Carbenium ions Friedel-Crafts reaction

Finally, the carbenium ion moiety of the ion pair 58 alkylates the excess diphenyl ether in the para-position with respect to the phenoxy group, giving the final product 55. Hence, the catalytic alkylating function of HGeCl3 in the Friedel-Craft reactions was established for the first time. 

One exception to the amorphous structure has been reported [30]. Crystalline polybenzyl was obtained from the low temperature (- 125° C) polymerization of benzyl chloride. However, the reaction was difficult to reproduce [31,32]. Consequently this procedure is not an effective method for the synthesis of linear polybenzyls. The usual amorphous, highly branched structure is formed as a result of a lack of positional selectivity and multiple substitution of the arene rings. Similar polymeric structures are obtained upon the polymerization of other nonsubstituted benzyl halides and benzyl alcohol [29]. The highly branched structure is a consequence of the involvement of benzyl carbenium ions in the Friedel-Crafts reaction. Benzyl substituents activate the monosubstituted phenyl groups toward further benzylation reaction. However, monomers containing alkyl substituents that sterically hinder substitution at the ortho position have been polymerized to linear polybenzyls. For example, the following... 

Epoxides have occasionally been used in Friedel-Crafts reactions, and some interesting stereochemical observations have been made in this context. Quite unlike secondary alcohols which give almost fully racemized product, it has been shown that optically pure propylene oxide with AlCh and benzene gives optically pure 2-phenyl-1-propanol with inversion of configuration at the cleaved center. AlBrs leads to much lower levels of optical purity it was demonstrated that both starting material and product are optically stable to the reaction conditions, and therefore partial racemization is intrinsic to the mechanism with AlBrs. It is nonetheless clear from these and other results that even powerful Lewis acids do not assure reaction via simple planar carbenium ions. 

The electrophilicity index also accounts for the electrophilic activation/deactivation effects promoted by EW and electron-releasing substituents even beyond the case of cycloaddition processes. These effects are assessed as responses at the active site of the molecules. The empirical Hammett-like relationships found between the global and local electrophilicity indexes and the reaction rate coefficients correctly account for the substrate selectivity in Friedel-Crafts reactions, the reactivity of carbenium ions, the hydrolysis of esters, the reactivity at the carbon-carbon double bonds in conjugated Michael additions, the philicity pattern of carbenes and the superelectrophilicity of nitronium, oxonium and carboxonium ions. This last application is a very promising area of application. The enhanced electrophilicity pattern in these series results from... 

TfOH protonates nitroalkenes, even nitroethylene, to give N,N-dihydroxyiminium carbenium ions, which react with arenes to give arylated oximes. This overall process provides a route to a-aryl methyl ketones from 2-nitropropene (eq 11) and constitutes a versatile synthetic method for the preparation of a-arylated ketones, otherwise difficult to s)Tithesize by the conventional Friedel-Crafts reaction. 

Drawbacks as known from the Friedel-Crafts alkylation are not found for the Friedel-Crafts acylation. In some cases a decarbonylation may be observed as a side-reaction, e.g. if loss of CO from the acylium ion will lead to a stable carbenium species 8. The reaction product of the attempted acylation will then be rather an alkylated aromatic compound 9 ... 

The synthesis of an alkylated aromatic compound 3 by reaction of an aromatic substrate 1 with an alkyl halide 2, catalyzed by a Lewis acid, is called the Friedel-Crafts alkylation This method is closely related to the Friedel-Crafts acylation. Instead of the alkyl halide, an alcohol or alkene can be used as reactant for the aromatic substrate under Friedel-Crafts conditions. The general principle is the intermediate formation of a carbenium ion species, which is capable of reacting as the electrophile in an electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction. 

For the purposes of this review, we include probe molecules that can be either directly adsorbed or formed in situ. Examples of the latter case are carbenium ions and related electrophilic species. We will also consider several important heteroatom-substituted carbenium ions and heteroatom analogs of carbenium ions. Acylium ions are the intermediates in Friedel-Crafts acylation reactions (96). The most simple, stable acylium ion is the acetylium ion, 1, and others are formally derived by replacing the methyl group with other R groups. Oxonium ions, formed by alkylation of an ether, resemble carbenium ions but are in fact onium ions in terms of their structures. Their stabilization requires strongly acidic media, and like carbenium ions, oxonium ions have been proposed as intermediates in a... 

A Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement can be part of the isomerization of an alkyl halide (Figure 14.4). For example, 1 -bromopropane isomerizes quantitatively to 2-bromopropane under Friedel-Crafts conditions. The [l,2]-shift A — B involved in this reaction again is an H atom shift. In contrast to the thermoneutral isomerization between carbenium ions A and B of Figure 14.3, in the present case an energy gain is associated with the formation of a secondary carbenium ion from a primary carbenium ion. Note, however, that the different stabilities of the carbenium ions are not responsible for the complete isomerization of 1-bromopropane into 2-bromopropane. The position of this isomerization equilibrium is determined by thermodynamic control at the level of the alkyl halides. 2-Bromopropane is more stable than 1-bromopropane and therefore formed exclusively. 

In Section 5.2.5, we discussed the Friedel-Crafts alkylation of benzene with 2-chloropentane. This reaction includes a Wagner-Meerwein reaction in conjunction with other elementary reactions. The Lewis acid catalyst A1C13 first converts the chloride into the 2-pentyl cation A (Figure 11.3). Cation A then rearranges into the isomeric 3-pentyl cation B, in part or perhaps to the extent that the equilibrium ratio is reached. The new carbenium ion B is not significantly more stable than the original one (A),... 

Spontaneous ionization requires both good leaving groups and that the resulting carbenium ions are sufficiently stable. For example, although primary triflates are very stable covalent species which do not self-ionize, secondary triflates with phenyl substitents are very reactive and spontaneously ionize. The ionization equilibrium of styryl triflate could not be established because of side reactions such as Friedel-Crafts alkylation [56], On the other hand, methoxymethylium triflate is partially ionized with equilibrium constants Kj = 5-10 4 at 10° C and Kt = 210 4 at -70° C in S02 [57]. In this system, ionization is endothermic. Secondary triflates with alkoxy substituents, such as those in polymerizations of vinyl ethers, are apparently more strongly ionized than their primary counterparts [58,59],... 

The selectivity for reaction of carbenium ions with unsaturated oligomers increases not only in the absence of monomer, but also with decreasing temperature [182]. However, unsaturated macromonomers of styrene may dimerize rather than homopolymerize [cf., Eq. (96)]. That is, the molecular weight at complete conversion only doubles, rather than increasing further, because no copolymerization is possible in the absence of monomer. Because molecular weight only doubles [182], dimerization apparently dominates over Friedel-Crafts alkylation. The alkylation may... 

The formation of stable carbenium ions can be observed visually and/ or spectroscopically. For example, styrene and a-methylstyrene polymerizations are generally colorless because the growing carbenium ions absorb at approximately 340 nm (cf., Sections II.B and IV.B.l). However, these systems may turn brown or dark red at longer reaction times due to formation of indanyl carbenium ions (A 440 nm) [14,26,325] and other delocalized carbocations similar to those in Eq. (121). The stable cyclic diaryl carbenium ions are generated by hydride transfer from the initially formed indanyl end groups [Eq. (124)] in styrene polymerizations, and by methide transfer in a-methylstyrene polymerizations. The prerequisite for this termination is therefore intramolecular transfer by Friedel-Crafts alkylation protons liberated in the first stage can then reinitiate polymerization. 

The structure of the product formed is determined by the reaction conditions and by the structure of the divinylbenzene substrate. Where the DVB has one a-alkyl substituent present, the benzylic carbenium ion that is formed after dimerization is further stabilized by two alkyl groups. As a result of this added stabilization the elimination reaction is slowed and the carbenium ion is long lived enough to participate in an internal Friedel-Crafts alkylation reaction. Thus the indane structure is favored to a greater extent [8]. 

Polysulfones can be prepared by Friedel-Crafts sulfonylation reactions [133-150]. The carbenium ion intermediates can be generated from the Lewis acid-catalyzed reaction of involving arene sulfonyl chloride [Eq. 

---