Alkyl halides, single electron transfer

The reactivities of the substrate and the nucleophilic reagent change vyhen fluorine atoms are introduced into their structures This perturbation becomes more impor tant when the number of atoms of this element increases A striking example is the reactivity of alkyl halides S l and mechanisms operate when few fluorine atoms are incorporated in the aliphatic chain, but perfluoroalkyl halides are usually resistant to these classical processes However, formal substitution at carbon can arise from other mecharasms For example nucleophilic attack at chlorine, bromine, or iodine (halogenophilic reaction, occurring either by a direct electron-pair transfer or by two successive one-electron transfers) gives carbanions These intermediates can then decompose to carbenes or olefins, which react further (see equations 15 and 47) Single-electron transfer (SET) from the nucleophile to the halide can produce intermediate radicals that react by an SrnI process (see equation 57) When these chain mechanisms can occur, they allow reactions that were previously unknown Perfluoroalkylation, which used to be very rare, can now be accomplished by new methods (see for example equations 48-56, 65-70, 79, 107-108, 110, 113-135, 138-141, and 145-146)... 

It might be mentioned that matters are much simpler for organometallic compounds with less-polar bonds. Thus Et2Hg and EtHgCl are both definite compounds, the former is a liquid and the latter is a solid. Organocalcium reagents are also known, and they are formed from alkyl halides via a single electron transfer (SET) mechanism with free-radical intermediates. "... 

S ilylation-intramolecular reduction, ketone-alcohol reduction, 78-79 Single-electron transfer (SET) process, alkyl halides and triflate reduction to alkanes, 28-31... 

Steric constraints dictate that reactions of organohalides catalysed by square planar nickel complexes cannot involve a cw-dialkyl or diaryl Ni(iii) intermediate. The mechanistic aspects of these reactions have been studied using a macrocyclic tetraaza-ligand [209] while quantitative studies on primary alkyl halides used Ni(n)(salen) as catalyst source [210]. One-electron reduction affords Ni(l)(salen) which is involved in the catalytic cycle. Nickel(l) interacts with alkyl halides by an outer sphere single electron transfer process to give alkyl radicals and Ni(ii). The radicals take part in bimolecular reactions of dimerization and disproportionation, react with added species or react with Ni(t) to form the alkylnickel(n)(salen). Alkanes are also fonned by protolysis of the alkylNi(ii). 

Electrophiles, which lead to high yields, are methyl iodide, trialkyltin- and trialkylsUyl chlorides, diphenylphosphinyl chloride, acid chlorides, aldehydes and carbon dioxide. Remarkably, though highly acidic ketones are formed on acylation, no deprotonation or racemization by excess of carbanionic species occurs. Other alkyl halides than methyl iodide react very sluggishly with low yields. Benzylic and aUylic halides lead to partial racemization, presumably due to single-electron transfer (SET) in the alkylation step. As very recently found by Papillon and Taylor, racemization of 42 can be suppressed by copper-zinc-lithium exchange before alkylation to 43 via the Knochel cuprates (equation 7) °. 

Ashby, E. C. Park, W. S. Goel, A. B. Su, W.-Y. Single-electron transfer in reactions of alkyl halides with lithium thiolates./. Org. Chem. 1985, 50, 5184-5193. 

Especially for alkyl halides 6 the transfer of a single electron from the metal center is facile and occurs at the halide via transition state 6C, which stabilizes either by direct abstraction of the halide to a carbon-metal complex radical pair 6D or via a distinct radical anion-metal complex pair 6E. This process was noted early but not exploited until recently (review [45]). Alkyl tosylates or triflates are not easily reduced by SET, and thus Sn2 and/or oxidative addition pathways are common. The generation of cr-radicals from aryl and vinyl halides has been observed, but is rarer due to the energy requirement for their generation. Normally, two-electron oxidative addition prevails. 

On the basis of these observations the draft mechanism shown in Scheme 3.160 has been proposed for the catalytic reaction, by analogy with the previous reaction. The reaction of CoCl2(dpph) with M( jSiCH2MgOl gives complex 168, which is electron-rich, because of coordination of the Grignard reagent. Complex 168 effects single-electron transfer to an alkyl halide to yield an anion radical of the halide and cobalt complex 169. Immediate loss of halide from the anion radical affords an alkyl radical intermediate, which adds to styrene to yield a benzyl radical. Cobalt species 169 would then recombine with the carbon-centered radical to form cobalt species 170. Finally, /i-hydride elimination provides... 

The reaction of trifluoromethyl iodide with arene thiolates provides trifluoromethyl aryl sulfides via a single electron transfer (SET) reaction rather than the SN2 reaction, which is the only formal mechanism (Scheme 2.31). In general, perfluoroalkyl (Rf—X), ferf-alkyl, and vinyl and aromatic halides are strongly deactivated for the replacement of halogens with... 

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