Alcohols sulfonyl esters

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... 

Cleavage of the sulfonyl esters to the parent alcohols is accomplished in yields of 60-100% by treatment of the p-toluenesulfonates with 2-6 equivalents of sodium naphthalene in tetrahydrofuran at room temperature (yields 60-100%). Sodium naphthalene is prepared by stirring sodium with an equivalent amount or a slight excess of naphthalene in tetrahydrofuran for 1 hour at room temperature under an inert gas [701]. Benzenesulfonates and bromo-benzenesulfonates are also cleaved to the parent alcohols while alkyl methanesulfonates are reduced also to hydrocarbons [701]. 

Treatment of the alcohol ( ) with trifluoromethylsulfonic anhydride (triflic anhydride) at -78 C afforded the ester (1 ) which could be isolated and characterized. We knew from previous experience (2J that sulfonyl esters vicinal to an isopropylidene acetal are relatively stable. The triflate T,) reacted cleanly with potassium azide and 18-crown-6 in dichloromethane at room temperature. The crystalline product [68% overall from (1 )] was not the azide ( ) but the isomeric A -triazoline ( )- Clearly the initially formed azide (18) had undergone intramolecular 1,3-cyclo-addition to the double bond of the unsaturated ester (21- ). The stereochemistry of the triazoline (1 ), determined by proton nmr spectroscopy, showed that the reaction was stereospecific. There are several known examples of this reaction ( ), including one in the carbohydrate series ( ). When the triazoline was treated with sodium ethoxide ( ) the diazoester ( ) was rapidly formed by ring-opening and was isolated in 85% yield, Hydrogenolysis of the diazo group of (M) gave the required pyrrolidine ester ( ) (90%). 

Various terminal alkenes with fbnctional groups are oxidized to the corresponding methyl ketones. Since the oxidation proceeds under mild conditions, various functional groups, such as an aldehyde, carboxylic acid, ester, " alcohol, " MOM ether, acetal, bromide, selenide, sulfonyl ester and amines, which are located at suitable positions, remain intact. Though it is known that alcohols are oxidized to aldehydes or ketones with PdCb, " the oxidation of terminal alkenes is faster than that of alcohols under these conditions. 

Alcohol Sulfonyl chloride Sulfonate ester Hydrogen chloride... 

Use of Metals in Alcoholic Solvents. Magnesium in the presence of mercuric chloride as a catalyst is by far the most employed metal when the reductive desulfonylation is carried out in low molecular weight alcoholic solvents.112 Only a small number of examples exist where Na or Li in alcoholic solvents is used, mostly for the desulfonylation of alkyl sulfones. The use of Mg in a low molecular weight alcoholic solvent in the presence of mercuric chloride is an extremely convenient desulfonylation method for a wide variety of sulfones (Eq. 61).113 Although p-kctosul tones are inert towards this reagent,114 a-sulfonyl esters are efficiently desulfonylated by Mg in MeOH.115116... 

Solution Base catalyzed hydrolysis of a sulfonyl ester (R -SOaR) will yield an alcohol (ROH) and a sulfonic acid salt (R SOa"). Sec-butyl tosylate is a sulfonyl ester and will be hydrolyzed to sec-butanol and the anion of p-methyIbenzenesulfonic acid. The reaction is shown as ... 

With the appropriate indole substrate 83 now in hand, attention of the Dolby group turned to installation of the ethylene bridge between the alkyl nitrogen and the indole 3-position to construct the desired quaternary center contained in the core of akuamnuline alkaloids. Toward this end, chlor-oacetamide 217 obtained via treatment of the indole 83 with chloroacetyl chloride, was subjected to sodium hydride in DME at room temperature (Scheme 25). No product of cyclization was seen under these conditions. Amine 83 was also treated with ethylene oxide to provide aminoethanol 219 this alcohol was then activated as a sulfonyl ester. Efforts to affect cyclization in this manner also proved unsuccessful. 

Esters are prepared from carboxylic acids by the reaction between an acid chloride and an alcohol or between a carboxylic acid and an alcohol under acidic conditions. Both sulfonic acids and sulfonyl chlorides react with alcohols to form sulfonate esters. When butanesulfonyl chloride (177) reacts with propanol, usually in the presence of a base such as triethylamine, propyl butanesulfonate (180) is formed. A wide range of sulfonyl esters can be formed this way from an alcohol and a sulfonic acid. 

Pyridine can become involved in nucleophilic substitution when very reactive trifiates are being synthesized. One approach to minimize this disadvantage is to replace it with sterically hindered bases, such as 2,6-di-f-butyl-4-methylpyridine, 2,4,6-trisubs-tituted pyrimidines, or nonnucleophilic aliphatic amines (usually W,W-diisobutyl-2,4-dimethyl-3-pentylamine). No salt formation appears to take place under these conditions. The triflic anhydride seems to be the direct triflating agent and the base only neutralizes the triflic acid formed. Numerous alkyl triflates have been prepared in the literature by the above method. Some recent examples of triflates prepared from alcohols are illustrated in eqs 2 and 3. As an exception, 2,6-dinitrobenzyl alcohol does not react with Tf20 although similar sulfonyl esters could be prepared. ... 

