Barton esters alkylation reactions

Thioethers have also been prepared on cross-linked polystyrene by radical addition of thiols to support-bound alkenes and by reaction of support-bound carbon radicals (generated by addition of carbon radicals to resin-bound acrylates) with esters of l-hydroxy-l,2-dihydro-2-pyridinethione ( Barton esters Entry 6, Table 8.5). Additional methods include the reaction of metallated supports with symmetric disulfides (Entries 7-9, Table 8.5) and the alkylation of polystyrene-bound, a-lithiated thioani-sole [65],... 

A variety of different sources of radicals have been used in several heteroaromatic substitution reactions [2] these include acyl peroxides, oxaziridines, thiohydroxa-mic Barton esters, the Gif reaction, alkyl xanthates, and ketones/H202 (Scheme 8). 

Barton and Crich reported the first examples of the uses of 2-substituted allylic sulfur compounds [53]. Their initial experiments with additions of simple alkyl radicals to allyl sulfides, sulfoxides and sulfones were relatively unsuccessful. This failure was largely due to the fact that the nucleophilic alkyl radicals, which were generated by photolysis of the corresponding Barton ester, underwent addition to a second equivalent of Barton ester faster than they added to the allyl transfer agent. Reactions were much more successful with the electron-deficient acrylate reagent 93 (Fig. 4). Crich was later able to show that this same reagent underwent addition reactions with an acyl radical derived from an acyl phenyl telluride [54]. 

In terms of generation and manipulation of O-acyl thiohydroxamates it is important to recognize that, in the absence of any other reagents, decarboxylative rearrangement to alkyl-2-pyridyl sulfides can occur (Scheme 7). This is the simplest free-radical reaction of Barton esters and is of preparative utility in its own right. A series of crossover experiments demonstrated that the only mechanism which oper-... 

O-acyl thiohydroxamates was initially thwarted by competing ionic reactions but eventually culminated in the introduction of 3-bromo or 3-(trifluoromethyl)-3-phenyl diazirine as extremely effective reagents [27]. In contrast to almost all of the other reactions of Barton esters described in this chapter, however, the reaction sequence does not involve a chain process. Thus, as outlined in Scheme 25, capture of the alkyl radical by the diazirine is followed by dimerization and subsequent loss of nitrogen to give the product imine from which the desired amide or amine is easily liberated by mild hydrolysis. Some typical yields are shown in the Scheme 26. 

The photochemical or thermally induced reaction of 0-acyl thiohydroxamates produces nucleophilic alkyl radicals, which can, of course, add to electron-deficient alkenes. The efficient generation of a chain process however then requires that the resultant radical can effectively capture the sulfur atom of the Barton ester, thereby incorporating the pyridyl sulfide moiety into the resultant adduct and producing the alkyl radical as the chain carrier as shown in Scheme 29. 

The basic transformation that underlies the Barton method is outlined in Scheme 45, steps 1 and 2.152 Thermolysis in refluxing toluene or photolysis with a sunlamp rapidly converts a thiohydroxamate ester (32) to the decarboxylated pyridyl sulfide (33). This pyridyl sulfide is formed by addition of an alkyl radical R to the thiohydroxamate (32) followed by fragmentation of (34) as indicated. In the planning of addition reactions by the Barton method, it is usually assumed that the addition step 1 is rate limiting. However, there is now evidence that step 1 may sometimes be reversible and step 2 may be rate limiting.153... 

Both Bu3SnH and (Me3Si)3SiH are able to reduce alkyl iodides or bromides but not alcohols. However, in the Barton-McCombie reaction, they reduce certain alcohol derivatives, namely, ones that contain a C=S double bond (e. g., thiocarboxylic esters or thiocarbonic esters). Figure 1.39 shows how the OH group of cholesterol can he removed by means of a Barton-McCombie reaction. The C=S-containing alcohol derivative used there is a xanthate. 

The last, but certainly not the least, is the Barton modification to the Hunsdiecker reaction.24-26 It involves decomposition of thiohydroxamate esters in halogen donor solvents such as CCU, BrCCh, CHI3, or CH2I2 promoted by a source of radical initiation, which could be radical initiator (e.g., 18—>20),24 thermal (e.g., 21—>22),25 or photolytic26 conditions. The Barton modification is highly compatible with most functional groups. For example, under photolytic conditions, acid 23 was converted to acid chloride 24, which, without isolation, was treated with the sodium salt of Z/-hydroxypyridine-2-thione (19) with bromotrichloromethane as solvent to give alkyl bromide 25 in 90% yield.26... 

The Barton nitrite ester photolysis is undeniably one of the most popular and useful reactions in radical chemistry for the functionalization of remote and inactivated positions within steroids (Scheme 19). Photolysis of nitrite esters gives nitric oxide and an alkoxyl radical that abstracts an ideally positioned hydrogen atom (1,5-hydrogen atom abstraction). The resulting alkyl radical reacts with nitric oxide in a solvent cage to afford the nitroso-alcohol derivative that is finally isolated as an oxime [53]. Related cyclizations of alkoxyl radicals have been reported by Surzur photolysis of y,(5-alkenyl nitrite esters leads to alkoxyl radicals that undergo subsequent tandem 5-exo cyclization followed by NO-trapping [54, 55]. 

Alkylative esterification of carboxylic acids with alkyl halides are effected by action with TMG (1) [65]. An ester is given by the TMG (1) mediated reaction of y-hydroxy-a,p-unsaturated carboxylic acid with methyl iodide without lactone formation after isomerization [65a]. Barton s base effectively works in the alkylation of sterically hindered carboxylic acid [3]. Ethanolysis of the acetate of tertiary alcohol occurred easily in 86% yield in the presence of BTMG (2) [66] (Scheme 4.24). 

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