Allyl radical Allylic bromination

As we saw when discussing allylic bromination in Section 10.4, A-bromosuccin-imide (NBS) is a convenient free-radical brominating agent. Benzylic brominations with NBS are nonnally perfonned in carbon tetrachloride as the solvent in the presence of peroxides, which are added as initiators. As the exanple illustrates, free-radical bromination is selective for substitution of benzylic hydrogens. 

The allylic bromination of an olefin with NBS proceeds by a free-radical chain mechanism. The chain reaction initiated by thermal decomposition of a free-radical initiator substance that is added to the reaction mixture in small amounts. The decomposing free-radical initiator generates reactive bromine radicals by reaction with the N-bromosuccinimide. A bromine radical abstracts an allylic hydrogen atom from the olefinic subsfrate to give hydrogen bromide and an allylic radical 3 ... 

This allylic bromination with NBS is analogous to the alkane halogenation reaction discussed in the previous section and occurs by a radical chain reaction pathway. As in alkane halogenation, Br- radical abstracts an allylic hydrogen atom of the alkene, thereby forming an allylic radical plus HBr. This allylic radical then reacts with Br2 to yield the product and a Br- radical, which cycles back... 

In addition to its effect on stability, delocalization of the unpaired electron in the allyl radical has other chemical consequences. Because the unpaired electron is delocalized over both ends of the nr orbital system, reaction with Br2 can occur at either end. As a result, allylic bromination of an unsymmetrical alkene often leads to a mixture of products. For example, bromination of 1-octene gives a mixture of 3-bromo-l-octene and l-bromo-2-octene. The two products are not formed in equal amounts, however, because the intermediate allylic radical is... 

Simple alkyl halides can be prepared by radical halogenation of alkanes, but mixtures of products usually result. The reactivity order of alkanes toward halogenation is identical to the stability order of radicals R3C- > R2CH- > RCH2-. Alkyl halides can also be prepared from alkenes by reaction with /V-bromo-succinimide (NBS) to give the product of allylic bromination. The NBS bromi-nation of alkenes takes place through an intermediate allylic radical, which is stabilized by resonance. 

The mechanism of benzylic bromination is similar to that discussed in Section 10.4 for allylic bromination of alkenes. Abstraction of a benzylic hydrogen atom generates an intermediate benzylic radical, which reacts with Br2 to yield product and a Br- radical that cycles back into the reaction to carry on the chain. The Br2 necessary for reaction with the benzylic radical is produced by a concurrent reaction of HBr with NBS. 

It is generally supported that the bromination with NBS proceeded by a radical (ref. 11) or an ionic mechanism via bromine molecule. For instance, the former was suggested in benzylic and allylic bromination with NBS for Whol-Ziegler reaction (ref. 12). Calo et al. (ref. 5) accounted NBS brominated phenol by the latter mechanism. 

That the mechanism of allylic bromination is of the free-radical type was demonstrated by Dauben and McCoy, who showed that the reaction is veiy sensitive to free-radical initiators and inhibitors and indeed does not proceed at all unless at least a trace of initiator is present. Subsequent work indicated that the species that actually abstracts hydrogen from the substrate is the bromine atom. The reaction is initiated by small amounts of Br. Once it is formed, the main propagation steps are... 

Radical-initiated allylic bromination using NBS, and catalytic AIBN as initiator or NBS under photolysis. 

For example, radical allylic bromination of pent-2-ene must produce a mixture of three products. There are two allylic positions in the substrate, and either can suffer hydrogen abstraction. If hydrogen is abstracted from the methylene, then the two contributing resonance structures for the allylic radical are equivalent, and one product results when this captures a bromine atom. Abstraction... 

This could complicate an allylic bromination reaction, and it is necessary to choose conditions that minimize any addition to the double bond. This is achieved by carrying out the reaction in a solvent of low polarity, e.g. CCU, which suppresses the possibility of the polar electrophilic addition, whilst keeping the concentration of bromine very low to suppress radical addition. 

Wohl in 1919 reported that A -bromoacetamide (CH CONHBr) induced allylic bromination. " Then iV-bromosuccinimide (30) was described in 1942 by Ziegler and co-workers to be useful in such free radical bromination reactions (equation 41), " and this widely utilized procedure is known as the Wohl-Ziegler reaction. In 1963 the mechanism of the reaction was proposed to involve halogen atoms in the hydrogen abstraction step " " " instead of succinimidyl radicals as had been commonly supposed. The halogen atom mechanism had previously been proposed by Gosselain et al. for reactions of yV-chlorosuccinimide. " ... 

In allylic bromination, the radical nature of the reaction can lead to rearranged products. 

Novel results were reported for allylic bromination. In radical bromination of cyclohexene in CCI4 under light the selectivity of substitution over addition was shown to be controlled by bromine concentration.304 Substitution via the corresponding allyl radical, while relatively slow, is irreversible and fast enough to maintain the concentration of bromine at a sufficiently low level to prevent significant addition. The reaction of two strained alkenes, fZ)-1,2-dimethyl-1,2-di-ferf-butylethylene and the -isomer (14), leads to the corresponding bromosubstituted product, instead of addition 305... 

It was envisaged that the enones were produced following abstraction of H-1 (a process facilitated by the ability of sulfur atoms to stabilize radicals on bonded carbon centers), radical bromination, elimination of hydrogen bromide to give substituted glycals, allylic bromination at C-3, and loss of acetyl bromide. In the formation of compound 6, hydrogen abstraction from C-5 was deemed to compete with that from C-1, and to lead to substitution at the former site with the formation of a relatively stable product. 

Allylic bromination normally uses NBS as bromine itself would add to the alkene. Thus cyclohexene gives the dibromide 18 with Br2 but the allylic bromide with NBS. Bromine radicals abstract one of the marked H atoms from 19 and the intermediate allylic radical 21 is delocalised so we don t know which end of the allylic system5 ends up attached to Br. 

The general mechanism for allylic bromination shows that either end of the resonance-stabilized allylic radical can react with bromine to give products. In one of the products, the bromine atom appears in the same position where the hydrogen atom was abstracted. The other product results from reaction at the carbon atom that bears the radical in the second resonance form of the allylic radical. This second compound is said to be the product of an allylic shift. 

For efficient allylic bromination, a large concentration of bromine must be avoided because bromine can also add to the double bond (Chapter 8). A-Bromosuccimnude (NBS) is often used as the bromine source in free-radical brominations because it combines with the HBr side product to regenerate a constant low concentration of bromine. No additional bromine is needed because most samples of NBS contain traces of Br2 to initiate the reaction. 

The following propagation steps show how a mixture of products results from the free-radical allylic bromination of but-l-ene. 

Because radical brominations are so selective, they can be used successfully in the lab to make alkyl bromides. There are relatively few ways of functionalizing an unfunctionalized centre, but radical allylic bromination is one of these. Just as tertiary radicals are more stable than primary ones, so allylic radicals are even more stable than tertiary ones (see the table on p. 1026). In the presence of a suitable initiator, bromine will therefore selectively abstract an allylic hydrogen atom to give an allylic radical that can then be trapped by a molecule of bromine to regenerate a bromine radical (chain propagation) and produce the allylic bromide, initiation Br2 ----------- 2 x Br ... 

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