Aryl Ether Reduction

The bipyridyl ligand, with 80 %, gives the best catalyst, probably because it affords the best balance between the a-donor and rt-acceptor characters which favours respectively the oxidative addition of the aryl bromide and the reductive elimination of the aryl ether at the nickel center. 

More recently, reductive elimination of aryl ethers has been reported from complexes that lack the activating substituent on the palladium-bound aryl group (Equation (55)). These complexes contain sterically hindered phosphine ligands, and these results demonstrate how steric effects of the dative ligand can overcome the electronic constraints of the reaction.112,113 Reductive elimination of oxygen heterocycles upon oxidation of nickel oxametallacycles has also been reported, but yields of the organic product were lower than they were for oxidatively induced reductive eliminations of alkylamines from nickel(II) mentioned above 215-217... 

In addition to /3-H elimination, olefin insertion, and protonolysis, the cr-metal intermediate has also proved to be capable of undergoing a reductive elimination to bring about an alkylative alkoxylation. Under Pd catalysis, the reaction of 4-alkenols with aryl halides affords aryl-substituted THF rings instead of the aryl ethers that would be produced by a simple cross-coupling mechanism (Equation (126)).452 It has been suggested that G-O bond formation occurs in this case by yy/z-insertion of a coordinated alcohol rather than anti-attack onto a 7r-alkene complex.453... 

Further insight into the carbon-oxygen reductive elimination from Pt(IV) and the involvement of five-coordinate Pt(IV) intermediates has been provided recently. The first direct observation of high-yield C-0 reductive elimination from Pt(IV) was described and studied in detail (50,51). Carbon-oxygen coupling to form methyl carboxylates and methyl aryl ethers was observed upon thermolysis of the Pt(IV) complexes ( P2 )PtMe3(OR) ( P2 =bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane or o-bis(diphenyl-phosphino)benzene OR=carboxylate, aryl oxide). As shown in Scheme 47, competitive C-C reductive elimination to form ethane was also observed. 

In comparison to the N- and S-counterparts, alkoxides possess lower nucleophilicity. Therefore, the reductive elimination process to form the C—O bond is much slower than those to form C— N and C—S bonds [103]. Palucki, Wolfe and Buchwald developed the first intramolecular Pd-catalyzed synthesis of cyclic aryl ethers from o-haloaryl-substituted alcohols [104]. For example, 3-(2-bromophenyl)-2-methyl-2-butanol (91) was converted to 2,2-dimethylchroman (92) under the agency of catalytic Pd(OAc)2 in the presence (S)-(-)-2,2 -bis(di-p-tolylphosphino)-l,r-binaphthyl (Tol-BINAP) as the ligand and K2CO3 as the base. The method worked well for the tertiary alcohols, moderately weE for cychc secondary alcohols, but not for acyclic secondary alcohols. 

In the asymmetric reduction of ketones, stereodifferentiation has been explained in terms of the steric recognition of two substituents on the prochiral carbon by chirally modified reducing agents40. Enantiomeric excesses for the reduction of dialkyl ketones, therefore, are low because of the little differences in the bulkiness of the two alkyl groups40. In the reduction of ketoxime ethers, however, the prochiral carbon atom does not play a central role for the stereoselectivity, and dialkyl ketoxime ethers are reduced in the same enantiomeric excess as are aryl alkyl ketoxime ethers. Reduction of the oxime benzyl ethers of (E)- and (Z)-2-octanone with borane in THF and the chiral auxiliary (1 R,2S) 26 gave (S)- and (R)-2-aminooctane in 80 and 79% ee, respectively39. 

Quaternary ammonium salts aid the transfer of the hypophosphite anion in the palladium-catalysed reduction of, for example, alkynes to alkenes, nitroarenes to aminoarenes, and in the hydrogenolysis of tetrazolyl aryl ethers to phenols [12-14], It has been demonstrated that the hydrogenolysis is ineffective when preformed tetra-n-butylammonium hypophosphite is employed in a dry homogenous organic solvent [13, 14], For optimum hydrogen transfer, the concentration of hypophosphite relative to the substrate must be controlled at a low level and this is most effectively accomplished with a two-phase system. 

The reduction of benzyl aryl ethers has been thoroughly investigated by voltammetric reduction, homogeneous redox catalysis,and currently, by convolution analysis. A family of ethers activated by proper substitution on the phenoxy side were chosen to provide a wide variation in the ET and bond cleavage properties of the molecule. ... 

Results from the dissociative reduction of aryl ethers led to a number of important generalizations. These are classical stepwise systems initially forming jr -type radical anions. In this case, the intrinsic barriers for the formation of the intermediate radical anions are dominated by solvent reorganization with only a small (sometimes negligible) contribution from internal reorganization. Thus, the ETs to these systems are properly described by Marcus theory, in which the harmonic approximation satisfactorily accounts for both outer and inner reorganization factors. On the... 

The published research on the photochemical decomposition of di-azonium salts suggests that the two processes, a heterocyclic and a homolytic process, analogous to those of the thermal decomposition may occur. Various workers 36 187 have reported that phenols are formed when diazonium salts are photolyzed in water and aryl ethers result when an alcohol replaces water as the solvent. Homer and Stohr122 report that a process analogous to reductive deamination occurs in preference to ether formation results in alcohols. The importance of free radical intermediates in the photodecomposition, based on magnetic susceptibility measurements, has been stressed.25 Lee and his co-workers171 have recently suggested that in ethanol the photodecomposition of a diazonium salt occurs via a radical intermediate while in water an ionic process predominates. Thus, photodecomposition of a nitrobenzene diazonium chloride in water yielded both a nitrophenol and a chloronitrobenzene in ethanol, on the other hand, the major product of photolysis was the reduction product, nitrobenzene. 

Deprotection of allyl aryl ethers is accomplished by protonolysis with palladium on activated charcoal in methanol solution in the presence of toluene-p-sulphonic acid,42 or by reduction with sodium bis(2-methoxy-ethoxy)aluminium hydride in toluene solution43 (Aldrich). This latter reagent also cleaves aryl benzyl ethers. 

The Pd-catalysed intermolecular reaction of aryl bromides containing electron-withdrawing substituents with a wide variety of alcohols including MeOH, 2-propanol, benzyl alcohol and i-butyl alcohol gives the aryl ethers 416 under milder conditions than uncatalysed reactions. Bidentate ligands such as BINAP and DPPF (XLIX) are effective [206,207]. The aryl Pd alkoxide 417 was isolated as an intermediate, and the formation of the aryl ethers 418 by reductive elimination of 417 was confirmed. 

A convenient and efficient synthetic route to a new class of macrocyclic aryl ether ether sulfide oligomers was reported. The process is shown in Fig. 28. This new class of cyclic oligomers is prepared in excellent yield by quantitative chemical reduction of macrocyclic aryl ether ether sulfoxide oligomers with oxalyl chloride and tetrabutylammonium iodide. The cyclic sulfoxide oligomeric precursors are prepared in high yields by an aromatic nucleophilic substitution reaction from bis(4-fluorophenyl) sulfoxide with potassium salts of bisphenols under high-dilution conditions [99]. 

---