Aluminum chloride alkyl halides

Friedel-Crafts alkylation (Section 12.6) Carbocations, usually generated from an alkyl halide and aluminum chloride, alkylate the aromatic ring. The arene must be at least as reactive as a halobenzene. Rearrangements can occur, especially with primary alkyl halides. 

In most processes recirculation of the stable feed hydrocarbon is maintained and the reactive olefin is fed into the recycling stream sometimes at several points. Thus, the concentration of olefin is always low and polymerization reactions are minimized. The alkylation reaction is favored by high pressures and low temperatures. However, in order to accomplish the reaction without catalysts, temperatures of 900 to 975 F are required.Polymerization also occurs rapidly at such temperatures, and hence the olefin concentration must be kept low. Thermal alkylation is conducted at 3,000 to 8,000 psig, whereas by means of catalysts such as sulfuric acid, boron fluoride, - aluminum chloride, double halides of alkali metals with aluminum, and hydrogen fluoride, pressures less than 500 psi and temperatures ranging from 450°F down to below zero may be employed. Sulfuric acid was widely used early in World War II as a catalyst in commercial installations, and a revival of interest has occurred since 1951. The process operates at 30 to 60 F for butenes and at substantially atmospheric pressure. The hydrofluoric acid process also proved during World War II to be a highly successful process, but only... 

Alkyl halides react with benzene m the presence of aluminum chloride to yield alkyl benzenes... 

Alkylation of benzene with alkyl halides m the presence of aluminum chloride was discovered by Charles Friedel and James M Crafts m 1877 Crafts who later became president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology collaborated with Friedel at the Sorbonne m Pans and together they developed what we now call the Friedel-Crafts reaction into one of the most useful synthetic methods m organic chemistry... 

Alkyl halides by themselves are insufficiently electrophilic to react with benzene Aluminum chloride serves as a Lewis acid catalyst to enhance the electrophihcity of the alkylating agent With tertiary and secondary alkyl halides the addition of aluminum chlonde leads to the formation of carbocations which then attack the aromatic ring... 

Secondary alkyl halides react by a similar mechanism involving attack on benzene by a secondary carbocation Methyl and ethyl halides do not form carbocations when treated with aluminum chloride but do alkylate benzene under Friedel-Crafts conditions The aluminum chloride complexes of methyl and ethyl halides contain highly polarized carbon-halogen bonds and these complexes are the electrophilic species that react with benzene... 

Rearrangement is especially prevalent with primary alkyl halides of the type RCH2CH2X and R2CHCH2X Aluminum chloride induces ionization with rearrangement to give a more stable carbocation Benzylic halides and acyl halides do not rearrange... 

Friedel-Crafts alkylation (Section 12 6) An electrophilic aro matic substitution in which an aromatic compound reacts with an alkyl halide in the presence of aluminum chloride An alkyl group becomes bonded to the nng... 

Lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH4) is the most powerful of the hydride reagents. It reduces acid chlorides, esters, lactones, acids, anhydrides, aldehydes, ketones and epoxides to alcohols amides, nitriles, imines and oximes to amines primary and secondary alkyl halides and toluenesulfonates to... 

Triflates of aluminum, gallium and boron, which are readily available by the reaction of the corresponding chlorides with triflic acid, are effective Fnedel-Crafis catalysis for alkylation and acylation of aromatic compounds [119, 120] Thus alkylation of toluene with various alkyl halides m the presence of these catalysts proceeds rapidly at room temperature 111 methylene chloride or ni-tromethane Favorable properties of the triflates in comparison with the correspond mg fluorides or chlorides are considerably decreased volatility and higher catalytic activity [120]... 

The behavior of such activated halides as alkylating agents under Friedel-Crafts conditions expands the scope of the synthesis. Aluminum chloride enhances the electrophilic character of the a,/S-unsaturated carbonyl system and permits the nucleophilic attachment of the aromatic addendum (Y ) to the carbon bearing the positive charge, with displacement of halogen [Eq. (5)]. Thus,... 

