Aryl halide electrophiles

Readily available nucleophilic aryl Grignard compounds can be coupled with aryl halide electrophiles to give unsymmetrical biaryls in the presence of Ni, Co, V, Ti, Cu, Cr, Fe, Pd and T1 salts [34] (Scheme 41). 

The two mam methods for the preparation of aryl halides halogenation of arenes by electrophilic aromatic substitution and preparation by way of aryl diazomum salts were described earlier and are reviewed m Table 23 2 A number of aryl halides occur natu rally some of which are shown m Figure 23 1... 

As we ve seen, aromatic substitution reactions usually occur by an electrophilic mechanism. Aryl halides that have electron-withdrawing substituents, however, can also undergo nucleophilic aromatic substitution. For example. 2,4,6-trinitrochlorobenzene reacts with aqueous NaOH at room temperature to give 2,4,6-trinitrophenol. The nucleophile OH- has substituted for Cl-. 

The electrophilic character of the palladium atom in the complexes formed by oxidative addition of aryl halides and alkenyl halides to palladium(o) complexes can be exploited in useful ways. 

A second group of aromatic substitution reactions involves aryl diazonium ions. As for electrophilic aromatic substitution, many of the reactions of aromatic diazonium ions date to the nineteenth century. There have continued to be methodological developments for substitution reactions of diazonium intermediates. These reactions provide routes to aryl halides, cyanides, and azides, phenols, and in some cases to alkenyl derivatives. 

Several microwave-assisted protocols for soluble polymer-supported syntheses have been described. Among the first examples of so-called liquid-phase synthesis were aqueous Suzuki couplings. Schotten and coworkers presented the use of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-bound aryl halides and sulfonates in these palladium-catalyzed cross-couplings [70]. The authors demonstrated that no additional phase-transfer catalyst (PTC) is needed when the PEG-bound electrophiles are coupled with appropriate aryl boronic acids. The polymer-bound substrates were coupled with 1.2 equivalents of the boronic acids in water under short-term microwave irradiation in sealed vessels in a domestic microwave oven (Scheme 7.62). Work-up involved precipitation of the polymer-bound biaryl from a suitable organic solvent with diethyl ether. Water and insoluble impurities need to be removed prior to precipitation in order to achieve high recoveries of the products. 

The rhodium-catalyzed arylation of phenols with aryl halides occurs in the presence of phosphinites [PR2(OAr)] as a co-catalyst (Equation (59)).66 The phosphorus atom coordinates to the rhodium atom to facilitate the electrophilic substitution with the rhodium(m) species at the ortho-pos i on. 

The diazeniumdiolate anions react with electrophiles to produce stable covalent compounds (Fig. 3.9) [213, 216]. These compounds have the ability to act as prodrugs, releasing nitric oxide only when metabolically or enzymatically converted to the diazeniumdiolate anion [217-219]. Several compounds ofthis class have been synthesized by reaction of alkyl or aryl halides, sulfate esters, epoxides, etc. with the ionic diazeniumdiolates [220, 221]. 

The electrophiles in such reactions can be either aryl halides or triflates, possessing electron-rich, neutral or electron-poor ring systems, whereas amines can range from aliphatic to aromatic and primary to tertiary amines. The Pd-catalyzed C—N bond formation works both inter- and intramolecularly. 

Pyridine is a jt-electron-deficient heterocycle. Due to the electronegativity of the nitrogen atom, the a and y positions bear a partial positive charge, making the C(2), C(4), and C(6) positions prone to nucleophilic attacks. A similar trend occurs in the context of palladium chemistry. The a and y positions of halopyridines are more susceptible to the oxidative addition to Pd(0) relative to simple carbocyclic aryl halides. Even a- and y-chloropyridines are viable electrophilic substrates for Pd-catalyzed reactions under standard conditions. 

Ohta s group investigated the heteroaryl Heck reaction of thiophenes and benzothiophenes with aryl halides [127] and chloropyrazines [128]. Addition of the electrophiles invariably took place at C(2) as exemplified by the formation of arylbenzothiophene 156 from the reaction of benzothiophene and p-bromobenzaldehyde [127]. As expected, the heteroaryl Heck reaction of 2-thienylnitrile, an activated thiophene, with iodobenzene afforded the arylation product 157 [129],... 

Like simple aryl halides, furyl halides take part in Suzuki couplings as electrophiles [41, 42]. Young and Martin coupled 2-bromofuran with 5-indolylboronic acid to prepare 5-substituted indole 37 [43]. Terashima s group cross-coupled 3-bromofuran with diethyl-(4-isoquinolyl)borane 38 to make 4-substituted isoquinoline 39 [44]. Similarly, 2- and 3-substituted isoquinolines were also synthesized in the same fashion [45]. 

To be really satisfactory, a Friedel-Crafts alkylation requires one relatively stable secondary or tertiary carbocation to be formed from the alkyl halide by interaction with the Lewis acid, i.e. cases where there is not going to be any chance of rearrangement. Note also that we are unable to generate carboca-tions from an aryl halide - aryl cations (also vinyl cations, see Section 8.1.3) are unfavourable - so that we cannot nse the Friedel-Crafts reaction to join aromatic gronps. There is also one further difficulty, as we shall see below. This is the fact that introduction of an alkyl substitnent on to an aromatic ring activates the ring towards fnrther electrophilic substitution. The result is that the initial product from Friedel-Crafts alkylations is more reactive than the... 

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