Butylbenzenes, reaction

The formation of alkylbenzenes, largely free from unaaturated compounds, provides another interesting application of organosodium compounds. Thus pure M-butylbenzene is readily obtained in good yield from benzyl sodium and n-propyl bromide. Benzyl-sodium is conveniently prepared by first forming phenyl-sodium by reaction between sodium and chlorobenzene in a toluene medium, followed by heating the toluene suspension of the phenyl-sodium at 105° for about 35 minutes ... 

Alternatively the alkylated aromatic products may rearrange. -Butylbenzene [104-57-8] is readily isomerized to isobutylbenzene [538-93-2] and j Abutyl-benzene [135-98-8] under the catalytic effect of Friedel-Crafts catalysts. The tendency toward rearrangement depends on the alkylatiag ageat and the reaction conditions (catalyst, solvent, temperature, etc). 

Reactions of acetylene and iron carbonyls can yield benzene derivatives, quinones, cyclopentadienes, and a variety of heterocycHc compounds. The cyclization reaction is useful for preparing substituted benzenes. The reaction of / fZ-butylacetylene in the presence of Co2(CO)g as the catalyst yields l,2,4-tri-/ f2 butylbenzene (142). The reaction of Fe(CO) and diphenylacetylene yields no less than seven different species. A cyclobutadiene derivative [31811 -56-0] is the most important (143—145). 

The parent system 4 has also been jnepared employing a double reductive ring closure of a dinitrodiphenylbenzene derivative (Scheme 25). The required starting material, 195, was prepared using a palladium-catalyzed coupling of 1,4-dibromo-2,5-dinittobenzene with phenylboronic acid and after reaction with tri-ethylphosphite in hot tert-butylbenzene, 4 could be isolated in a moderate yield (92JHC1237). 

The carbocation electrophile in a Friedel-Crafts reaction can be generated in ways other than by reaction of an alkyl chloride with AICI3. For example, reaction of benzene with 2-methylpropene in the presence of H3PO4 yields tert-butylbenzene. Propose a mechanism for this reaction. 

In triethylamine instead of benzene the reaction products are completely different, and are indicative of a homolytic process involving an initial electron transfer from triethylamine followed by a hydrogen atom transfer. Scheme 10-68 gives the major products, namely 1,3,5-tri-tert-butylbenzene (10.36, 20%), the oxime 10.39 (18%), formed from the nitroso compound 10.38, and the acetanilide 10.37 (40%). ESR and CIDNP data are consistent with Scheme 10-68. In their paper the authors discuss further products which were found in smaller yields. 

Kinetic studies at 25 °C showed that for benzene, toluene, o-, m-, and p-xylene, /-butylbenzene, mesitylene, 4-chloroanisole, and p-anisic acid in 51 and 75 % aqueous acetic acid addition of small amounts of perchloric acid had only a slight effect on the reaction rate which followed equation (100). At higher concentrations of perchloric acid (up to 0.4 M) the rate rose linearly with acid concentration, and more rapidly thereafter so that the kinetic form in high acid concentration was... 

In this work the relative reactivities of the alkylbenzenes (PhR) varied as follows (R = ) Me, 100 Et, 76 i-Pr, 44 f-Bu, 23. This relates to 85 % aqueous acetic acid at 24 °C and with 88 % acid at 25 °C the same relative rate of toluene to /-butylbenzene was obtained261, showing the hyperconjugative order to prevail for this reaction. 

A kinetic isotope effect, kH/kD = 1.4, has been observed in the bromination of 3-bromo-l,2,4,5-tetramethylbenzene and its 6-deuterated isomer by bromine in nitromethane at 30 °C, and this has been attributed to steric hindrance to the electrophile causing kLx to become significant relative to k 2 (see p. 8)268. A more extensive subsequent investigation304 of the isotope effects obtained for reaction in acetic acid and in nitromethane (in parentheses) revealed the following values mesitylene, 1.1 pentamethylbenzene 1.2 3-methoxy-1,2,4,5-tetramethyl-benzene 1.5 5-t-butyl-1,2,3-trimethylbenzene 1.6 (2.7) 3-bromo-1,2,4,5-tetra-methylbenzene 1.4 and for 1,3,5-tri-f-butylbenzene in acetic acid-dioxan, with silver ion catalyst, kH/kD = 3.6. All of these isotope effects are obtained with hindered compounds, and the larger the steric hindrance, the greater the isotope... 