Carboncations also form from an alkyl halide when a Lewis acid catalyst is used. Aluminum chloride is the commonly used Friedel-Crafts alkylation catalyst. Friedel-Crafts alkylation reactions have been reviewed by Roberts and Khalaf ... 

As shown in Table IV, the highest catalytic activity of metal halides used as Lewis acid for the alkylation reaction of ferrocene with 2 was observed in methylene chloride solvent. Among Lewis acids such as aluminum chloride, aluminum bromide, and Group 4 transition metal chlorides (TiCl4, ZrCU, HfCU), catalytic efficiency for the alkylation decrea.ses in the following order hafnium chloride > zirconium chloride > aluminum chloride > aluminum bromide. Titanium chloride... 

Bromoadamantane and 1-bromoadamantane are reduced to adamantane in yields of 84% and 79%, respectively, when treated with triethylsilane and catalytic amounts of aluminum chloride.186 Similar treatment of benzhydryl chloride and exo-2-bromonorbomane gives the related hydrocarbons in yields of 100% and 96%, respectively.186 In contrast, 2-bromo-l-phenylpropane gives only a 43% yield of 1-phenylpropane the remainder consists of Friedel-Crafts alkylation products.186 Some alkyl halides resist reduction by this method, even when forcing conditions are employed. These include p-nitrobenzyl bromide, 3-bromopropanenitrile, and 5-bromopentanenitrile.186... 

Allyl halides, reduction reactions, 31 Aluminum chloride reagent/catalyst alkyl halide reduction, 30-31 secondary alkyl alcohol reduction, 14-15... 

A similar type of catalyst including a supported noble metal for regeneration was described extensively in a series of patents assigned to UOP (209-214). The catalysts were prepared by the sublimation of metal halides, especially aluminum chloride and boron trifluoride, onto an alumina carrier modified with alkali or rare earth-alkali metal ions. The noble metal was preferably deposited in an eggshell concentration profile. An earlier patent assigned to Texaco (215) describes the use of chlorinated alumina in the isobutane alkylation with higher alkenes, especially hexenes. TMPs were supposed to form via self-alkylation. Fluorinated alumina and silica samples were also tested in isobutane alkylation,... 

Friedel-Crafts reactions are electrophilic substitution reactions in which the electrophile is a Ccirbocation or an acylium ion. The removal of a halide ion from an alkyl halide is the means of generating the ceirbocation. An acylium ion is created by removing a chloride ion from an acid chloride (R-CO-Cl). Both of these processes require a Lewis acid as a catalyst. The most commonly used Lewis acid is aluminum chloride. 

Recent work (Brown and Pearsall, 15) has indicated that while hydrogen aluminum tetrachloride is nonexistent, interaction of aluminum chloride and hydrogen chloride does occur in the presence of substances (such as benzene and presumably, olefins) to which basic properties may be ascribed. It may be concluded that while hydrogen aluminum tetrachloride is an unstable acid, its esters are fairly stable. Further evidence in support of the hypothesis that metal halides cause the ionization of alkyl halides (the products of the addition of the hydrogen halide promoters to the olefins) is found in the fact that exchange of radioactive chlorine atoms for ordinary chlorine atoms occurs when ferf-butyl chloride is treated with aluminum chloride containing radioactive chlorine atoms the hydrogen chloride which is evolved is radioactive (Fair-brother, 16). 

As hydrogen fluoride functions with equal ease in alkylation with olefins, alkyl halides, or alcohols, and in acylation with acids, acid anhydrides as well as acyl halides, a wide choice of reagents is possible and a separate operation of the reconversion of them is often saved. With aluminum chloride the alkyl halides and acyl halides are the preferred reagents and frequently must be made from more plentiful, cheaper, and readily available substances. 

---