Benzoic decarboxylation

It was first described in 1608 when it was sublimed out of gum benzoin. It also occurs in many other natural resins. Benzoic acid is manufactured by the air oxidation of toluene in the liquid phase at 150°C and 4-6 atm. in the presence of a cobalt catalyst by the partial decarboxylation of phthalic anhydride in either the liquid or vapour phase in the presence of water by the hydrolysis of benzotrichloride (from the chlorination of toluene) in the presence of zinc chloride at 100°C. 

Synthetic phenol capacity in the United States was reported to be ca 1.6 x 10 t/yr in 1989 (206), almost completely based on the cumene process (see Cumene Phenol). Some synthetic phenol [108-95-2] is made from toluene by a process developed by The Dow Chemical Company (2,299—301). Toluene [108-88-3] is oxidized to benzoic acid in a conventional LPO process. Liquid-phase oxidative decarboxylation with a copper-containing catalyst gives phenol in high yield (2,299—304). The phenoHc hydroxyl group is located ortho to the position previously occupied by the carboxyl group of benzoic acid (2,299,301,305). This provides a means to produce meta-substituted phenols otherwise difficult to make (2,306). VPOs for the oxidative decarboxylation of benzoic acid have also been reported (2,307—309). Although the mechanism appears to be similar to the LPO scheme (309), the VPO reaction is reported not to work for toluic acids (310). 

Pyrrole Carboxylic Acids and Esters. The acids are considerably less stable than benzoic acid and often decarboxylate readily on heating. However, electron-withdrawing substituents tend to stabilize them toward decarboxylation. The pyrrole esters are important synthetically because they stabilize the ring and may also act as protecting groups. Thus, the esters can be utilized synthetically and then hydrolyzed to the acid, which can be decarboxylated by heating. Often P-esters are hydrolyzed more easily than the a-esters. 

Animals caimot synthesize the naphthoquinone ring of vitamin K, but necessary quantities are obtained by ingestion and from manufacture by intestinal flora. In plants and bacteria, the desired naphthoquinone ring is synthesized from 2-oxoglutaric acid (12) and shikimic acid (13) (71,72). Chorismic acid (14) reacts with a putative succinic semialdehyde TPP anion to form o-succinyl benzoic acid (73,74). In a second step, ortho-succmY benzoic acid is converted to the key intermediate, l,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid. Prenylation with phytyl pyrophosphate is followed by decarboxylation and methylation to complete the biosynthesis (75). 

Benzoic acid [65-85-0] C H COOH, the simplest member of the aromatic carboxyHc acid family, was first described in 1618 by a French physician, but it was not until 1832 that its stmcture was deterrnined by Wn b1er and Liebig. In the nineteenth century benzoic acid was used extensively as a medicinal substance and was prepared from gum benzoin. Benzoic acid was first produced synthetically by the hydrolysis of benzotrichloride. Various other processes such as the nitric acid oxidation of toluene were used until the 1930s when the decarboxylation of phthaUc acid became the dominant commercial process. During World War II in Germany the batchwise Hquid-phase air oxidation of toluene became an important process. 

Pyrogallol monomethyl ether has been prepared by the methylation of pyrogallol with dimethyl sulfate or methyl iodide by the decarboxylation of 2,3-dihj droxy-4-methoxy-benzoic acid and by the methylation of pyrogallol carbonate with diazomethane and subsequent hydrolysis. The method described is taken from the improved procedure of Baker and Savage for the preparation of pyrogallol monomethyl ether from o-vanillin by oxidation with hydrogen peroxide. 

Bromoresorcinol has been prepared by the monobromination of resorcinol monobenzoate and subsequent hydrolysis, from 2-bromo-5-aminophenol by the diazo reaction, by treating resorcinol with dichlorourea and potassium bromide, and by the bromination of 2,4-dihydroxy benzoic acid followed by decarboxylation. The above procedure is based particularly upon the observations of Rice. ... 

Other routes for the preparation of phenol are under development and include the Dow process based on toluene. In this process a mixture of toluene, air and catalyst are reacted at moderate temperature and pressure to give benzoic acid. This is then purified and decarboxylated, in the presence of air, to phenol (Figure 23.5). 

N-(m-methylmercapto-phenyl)-aniline (MP 59° to 61°C) is prepared by condensing m-methyl-mercapto-aniline (BP 163° to 165°C/16 mm Hg) with the potassium salt of o-chloro-benzoic acid and decarboxylating the resultant N-(m-methylmercapto-phenyl)-anthranilic acid (MP 139° to 141°C) by heating, and then distilling. 

