Carbocations acylation

Similarly, as spectroscopic techniques have been used to study many long-lived, electrophilic species such as carbocations, acyl and carbox-onium ions, and various onium ions, they have also been used in a number of reports directed to characterization of superelectrophiles. Both condensed and gas phase techniques have been used to study superelectrophilic systems. In the condensed phase, however, superelectrophiles are... 

Unlike alkyl carbocations, acyl cations do not rearrange. An acyl cation is so strongly stabilized by electron delocalization that it is more stable than any other ion that would arise from it by a hydride or alkyl group shift. 

The reaction of trivalent carbocations with carbon monoxide giving acyl cations is the key step in the well-known and industrially used Koch-Haaf reaction of preparing branched carboxylic acids from al-kenes or alcohols. For example, in this way, isobutylene or tert-hutyi alcohol is converted into pivalic acid. In contrast, based on the superacidic activation of electrophiles leading the superelectrophiles (see Chapter 12), we found it possible to formylate isoalkanes to aldehydes, which subsequently rearrange to their corresponding branched ketones. 

Alkyl halides and sulfonates are the most frequently used alkylating acceptor synthons. The carbonyl group is used as the classical a -synthon. O-Silylated hemithioacetals (T.H. Chan, 1976) and fomic acid orthoesters are examples for less common a -synthons. In most synthetic reactions carbon atoms with a partial positive charge (= positively polarized carbon) are involved. More reactive, "free carbocations as occurring in Friedel-Crafts type alkylations and acylations are of comparably limited synthetic value, because they tend to react non-selectively. 

Vinylic halides and aryl halides do not form carbocations under conditions of the Friedel-Crafts reaction and so cannot be used in place of an alkyl halide or an acyl halide... 

Rearrangement is especially prevalent with primary alkyl halides of the type RCH2CH2X and R2CHCH2X Aluminum chloride induces ionization with rearrangement to give a more stable carbocation Benzylic halides and acyl halides do not rearrange... 

The sp hybridized carbon of an acyl chloride is less sterically hindered than the sp hybridized carbon of an alkyl chloride making an acyl chloride more open toward nude ophilic attack Also unlike the 8 2 transition state or a carbocation intermediate m an Stvfl reaction the tetrahedral intermediate m nucleophilic acyl substitution has a stable arrangement of bonds and can be formed via a lower energy transition state... 

Cocatalysts of two types occur (/) proton-donor substances, such as hydroxy compounds and proton acids, and (2) cation-forming substances (other than proton), including alkyl and acyl haUdes which form carbocations and other donor substances leading to oxonium, sulfonium, halonium, etc, complexes. 

Other, removable cation-stabilizing auxiliaries have been investigated for polyene cyclizations. For example, a sdyl-assisted carbocation cyclization has been used in an efficient total synthesis of lanosterol. The key step, treatment of (257) with methyl aluminum chloride in methylene chloride at —78° C, followed by acylation and chromatographic separation, affords (258) in 55% yield (two steps). When this cyclization was attempted on similar compounds that did not contain the C7P-silicon substituent, no tetracycHc products were observed. Steroid (258) is converted to lanosterol (77) in three additional chemical steps (225). 

Many variations of the reaction can be carried out, including halogenation, nitration, and sulfonation. Friedel-Crafts alkylation and acylation reactions, which involve reaction of an aromatic ling with carbocation electrophiles, are particularly useful. They are limited, however, by the fact that the aromatic ring must be at least as reactive as a halobenzene. In addition, polyalkylation and carbocation rearrangements often occur in Friedel-Crafts alkylation. 

Resolution (enantiomers), 307-309 Resonance, 43-47 acetate ion and, 43 acetone anion and. 45 acyl cations and, 558 allylic carbocations and, 488-489 allylic radical and, 341 arylamines and, 924 benzene and, 44. 521 benzylic carbocation and, 377 benzylic radical and, 578 carbonate ion and. 47 carboxylate ions and, 756-757 enolate ions and, 850 naphthalene and, 532 pentadienyl radical and. 48 phenoxide ions and, 605-606 Resonance effect, 562 Resonance forms, 43... 

Jacobs et al. employed an acidic zeolite catalyst for the racemization of sec-alcohols, which occurs through the formation of carbocations [44] (Figure 4.19). The KR is catalyzed by CALB in the presence of vinyl octanoate as acyl donor. DKR takes place successfully in a biphasic system (octane/H2O, 1 1) at 60 °C. 

Alkenes can be acylated with an acyl halide and a Lewis acid catalyst in what is essentially a Friedel-Crafts reaction at an aliphatic carbon. ° The product can arise by two paths. The initial attack is by the acyl cation RCO (or by the acyl halide free or complexed see 11-14) at the double bond to give a carbocation ... 

The first step is not a free-radical process, and its actual mechanism is not known. Compound 30 is an acyl hypohalite and is presumed to be an intermediate, though it has never been isolated from the reaction mixture. Among the evidence for the mechanism is that optical activity at R is lost (except when a neighboring bromine atom is present, see p. 899) if R is neopentyl, there is no rearrangement, which would certainly happen with a carbocation and the side products, notably RR, are consistent with a free-radical mechanism. There is evidence that the Simonini... 

When acid catalysts are employed, in the absence of nickel carbonyl, the mechanism involves initial attack by a proton, followed by attack of the resulting carbocation on carbon monoxide to give an acyl cation, which, with water, gives the product ... 

Organomercury reagents do not react with ketones or aldehydes but Lewis acids cause reaction with acyl chlorides.187 With alkenyl mercury compounds, the reaction probably proceeds by electrophilic attack on the double bond with the regiochemistry being directed by the stabilization of the (3-carbocation by the mercury.188... 

Intermodular Alkylation by Carbocations. The formation of carbon-carbon bonds by electrophilic attack on the ir system is a very important reaction in aromatic chemistry, with both Friedel-Crafts alkylation and acylation following this pattern. These reactions are discussed in Chapter 11. There also are useful reactions in which carbon-carbon bond formation results from electrophilic attack by a carbocation on an alkene. The reaction of a carbocation with an alkene to form a new carbon-carbon bond is both kinetically accessible and thermodynamically favorable. 

Treated with trifluoroacetic anhydride, sulfoxides 218 undergo conversion to triazapentalenes 219 with high yields. The process must involve acylation of the sulfoxide oxygen atom and generation of a carbocation that attacks the N-2 atom of benzotriazole. Hydrogenation over Raney nickel cleaves the C-S and one of the N-N bonds to generate >rtfe -substituted anilines 220 (Scheme 27) <2002EJ0493>. 

Bimetallic activation of acetyl and alkoxyacetyl ligands — through formation of cationic P2 acyl complexes — to reaction with nucleophilic hydride donors was established. Cationic transition metal compounds possessing an accessible coordination site bind a neutral T -acyl ligand on another complex as a cationic P2 acyl system. These i2 3icyl systems activate the acyl ligand to reduction analogous to carbocation activation. Several examples of i2-acyl complexation have been reported previously. 

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