By Hunsdieckers’ reaction

Silver carboxylates 1 can be decarboxylated by treatment with bromine, to yield alkyl bromides 2 in the so-called Hunsdiecker reaction. ... 

Suitable substrates for the Hunsdiecker reaction are first of all aliphatic carboxylates. Aromatic carboxylates do not react uniformly. Silver benzoates with electron-withdrawing substituents react to the corresponding bromobenzenes, while electron-donating substituents can give rise to formation of products where an aromatic hydrogen is replaced by bromine. For example the silver /)-methoxybenzoate 6 is converted to 3-bromo-4-methoxybenzoic acid 7 in good yield ... 

In a modified procedure the free carboxylic acid is treated with a mixture of mercuric oxide and bromine in carbon tetrachloride the otherwise necessary purification of the silver salt is thereby avoided. This procedure has been used in the first synthesis of [1.1.1 ]propellane 10. Bicyclo[l.l.l]pentane-l,3-dicarboxylic acid 8 has been converted to the dibromide 9 by the modified Hunsdiecker reaction. Treatment of 9 with t-butyllithium then resulted in a debromination and formation of the central carbon-carbon bond thus generating the propellane 10." ... 

The Hunsdiecker reaction is the treatment of the dry silver salt of a carboxylic acid with bromine in carbon tetrachloride. Decarboxylation occurs, and the product isolated is the corresponding organic bromide 16). Since dry silver salts are tedious to prepare, a modification of the reaction discovered by Cristol and Firth (77) is now... 

Bromotrithiatriazepine 8 can also be obtained from the carboxylic acid 6 in 52 % yield by a modified Hunsdiecker reaction involving irradiation of a mixture of the acid, bromine, mer-cury(II) oxide and carbon tetrachloride. The iodo derivative is formed when iodine is employed418... 

Bromocyclopropane has been prepared by the Hunsdiecker reaction by adding silver cyclopropanecarboxylate to bromine in dichlorodifluoromethane at —29° (53% yield) or in tetrachloro-ethane at —20° to —25° (15-20% yield).3 Decomposition of the peroxide of cyclopropanecarboxylic acid in the presence of carbon tetrabromide gave bromocyclopropane in 43% yield.4 An attempt to prepare the bromide via the von Braun reaction was unsuccessful.3... 

When iodine is the reagent, the ratio between the reactants is very important and determines the products. A 1 1 ratio of salt to iodine gives the alkyl halide, as above. A 2 1 ratio, however, gives the ester RCOOR. This is called the Simonini reaction and is sometimes used to prepare carboxylic esters. The Simonini reaction can also be carried out with lead salts of acids." A more convenient way to perform the Hunsdiecker reaction is by use of a mixture of the acid and mercuric oxide instead of the salt, since the silver salt must be very pure and dry and such pure silver salts are often not easy to prepare. 

The decarboxylation of carboxylic acid in the presence of a nucleophile is a classical reaction known as the Hunsdiecker reaction. Such reactions can be carried out sometimes in aqueous conditions. Man-ganese(II) acetate catalyzed the reaction of a, 3-unsaturated aromatic carboxylic acids with NBS (1 and 2 equiv) in MeCN/water to afford haloalkenes and a-(dibromomethyl)benzenemethanols, respectively (Eq. 9.15).32 Decarboxylation of free carboxylic acids catalyzed by Pd/C under hydrothermal water (250° C/4 MPa) gave the corresponding hydrocarbons (Eq. 9.16).33 Under the hydrothermal conditions of deuterium oxide, decarbonylative deuteration was observed to give fully deuterated hydrocarbons from carboxylic acids or aldehydes. 

Decarboxylativehalogenation (12,417). The Hunsdiecker reaction is not useful for aromatic acids, but decarboxylative halogenation of these acids can be effected in useful yield by radical bromination or iodination of the thiohydroxamic esters, as reported earlier for aliphatic acids.1 Thus when the esters 2 are heated at 100° in the presence of AIBN, carbon dioxide is evolved and the resulting radical is trapped by BrCCl3 to provide bromoarenes (3). Decarboxylative iodination is effected with iodoform or methylene iodide as the iodine donor. 