The predominant gaseous products of the decomposition [1108] of copper maleate at 443—613 K and copper fumarate at 443—653 K were C02 and ethylene. The very rapid temperature rise resulting from laser heating [1108] is thought to result in simultaneous decarboxylation to form acetylene via the intermediate —CH=CH—. Preliminary isothermal measurements [487] for both these solid reactants (and including also copper malonate) found the occurrence of an initial acceleratory process, ascribed to a nucleation and growth reaction. Thereafter, there was a discontinuous diminution in rate (a 0.4), ascribed to the deposition of carbon at the active surfaces of growing copper nuclei. Bassi and Kalsi [1282] report that the isothermal decomposition of copper(II) adipate at 483—503 K obeyed the Prout—Tompkins equation [eqn. (9)] with E = 191 kJ mole-1. Studies of the isothermal decompositions of the copper(II) salts of benzoic, salicylic and malonic acids are also cited in this article. 

The kinetics of the sulphuric acid-catalysed decarboxylation of a range of alkyl substituted benzoic acids have been measured by Schubert et a/.634,635. The variation of rate coefficient with temperature for mesitoic acid is given in Table 206 and the value for the methyl ester shows that, at this acid concentration, the... 

Substituted phenylacetic acids form Kolbe dimers when the phenyl substituents are hydrogen or are electron attracting (Table 2, Nos. 20-23) they yield methyl ethers (non-Kolbe products), when the substituents are electron donating (see also chap. 8). Benzoic acid does not decarboxylate to diphenyl. Here the aromatic nucleus is rather oxidized to a radical cation, that undergoes aromatic substitution with the solvent [145]. 

In this way, the operational range of the Kolbe-Schmitt synthesis using resorcinol with water as solvent to give 2,4-dihydroxy benzoic acid was extended by about 120°C to 220°C, as compared to a standard batch protocol under reflux conditions (100°C) [18], The yields were at best close to 40% (160°C 40 bar 500 ml h 56 s) at full conversion, which approaches good practice in a laboratory-scale flask. Compared to the latter, the 120°C-higher microreactor operation results in a 130-fold decrease in reaction time and a 440-fold increase in space-time yield. The use of still higher temperatures, however, is limited by the increasing decarboxylation of the product, which was monitored at various residence times (t). 

In less than one minute, half of the 2,4-dihydroxy benzoic acid is decomposed already at 160°C in the micro-reactor setup [18]. Thus, a study was conducted to find optimal process parameters for T and t to achieve efficient high p,T operation via discrimination between the desired electrophilic substitution and undesired decarboxylation routes. The best operation point was at (200°C 40 bar 2000 ml h" 16 s). 

As pointed out previously, controlled degradation reactions are very difficult with aliphatic or alicyclic hydrocarbons, and most of the relabeling work has been concentrated on aromatic reaction products. Procedures have been extensively described by Pines and co-workers (e.g., 97, 96, also 87, 89-98, 95, 98). For the present purpose, it suffices to note that the 14C contents of the methyl side-chains and the rings in aromatic reaction products are readily estimated by oxidation of the methyl to carboxyl, followed by decarboxylation, while ethyl side-chains may be oxidatively degraded one carbon atom at a time. Radiochemical assays may be made on CO2 either directly in a gas counter, or after conversion to barium carbonate, while other solid degradation intermediates (e.g., benzoic acid or the phthalic acids) may be either assayed directly as solids or burned to CO2. Liquids are best assayed after burning to CO2. 

As can be expected, the high-temperature processing runs the risk of enhancing side and consecutive reactions. Decarboxylation of the main product was found and increases with temperature (see Fig. 7). This is illustrated at the example of the synthesis of 2,4,6-trihydroxy benzoic acid from phloroglucinol, as this molecule is even more sensitive to thermal destruction due to the enhanced electron richness of the aromatic core by presence of a third hydroxyl group (Hessel et al. 2007). 

A variety of photocatalyzed decarboxylation reactions on Ti02 powder including the decomposition of acetate to methane and carbon dioxide and the breakdown of benzoic acid yielding predominantly CO2 have been reported by Bard and coworkers (23,24). Evidence for the occurrence of these "photo-Kolbe" reactions has stimulated the search for other organic reactions that might be photochemically initiated by excitation of semiconductors and extensive work in this area is in progress (25). 

Interpretation of KIEs on enzymatic processes (see Chapter 11) has been frequently based on the assumption that the intrinsic value of the kinetic isotope effect is known. Chemical reactions have long been used as models for catalytic events occurring in enzyme active sites and in some cases this analogy has worked quite well. One example is the decarboxylation of 4-pyridylacetic acid presented in Fig. 10.9. Depending on the solvent, either the zwitterionic or the neutral form dominates in the solution. Since the reaction rates in D20/H20 solvent mixtures are the same (see Section 11.4 for a discussion of aqueous D/H solvent isotope effects), as are the carbon KIEs for the carboxylic carbon, it is safe to assume that this is a single step reaction. The isotope effects on pKa are expected to be close to the value of 1.0014 determined for benzoic acid. This in mind, changes in the isotope effects have been attributed to changes in solvation. 

