Aryne

Nucleophilic substitution of benzene itself is not possible but the halogeno derivatives undergo nucleophilic displacement or elimination reactions (see arynes). Substituents located in the 1,2 positions are called ortho- 1,3 meta- and 1,4 para-. 

These reactions follow first-order kinetics and proceed with racemisalion if the reaction site is an optically active centre. For alkyl halides nucleophilic substitution proceeds easily primary halides favour Sn2 mechanisms and tertiary halides favour S 1 mechanisms. Aryl halides undergo nucleophilic substitution with difficulty and sometimes involve aryne intermediates. 

Once the intermediacy of an aryne intermediate was established the reason for the observed regioselectivity of substitution mo m and p chlorotoluene became evident Only a single aryne intermediate may be formed from o chlorotoluene but this aryne yields a mixture containing comparable amounts of o and m methylanilme... 

Similarly p chlorotoluene gives a single aryne and this aryne gives a mixture of m and p methylanilme... 

Two isomeric arynes give the three isomeric substitution products formed from m chloro toluene... 

Nucleophilic aromatic substitution can also occur by an elimination-addition mechanism This pathway is followed when the nucleophile is an exceptionally strong base such as amide ion m the form of sodium amide (NaNH2) or potassium amide (KNH2) Benzyne and related arynes are intermediates m nucleophilic aromatic substitutions that pro ceed by the elimination-addition mechanism... 

Aryne (Section 23 8) A species that contains a triple bond within an aromatic nng (see benzyne)... 

An unusual case of addition of a carbanion to an unconjugated carbon-carbon double bond is shown in Scheme 47a. The subsequent transfer of the amide group is also noteworthy (80CC1042). The intramolecular addition of a carbanion to an aryne is a more widely established process. Such reactions have been applied to the synthesis of indoles (Scheme 47b) (75CC745> and oxindoles (Scheme 47c) (63JOC1,80JA3646). 

N-Arylation of azoles is achieved either by using arynes, activated halobenzenes (e.g. dinitro) or under Ullmann conditions. Thus benzyne reacts with imidazoles to give N-arylimidazoles (70AHC(12)103), and these compounds have also been prepared under modified Ullmann conditions. 

The first benzazetidine (243) was isolated from the photolysis of 3-phenyldihydroben-zotriazine (242) (66JA1580). Another route to benzazetidines involving formation of the N to aryl-C bond utilizes intramolecular nucleophilic substitution via aryne (287). It is not general, however, and is only satisfactory when R and/or are alkoxy groups. The reaction also fails for iV-alkylamines (78LA608). 

Benzo[b]furan-4(5H)-one, 6,7-dihydro-synthesis, 4, 710 Benzofuranones H NMR, 4, 579 Benzo[b]furanones from 3-hydroxyflavanone, 3, 729 Benzo[b]furan-2(3H)-ones — see 2-Coumaranones Benzo[b]furan-3(2H)-ones IR spectra, 4, 590 reactions, 4, 650 Benzo[ c]furan-1 (3 W) -ones carbanions, 4, 579 H NMR, 4, 579 reactions with arynes, 1, 415 structure, 4, 552... 

Elimination-addition mechanism (Section 23.8) Two-stage mechanism for nucleophilic aromatic substitution. In the first stage, an aryl halide undergoes elimination to form an aryne intermediate. In the second stage, nucleophilic addition to the aryne yields the product of the reaction. 

The heterocyclic aryne (trithiadiazepyne) 12.18, generated by treatment of the monobromo derivative of 12.16 with a strong base, can be trapped as a Diels-Alder adduct with furan (Scheme 12.3). ... 

Prior to 1960 little work had been done on reactions of heterocyclic compounds involving hetarynes, i.e. intermediates with a triple bond in the nucleus containing the hetero atom. Since then interest in hetarynes has grown and investigations in this area are developing rapidly using information available from carbocyclic aryne chemistry. Therefore, a short survey of the chemistry of arynes is presented before summarizing typical problems encountered in hetaryne chemistry. 

Arynes are intermediates in certain reactions of aromatic compounds, especially in some nucleophilic substitution reactions. They are generated by abstraction of atoms or atomic groups from adjacent positions in the nucleus and react as strong electrophiles and as dienophiles in fast addition reactions. An example of a reaction occurring via an aryne is the amination of o-chlorotoluene (1) with potassium amide in liquid ammonia. According to the mechanism given, the intermediate 3-methylbenzyne (2) is first formed and subsequent addition of ammonia to the triple bond yields o-amino-toluene (3) and m-aminotoluene (4). It was found that partial rearrangement of the ortho to the meta isomer actually occurs. 

It has been established that arynes are formed in the following classes of reaction ... 

There is sound evidence for the existence of aryne intermediates as indicated by the following experiments, which also illustrate their reactivity. 

Both 1- (5) and 2-fluoronaphthalene (9) yield with phenyl-lithium the same (Mymmetrical aryne (6) after subsequent carbona-tion, mixtures containing l-phenylnaphthalene-2-carboxylic acid (7) and 2-phenylnaphthalene-l-carboxylic acid (8) in the ratio 1 1.7 were... 

At the same time proof accumulated that arynes can be considered as real intermediates and not, e.g., as resonance structures in the activation complex of the transition state ... 

Although neither benzyne nor any other aryne has been isolated, it appears from the foregoing that we are justifled in considering these intermediates to be short-lived substances, the properties of which can be described by the series of resonance structures 17 and 21-23. 

For discussions concerning their structure and further information on the generation and reactivity of arynes the reader is referred to a series of published reviews. ... 

Hetarynes can be expected to differ from carbocyclic arynes in several respects, i.e. ... 

Heterocyclic compounds may show a higher tendency than carbocycles to react with nucleophiles according to the addition-elimination mechanism than via arynes. 

This review covers the hterature up to the beginning of 1963. Papers published before the era of aryne chemistry that merely give incidental information on reactions which might proceed via hetarynes are not included. 

The amination of 2-chloropyridine-A-oxide (53) with potassium amide in liquid ammonia yielded a mixture of 2-(55) and 3-amino-pyridine-A-oxide (56) in 5-10% total yield.This rearrangement might be explained by an aryne mechanism involving 2,3-pyridyne-A-oxide (54). Since the structure of 56, with its quaternary nitrogen atom, is more analogous to that of 3-methoxybenzyne (39) than to that of 2,3-pyridyne (26), an orientation effect directing the amide ion to C-3 can be expected here. 

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