Methyl oxetane-2-carboxylate derivatives (e.g., 284), obtained by ring contraction of aldonolactones, have been employed for the synthesis (279) of the nucleoside / -noroxetanocin [9-(/ -D-eryt/iro-oxetanosyl)adenine, 304] and its a-anomer via an a-chloride obtained by a modified Hunsdiecker reaction. Displacement of chloride by adenine and debenzylation gave 304. The threo isomer of304, /J-epinoroxetanocin (305), was likewise synthesized from D-lyxono-1,4-lactone. The oxetane nucleosides display potent antiviral activity against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). 

The procedure described here allows for a convenient and efficient preparation in very high yields of large quantities of bromides from carboxylic acids containing an olefinic functionality. The Hunsdiecker reaction is traditionally accomplished by treating anhydrous silver carboxylates with bromine or iodine.2 Heavy metal salts such as mercury,3 lead,4 and thallium5 have also been used successfully as well as tert-butyl hypoiodite.6 The major disadvantages associated with the above methods, such as use of heavy metal salts and non-tolerance towards olefins, has led to the development of a more versatile method using O-acyl thiohydroxamates.7 8 The O-... 

Carboxylic acids may be converted to alkyl bromides with the loss of one carbon atom by the Hunsdiecker reaction ... 

Silver(I) carboxylates have been obtained by the addition of equivalent amounts of freshly prepared silver oxide to aqueous solutions of the appropriate acid.247 Their degradation by halogens provides a convenient method for the preparation of alkyl halides (Hunsdiecker reaction) or esters (Simonini reaction).248 Equations (14)-(18) have been proposed to account for the products obtained and were the result of extensive studies. 

The Hunsdiecker reaction has been used only twice as a potential source of bromobenzo[6]thiophenes with 3-bromo-5-nitrobenzo[6]-thiophene-2-carboxylic acid it proceeds normally to give 2,3-dibromo-5-nitrobenzo[6]thiophene,152 but with 5-nitrobenzo[6]thiophene-2-carboxylic acid the main product is 3-bromo-5-nitrobenzo[6]thio-phene-2-carboxylic acid, accompanied by smaller amounts of 2,3-dibromo-5-nitrobenzo[6]thiophene.152 497... 

Modified Hunsdiecker reaction. Primary carboxylic acids are converted into thallium(I) carboxylates by reaction with T12C03. The salts are not isolated, but treated with Br2 (1.5 equiv.) to give primary alkyl bromides (equation I).1... 

In a Hunsdiecker reaction, the silver salt of an aromatic carboxylic acid is converted by bromine treatment to an acyl halide. 

Hunsdiecker reactions of salts of perfluoroalkanoic acids are known primarily as perhaps the best way of making perfluoroalkyl halides [58,306,307], but there have been other synthetic uses found for the perfluoroalkyl radicals which are formed by this decarboxylative process [308]. 

The most useful reaction in the literature for this is the pyrolysis of a suitable per-ester in the presence of a hydrogen atom transfer reagent, but the yields are often unsatisfactory.2 8 Conversion of an acid to the corresponding aldehyde and subsequent rhodium-based decarbonylation involves two steps, but is more reliable.4 The Borodin-Hunsdiecker reaction converts the acid to a nor-halide, which can be reduced by radical methods. However, this works well only with primary acids, is incompatible with many sensitive functions,5 and is expensive since the Ag salt of the acid is usually used. 

Needless to say, this was readily proven to be the case and a variety of chlorides, bromides and iodides have been prepared from the corresponding acids in good to excellent yields, by this method.14,15,26 31 In terms of mildness of conditions, generality and yields, this method is far superior to the classical Borodin-Hunsdiecker reaction and its variants.1011,26"31 As a demonstration of the mildness of the conditions, decarboxyl-ative bromination of the heavily functionalized acid 19 was carried out by Professor Ikegami to afford 20 (75 % yield), and... 

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