Benzoin preparation procedure

This procedure is representative of a new general method for the preparation of noncyclic acyloins by thiazol ium-catalyzed dimerization of aldehydes in the presence of weak bases (Table I). The advantages of this method over the classical reductive coupling of esters or the modern variation in which the intermediate enediolate is trapped by silylation, are the simplicity of the procedure, the inexpensive materials used, and the purity of the products obtained. For volatile aldehydes such as acetaldehyde and propionaldehyde the reaction Is conducted without solvent in a small, heated autoclave. With the exception of furoin the preparation of benzoins from aromatic aldehydes is best carried out with a different thiazolium catalyst bearing an N-methyl or N-ethyl substituent, instead of the N-benzyl group. Benzoins have usually been prepared by cyanide-catalyzed condensation of aromatic and heterocyclic aldehydes.Unsymnetrical acyloins may be obtained by thiazol1um-catalyzed cross-condensation of two different aldehydes. -1 The thiazolium ion-catalyzed cyclization of 1,5-dialdehydes to cyclic acyloins has been reported. 

Although the catalysis of the dimerization of aldehydes to acyloins by thiazolium ion has been known for some tlrae, the development of procedures using anhydrous solvents which give satisfactory yields of acyloins on a preparative scale was first realized in the submitters laboratories. The mechanism proposed by Breslow - for the thiazolium ion-catalyzed reactions is similar to the Lapworth mechanism for the benzoin condensation with a thiazolium ylide replacing the cyanide ion. Similar mechanisms are involved... 

Triphenylethylene has been prepared by the reaction of phenylmagnesium bromide with benzyl benzoate, with desoxy-benzoin, or with ethyl pheaniylacetate, and by the reaction of diphenylketene-quinoline with benzaldehyde. The above procedure is an adaptation of that described by Hell and Wiegandt. ... 

The procedure described is essentially that of Ballard and Dehn.1 Stilbene has also been prepared by reduction of desoxy-benzoin,20 benzaldehyde,23 and benzil 2o-2c by dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene,30 toluene,30- 33- 3, and bibenzyl 33-3alkaline reduction of phenylnitromethane,40 phenylnitroacetonitrile,40 and desoxybenzoin 43 by distillation of benzyl sulfone,50 benzyl sulfide,60-63 calcium cinnamate,5 cinnamic acid,5d phenyl cinna-mate,6e-6/ and diphenyl fumarate ie by dehydrohalogenation of a,a -dichlorobibenzyl60 and benzyl chloride 63 by dehalogenation of a,a,c/,a -tetrachlorobibenzyl70 and benzal chloride 73 by the coupling of cinnamic acid and phenyldiazonium chloride 8 by de-... 

Tetraphenylcyclopentadienone has been prepared by the action of phenylmagnesium bromide on benzaldiphenylmaleide,1 and by reduction, dehydration, and oxidation of the methylene-desoxybenzoin obtained by condensing formaldehyde with desoxy-benzoin.2 The present procedure is essentially that of Dilthey.3... 

The reaction has been extended to other pinacols however, their preparation may involve lengthy procedures. Certain benzoins on reduction with metals and acids yield diols which are then converted to desoxybenzoins. These conversions involve the migration of a hydrogen atom rather than an alkyl group. Similarly, aromatic keto ethers and amino ketones have been prepared. 

An inverted sequence of the same procedure has also been used [139] to prepare the same three-block copolymers. Indeed, thermal polymerization of MMA by ABME gives rise to a polymer mainly containing only one benzoin methyl ether moiety per macromolecule, since growing MMA radicals terminate mostly by disproportionation. Thus, terminally photoactive poly(MMA) is used to obtain the photoinitiated block copolymerization of styrene. In this case, a 90% yield of block copolymers is obtained, appreciably higher than in the preceding method, fully consistent with the usual assumption that the termination in styrene polymers occurs by combination. In fact, coupling of the growing styryl radicals with the less reactive poly(MMA)-bound methoxy benzyl radicals also contributes to the formation of block copolymers. 

The preparation of block copolymers by combination of thermally radical and photoinduced cationic polymerization processes has also been reported [151], Indeed, styrene/cyclohexene oxide (CHO) copolymers have been synthesized by using a bifunctional azobenzoin initiator such as ABME, previously described, through a two-step procedure. In the first step, thermal Iree radical polymerization of styrene in the presence of the above azobenzoin initiator gives poly(styrene) prepolymers with benzoin photoactive end groups, as reported in Scheme 38. These prepolymers, upon photolysis and subsequent oxidation to the corresponding carbocations in the presence of l-ethoxy-2-methylpyridinium hexafluoro phosphate (EMP+PFg ), finally give block copolymers by cationic polymerization of cyclohexene oxide (Scheme 45). 

