Tertiary alkyl bromides

Bromination is normally used only to prepare tertiary alkyl bromides from alkanes... 

There are very large differences m the rates at which the various kinds of alkyl halides— methyl primary secondary or tertiary—undergo nucleophilic substitution As Table 8 2 shows for the reaction of a series of alkyl bromides... 

Additional evidence for carbocation intermediates in certain nucleophilic substitutions comes from observing rearrangements of the kind normally associated with such species For example hydrolysis of the secondary alkyl bromide 2 bromo 3 methylbutane yields the rearranged tertiary alcohol 2 methyl 2 butanol as the only substitution product... 

Cradally, dais allows orgatiozitic reagents to be prepared from less reactive aryl bromides and secondary or tertiary alkyl bromides.. Alternatively, orgatiozitic iodides can be prepared by means of a paliadiurniOj-catalyzed reaction between alkyl iodides and Et2Zn iSdaeme 2.25) [53-56],... 

The alkylation reaction is limited to the use of primary alkyl bromides and alkyl iodides because acetylide ions are sufficiently strong bases to cause dehydrohalogenation instead of substitution when they react with secondary and tertiary alkyl halides. For example, reaction of bromocyclohexane with propyne anion yields the elimination product cyclohexene rather than the substitution product 1-propynylcyclohexane. 

N-Alkoxylamines 88 are a class of initiators in "living" radical polymerization (Scheme 14). A new methodology for their synthesis mediated by (TMSlsSiH has been developed. The method consists of the trapping of alkyl radicals generated in situ by stable nitroxide radicals. To accomplish this simple reaction sequence, an alkyl bromide or iodide 87 was treated with (TMSlsSiH in the presence of thermally generated f-BuO radicals. The reaction is not a radical chain process and stoichiometric quantities of the radical initiator are required. This method allows the generation of a variety of carbon-centered radicals such as primary, secondary, tertiary, benzylic, allylic, and a-carbonyl, which can be trapped with various nitroxides. 

Sodium nitrite can be used to form nitro compounds with primary or secondary alkyl bromides or iodides, though the method is of limited scope. Silver nitrite gives nitro compounds only when RX is a primary bromide or iodide. Nitrite esters are an important side product in all these cases (10-33) and become the major product (by an SnI mechanism) when secondary or tertiary halides are treated with silver nitrite. 

Notes on the preparation of secondary alkylarylamines. The preparation of -propyl-, ijopropyl- and -butyl-anilines can be conveniently carried out by heating the alkyl bromide with an excess (2-5-4mols) of aniline for 6-12 hours. The tendency for the alkyl halide to yield the corresponding tertiary amine is thus repressed and the product consists almost entirely of the secondary amine and the excess of primary amine combined with the hydrogen bromide liberated in the reaction. The separation of the primary and secondary amines is easily accomplished by the addition of an excess of per cent, zinc chloride solution aniline and its homologues form sparingly soluble additive compounds of the type B ZnCl whereas the alkylanilines do not react with sine chloride in the presence of water. The excess of primary amine can be readily recovered by decomposing the zincichloride with sodium hydroxide solution followed by steam distillation or solvent extraction. The yield of secondary amine is about 70 per cent, of the theoretical. 

As a result of the inductive and hyperconjugative effects it is to be expected that tertiary carbonium ions will be more stable than secondary carbonium ions, which in turn will be more stable than primary ions. The stabilization of the corresponding transition states for ionization should be in the same order, since the transition state will somewhat resemble the ion. Thus the first order rate constant for the solvolysis of tert-buty bromide in alkaline 80% aqueous ethanol at 55° is about 4000 times that of isopropyl bromide, while for ethyl and methyl bromides the first order contribution to the hydrolysis rate is imperceptible against the contribution from the bimolecular hydrolysis.217 Formic acid is such a good ionizing solvent that even primary alkyl bromides hydrolyze at a rate nearly independent of water concentration. The relative rates at 100° are tertiary butyl, 108 isopropyl, 44.7 ethyl, 1.71 and methyl, 1.00.218>212 One a-phenyl substituent is about as effective in accelerating the ionization as two a-alkyl groups.212 Thus the reactions of benzyl compounds, like those of secondary alkyl compounds, are of borderline mechanism, while benzhydryl compounds react by the unimolecular ionization mechanism. 

Yields of chlorides are good to excellent for primary and secondary alcohols, but a competing olefin-forming elimination process renders the method of limited value for preparing tertiary chlorides.12 An adaptation of the procedure using carbon tetrabromide allows the synthesis of alkyl bromides. Some examples are the preparation of rt-C5H11Br (97%) and C H6CH2Br (96%).12 Farncsyl bromide has been prepared in 90% yield from fame sol.23... 

ControUed-potential oxidations of a number of primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl bromides at platinum electrodes in acetonitrile have been investigated [10]. For compounds such as 2-bromopropane, 2-bromobutane, tert-butyl bromide, and neopentyl bromide, a single Ai-alkylacetamide is produced. On the other hand, for 1-bromobutane, 1-bromopentane, 1-bromohexane, 1-bromo-3-methylbutane, and 3-bromohexane, a mixture of amides arises. It was proposed that one electron is removed from each molecule of starting material and that the resulting cation radical (RBr+ ) decomposes to yield a carbocation (R" "). Once formed, the carbocation can react (either directly or after rearrangement) with acetonitrile eventually to form an Al-alkylacetamide, as described above for alkyl iodides. In later work, Becker [11] studied the oxidation of 1-bromoalkanes ranging from methyl to heptyl bromide. He observed that, as the carbon-chain length is increased, the coulombic yield of amides decreases as the number of different amides increases. 

McKillop and Ford synthesized a range of primary and secondary alkyl nitrates in excellent yields by treating alkyl bromides with mercury (I) nitrate in 1,2-dimethoxyethane at reflux (Equation 3.9). This method has been used to synthesize substituted nitrate esters from both a-bromocarboxylic acid and a-bromoketone substrates. Unlike metathesis with silver salts, which are widely known to promote SnI reactions, this method is not useful for the synthesis of nitrate esters from tertiary alkyl halides. 

This is the case for secondary and tertiary alkyl bromides. If the stability is high, however, as, for example, with primary alkyl bromides, the organo nickel(III) complex is further reduced to an alkyl nickel(II) complex which loses the alkyl group in form of the alkyl anion. An electroinactive Ni(II) species remains. The number of regenerative cycles is consequently low. The structure of the ligand also influences the lifetime of the alkyl nickel(ni) complex thus, a less stable complex is formed in the case of [A,A -ethylene-bis(salicylidene-irainato)]nickel(II) ([Ni(salen)]) as compared with (5,5,7,12,12,14-hexamethyl-l,4,8,ll-tetraazacyclo-tetradecane)nickel(II) ([Ni(teta)] ), and hence the former complex favors the radical pathway even with primary alkyl halides. 

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