Arynic substitution

The scope of heteroaryne or elimination-addition type of substitution in aromatic azines seems likely to be limited by its requirement for a relatively unactivated leaving group, for an adjacent ionizable substituent or hydrogen atom, and for a very strong base. However, reaction via the heteroaryne mechanism may occur more frequently than is presently appreciated. For example, it has been recently shown that in the reaction of 4-chloropyridine with lithium piperidide, at least a small amount of aryne substitution accompanies direct displacement. The ratio of 4- to 3-substitution was 996 4 and, therefore, there was 0.8% or more pyridyne participation. Heteroarynes are undoubtedly subject to orientation and steric effects which frequently lead to the overwhelming predominance of... 

The question of the occurrence of cine or aryne substitution in some of these reactions has been raised but not answered adequately. The normal product, 2-methoxynaphthalene was shown to be formed from 2-chloronaphthalene and methoxide ion, and the normal 6- and 8-piperidinoquinolines were proved to be products of piperidino-debromination of 6- and 8-bromoquinolines, all in unspecified yield. More highly activated compounds were then assumed not to react via the aryne mechanism. Even if the major product had been characterized, the occurrence of a substantial or predominant amount of aryne reaction may escape notice when strong orientation or steric effects lead to formation of the normal displacement product from the aryne. A substantial amoimt of concurrent aryne reaction may also escape detection if it yields an amount of cine-substituted material easily removed in purification or if the entire reaction mixture is not chromatographed Kauffman and Boettcher have demonstrated that activated compounds such as 4-chloropyridine do indeed react partially via the aryne mechanism (Section I,C,1). 

Arynic substitution is a versatile technique of functional group transformation in aromatic systems and has found varied applications in preparation of simple compounds and in multi-step synthesis.3 4,3 The present section comprises examples illustrative of its synthetic scope. Attention is also drawn to some allied strategies which, when used in conjunction with the nucleophilic coupling of arynes, have opened convenient routes to complex natural products. 

For application of arynic substitution in the synthesis of related hexahydrobenzo[f]quinolines, see M. Julia, J. Igolen and F. LeGroffic, Bull. Soc. Chim. France, 4436 (1968) H. Heaney (Chem. Rev., 62, 81 (1962)] has reviewed the chemistry of benzynes. 

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... 

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... 

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). 

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. 

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. 

Most of the subsequent work on this reagent was concerned with the formation of aryl radicals (see review by Cadogan, 1971). However, 2-terf-butyl-A-nitrosoacet-anilide was found to decompose in benzene to give, instead of 2-tert-butylbiphenyl, as expected for a substitution of benzene by a 2-tert-butylphenyl radical, a mixture of isomeric tert-butylphenyl acetates. A careful reexamination (Cadogan and Hib-bert, 1964) suggested that the ratio of 2- and 3-tert-butylphenyl acetates was consistent with the involvement of 2-tert-butylbenzyne, i.e., the product of an ionic dediazoniation, as an intermediate. This was later confirmed by trapping experiments designed to detect aryne intermediates. 

In the context of this section it is important that Ruchardt and Tan (1970 a) found that (solid) benzenediazonium fluoroborate gave benzyne adducts with potassium acetate in the presence of aryne trapping agents such as tetracyclone or anthracene. This is, however, not the case if water is present (Cadogan, 1971). As a consequence of these observations, Cadogan et al. (1971) simplified the formation of arynes from diazonium ions by converting aniline or its substitution products into arynes in a... 

The first two examples clearly indicate that slight modifications (02 to N2 atmosphere, unsubstituted to 4-nitrosubstituted benzenediazonium ion) can change a heterolytic reaction into a homolytic one. The changeover from heterolytic to homolytic dediazoniation will be discussed in more detail in Section 8.7 of this chapter. The ratio of products in the third example suggests, as indicated in Scheme 8-2, that a DN + AN substitution (A), a reaction via an aryne (B), a o-substitution of the type described by Kovacic and Gormisk (1966) (D), and a... 

Evidence for arynes as unstable intermediates in dediazoniation comes from product analyses (Scheme 8-23) and from aryne-trapping experiments. A benzenediazonium ion with a substituent in the 4-position gives the two products indicated in Scheme 8-23 when reacted with a Bronsted acid HY. Analogously, two or three isomers respectively are obtained with benzenediazonium ions substituted in the 2-or 3-position. 

A Diels-Alder reaction of arynes with 1,2,4-triazines 102 allows the preparation of isoquinolines substituted with electron-withdrawing groups in the nitrogen-containing ring. The isoquinoline-1-carboxylic esters bearing additional substituents are of particular interest because they are not readily available by the usual routes [100,101] (Scheme 2.42). 

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