Alkyl group nucleophilic attack

Azidoalcohols (79, 81) can be accessed directly through the cerium-catalyzed addition of sodium azide onto mono-substituted epoxides. When the substituent is a simple alkyl or aryl group, nucleophilic attack at the more substituted epoxide carbon was observed i.e., 78 -> 79). However, when a phenoxy group was incorporated into the side chain (e.g., 80), a crossover to attack on the unsubstituted methylene carbon was encountered <99SC561>. 

It is, of course, the carbonyl group that makes acyl compounds more reactive than alkyl compounds. Nucleophilic attack (Sn2) on a tetrahedral alkyl carbon involves a badly crowded transition state containing pentavalent carbon a bond must be partly broken to permit the attachment of the nucleophile ... 

The most familiar reaction in organic chemistry, usually called alkylation, involves nucleophilic attack on saturated aliphatic (or alicyclic) carbon. The alkylation agents (most with halogen as a leaving group) may be subdivided as follows ... 

The C-X bond of alkyl halides and sulfonate esters is polarized such that the carbon has a positive dipole. Halides and sulfonate anions are good leaving groups. Nucleophiles attack primary and secondary alkyl halides, displacing the leaving group in what is known as aliphatic, bimolecular nucleophilic substitution, the Sn2 reaction. The 8 2 reaction follows second-order kinetics, has a transition state rather than an intermediate, and proceeds via back-side attack of the nucleophile on the halide and inversion of configuration. 

RMgX or RLi can react with a metal halide to give the metal alkyl via nucleophilic attack. Eq 3.5-6 show transmetalation, the transfer of alkyl groups between metals. Alternatively, a sufficiently nucleophilic metal can undergo electrophilic attack (Eq, 3.7-Eq. 3.9). Eq. 3.9 shows how acyl complexes can often lose CO (Section 7.2). This is particularly... 

As we have seen the nucleophile attacks the substrate m the rate determining step of the Sn2 mechanism it therefore follows that the rate of substitution may vary from nucleophile to nucleophile Just as some alkyl halides are more reactive than others some nucleophiles are more reactive than others Nucleophilic strength or nucleophilicity, is a measure of how fast a Lewis base displaces a leaving group from a suitable substrate By measuring the rate at which various Lewis bases react with methyl iodide m methanol a list of then nucleophihcities relative to methanol as the standard nucleophile has been compiled It is presented m Table 8 4... 

Two processes that are consistent with second order kinetics both involve hydrox ide ion as a nucleophile but differ in the site of nucleophilic attack One of these processes is an 8 2 reaction in which hydroxide displaces carboxylate from the alkyl group of the ester... 

Attack by the halide nucleophile at the sp hybridized carbon of the alkyl group is anal ogous to what takes place in the cleavage of dialkyl ethers Attack at the sp hybridized carbon of the aromatic nng is much slower Indeed nucleophilic aromatic substitution does not occur at all under these conditions... 

Lithium amides of primary / fZ-alkylamines yield N-(/ f2 -alkyl)-0-(/ f2 -butyl)hydroxylamines, whereas lithium amides of primary alkylamines yield A/-alkylbenzamides and LiOO—due to nucleophilic attack on the carbonyl group (245). 

A related but distinct rhodium-catalyzed methyl acetate carbonylation to acetic anhydride (134) was commercialized by Eastman in 1983. Anhydrous conditions necessary to the Eastman acetic anhydride process require important modifications (24) to the process, including introduction of hydrogen to maintain the active [Rhl2(CO)2] catalyst and addition of lithium cation to activate the alkyl methyl group of methyl acetate toward nucleophilic attack by iodide. 

Alkyl groups under nonacidic conditions sterically deflect nucleophiles from C, but under acidic conditions this steric effect is to some extent offset by an electronic one the protonated oxirane opens by transition states (Scheme 40) which are even more 5Nl-like than the borderline Sn2 one of the unprotonated oxirane. Thus electronic factors favor cleavage at the more substituted carbon, which can better support a partial positive charge the steric factor is still operative, however, and even under acidic conditions the major product usually results from Cp attack. 

One example of nucleophilic attack by a rr-electron system on a sulfur atom of a thiirane 1-oxide is shown in Scheme 51. S-Alkylthiirenium ions react with tetramethylethylene to transfer the S-alkyl group yielding the alkyne and an S-alkyl-2,2,3,3-tetramethylthiiranium ion (79MI50600). 

As crowding at the carbon that bears the leaving group decreases, the rate of nucleophilic attack by the Lewis base increases. A low level of steric hindrance to approach of the nucleophile is one of the special circumstances that permit substitution to predominate, and primary alkyl halides react with alkoxide bases by an Sn2 mechanism in preference to E2 ... 

Amination of the deactivated carbanion of 4-benzylpyridine formed with excess sodamide presumably proceeds because the strong indirect deactivation is overcome by electrophilic attack by Na+ at the partially anionic azine-nitrogen and by concerted nucleophilic attack by H2N at the 2-position via a 6-membered cyclic transition state (75). However, in simple nucleophilic displacement a carbanion will be more deactivating than the corresponding alkyl group, as is true in general for anionic substituents and their non-ionic counterparts. 

Acidic ether cleavages are typical nucleophilic substitution reactions, either SN1 or Sn2 depending on the structure of the substrate. Ethers with only primary and secondary alkyl groups react by an S 2 mechanism, in which or Br attacks the protonated ether at the less hindered site. This usually results in a selective cleavage into a single alcohol and a single alkyl halide. For example, ethyl isopropyl ether yields exclusively isopropyl alcohol and iodoethane on cleavage by HI because nucleophilic attack by iodide ion occurs at the less hindered primary site rather than at the more hindered secondary site. 

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