Benzyl halides, reaction

It is interesting to note that the hydrolysis of unhindered benzoyl chlorides is not catalyzed by acids, but benzoyl fluoride is acid catalyzed and follows Kq (Bevan and Hudson, 1953). Similarly, acid catalysis of benzyl fluoride hydrolysis which follows occurs (Swain and Spalding, 1960), but no acid catalysis of benzyl chloride hydrolysis is known. Furthermore, benzyl halide reactions show non-linear pa correlations (Hudson and Klopman, 1962 Hill and Fry, 1962 Swain and Langsdorf, 1951). Although much less work has been carried out on benzoyl halides, it would appear then that nucleophilic reactions with benzoyl halides resemble, in many respects, nucleophilic reactions with benzyl systems, including the considerable uncertainty as to the S l or bimolecular nature of these reactions (Thornton, 1964). 

The reactivities of alkyl halides are in the sequence RI > RBr > RCl and MeX > EtX > PrX. Benzyl halide reactions with tin do not require catalysts (equation 2). For less reactive halides, the catalysts and promoters employed include metals (sodium, magnesium, zinc, or copper), Lewis bases (amines, triorganophosphines and -stibines, alcohols, or ethers), iodides, and onium salts (R4MX). The use of tin-sodium alloys can result in tri- or tetraorganotin products. Electrochemical synthesis has also been reported, e.g. the formation of R2SnX2 from the oxidation of anodic tin by RX in benzene solution and the formation of R4Sn from RI (R = Me or NCCH2CH2) and cathodic tin. 

Lithium dialkylamides of hindered amines can generate aryl-substituted car-benes from benzyl halides. Reaction of a,a-dichlorotoluene or a,a-dibromotoluene with potassium t-butoxide in the presence of 18-crown-6 generates the corresponding a-halophenylcarbene. The relative reactivity data for carbenes generated under these latter conditions suggest that they are free. The potassium cation would be expected to be strongly solvated by the crown ether and is evidently not involved in the carbene-generating step. 

Section 11 14 Benzylic carbocations are intermediates in SnI reactions of benzylic halides and are stabilized by electron delocalization... 

Pyrroles do not react with alkyl halides in a simple fashion polyalkylated products are obtained from reaction with methyl iodide at elevated temperatures and also from the more reactive allyl and benzyl halides under milder conditions in the presence of weak bases. Alkylation of pyrrole Grignard reagents gives mainly 2-alkylated pyrroles whereas N-alkylated pyrroles are obtained by alkylation of pyrrole alkali-metal salts in ionizing solvents. 

In many cases, substituents linked to a pyrrole, furan or thiophene ring show similar reactivity to those linked to a benzenoid nucleus. This generalization is not true for amino or hydroxyl groups. Hydroxy compounds exist largely, or entirely, in an alternative nonaromatic tautomeric form. Derivatives of this type show little resemblance in their reactions to anilines or phenols. Thienyl- and especially pyrryl- and furyl-methyl halides show enhanced reactivity compared with benzyl halides because the halogen is made more labile by electron release of the type shown below. Hydroxymethyl and aminomethyl groups on heteroaromatic nuclei are activated to nucleophilic attack by a similar effect. 

This method is particularly applicable to the more reactive benzyl halides which are easily hydrolyzed in the aqueous media usually employed for the metathetical reaction with alkali cyanides. For example, anisyl chloride treated with sodium cyanide in aqueous dioxane gives, as a by-product, 5-10% of anisyl alcohol as determined by infrared analysis. The use of anhydrous acetone not only prevents hydrolysis to the alcohol but also decreases the formation of isonitriles. This method was also applied successfully by the submitters to the preparation of -chlo-rophenylacetonitrile in 74% yield. 

A mechanism of this type permits substitution of certain aromatic and ahphatic nitro compounds by a variety of nucleophiles. These reactions were discovered as the result of efforts to explain the mechanistic basis for high-yield carbon alkylation of the 2-nitropropane anion by p-nitrobenzyl chloride. p-Nitrobenzyl bromide and iodide and benzyl halides that do not contain a nitro substituent give mainly the unstable oxygen alkylation product with this ambident anion ... 

Primary benzylic halides are ideal substrates for Sn2 reactions because they are very reactive toward good nucleophiles and cannot undergo competing elimination. 

The formation of quaternary salts from benzyl halides and related compounds occurs readily and has been known for many years. More recently, Krohnke and co-workers, who have studied the reactions of many heterocyclic quaternary salts, reported the formation of 5 from pyridine and benzylidene dibromide on heating the reactants together for 1 hr at 100°. The salt is sufficiently stable to be recrystallized from methanol containing a trace of hydrogen bromide. Isoquinoline gives a similar salt. 

Nucleophilic substitution of the halogen atom of halogenomethylisoxazoles proceeds readily this reaction does not differ essentially from that of benzyl halides. One should note the successful hydrolysis of 4-chloromethyl- and 4-(chlorobenzyl)-isoxazoles by freshly precipitated lead oxide, a reagent seldom used in organic chemistry. Other halides, ethers, and esters of the isoxazole series have been obtained from 3- and 4-halogenomethylisoxazoles, and 3-chloro-methylisoxazole has been reported in the Arbuzov rearrangement. Panizzi has used dichloromethylisoxazole derivatives to synthesize isoxazole-3- and isoxazole-5-aldehydes/ ... 

The reaction works well with primary alkyl halides, especially with allylic and benzylic halides, as well as other alkyl derivatives with good leaving groups. Secondary alkyl halides give poor yields. Tertiary alkyl halides react under the usual reaction conditions by elimination of HX only. Nitriles from tertiary alkyl halides can however be obtained by reaction with trimethylsilyl cyanide 4 ... 

In the reaction of 88 with /(-phenethyl bromide, l-phenethyl-3-phenylpropyl methyl sulfoxide and bis-3-phenylpropyl sulfoxide, besides 3-phenylpropyl methyl sulfoxide are obtained118. Sulfoxides, bearing a /1-hydrogen to the sulfmyl function, give olefins upon thermolysis. Utilizing this reaction, Trost and Bridges120 alkylated benzyl phenyl sulfoxide, 3,4-methylenedioxybenzyl phenyl sulfoxide, phenylthiomethyl phenyl sulfoxide, phenylsulfinylmethyl phenyl sulfoxide and cyanomethyl phenyl sulfoxide with alkyl, allyl and benzyl halides and subjected these sulfoxides to thermolysis, obtaining olefins in one-pot processes. 

Controlled synthesis of ABA type poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)-b-PDMS block copolymers was obtained by the melt reaction of a,c -benzyl halide terminated PDMS oligomers and the oxazoline monomer 291 as shown in Reaction Scheme XX. 

Poly (ethylene oxide) macromonomers72 761 are made in a similar way, as the alkoxide end group is reactive enough towards benzylic halides. With methacryloyl chloride, side reactions are involved. It is better to first protonate the PEO, and then to have it react with methacryloyl chloride in the presence of some triethyl amine. One can also react co-hydroxy polyethylene oxide) with methacryloyl imidazole, or with methacrylic acid in the presence of dicyclohexyl carbodiimide (DCCf)77). 

The "direct synthesis (39) has obvious attractions as an industrial process, but, in the absence of a catalyst, it proceeds readily only for allyl and benzyl halides, and much attention has been directed towards finding suitable promoters for the reactions. 

Primary amines can be prepared from alkyl halides by the use of hexamethylenetetramine followed by cleavage of the resulting salt with ethanolic HCl. The method, called the Delepine reaction, is most successful for active halides such as allylic and benzylic halides and a-halo ketones, and for primary... 

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