Insertion of aUcynes into aromatic C-H bonds has been achieved by iridium complexes. Shibata and coworkers found that the cationic complex [Ir(COD)2]BF4 catalyzes the hydroarylation of internal alkynes with aryl ketones in the presence of BINAP (24) [111]. The reaction selectively produces ort/to-substituted alkenated-aryl products. Styrene and norbomene were also found to undergo hydroarylation under similar condition. [Cp IrCl2]2 catalyzes aromatization of benzoic acid with two equivalents of internal alkyne to form naphthalene derivatives via decarboxylation in the presence of Ag2C03 as an oxidant (25) [112]. 

As shown in Eq. (9), optically pure (i )-mandelic acid was obtained in 47% yield, as well as 44% of benzoylformic acid. Benzoic acid was also isolated, although in very low yield, probably as a result of oxidative decarboxylation of benzoylformic acid. 

A minor route, which now accounts for 2% of phenol, takes advantage of the usual surplus of toluene from petroleum refining. Oxidation with a number of reagents gives benzoic acid. Further oxidation to p-hydroxybenzoic acid and decarboxylation yields phenol. Here phenol competes with benzene manufacture, also made from toluene when the surplus is large. The last 2% of phenol comes from distillation of petroleum and coal gasification. 

While some phenol is produced by the nucleophilic substitution of chlorine in chlorobenzene by the hydroxyl group (structure 17.17), most is produced by the acidic decomposition of cumene hydroperoxide (structure 17.18) that also gives acetone along with the phenol. Some of the new processes for synthesizing phenol are the dehydrogenation of cyclohexanol, the decarboxylation of benzoic acid, and the hydrogen peroxide hydroxylation of benzene. 

The degradation pathway of p-cresol in groundwater appears to proceed by oxidation of the methyl group to first give the corresponding benzaldehyde, then benzoic acid (Kuhn et al. 1988 Smolenski and Suflita 1987 Suflita et al. 1988, 1989). The hydroxybenzoic acid then can be either decarboxylated or dehydroxylated to phenol or benzoic acid, respectively. 

Formerly, benzoic acid was produced by the decarboxylation of phthalic anhydride. Oxidation of acetophenon, benzyl bromide, and toluene with sulfur and water has been described in the literature, but are not commercially feasible routes of synthesis. Carboxylation of benzene with carbon dioxide is not practical due to the instability of benzoic acid at the required reaction conditions [8]. 

A clever application of this reaction has recently been carried out to achieve a high yield synthesis of arene oxides and other dihydroaromatic, as well as aromatic, compounds. Fused-ring /3-lactones, such as 1-substituted 5-bromo-7-oxabicyclo[4.2.0]oct-2-en-8-ones (32) can be readily prepared by bromolactonization of 1,4-dihydrobenzoic acids (obtainable by Birch reduction of benzoic acids) (75JOC2843). After suitable transformation of substituents, mild heating of the lactone results in decarboxylation and formation of aromatic derivatives which would often be difficult to make otherwise. An example is the synthesis of the arene oxide (33) shown (78JA352, 78JA353). 

Phenol can also be prepared by the decomposition of benzoic acid prepared by the oxidation of toluene.927,978 The process is an oxidative decarboxylation catalyzed by copper(II). An interesting feature of this reaction is that the phenolic hydroxyl group enters into the position ortho to the carboxyl group as was proved by 14C labeling.979 In the Dow process980 molten benzoic acid is transformed with steam and air in the presence of Cu(II) and Mg(II) salts at 230-240°C. A copper oxide catalyst is used in a vapor-phase oxidation developed by Lummus.981... 

However, 2,4,6-trisubstituted pyrylium salts with certain active methyl and methylene compounds undergo ring fission and subsequent cyclization to benzenoid products. 2,4,6-Triphenylpyrylium ion (261 Z = O) in this way forms 2,4,6-triphenylnitrobenzene (299) with nitromethane and the substituted benzoic acid (300) with malonic acid, the latter reaction involving a decarboxylation. In reactions of this type, 1,3-oxazinium salts react with active hydrogen compounds to give pyridines (Scheme 25). 

Azinecarboxylic acids lose C02 significantly more easily than benzoic acid. Pyridinecarboxylic acids decarboxylate on heating with increasing ease in the order (3 < < y < a. 2-Pyridazinecarboxylic acid gives pyrazine at 200°C, and 4,5-pyrimidinedicarboxylic acid forms the 5-mono-acid on vacuum distillation. Pyrone- and pyridone-carboxylic acids also decarboxylate relatively easily thus, chelidonic acid (680 Z = O) at 160°C over copper powder and chelidamic acid (680 Z=NH) at 260°C give (681 Z = 0, NH). 

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