Alcohols by nucleophilic substitution

We first encountered nucleophilic substitution in Chapter 4, in the reaction of alcohols with hydrogen halides to fonn alkyl halides. Now we ll see how alkyl halides can themselves be converted to other classes of organic compounds by nucleophilic substitution. 

The relatively poor resonance activation of the 2-Le-3-aza orientation in bicyclics (cf. Section IV, A) is illustrated by nucleophilic substitutions below. Vigorous conditions are required for methoxylation (110°, 17 hr, quantitative yield) of 3-bromocinnoline and for amination (aqueous ammonia, copper sulfate, 20 hr, high yield) of 3-bromo- (at 130°) or of 3-chloro-derivatives (at 165°). 3,4-Dichlorocinnoline gives predominantly 4-substitution in hydra-zination (90% yield, 20°, 4 days in alcohol), amination (70% yield, 150°, 22 hr in alcohol), and hydroxylation (50% yield, 150°, 22 hr, aqueous ammonia). The poorer-leaving phenoxy group in 3-chloro-4-phenoxycinnoline, is displaced with ammonium acetate (160°, few mins, 60% yield). ... 

We said in Section 17.4 that carboxylic acids are reduced by L1AIH4 to give primary alcohols, but we deferred a discussion of the reaction mechanism at that time. In fact, the reduction is a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction in which —H replaces -OH to give an aldehyde, which is further reduced to a primary alcohol by nucleophilic addition. The aldehyde intermediate is much more reactive than the starting acid, so it reacts immediately and is not isolated. 

The catalyst is phosphoric acid. The laboratory synthesis of alcohols is by nucleophilic substitution of haloalkanes. 

By heating an alkyl halide with an alcoholic solution of ammonia in a sealed tube, a mixture of amines is formed by nucleophilic substitution reaction. 

Very important compounds are the carboxylic acids and their derivatives, which can be formally obtained by exchanging the OH group for another group. In fact, derivatives of this type are formed by nucleophilic substitutions of activated intermediate compounds and the release of water (see p. 14). Carboxylic acid esters (R-O-CO-R ) arise from carboxylic acids and alcohols. This group includes the fats, for example (see p.48). Similarly, a carboxylic acid and a thiol yield a thioester (R-S-CO-R ). Thioesters play an extremely important role in carboxylic acid metabolism. The best-known compound of this type is acetyl-coenzyme A (see p. 12). 

The prominent role of alkyl halides in formation of carbon-carbon bonds by nucleophilic substitution was evident in Chapter 1. The most common precursors for alkyl halides are the corresponding alcohols, and a variety of procedures have been developed for this transformation. The choice of an appropriate reagent is usually dictated by the sensitivity of the alcohol and any other functional groups present in the molecule. Unsubstituted primary alcohols can be converted to bromides with hot concentrated hydrobromic acid.4 Alkyl chlorides can be prepared by reaction of primary alcohols with hydrochloric acid-zinc chloride.5 These reactions proceed by an SN2 mechanism, and elimination and rearrangements are not a problem for primary alcohols. Reactions with tertiary alcohols proceed by an SN1 mechanism so these reactions are preparatively useful only when the carbocation intermediate is unlikely to give rise to rearranged product.6 Because of the harsh conditions, these procedures are only applicable to very acid-stable molecules. 

The mechanism for the reactions with phosphorus halides can be illustrated using phosphorus tribromide. Initial reaction between the alcohol and phosphorus tribromide leads to a trialkyl phosphite ester by successive displacements of bromide. The reaction stops at this stage if it is run in the presence of an amine which neutralizes the hydrogen bromide that is formed.9 If the hydrogen bromide is not neutralized the phosphite ester is protonated and each alkyl group is successively converted to the halide by nucleophilic substitution by bromide ion. The driving force for cleavage of the C—O bond is the... 

Because of the very acidic solutions involved, these methods are limited to acid-stable molecules. Milder reagents are necessary for most functionally substituted alcohols. A very general and important method for activating alcohols toward nucleophilic substitution is by converting them to alkoxyphosphonium ions.14 The alkoxyphosphonium ions are very reactive toward nucleophilic attack, with the driving force for substitution being formation of the strong phosphoryl bond. 

Z- and 4-alkoxyquinazolines are readily prepared by nucleophilic substitution reactions, and 2,4-dialkoxyquinazolines can simply be prepared by boiling 2,4-dichloroquinazolines with 2 equiv of an alkoxide in the appropriate alcohol solvent <1996HC(55)1>. The first substitution is in the more reactive 4-position, so it is possible to isolate both 4-alkoxy and 4-phenoxy monosubstitution products <1977EJM325, 2005BMC3681>, and this selectivity has been used to attach both 2,4,6- and 2,4,7-trichloroquinazoline to a solid support, via the 4-position, for subsequent solid-phase synthesis of 2,6- and 2,7-diamino-4(377)-quinazolinones <2003TL7533>. 

Carboxylates are stable to anhydrous hydrogen fluoride,30 but as described above, how ever, hemiacetal esters are readily cleaved and fluorinated by anhydrous hydrogen fluoride or 70% hydrogen fluoride/pyridine, this method has been widely applied in the synthesis of glycosyl fluorides from glycosyl esters for reviews see refs 29, 34, 277-279. 288, 289. Furthermore, p-toluene- or methanesulfonates (but not trifluoroacetates) of primary alcohols arc fluorinated by nucleophilic substitution using tctrabutylammonium hydrogen fluoride. This procedure is less suitable for secondary alcohols because of the considerable number of elimination products 306 for example, formation of 1 compared to 2.306... 

Depending on the alcohol moieties present (i.e., quality of leaving group(s), presence of an aliphatic alcohol moiety), the neutral reaction as well as reactions with soft nucleophiles (e.g. HS-, CN, see Box 13.1) may also proceed by nucleophilic substitution at a carbon atom (C-0 cleavage). This is the case for trialkyl phosphates such as trimethyl and triethyl phosphate ... 

A general and important method for activating alcohols toward nucleophilic substitution is by converting them into alkoxyphosphonium ions ... 

Phenols can be etherified with resin-bound benzyl alcohols by the Mitsunobu reaction [554,555], or, alternatively, by nucleophilic substitution of resin-bound benzyl halides or sulfonates [556,557], Both reactions proceed smoothly under mild conditions. Aliphatic alcohols have been etherified with Wang resin by conversion of the latter into a trichloroacetimidate (C13CCN/DCM/DBU (15 100 1), 0°C, 40 min), fol-... 

Functional Group Transformation Alcohols can be prepared by nucleophilic substitution of alkyl halides, hydrolysis of esters, reduction of carboxylic acids or esters, reduction of aldehydes or ketones, electrophilic addition of alkenes, hydroboration of alkenes, or substitution of ethers. 

But we want to use alcohols in nucleophilic substitution reactions because they are easily made. The simplest answer is to protonate the OH group with strong acid. This will work only if the nucleophile is compatible with strong acid, but many are. The preparation of f-BuCl from f-BuOH simply by shaking it with concentrated HC1 is a good example. This is obviously an SnI reaction with the t-butyl cation as intermediate. 

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