An advantage that sulfonate esters have over alkyl halides is that their prepara tion from alcohols does not involve any of the bonds to carbon The alcohol oxygen becomes the oxygen that connects the alkyl group to the sulfonyl group Thus the configuration of a sulfonate ester is exactly the same as that of the alcohol from which It was prepared If we wish to study the stereochemistry of nucleophilic substitution m an optically active substrate for example we know that a tosylate ester will have the same configuration and the same optical purity as the alcohol from which it was prepared... 

Potassium fluoride [7789-23-3], KF, is the most frequently used of the alkaU metal fluorides, although reactivity of the alkaU fluorides is in the order CsF > RbF > KF > NaF > LiF (6). The preference for KF is based on cost and availabiUty traded off against relative reactivity. In its anhydrous form it can be used to convert alkyl haUdes and sulfonyl haUdes to the fluorides. The versatility makes it suitable for halogen exchange in various functional organic compounds like alcohols, acids and esters (7). For example, 2,2-difluoroethanol [359-13-7] can be made as shown in equation 9 and methyl difluoroacetate [433-53 ] as in equation 10. 

On dehydration, nitro alcohols yield nitro-olefins. The ester of the nitro alcohol is treated with caustic or is refluxed with a reagent, eg, phthaUc anhydride or phosphoms pentoxide. A mil der method involves the use of methane sulfonyl chloride to transform the hydroxyl into a better leaving group. Yields up to 80% after a reaction time of 15 min at 0°C have been reported (5). In aqueous solution, nitro alcohols decompose at pH 7.0 with the formation of formaldehyde. One mole of formaldehyde is released per mole of monohydric nitro alcohol, and two moles of formaldehyde are released by the nitrodiols. However, 2-hydroxymethyl-2-nitro-l,3-propanediol gives only two moles of formaldehyde instead of the expected three moles. The rate of release of formaldehyde increases with the pH or the temperature or both. 

Sulfonate esters are especially useful substrates in nucleophilic substitution reactions used in synthesis. They have a high level of reactivity, and, unlike alkyl halides, they can be prepared from alcohols by reactions that do not directly involve bonds to the carbon atom imdeigoing substitution. The latter aspect is particularly important in cases in which the stereochemical and structural integrity of the reactant must be maintained. Sulfonate esters are usually prepared by reaction of an alcohol with a sulfonyl halide in the presence of pyridine ... 

The chloride of triflic acid (trifluoromethanesulfonyl chloride) is an effective sulfonylating agent Like triflic anhydride, it usually reacts with alcohols and other nucleophiles with the formation of the corresponding derivatives of tnflic acid [69] However, in some reactions, it acts as a chlorinating reagent [98] The reactions of tnfluoromethanesulfonyl chloride with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds or some carboxylic esters in the presence of a base result m the formation of chlonnated products in high yields (equation 49)... 

Sulfonyl chlorides as well as esters and amides of sulfonic acids can be hydrolyzed to the corresponding acids. Sulfonyl chlorides can by hydrolyzed with water or with an alcohol in the absence of acid or base. Basic catalysis is also used, though of course the salt is the product obtained. Esters are readily hydrolyzed, many with water or dilute alkali. This is the same reaction as 10-4, and usually involves R —0 cleavage, except when R is aryl. However, in some cases retention of configuration... 

Chloroethyl)polystyrenes and (iodoethyl)polystyrenes are each prepared from the alcohol by common reagents in a single step without complications, but one-pot procedures fail to produce completely pure bromide, which must be prepared from the tosylate by assisted halide exchange (57). The preparation of (toluenesulfonyloxyethyl)polystyrene itself, if performed in ice-cold pyridine as for the free analogue (64, 65), required a week to complete (67) if quaternary ammonium and other side-products (68) are to be avoided. In contrast, with non-nucleophilic diisopropylamine (69) as acid acceptor instead of pyridine, (hydroxyethyl)polystyrene and toluene-sulfonyl chloride need only be refluxed in carbon tetrachloride for a few hours to give the desired tosic ester as sole product in quantitative yield (57). 

A sulfonyl chloride group rapidly reacts with amines in the pH range of 9-10 to form stable sulfonamide bonds. Under these conditions, it also may react with tyrosine —OH groups, aliphatic alcohols, thiols, and histidine side chains. Conjugates of sulfonyl chlorides with sulf-hydryls and imidazole rings are unstable, while esters formed with alcohols are subject to nucleophilic displacement (Nillson and Mosbach, 1984 Scouten and Van der Tweel, 1984). The only stable derivative with proteins therefore is the sulfonamide, formed by reaction with e-lysine... 

The first evidence that an elimination-addition mechanism could be important in nucleophilic substitution reactions of alkanesulfonyl derivatives was provided by the observation (Truce et al., 1964 Truce and Campbell, 1966 King and Durst, 1964, 1965) that when alkanesulfonyl chlorides RCH2S02C1 were treated in the presence of an alcohol R OD with a tertiary amine (usually Et3N) the product was a sulfonate ester RCHDS020R with exactly one atom of deuterium on the carbon alpha to the sulfonyl group. Had the ester been formed by a base-catalysed direct substitution reaction of R OD with the sulfonyl chloride there would have been no deuterium at the er-position. Had the deuterium been incorporated by a separate exchange reaction, either of the sulfonyl chloride before its reaction to form the ester, or of the ester subsequent to its formation, then the amount of deuterium incorporated would not have been uniformly one atom of D per molecule. The observed results are only consistent with the elimination-addition mechanism involving a sulfene intermediate shown in (201). Subsequent kinetic studies... 

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