Benzyl electrophiles benzylation

Benzylic Electrophiles. Benzylic chlorides and bromides are widely and readily available. They are therefore the reagents of choice in most cases. Less readily available benzylic iodides and fluorides have hardly been used. More recently, the use of benzylsulfonium salts in Pd- or Ni-catalyzed cross-couphng has been reported. 

Section 11 16 Addition reactions to alkenylbenzenes occur at the double bond of the alkenyl substituent and the regioselectivity of electrophilic addition is governed by carbocation formation at the benzylic carbon See Table 11 2... 

Electrophilic addition (Section 11 16) An aryl group stabilizes a benzylic carbocation and con trols the regioselectivity of addition to a double bond involving the benzylic carbon Markovni kov s rule is obeyed... 

SuIfona.tlon, Sulfonation is a common reaction with dialkyl sulfates, either by slow decomposition on heating with the release of SO or by attack at the sulfur end of the O—S bond (63). Reaction products are usually the dimethyl ether, methanol, sulfonic acid, and methyl sulfonates, corresponding to both routes. Reactive aromatics are commonly those with higher reactivity to electrophilic substitution at temperatures > 100° C. Tn phenylamine, diphenylmethylamine, anisole, and diphenyl ether exhibit ring sulfonation at 150—160°C, 140°C, 155—160°C, and 180—190°C, respectively, but diphenyl ketone and benzyl methyl ether do not react up to 190°C. Diphenyl amine methylates and then sulfonates. Catalysis of sulfonation of anthraquinone by dimethyl sulfate occurs with thaHium(III) oxide or mercury(II) oxide at 170°C. Alkyl interchange also gives sulfation. 

Rates that are independent of aromatic substrate concentration have been found for reaction of benzyl chloride catalyzed by TiCl4 or SbFj in nitromethane. This can be interpreted as resulting from rate-determining formation of the electrophile, presumably a benzyl cation. The reaction of benzyl chloride and toluene shows a second-order dependence on titanium tetrachloride concentration under conditions where there is a large excess of hydrocarbon. ... 

Bu3SnSMe, BF3-Et20, toluene, -20° 0°, 1.5 h H30, 70-97% yield. When treated with various electrophiles, the intermediate stannanes from this reaction form benzyl and MEM ethers, benzoates, and tosylates, and when treated with PCC, they form aldehydes." " ... 

In carbohydrates in which benzyl groups are used extensively for protection, the stability of the benzyl groups toward electrophilic reagents is increased by the presence of electron-withdrawing groups in the ring." ... 

In general the Stork reaction gives moderate yields with simple alkyl halides better yields of alkylated product are obtained with more electrophilic reactants such like allylic, benzylic or propargylic halides or an a-halo ether, a-halo ester or a-halo ketone. An example is the reaction of 1-pyrrolidino-l-cyclohexene 6 with allyl bromide, followed by aqueous acidic workup, to yield 2-allylcyclohexanone ... 

Merck s thienamycin synthesis commences with mono (V-silylation of dibenzyl aspartate (13, Scheme 2), the bis(benzyl) ester of aspartic acid (12). Thus, treatment of a cooled (0°C) solution of 13 in ether with trimethylsilyl chloride and triethylamine, followed by filtration to remove the triethylamine hydrochloride by-product, provides 11. When 11 is exposed to the action of one equivalent of tm-butylmagnesium chloride, the active hydrogen attached to nitrogen is removed, and the resultant anion spontaneously condenses with the electrophilic ester carbonyl four atoms away. After hydrolysis of the reaction mixture with 2 n HC1 saturated with ammonium chloride, enantiomerically pure azetidinone ester 10 is formed in 65-70% yield from 13. Although it is conceivable that... 

Florio et al. demonstrated that the lithiation/electrophile trapping of enantio-pure styrene oxide, as well as the (3-substituted styrene oxides 180 and 182, is totally stereoselective (Scheme 5.42) [66]. These results demonstrate that the intermediate benzylic anions are configurationally stable within the timescale of depro-tonation/electrophile trapping. 

Accordingly, there have been numerous studies on the stereochemistry of these a-sulfinyl carbanions56-77. Representative data on the reactions of a-lithiosulfoxides derived from benzyl sulfoxides with some electrophiles are listed in Table 13. Although the stereochemistry depends on the substituent on the sulfinyl function, the diastereomeric ratio remains the same regardless of the electrophile used for each sulfoxide. 

Novolacs are prepared with an excess of phenol over formaldehyde under acidic conditions (Fig. 7.6). A methylene glycol is protonated by an acid from the reaction medium, which then releases water to form a hydroxymethylene cation (step 1 in Fig. 7.6). This ion hydroxyalkylates a phenol via electrophilic aromatic substitution. The rate-determining step of the sequence occurs in step 2 where a pair of electrons from the phenol ring attacks the electrophile forming a car-bocation intermediate. The methylol group of the hydroxymethylated phenol is unstable in the presence of acid and loses water readily to form a benzylic carbo-nium ion (step 3). This ion then reacts with another phenol to form a methylene bridge in another electrophilic aromatic substitution. This major process repeats until the formaldehyde is exhausted. 

The electrophilic functions most commonly used in grafting onto processes are ester 141 144), benzylic halide 145,146) and oxirane, 47). Other functions such as nitrile or anhydride could be used as well. The backbone is a homopolymer (such as PMMA) or a copolymer containing both functionalized and unfunctionalized units. Such species can be obtained either by free radical copolymerization (e.g. styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer) or by partial chemical modification of a homopolymer (e.g. 

We can see from these data that benzyl radical significantly easier adds to electrophilic methyl acrylate and acrylonitrile than to relatively nucleophilic hex-1-ene. This is one of the arguments for a nucleophilic character of benzyl radical. The polar factors affect essentially kinetic parameters of the processes, as judged from the ratios / KadC4H9 = g3 and K dCOOCHa / k C4H9 = 41. The... 

---