Benzene reaction with alkenes

Figure 16.1 A comparison of the reactions of an electrophile (E+) with an alkene and with benzene. AG benzene-...

Alkyl mesylates undergo alkylation reaction with benzene rings in the presence of Sc(OTf)3. " Allylic acetates undergo alkylation with Mo(CO)g and allylic chlorides react in the presence of ZnCl2/Si02. " Montmorillonite clay (KIO) is an effective medium for alkylation reactions.Nafion-H, a super acidic perfluori-nated resin sulfonic acid, is a very good catalyst for gas phase alkylations with alkyl halides, alcohols,or alkenes. 

Diels-Alder reaction of the highly strained alkene (48) with benzene is one of the strikingly unusual reactions. The driving force of the unusual cycloaddition would be a favorable electron transfer from benzene to the low-lying LUMO of the highly electron-deficient double bond of 48 [15]. In contrast, the corresponding hydrocarbon (50) dimerizes and polymerizes rapidly at ambient temperature (Scheme 1.43) [16]. 

The intermediate in both reactions is a cation but the first (from cyclohexene) adds an anion while the second (from benzene) loses a proton so that the aromatic system can be restored. Notice also that neutral bromine reacts with the alkene but the cationic AICI3 complex is needed to get reaction with benzene. Bromine itself is a very reactive electrophile. It is indeed a dangerous compound and should be handled only with special precautions. Even so it does not react with benzene. It is difficult to get benzene to react with anything. 

These intermediates undergo addition reactions with alkenes and insertion reactions with saturated systems. Addition also occurs on reaction with benzene. Many of the... 

Subsequently, MBH adducts were successfully utilized as novel stereodefined electrophiles in the Friedel-Crafts reaction with benzene in the presence of a Lewis acid " and sulfuric acid, leading to the stereoselective synthesis of (Z)- and ( )-functionalized trisubstituted alkenes. Notably, MBH adducts obtained from acrylonitrile provide high (Z)-stereoselectivities, while adducts derived from methyl acrylate and aromatic aldehydes give high ( )-stereo-selectivities. When the MBH adducts drived from methyl acrylate and aliphatic aldehydes were involved in the Friedel-Crafts reaction, no significant stereoselectivity was observed (Scheme 3.29). 

Friedel-Crafts alkylation involves formation of an alkyl carbocation in the presence of benzene or a benzene derivative. In previous chapters, these reactive intermediates are formed by reaction of an alkene with an acid (Chapter 10, Section 10.2), by reaction of an alcohol with an acid (Chapter 11, Section 11.7.1), or by the ionization of an alkyl halide in aqueous solution (Chapter 11, Section 11.4). For reactions with benzene and its derivatives, an alternative method that can generate primary carbocations that are particularly difficult to form by the other methods named is used to form carbocations. 

The Pd(II)-mediated reaction of benzene with alkenes affords styrene derivatives 259[230,231]. 

Three oxidative reactions of benzene with Pd(OAc)2 via reactive rr-aryl-Pd complexes are known. The insertion of alkenes and elimination afford arylalk-enes. The oxidative functionalization of alkenes with aromatics is treated in Section 2.8. Two other reactions, oxidative homocoupling[324,325] and the acetoxylation[326], are treated in this section. The palladation of aromatic compounds is possible only with Pd(OAc)2. No reaction takes place with PdCl2. 

C-Alkylations may be discussed under the headings of alkene reactions and A/-alkyl rearrangements. The isopropylation of benzene and naphthalene are two important examples of alkylation with alkenes (see Alkylation). Manufacture of j butylaniline, by heating /V-butylaniline with 2inc chloride, typifies the rearrangement reaction appropriate to and higher alkyl derivatives. 

Fluorobenzene is readily alkylated with alkenes in the presence of protic acids, however, the isomenc purity of the product is poor, and polysubstitution can result Thus, propene and sulfuric acid alkylate fluorobenzene at 20 C to yield a 45 55 ortho/para ratio of the inonoalkyl product m addition to di- and triiso propylfluorobenzene [i5] The reaction of benzene and trifluoropropene at 25 °C in HF-BF3 gives a mixture of mono-, bis-, and tns(3,3,3-trifluoropropyl)ben zene [72, 75] (equation 12)... 

The reaction of ozone with an aromatic compound is considerably slower than the reaction with an alkene. Complete ozonolysis of one mole of benzene with workup under non-oxidative conditions will yield three moles of glyoxal. The selective ozonolysis of particular bonds in appropriate aromatic compounds is used in organic synthesis, for example in the synthesis of a substituted biphenyl 8 from phenanthrene 7 ... 

Although benzene is clearly unsaturatcd, it is much more stable than typical alkenes and fails to undergo the usual alkene reactions. Cyclohexene, for instance, reacts rapidly with Br2 and gives the addition product 1,2-dibromo-cyclohexane, but benzene reacts only slowly with Br2 and gives the substitution product CgH Br. As a result of this substitution, the cyclic conjugation of the benzene ring is retained. 

A second difference between alkene addition and aromatic substitution occurs after the carbocation intermediate has formed. Instead of adding Br- to give an addition product, the carbocation intermediate loses H+ from the bromine-bearing carbon to give a substitution product. Note that this loss of H+ is similar to what occurs in the second step of an El reaction (Section 11.10). The net effect of reaction of Br2 with benzene is the substitution of H+ by Br+ by the overall mechanism shown in Figure 16.2. 

Why does the reaction of Br9 with benzene take a different course than its reaction with an alkene The answer is straightforward. If addition occurred, the 150 kj/mo) stabilization energy of the aromatic ring would be lost and the... 

Arenes are unsaturated but, unlike the alkenes, they are not very reactive. Whereas alkenes commonly take part in addition reactions, arenes undergo predominantly substitution reactions, with the TT-bonds of the ring left intact. For example, bromine immediately adds to a double bond of an alkene but reacts with benzene only in the presence of a catalyst—typically, iron(III) bromide—and it does not affect the bonding in the ring. Instead, one of the bromine atoms replaces a hydrogen atom to give bromobenzene, C H Br ... 

Larhed et al. investigated enantioselective Heck reactions with 2,3-dihydrofuran as alkene [86]. In the coupling with phenyl triflate, conditions previously reported by Pfaltz [87] were attempted under microwave irradiation. Interestingly, the catalytic system Pd2(dba)3/(4S)-4-t-butyl-2-[2-(diphenylphosphanyl)phenyl]-4,5-dihydro-l,3-oxazole, identified by the Swiss team, was found suitable for high-temperature microwave-assisted enantioselective Heck reactions (Scheme 76). Using a proton sponge as a base and benzene as a solvent gave the best conversions (Scheme 76). At tempera-... 

The (TMS)3SiH mediated addition of phosphorus-centered radicals to a number of alkenes has been investigated in some detail. Reaction (73) is an example of phosphorous-carbon bond formation using four structurally different phenylseleno derivatives with 3 equiv of (TMSlsSiH and AIBN in refluxing benzene for 2h. Comparative studies on the reaction of the four phosphorus-centered radicals have been obtained. Although the reaction with 1-methylene cyclohexane is efficient with all four derivatives, different selectivity is observed with electron-rich or electron-poor alkenes. 

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