Aromatic side chains, oxidation reagents

Etard reagents (chromyl chloride and some derivatives) suffer from the problem that occasionally they can exhibit a lack of selectivity and low yields. They are useful in the selective oxidation of aromatic side-chains to a carbonyl group, aldehyde or ketone but in many instances, the formation of the initial complex is slow and yields are low because of difficulties in the work-up which lead to undesired over-reaction. Attempts have been made to solve the problems by the use of sonication [134]. A simple preparation of the liquid reagent was proposed and the Etard reaction itself together with the hydrolytic step were conducted under sonication, with some success (Scheme 3.25). 

A principally different approach for the indirect electrochemical oxidation of aromatic compounds goes via the formation of hydroxyl radicals from cathodically generated hydrogen peroxide and from reductively formed iron(II) ions. The thus in situ formed Fenton reagent can lead to side-chain as well as nuclear oxidations of aromatic compounds. Side-chain oxidations to form benzaldehydes according to Eqs. (18)—(24) can also be initiated by the redox pairs and Cu instead of... 

Carboxylic acids are prepared by at least four methods (1) by oxidation of primary alcohols or aldehydes, (2) by oxidation of an aromatic side chain, (3) from a Grignard reagent and carbon dioxide, or (4) by hydrolysis of a nitrile, RC=N. 

N03)j, a newcomer to the arena of oxidants, is useful for the acetoxylation of aromatic side chains in benzylic positions [415, 416] and for the oxidation of methylene or methyl groups that are adjacent to aromatic rings to carbonyl groups [238, 415, 417]. The reagent also oxidizes alcohols to aldehydes [418, 419, 420, 421] and phenols to quinones [422, 423], cleaves vicinal diols to ketones and a-hydroxy ketones to acids [424, 425], and converts diaryl sulfides into sulfoxides [426]. A specialty of ammonium cerium nitrate is the oxidative recovery of carbonyl compounds from their oximes and semicarbazones [422, 427] and of carboxylic acids from their hydrazides [428] under mild conditions. 

The nature of the mechanism of side-chain oxidation of alkyl aromatic compounds by one-electron reagents has been discussed.The reaction sequence ... 

In comparison with alkyl halogenides, halides bound to aromatic nuclei are less reactive, and, unless activated by the presence of other substituents (for example, reactive chlorine in 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene), nucleophilic substitution reactions cannot be used for their identification. For the identification, electrophilic substitution reactions on aromatic nuclei are used predominantly, such as nitration and chlorosulfonation. Only in exceptional and special cases are other procedmes used [preparation of Grignard reagent and the conversion to anilides (12) preparation of addition compounds with picric acid-chloronaphthalenes, see p. 127 oxidation of side chains-oxidation of chlorotoluene to the corresponding chlorobenzoic acid, see p. 129]. 

Oxidation of Other Arenes. Aromatic compounds with longer alkyl side chains can be converted to ketones or carboxylic acids. All the previously discussed reagents except Cr02Cl2 usually afford the selective formation of ketones from alkyl-substituted arenes. Oxidation with Cr02Cl2 usually gives a mixture of products. These include compounds oxidized in the P position presumably formed via an alkene intermediate or as a result of the rearrangement of an intermediate epoxide.110,705... 

It turned out that mCPBA is the least selective reagent drs from 2.8 1 [20] to 4 1 [23]), also giving rise to many side products e.g. by oxidation of the side chain double bond and of the aromatic system, depending on the conditions [26]. Nicolaou et al. used the alternative H2O2/ MeCN-system with KHCO3 in methanol to epoxidize desoxyepothilone E (2e, Scheme 13) derivatives with good yields and selectivities [18]. 

Aromatic carboxylic acids can be prepared by oxidation of an alkyl side-chain and by the reaction of an aryl Grignard reagent with CO,. 

From Hydrocarbons, Friedel-Craft.—The aromatic hydrocarbons yield ring carboxy acids by other reactions than those effecting oxidation of a side chain. Carbon dioxide may be introduced directly into a benzene ring, thus converting a hydrogen into.carboxyl. This may be accomplished in the presence of aluminium chloride, Friedel-Craft reagent. 

Sodium dichromate hydroxylates tertiary carbons [620] and oxidizes methylene groups to carbonyls [622, 623, 625, 626, 631] methyl and methylene groups, especially as side chains in aromatic compounds, to carboxylic groups [624, 632, 633, 634, 635] and benzene rings to quinones [630, 636, 637] or carboxylic acids [638]. The reagent is often used for the conversion of primary alcohols into aldehydes [629, 630, 639] or, less frequently, into carboxylic acids or their esters [640] of secondary alcohols into ketones [621, 629, 630, 641, 642, 643, 644] of phenylhydroxylamine into nitroso-benzene [645] and of alkylboranes into carbonyl compounds [646]. 

The spectrum of applications of potassium permanganate is very broad. This reagent is used for dehydrogenative coupling [570], hydrox-ylates tertiary carbons to form hydroxy compounds [550,831], hydroxylates double bonds to form vicinal diols [707, 296, 555, 577], oxidizes alkenes to a-diketones [560, 567], cleaves double bonds to form carbonyl compounds [840, 842, 552] or carboxylic acids [765, 841, 843, 845, 852, 869, 872, 873, 874], and converts acetylenes into dicarbonyl compounds [848, 856, 864] or carboxylic acids [843, 864], Aromatic rings are degraded to carboxylic acids [575, 576], and side chains in aromatic compounds are oxidized to ketones [566, 577] or carboxylic acids [503, 878, 879, 880, 881, 882, 555]. Primary alcohols [884] and aldehydes [749, 868, 555] are converted into carboxylic acids, secondary alcohols into ketones [749, 839, 844, 863, 865, 886, 887], ketones into keto acids [555, 559, 590] or acids [559, 597], ethers into esters [555], and amines into amides [854, 555] or imines [557], Aromatic amines are oxidized to nitro compounds [755, 559, 592], aliphatic nitro compounds to ketones [562, 567], sulfides to sulfones [846], selenides to selenones [525], and iodo compounds to iodoso compounds [595]. 

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