Benzylic reaction with alkyl halides

The reaction of Pd complexes (such as Pd(PhsP)4) with organic halides and related compounds has been used to prepare a number of stable Pd alkyl and vinyl compounds. This reaction with alkyl halides has the characteristics of an Sn2 reaction. Primary halides react faster than secondary halides. Also, when a chiral halide is used, such as (X)-(-F)-benzyl-o -D chloride, the benzyl palladium product is formed with inversion of configuration at the benzylic carbon (equation 8). With vinylic halides, retention of configuration at the double bond is observed... 

The typical reactions of the alcohol group include their conversion to ethers and esters by reaction with alkyl halides and with acid chlorides or anhydrides, respectively (Scheme 6.2). The benzyl ether group is readily cleaved by hydrogenolysis and is often used as a protecting group for alcohols. Primary alcohols are oxidized initially to the aldehyde and then to the carboxylic acid. 

The problem raised by the small a-effect in reactions with alkyl halides, where the LUMO energy is not conspicuously low, and yet they are soft electrophiles, raises the question of what happens when both charge and frontier orbital terms are small, and what happens when they are both large Prediction is not simple in this situation, but Hudson has suggested the two rules in the box, which are usually but not invariably observed. In the case of the p-nitrobcnzoate and benzyl bromide, we have a 20-fold increase in... 

For efficient action of Y as cocatalysts, it is necessary that in reactions with alkyl halides they behave as bases abstracting proton not as nucleophiles entering undesired nucleophilic substitution. From a variety of possible Y-H, only OH acids—alcohols and phenols, and to smaller extent some NH acids—are shown to be proper cocatalysts. In a model studies of base-induced PTC j8-elimination of HBr from cyclohexyl bromide, it was shown that benzyl and benzhydryl alcohols, 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol, trifluoromethylphenyl carbinol, and mesitol are particularly efficient cocatalysts (71) as shown in equation 159. 

In Chapter 22 (Section 22.7.4), malonate derivatives were easily converted to the corresponding enolate anion, and reaction with alkyl halides or other electrophilic species gave the C3-alkylated product. Indeed, if 102 is treated with sodium metal (or NaH, LDA, etc.), enolate anion 103 is formed it reacts with an alkyl halide such as benzyl bromide (PhCH2Br) to give 104. If 104 is heated with aqueous sodium hydroxide and then treated with aqueous HCI, phthalic acid (35) and the amino acid phenylalanine (57) are formed as the final products. 

Phosphites. The deprotonation of (7,0-dialky 1 phosphites (25) with KH or NaH generates metal phosphites (26), which can be reacted with CS2 followed by the reaction with alkyl halides to afford (7, (3-dialkyl phosphonodithioformates (27) (eq 18). The deprotonation with JCH is carried out at 0 °C for 3 h, whereas the reaction withNaH is performedinTHFatrefluxforS min. As alkyl halides, methyl iodide, trityl, fluorenyl, and benzyl bromides are used, and the products (27) are obtained in 65-85% yields. 

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. 

It was observed already by BougaulU that the reaction of 6-benzyl-3,5-dioxo-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-l,2,4-triazines with alkyl halides in an alkaline solution yields a mixture of the 4-mono- and 2,4-dialkyl derivatives. This mixture of alkylation products can be readily sepa-... 

The synthesis of halodeoxy sugars has also been achieved by reaction of sugar phosphorodiamido and phosphonamido derivatives with alkyl halides (83). Heating equimolar amounts of 6-(tetraethylphosphoro-diamido)-l,2 3,4-di-0 isopropylidene-D-galactose with methyl iodide (and benzyl bromide) at 140°C. for 4 hours afforded the 6-deoxy-6-iodo (74b) (75%) and 6-bromo-6-deoxy (74c) (56%) derivatives, respectively. 

Although, as has already been mentioned, under matrix conditions between 10 and 77 K, there is no oxidative addition of a chloroolefin to nickel or palladium atoms (141), it is evident that this is simply a function of reaction and processing conditions, as it has been shown (68) that oxidative addition to C-C or C-H bonds by nickel atoms leads to pseudocomplexes having Ni C H ratios of 2-5 1 2. Klabunde and co-workers investigated the oxidative addition-reactions of palladium atoms with alkyl halides (73) and benzyl chlorides (74). 

