4-aryl-2,5-cyclohexadienone 4- phenol

In general, the rate of the reaction of arylation of phenols by aryllead triacetate increases with the electron density of the phenolic substrate. When pyridine is used as a base, no reaction takes place with electron-poor phenols, such as 2,6-dichlorophenol or 2,6-dichloro-4-nitrophenol.45 45a However, the reaction of the sodium salt of perfluorophenol 43 with phenyllead triacetate under more forcing conditions led to a range of products the product of >rtfe -arylation, the 6-aryl-2,4-cyclohexadienone 44 together with minor amounts of the product of / zra-arylation 45 and the unsymmetrical diaryl ether 46 (Equation (43)).69... 

Rawal s group developed an intramolecular aryl Heck cyclization method to synthesize benzofurans, indoles, and benzopyrans [83], The rate of cyclization was significantly accelerated in the presence of bases, presumably because the phenolate anion formed under the reaction conditions was much more reactive as a soft nucleophile than phenol. In the presence of a catalytic amount of Herrmann s dimeric palladacyclic catalyst (101) [84], and 3 equivalents of CS2CO3 in DMA, vinyl iodide 100 was transformed into ortho and para benzofuran 102 and 103. In the mechanism proposed by Rawal, oxidative addition of phenolate 104 to Pd(0) is followed by nucleophilic attack of the ambident phenolate anion on o-palladium intermediate 105 to afford aryl-vinyl palladium species 106 after rearomatization of the presumed cyclohexadienone intermediate. Reductive elimination of palladium followed by isomerization of the exocyclic double bond furnishes 102. 

The classical Claisen rearrangement is the first and slow step of the isomerization of allyl aryl ethers to orlho-a ly lated phenols (Figure 14.46). A cyclohexadienone A is formed in the actual rearrangement step, which is a [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement. Three valence electron pairs are shifted simultaneously in this step. Cyclohexadienone A, a nonaromatic compound, cannot be isolated and tautomerizes immediately to the aromatic and consequently more stable phenol B. 

Singular examples to form aromatic ethers are a base-catalyzed, multistep, one-pot reaction of aryl methyl ketones with the appropriate fluorinated arylidenemalonitriles, the mercury acetate assisted synthesis of pentahalophenylvinyl ethers from vinyl acetate and the corresponding phenol, and the radical displacements in aryloxycyclohexadienones (e.g., 27) by halophenols. 2,3-Dichloro-5,6-dicyanohydroquinone (28) and products such as 29 are readily formed when cyclohexadienone 27 is treated with different phenols. 

In the Claisen rearrangement, an allyl aryl ether gives an o-allylphenol on heating. The mechanism here is not a Whitmore 1,2-shift, but is a concerted peri cyclic [3,3] sigmatropic rearrangement, that results in a cyclohexadienone, which, after tautomerisation, gives the phenol. 

Photolysis of benzene solutions of l-methoxycarbonyl-2-naphthylmethyl 2,6-di-methyl substituted phenyl ethers induces C-O cleavage with formation of 2,4-cyclohexadienone intermediates which are subsequently photo-rearranged into meta substituted phenols. In methanol, 9-anthrylmethoxy-pyrid-2-one or l-pyrenylmethoxypyrid-2-one undergo photoheterolysis to give the C-O heterolysis products l-hydroxypyrid-2-one and the arylmethyl methyl ether, together with 2-pyridone, aryl-substituted methanol and aryl aldehyde derived from homolysis of the N-O bond. Evidence shows that an intramolecular exciplex plays a crucial role in C-O bond heterolysis. 

As a synthetic method, the reaction of aryllead triacetates with phenols is useful for the production of two structural types the 6-aryl-2,4-cyclohexadienones and the sterically hindered 2,6-diarylphenols substituted with alkyl groups on the C-3 to C-5 positions. The steric compression in the putative aryloxylead intermediate seems to play a decisive role in the success of the ligand coupling step. This is particularly true for the arylation of hindered phenols with the more hindered aryllead reagents, which takes place at room temperature. In contrast to the reactions of phenols with arylbismuth reagents (chapter 6), 0-arylation products are exceptional and generally obtained in very small yields. 

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