Carboxyl radicals, Hunsdiecker reaction

The Hunsdiecker reaction is a free-radical reaction for the synthesis of an alkyl halide. The starting material comes from the reaction of a silver carboxylate with a solution of a halogen in a solvent such as carbon tetrachloride (see Figure 12-44). The overall free-radical mechanism is shown in Figure 12-45. 

Hunsdiecker reaction does not work so well in aromatic carboxylic acids [75, 76]. The rate constants for decarbonylation of acyl radicals are lowered as shown in Table 1.18. 

Hunsdiecker reaction of the silver salts of both cis-(56) and trans-2-methylcyclopropanecarboxylic acid (57) yielded the same mixture of cis- (58) and trans-1-bromo-2-methylcyclopropane (59), thus demonstrating that the 2-methylcyclopropyl radical was incapable of maintaining its configuration . Brominative decarboxylation of the silver salts of exo- (60) and em/o-norcarane-7-carboxylic acid (61) produced the same mixture (16 84) of exo- (62) and entio-7-bromonorcarane (63)". Similarly, cis- and trans-silver 1,2-cyclopropanedicarboxylate gave rise to the same isomer ratio (24 76) of cis- and fraws-1,2-dibromocyclopropane. Consistent with these results is the report that the Hunsdiecker reaction with the silver salt of trans-2,2,3-d3-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid (64) gives an equimolar mixture of cis- (65) and rrans-2,2,3-d3-cyclopropane (66) . 

The preparation of chlorides by decarboxylation of carboxylic acids with lead tetraacetate and N-chlorosuccinimide as the chlorine donor in a 5 1 mixture of DM F and glacial acetic acid has been reported [71 a]. The reaction has been applied particularly often to the preparation of secondary and tertiary chlorides when the classic Hunsdiecker reaction gives low yields (Scheme 13.50) [71b]. This reaction proceeds by a radical pafhway. 

Radicals from Carboxylic Acids. Carboxy radicals appear to be involved in three venerable reactions in preparative carbohydrate chemistry, the Ruff degradation, the Hunsdiecker reaction and the Kolbe electrolysis. 

Decarboxylation of silver carboxylates is a well known thermal process and is involved in the Hunsdiecker76 or Kolbe77 reactions. The Hunsdiecker reaction is the thermal decarboxylation of silver salts of acids and is used for the formation of bromoalkanes and related compounds, while the Kolbe process involves electrolysis of carboxylates as a route to decarboxylated radicals that can dimerize. Silver carboxylates are also photochemically reactive and the irradiation has been described as a facile process for the formation of alkyl radicals, as illustrated in equation 678. Later experimentation has shown that the irradiation of silver trifluoroacetate can serve as a route to trifluoromethyl radicals. This development uses irradiation of silver trifluoroacetate in the presence of titanium dioxide as a photocatalyst. The reaction follows the usual path with the formation of metallic silver and the formation of radicals. However, in this instance the formation of metallic... 

The first step of the Hunsdiecker reaction is quite straightforward. The reaction between silver carboxylate 1 and bromine gives rise to insoluble silver bromide along with acyl hypobromite 3. The unstable acyl hypobromite 3 undergoes a homolytic cleavage of the O-Br bond to provide carboxyl radical 4. Carboxyl radical 4 then decomposes via radical decarboxylation to release carbon dioxide and alkyl radical 5, which subsequently reacts with another molecule of acyl hypobromite 3 to deliver alkyl bromide 2, along with regeneration of carboxyl radical 4. Because of the radical pathway, chirality is often lost for the chiral carbon atom immediately adjacent to the carboxylic acid. 

In the Hunsdiecker reaction, the silver salt of a carboxylic acid (RC02Ag) is treated with Br2 to give an alkyl bromide RBr with one fewer C atoms. The reaction does not work well with aromatic acids, suggesting that a free-radical mechanism is involved. The carboxylate and bromine react to give an acyl hy-pobromite, which decomposes by a free-radical chain mechanism. 

One particular radical decarboxylation reaction, which is used in the synthesis of alkyl or aryl bromide (Hunsdiecker reaction), involves reaction of the silver salt of a carboxylic acid with bromine, and results overall in loss of CO2 to form the corresponding alkyl or aryl bromide (Scheme 4.47). When silver carboxylate is treated with I2 ester formation occurs (Simonini reaction). 

In a similar vein, the silver (Ag+) salts of carboxylic adds undergo decarboxylation in the presence of bromine (Br2) to produce silver bromide and bromoalkane (the Hunsdiecker reaction). The Hunsdiecker reaction also appears to involve radicals as shown in Scheme 9.101, where,in the first step,silver bromide precipitates from the reaction mixture with formation of an acyl hypobromite (RC(D2Br). Then, homolysis of the oxygen-bromine bond generates bromine atoms and the carboxyl radical, seen here as the same radical generated in Scheme 9.100. Following loss of carbon dioxide (CO2), it is held that the alkyl radical is captured by the bromine atom (Br ) to produce alkylbromide (1-bromoethane [CH3CH2Br]). 

FIGURE 17.58 The decarboxylation of the carboxylate radical is also involved in the Hunsdiecker reaction, a synthesis of alkyl bromides from carboxylic acids. The recycling, chain-propogating carboxyl radical is highlighted. 

The difficulties inherent in the original Hunsdiecker reaction and its modifications stimulated the development of an additional halo-decarboxylation method that involves treatment of thiohydroxamic esters of carboxylic acids with BrCCls, ICH3 or CH2I2 in the presence of a radical initiator (Route 3, Barton reaction, Figure 10.23). 

The Hunsdiecker Reaction. The classical Hunsdiecker reaction is somewhat restricted due to the relatively harsh conditions required. In the Barton version, alkyl radicals generated from O-acyl thiohydroxamates, under either thermal or photolytic conditions, are efficiently trapped either by CI3C-X (X=C1 or Br CbC is the chain carrier) or by IodoformThe method is applicable to sensitive substrates for which the classical methods are unsuitable. thus allowing the preparation of a wide range of alkyl chlorides, bromides, and iodides by the one-carbon degradation of a carboxylic acid. Similar reactions of aromatic acid derivatives tend to require an additional radical initiator (e.g. Azo-bisisobutyronitrile), if high yields (55-85%) are to be obtained. ... 

Perhaloalkanes serve as bromination or iodination agents in the radical decarbox-ylative halogenation of carboxylic acids. In an interesting modification of the Hunsdiecker-Bodin reaction Barton and coworkers have applied iV-hydroxypyridine-2-thione esters as nonelectrophilic intermediates for the decarboxylative bromination and iodination of primary, secondary and tertiary aliphatic and alicyclic592, as well as aroma-... 

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