2-Alkynals dehydrohalogenation

Just as It IS possible to prepare alkenes by dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halides so may alkynes be prepared by a double dehydrohalogenation of dihaloalkanes The dihalide may be a geminal dihalide, one m which both halogens are on the same carbon or it may be a vicinal dihalide, one m which the halogens are on adjacent carbons... 

The most frequent applications of these procedures he in the preparation of terminal alkynes Because the terminal alkyne product is acidic enough to transfer a proton to amide anion one equivalent of base m addition to the two equivalents required for dou ble dehydrohalogenation is needed Adding water or acid after the reaction is complete converts the sodium salt to the corresponding alkyne... 

Double dehydrohalogenation to form terminal alkynes may also be carried out by heating geminal and vicinal dihalides with potassium tert butoxide m dimethyl sulfoxide... 

Double dehydrohalogenation of gemmal dihalides (Section 9 7) An E2 elimination reaction of a gemmal dihalide yields an alkenyl halide If a strong enough base IS used sodium amide for example a second elimination step follows the first and the alkenyl halide IS converted to an alkyne... 

Double dehydrohalogenation (Section 9 7) Reaction in which a geminal dihahde or vicinal dihahde on being treated with a very strong base such as sodium amide is converted to an alkyne by loss of two protons and the two halogen substituents... 

Hydrogenation of alkynes to alkenes using the Lindlai catalyst is attractive because it sidesteps the regioselectivity and stereoselectivity issues that accompany the dehydration of alcohols and dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halides. In tenns of regioselectivity, the position of the double bond is never in doubt—it appears in the carbon chain at exactly the sane place where the triple bond was. In tenns of stereoselectivity, only the cis alkene forms. Recall that dehydration and dehydrohalogenation normally give a cis-trans mixture in which the cis isomer is the minor product. 

The twofold dehydrohalogenation takes place through a vinylic halide intermediate, which suggests that vinylic halides themselves should give alkynes when treated with strong base. (Recall A vinylic substituent is one that is attached to a double-bond carbon.) This is indeed the case. For example ... 

ALKYNES VIA PHASE TRANSFER-CATALYZED DEHYDROHALOGENATION PROPIOLALDEHYDE DIETHYL ACETAL... 

Allenyl ethers are useful key building blocks for the synthesis of a-methylene-y-butyrolactones [129, 130], The synthesis of the antileukemic botryodiplodin was accomplished with the crucial steps briefly presented in Scheme 8.56. Bromoallenyl ethers 225 were easily prepared by base-induced isomerization from the corresponding /3-bromoalkyl alkynyl ether compounds and then subjected to electrophilic bro-mination with NBS. The resulting acetals 226 were converted into 2-alkoxy-3-methy-lenetetrahydrofurans 227 by dehydrohalogenation of the alkenyl bromide unit to an alkyne and subsequent radical cyclization employing tributyltin hydride [130],... 

Alkynes are prepared from alkyl dihalides via elimination of atoms or groups from adjacent carbons. Dehydrohalogenation of vicinal- or gemiwaZ-dihahdes is a particularly useful method for the preparation of alkynes (see Section 5.4.5). 

The equilibrium of reaction (B) is less favourable for the formation of an alkyne and, in order to achieve equal conversion, much higher temperatures would be required than are necessary for the olefin-forming elimination (A). Therefore little attention has been paid to this type of reaction and this section will be devoted solely to type (A) dehydrohalogenation. 

Isoxazoles and their partially or fully saturated analogs have mainly been prepared, both in solution and on insoluble supports, by 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of nitrile oxides or nitrones to alkenes or alkynes (Figure 15.10). Nitrile oxides can be generated in situ on insoluble supports by dehydration of nitroalkanes with isocyanates, or by conversion of aldehyde-derived oximes into a-chlorooximes and dehydrohalogenation of the latter. Nitrile oxides react smoothly with a wide variety of alkenes and alkynes to yield the corresponding isoxazoles. A less convergent approach to isoxazoles is the cyclocondensation of hydroxylamine with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds or a,[3-unsatu-rated ketones. 

Dehydrohalogenations at two adjacent carbon atoms lead to compounds with C = CorCsC bonds and arc an important route to fluorinated alkencs and alkynes. Some dehydrohalogenations occur spontaneously, others require elevated temperatures, and the majority occur in a basic medium which takes up the eliminated hydrogen halide.1 4 In addition to aqueous or alcoholic alkalis, organic bases such as triethylamine are often used for this purpose. 

The amide ions are powerful bases and may be used (i) to dehydrohalogenate halo-compounds to alkenes and alkynes, and (ii) to generate reactive anions from terminal acetylenes, and compounds having reactive a-hydrogens (e.g. carbonyl compounds, nitriles, 2-alkylpyridines, etc.) these anions may then be used in a variety of synthetic procedures, e.g. alkylations, reactions with carbonyl components, etc. A further use of the metal amides in liquid ammonia is the formation of other important bases such as sodium triphenylmethide (from sodamide and triphenylmethane). 

In contrast to the (E)-isomer, (Z)-alkenyl(phenyl)-A3-iodane 41 is labile and decomposes with a half-life time of 20 min to terminal alkynes in chloroform solution at room temperature [64]. Stereo electronically preferable reductive anti / -elimination accounts for this facile decomposition. In fact, the kinetic results for E2-type dehydrohalogenation of vinyl halides show that the relative rates of elimination decrease in the order anti /3->syn / - a-elimination [65]. Similar anti -elimination of vinyl-A3-iodane was proposed in the oxidation of methoxyallene with (diacetoxyiodo)benzene 4 to 3-acetoxy-3-methoxypropyne [66]. 

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