Thus, the reaction of alkyl halides and a-halo esters with sodium nitrite provides a very useful synthetic method for nitroalkanes and a-nitro esters. However, ethyl bromoacetate is exceptional in that it fails to give ethyl nitroacetate on treatment with sodium nitrite.93 This is due to the acidic hydrogen of the ethyl nitroacetate, which undergoes a further reaction with sodium nitrite to give the oxidized products (see Section 6.1, which discusses the Nef reaction). In a similar way, the reaction of benzyl bromide with sodium nitrite at 25 °C gives benzoic acid predominantly. To get phenylnitromethane, the reaction must be carried out at low temperature (-16 °C) (Eq. 2.48).93... 

Reactions of 2 with alkyl halides were generally more successful for C-C bond formation. For example, bibenzyl was formed in good yield from the reaction of 2 with benzyl bromide. Dichlorodiphenylmethane and 1 reacted to give tetraphenylethylene in 63% yield. Similarly, diiodomethane reacted with 1 to give ethylene. This area of study is continuing. 

Quite similar results have been found recently in the reaction of the cobalt(i) form of vitamin B,2 (Bus) with alkyl halides with n-butyl iodide, bromide and chloride, ethyl bromide and benzyl chloride the representative data point of vitamin B s falls several orders of magnitude above the outer sphere dissociative electron-transfer line (Walder, 1989). 

The metalation chemistry of the imidazoline system has received attention only recently, with the lithiation of l-benzyl-2-imidazoline being found to occur at the 2-position (90TL1767). Although the reactivity of the lithi-ated species with alkyl halides was poor, better results were achieved with disulfide and carbonyl electrophiles (90TL1767,90TL1771). The products formed by reaction with ketones were found to be unstable with respect to fragmentation, and this result was utilized to provide a new route for the synthesis of unsymmetric ketones (Scheme 138). 

Reaction of 2-benzoyl-6-benzyl-l-cyano-l,2-dihydroellipticine (227) with alkyl halides in dimethylformamide in the presence of sodium hydride gave the... 

Not all nucleophilic displacement reactions require lightly substituted onium ion catalysts for activity. For alkylation of 2-naphthoxide ion with benzyl bromide (Eq. (6)) 40-100% RS, 2% CL polystyrene catalysts 15 and 16 work well54). A 51 % RS catalyst 11 gave good yields in reactions of anionic oxygen and sulfur nucleophiles with alkyl halides 91). 

Kinetics and Mechanism of Reactions of Bis (methyl-2,2 -dimercaptodiethyl-amine) dinickel(II) with Alkyl Halides. The rates of reaction of [Ni2 CH3N-(CH2CH2S)2 2], structure III, with methyl iodide, benzyl bromide, benzyl chloride, p-chlorobenzyl chloride, and p-nitrobenzyl chloride have been studied as functions of temperature and concentration in chloroform (3). Absorbance measurements were utilized to determine the rates. All experiments were conducted with excess alkyl halide (20 to 1000 times the initial concentration of complex). Jicha and Busch (18) were able to isolate alkylated complexes of the composition... 

All data obtained on the rate of reaction of [Ni(NiL2)2]Cl2 with alkyl halides— i.e., methyl iodide, benzyl bromide, benzyl chloride, p-nitrobenzyl chloride, p-chlorobenzyl chloride, ethyl bromide, ethyl iodide, n-propyl bromide, and n-propyl iodide—conform closely to a pseudo-first-order rate law. Almost all experiments were carried out in the presence of an excess of alkyl halide. Since methanol solutions of the alkylated complexes have only negligible absorption at 495 m//, rates were obtained by graphs of log A0—A vs. time. The graphs are linear over the entire time interval, which corresponds to more than two half lives in most cases, passing through the origin at zero time. The rate is essentially the same whether measured by the spectrophotometric or conductivity method. 

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