquid HF at — 10°C. Formyl fluoride, which is a stable compound, was prepared by the latter procedure from the mixed anhydride of formic and acetic acids. Acyl fluorides can also be obtained by reaction of acyl chlorides with KF in acetic acid or with DAST. Carboxylic esters and anhydrides can be converted to acyl halides other than fluorides by the inorganic acid halides mentioned in 10-77, as well as with PhsPXa (X = Cl or but this is seldom done. Halide exchange can be carried out in a... 

A full account has appeared of the reactions of the ester phosphoranes (30 R = H) with acyl chlorides. Equimolecular proportions gave the salts (31) from which /8-ketoesters were obtained on electrolytic reduction. A 2 1 excess of phosphorane gave the allenic esters (32), presumably via the betaines (33). 

Pyridinethiolate esters, which are easily prepared from acyl chlorides, also react with Grignard reagents to give ketones (see Entry 6 in Scheme 7.3).92 /V-Mclhoxy-/V-mclhylamides are also converted to ketones by Grignard reagents (see Entries 17 and 18). 

The main synthetic application of the Wolff rearrangement is for the one-carbon homologation of carboxylic acids.242 In this procedure, a diazomethyl ketone is synthesized from an acyl chloride. The rearrangement is then carried out in a nucleophilic solvent that traps the ketene to form a carboxylic acid (in water) or an ester (in alcohols). Silver oxide is often used as a catalyst, since it seems to promote the rearrangement over carbene formation.243... 

Another -activation of amino acids for peptide synthesis is achieved by preparing sulfenamides from sulfenylimidazoles. A sulfenylimidazole is formed in situ from the sulfenyl chloride (prepared from the disulfide and chlorine) and imidazole, which reacts further with an amino acid ester to give a sulfenamide in high yield. Conversion of such sulfenamides with IV-acyl amino acids by means of triphenylphosphine affords dipeptides with racemization of less than 0.5%.[481... 

Another example has been provided by Ito et al., who described the use of methanofullerene derivatives as powerful and stable precursors for glycofullerenes.217 Their study was based on the use of [60]fullerenoacetyl chloride (227), obtained from the ferf-butyl [60]fullerenoacetate derivative 226, which had been prepared in 56% yield by treatment of corresponding stabilized sulfonium ylides 225 with C6o-218 Subsequent transformation with p-TsOH in toluene gave [60]full-erenoacetic acid, which was directly converted into the corresponding acyl chloride 227 by using thionyl chloride. Standard ester formation with methyl 2,3,4-tetra-O-benzyI -/<-d-gl ucopyranoside (228) and 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP) afforded the desired hybrid derivative 229 in 66% yield. 

Although the synthesis of 3-isoxazolols from P-keto esters and hydroxylamine suffers from the formation of 5-isoxazolones as major products, treatment of acyl chlorides with Meldrum s acid 4 followed by aminolysis gave rise to p-keto hydroxamic acids 6 that cyclised to the corresponding 5-substituted 3-isoxazolols 7 without formation of any byproduct <00JOC1003>. Cyclisation of N-substituted salicylhydroxamic acids 9 under... 

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