Aromatic Substitution Reactions Involving Radical Intermediates

Aromatic Substitution Reactions Involving Radical Intermediates 11.4.1. Aromatic Radical Substitution... 

Aromatic Substitution Reactions Involving Radical Intermediates... 

An early report of the beneficial influence of 1,1-diphenylethylene (DPE) on the yields of alkylaryl ether obtained in the reaction of diaryliodonium salts with sodium alkoxides showed that radical chain reactions compete efficiently with the 0-arylation reaction. By contrast, addition of diphenylpicrylhydrazyl, a stable free radical species, had no significant influence on the yields of products obtained in e absence of additives. In this case, the 0-arylation reaction was considered to be a direct nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction, without the involvement of any transient covalent intermediate. (Table 2.11)... 

Intramolecular oxidative imidation of aromatic C-H bonds of A-arylamidines with DAIB leads to the formation of 2-substituted benzimidazoles in high yields. A reaction mechanism involving radical intermediates has been proposed (Scheme 15). ... 

Photonucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions of phenyl selenide and telluride with haloarenes have also been proven to involve the S jlAr mechanism, with the formation of anion radical intermediates. Another photonucleophihc substitution, cyanomethylation, proves the presence of radical cations in the reaction mechanism. Liu and Weiss have reported that hydroxy and cyano substitution competes with photo substitution of fluorinated anisoles in aqueous solutions, where cation and anion radical intermediates have been shown to be the key factors for the nucleophilic substitution type. Rossi et al. have proposed the S j lAr mechanism for photonucleophihc substitution of carbanions and naphthox-ides to halo anisoles and l-iodonaphthalene. > An anion radical intermediate photonucleophilic substitution mechanism has been shown for the reactions of triphenyl(methyl)stannyl anion with halo arenes in liquid ammonia. Trimethylstannyl anion has been found to be more reactive than triphenylstannyl anion in the photostimulated electron- transfer initiation step. 

The intrinsic stability of the aromatic n system has two major consequences for the course of reactions involving it directly. First, the aromatic ring is less susceptible to electrophilic, nucleophilic, and free-radical attack compared to molecules containing acyclic conjugated n systems. Thus, reaction conditions are usually more severe than would normally be required for parallel reactions of simple olefins. Second, there is a propensity to eject a substituent from the tetrahedral center of the intermediate in such a way as to reestablish the neutral (An + 2)-electron system. Thus, the reaction is two step, an endothermic first step resulting in a four-coordinate carbon atom and an exothermic second step, mechanistically the reverse of the first, in which a group is ejected. The dominant course is therefore a substitution reaction rather than an addition. 

We consider as dihydro derivatives those rings which contain either one or two 5p3-hybridized carbon atoms. According to this definition, all reactions of the aromatic compounds with electrophiles, nucleophiles or free radicals involve dihydro intermediates. Such reactions with electrophiles afford Wheland intermediates which usually easily lose H+ to re-aromatize. However, nucleophilic substitution (in the absence of a leaving group such as halogen) gives an intermediate which must lose H and such intermediates often possess considerable stability. Radical attack at ring carbon affords another radical which usually reacts further rapidly. In this section we consider the reactions of isolable dihydro compounds it is obvious that much of the discussion on the aromatic heterocycles is concerned with dihydro derivatives as intermediates. 

In several photochemical electron transfer reactions, addition products are observed between the donor and acceptor molecules. However, the formation of these products does not necessarily involve direct coupling of the radical ion pair. Instead, many of these reactions proceed via proton transfer from the radical cation to the radical anion, followed by coupling of the donor derived radical with an acceptor derived intermediate. For example, 1,4-dicyanobenzene and various other cyanoaromatic acceptors react with 2,3-dimethylbutene to give aromatic substitution products, most likely formed via an addition-elimination sequence [140]. 

In the non-phenolic oxidative coupling reaction the electron-rich arene 19 undergoes electron transfer yielding the radical cation 20, which is preferably treated in chlorinated solvents or strongly acidic media. Attack of 20 on the electron-rich reaction partner 21 will proceed in the same way as an electrophilic aromatic substitution involving adduct 22 which extrudes a proton. The intermediate radical 23 is subsequently oxidized to the cationic species 24 which forms the biaryl 25 by rearomatization. In contrast with the mechanism outlined in Scheme 5, two different oxidation steps are required. 

The main feature of carbanions derived from nitriles lies in the dependence on the aromatic substrate involved thus, two different outcomes of the substitution reaction are possible formation of the substitution compound by ET to the substrate from the radical anion intermediate 7, formed by coupling of phenyl radicals and acetonitrile anion, or formation of products from elimination of the cyano group as is the case with phenyl halides [31,32] (Sch. 3). The same reactivity pattern is found with halothiophenes [33]. 

We suggest that electron transfer and electrophilic substitutions are, in general, competing processes in arene oxidations. Whether the product is formed from the radical cation (electron transfer) or from the aryl-metal species (electrophilic substitution) is dependent on the nature of both the metal oxidant and the aromatic substrate. With hard metal ions, such as Co(III), Mn(III), and Ce(IV),289 reaction via electron transfer is preferred because of the low stability of the arylmetal bond. With soft metal ions, such as Pb(IV) and Tl(III), and Pd(II) (see later), reaction via an arylmetal intermediate is predominant (more stable arylmetal bond). For the latter group of oxidants, electron transfer becomes important only with electron-rich arenes that form radical cations more readily. In accordance with this postulate, the oxidation of several electron-rich arenes by lead(IV)281 289 and thallium(III)287 in TFA involve radical cation formation via electron transfer. Indeed, electrophilic aromatic substitutions, in general, may involve initial charge transfer, and the role of radical cations as discrete intermediates may depend on how fast any subsequent steps involving bond formation takes place. 

As with other aromatic substitutions, the substitution step itself can be considered to involve an approximately sps hybridization at the carbon atom under attack (10). In the idealized substitution process shown in Eq. (16), 10 may constitute either an intermediate or a transition state. If proton loss ensues directly, the process is properly called a substitution. In other situations the intermediate 10 may become allied with a radical or an anion, leading thereby to a covalent adduct 11. The final substituted product 12 may then be formed either by the elimination of H—Z (first H, then Z) or by the reversal to 10, followed by proton loss. The first case is a classical example of an addition-elimination halogenation, where the adduct is an essential species in the process. In the second case, structure 10 is a common intermediate for both the substitution and the addition reactions. Being merely a diversion of 10, the addition product is not essential to the substitution. In consequence of this, the isolation of adduct 11 may not mean that addition-elimination is the principal pathway of substitution reversal to 10 may be faster than the elimination of H—Z ( 2, k3>ki). On the other hand, the mere failure to detect adduct 11 does not rule out an addition-elimination process, for dehydrohalogenation of adduct 11 may be much faster than its formation (ki>klt k2). 

Addition of the silyl radical to carbon-carbon double bonds is an elementary reaction of radical hydrosilation (Scheme 1). Homolytic aromatic silationalso occurs involving silyl radicals. Silyl radicals are nucleophilic owing to the high SOMO energy, as evidenced by the directive effects in the hemolytic aromatic substitution. The intermediate cyclohexadienyl radicals have been observed by ESR. 

A new and general method of substitution at aromatic carbon has been uncovered. Reactions involve electron transfer steps and the formation of radical anion and radical intermediates. Many of the transformations are unprecedented in aromatic chemistry they represent major, new sequences which will have considerable value in syntheses. The radical anion method of substitution at aromatic carbon was first reported by Kim and Bunnett in 1970.96,97) The method is related to radical-anion substitution at aliphatic carbon.98, ")... 

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