Subsequently, rate coefficients were determined for the zinc chloride-catalysed bromination of benzene, toluene, i-propyl-benzene, r-butylbenzene, xylenes, p-di-f-butylbenzene, mesitylene, 1,2,4-trimethyl-, sym-triethyl-, sym-tri-f-butyl-, 1,2,3,5-and 1,2,4,5-tetramethyl- and pentamethylbenzenes, all at 25.4 °C and in acetic acid, and it was shown that the reaction was inhibited by HBr.ZnCl2 which accumulates during the bromination and was considered to cause the first step of the reaction (formation of ArHBr2) to reverse320. The second-order coefficients for bromination of o-xylene at 25.0 °C were shown to be inversely dependent upon the hydrogen bromide concentration and the reversal of equilibrium (155)... 

Finally, rates of mercuration have been measured using mercuric trifluoro-acetate in trifluoroacetic acid at 25 °C450. The kinetics were pure second-order, with no reaction of the salt with the solvent and no isomerisation of the reaction products rate coefficients (10 k2) are as follows benzene, 2.85 toluene, 28.2 ethylbenzene, 24.4 i-propylbenzene, 21.1 t-butylbenzene, 17.2 fluorobenzene, 0.818 chlorobenzene, 0.134 bromobenzene, 0.113. The results follow the pattern noted above in that the reaction rates are much higher (e.g. for benzene, 690,000 times faster than for mercuration with mercuric acetate in acetic acid) yet the p factor is larger (-5.7) if the pattern is followed fully, one could expect a larger... 

Although there are a number of reports in the literature of this process, (see ref. 1) only one of these relates to a kinetic study of the reaction168. The ease with which the reaction takes place depends upon the stability of the leaving carbonium ion. Consequently, de-r-butylation is mcst frequently observed and in a kinetic study of the sulphonation of /-butylbenzene in aqueous sulphuric acid (see p. 72) this side reaction was sufficiently prominent for rates to be easily measurable (Table 225)168. Comparison of the rates with those in Table 42 shows that de-... 

The bromination of /-butylbenzene by acidified hypobromous acid in 50% aqueous dioxan at 25 °C follows the kinetic equation (89) (p. 84)196, and the kinetic form of bromodebutylation is assumed to be the same since only 1.9% of the total reaction (k3 = 7.25) is debutylation, leading to a partial rate factor of 1.4 the same conclusions apply as outlined above. 

B. Reactions.—(/) Nucleophilic Attack at Phosphorus. A reinvestigation of the reaction between phosphorus trichloride and t-butylbenzene in the presence of aluminium chloride has shown that the product after hydrolysis is the substituted phosphinic acid (11), and not the expected phosphonic acid (12). Bis(A-alkylamino)phosphines have been reported to attack chlorodiphenyl phosphine with nitrogen, in the presence of a base, to give bis-(A-alkyl-A-diphenylphosphinoamino)phenylphosphines (13). In (13), the terminal phosphorus atoms are more reactive than the central one towards sulphur and towards alkyl halides. 

The first step of a free radical aromatic substitution, the formation of the a-com-plex, is also an addition step. The o,m,p-product ratio therefore also responds to steric effects. This is shown for the free radical phenylation and dimethylamination of toluene and r.-butylbenzene in Table 8. The larger the substituent on the aromatic system and the bulkier the attacking radical, the more p-substitution product is obtained at the expense of o-substitution. In the phenylation reaction the yield of m-product also increases in contrast to the dimethylamination reaction. The substitution pattern of this latter reaction is, in addition to the steric effect, governed heavily by polar effects because a radical cation is the attacking species113. ... 

The reactions of the tetrahalogenobenzynes with mono-alkyl-benzenes result in the formation of both the possible 1,4-cyclo-adducts 54-56,59) However, the ratio of the two adducts only approaches the statistical value in the reaction of tetrafluorobenzyne with /-butylbenzene more of the adduct (34) is normally produced. 

Another surprising feature appears in the reactions of certain alkyl-benzenes with tetrabromo- and tetraiodo-benzyne generated by the aprotic diazotisation of the corresponding anthranilic acids S9K While only one product (41, X = Br or I, R = H or Me) was obtained in the reactions with benzene or -xylene, three products, (42, X = Br or I, R = Me, Pr1, or But), (43, X = Br or I, R = Me, Pr1, or But) and a naphthalene derivative a> were obtained in reactions with toluene, cumene (isopropylbenzene), and f-butylbenzene. 

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