Upon treating certain (but not all) aromatic aldehydes or glyoxals (a-keto aldehydes) with cyanide ion (CN ), benzoins (a-hydroxy-ketones or acyloins) are produced in a reaction called the benzoin condensation. The reverse process is called the retro-benzoin condensation, and it is frequently used for the preparation of ketones. The condensation involves the addition of one molecule of aldehyde to the C=0 group of another. One of the aldehydes serves as the donor and the other serves as the acceptor. Some aldehydes can only be donors (e.g. p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde) or acceptors, so they are not able to self-condense, while other aldehydes (benzaldehyde) can perform both functions and are capable of self-condensation. Certain thiazolium salts can also catalyze the reaction in the presence of a mild base. This version of the benzoin condensation is more synthetically useful than the original procedure because it works with enolizable and non-enolizable aldehydes and asymmetric catalysts may be used. Aliphatic aldehydes can also be used and mixtures of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes give mixed benzoins. Recently, it was also shown that thiazolium-ion based organic ionic liquids (Oils) promote the benzoin condensation in the presence of small amounts of triethylamine. The stereoselective synthesis of benzoins has been achieved using chiral thiazolium salts as catalysts. 

The first route uses benzoin derivatives as intermediates. These become available from 1-trimethylsilyloxyphosphonates, which are prepared from aldehydes in an one-pot procedure. The phosphonates are then transformed into benzoins... 

Oxidation of Benzoin to Benzil by MnOz as a Typical Procedure for the Oxidation of Biaryl Acyloins. A mixture of benzoin 3 a (0.212 g, 1 mmol) and Mn02 (0.174 g, 2 mmol) was prepared and magnetically agitated in an oil bath at 90 °C for 4 h. The progress of the reaction was monitored by TLC. The reaction mixture was applied on a silica gel pad (3 g) and washed with Et20 (20 mL) to afford pure benzil 4 a quantitatively (mp 94 °C). The same reaction with BaMn04 proceeded to completion after 2 h using 1.5 mmol of the oxidant. 

Diarylquinoxalines are similarly prepared by reaction of o-phenylenediamine with benzils. The required benzils have been prepared traditionally by oxidation of the corresponding benzoins, which in turn have been prepared by treatment of the appropriate aldehydes with potassium cyanide. In a more recent procedure, benzils have been obtained in good yield by oxidation of para-substituted diphenyloxazoles with bromine in acetic acid. The oxazoles themselves are readily prepared by cyclization of the benzoin acetate with urea (Scheme 3). ... 

By earlier procedures benzoins were converted into diketones by nitric acid, but this dehydrogenation is better effected by means of copper compounds. For instance, benzoin itself gives 86% of benzil on treatment with copper sulfate in pyridine.440 Cholestenone has been prepared as follows by Diels and Abderhalden 441... 

In an acetonitrile suspension, the intermediate a-cyanoalkoxide can be trapped by acyl chlorides to give cyanohydrin esters. In a preparation of synthetic pyrethroids, the comparison between the sonicated reaction and its PTC equivalent gave an advantage to the latter in terms of reaction time and yield. i A modest change in stereoselectivity is observed in some cases. The same reaction in the presence of ammonium chloride leads to a-amino nitriles, the first step of the Strecker amino acid synthesis.4 72 xhe procedure is more efficient in the presence of alumina. The formation of by-products, cyanohydrins or benzoins, is avoided. From an experimental viewpoint, the work-up is considerably easier than with conventional procedures, and consists mostly of a simple filtration. With ketones, and in the presence of ammonium carbonate, a hydantoin is formed (Eq. 21)7 ... 

NOTE. The benzil used in this reaction must be free of benzoin impurity. If benzil is prepared according to Experiment [A2J, it should be purified by the chromatographic procedure cited therein if benzoin is detected by thin-layer chromatography. 

A series of IPN compositions were made in the following manner First crosslinked PEA elastom.er was prepared as component one. Monomer mixes of styrene and methyl methacrylate (containing appropriate TEGDM and benzoin) varying systematically from 0% to 100% methyl methacrylate content were prepared as component two. These solutions were swollen into component one so as to produce 50/50 w/w iPN s via procedures discussed above. Since the diffusion rates of styrene and methyl methacrylate monomers are not identical actual compositions of component two were calculated from elemental analyses on the whole material provided by Dr. George Robertson Florham. Park N. J,... 

And finally, the resulting hybrid membranes were prepared as follows in a typical procedure a mixture containing styrene/acrylonitrile (1 3 weight ratio, 60 wt%), [EIm][TfO] (40 wt%), DVB (2 wt% to the formulation based on the weight of monomer), and 1 wt% of benzoin isobutyl ether (photoinitiator), with or without Im-SiOj nanoparticles was stirred and ultrasonicated to obtain a homogeneous solution. 

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