Carboxylic acid derivative kinds

Closely related to the carboxylic acids and nitriles discussed in the previous chapter are the carboxylic acid derivatives, compounds in which an acyl group is bonded to an electronegative atom or substituent that can net as a leaving group in a substitution reaction. Many kinds of acid derivatives are known, but we ll be concerned primarily with four of the more common ones acid halides, acid anhydrides, esters, and amides. Esters and amides are common in both laboratory and biological chemistry, while acid halides and acid anhydrides are used only in the laboratory. Thioesters and acyl phosphates are encountered primarily in biological chemistry. Note the structural similarity between acid anhydrides and acy) phosphates. 

In studying the chemistry of carboxylic acid derivatives in the next few sections, we ll be concerned largely with the reactions of just a few nucleophiles and will see that the same kinds of reactions keep occurring (Figure 21.3). 

Acid halides are among the most reactive of carboxylic acid derivatives and can be converted into many other kinds of compounds by nucleophilic acyl substitution mechanisms. The halogen can be replaced by -OH to yield an acid, by —OCOR to yield an anhydride, by -OR to yield an ester, or by -NH2 to yield an amide. In addition, the reduction of an acid halide yields a primary alcohol, and reaction with a Grignard reagent yields a tertiary alcohol. Although the reactions we ll be discussing in this section are illustrated only for acid chlorides, similar processes take place with other acid halides. 

Esters undergo the same kinds of reactions that we ve seen for other carboxylic acid derivatives, but they are less reactive toward nucleophiles than either acid chlorides or anhydrides. All their reactions are equally applicable to both acyclic and cyclic esters, called lactones. 

Conversion of Amides into Amines Reduction Like other carboxylic acid derivatives, amides can be reduced by LiAlH.4. The product of the reduction, however, is an amine rather than an alcohol. The net effect of an amide reduction reaction is thus the conversion of the amide carbonyl group into a methylene group (C=0 —> CTbV This kind of reaction is specific for amides and does not occur with other carboxylic acid derivatives. 

All carbonyl-containing compounds have intense IR absorptions in the range 1650 to 1850 cm-1. As shown in Table 21.3, the exact position of the absorption provides information about the specific kind of carbonyl group. For comparison, the IR absorptions of aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids are included in the table, along with values for carboxylic acid derivatives. 

Although the aminolysis of esters to amides is auseful synthetic operation, usually it presents some disadvantages in terms of drastic reaction conditions, long reaction times or strong alkali metal as catalyst, which are usually not compatible with other functional groups in the molecule [6]. For this reason, enzymatic aminolysis of carboxylic acid derivatives offers a clean and ecological way for the preparation of different kind of amines and amides in a regio-, chemo-, and enantioselective manner. 

Calixarenes, which are macrocyclic compounds, are one of the best building blocks to design molecular hosts in supramolecular chemistry [158]. Synthesis of calix[4]arenes, which have been adamantylated, has been reported [105, 109]. In calix[4]arenes, adamantane or its ester/carboxylic acid derivatives were introduced as substituents (Fig. 29). The purpose of this synthesis was to learn how to employ the flexible chemistry of adamantane in order to construct different kinds of molecular hosts. The X-ray structure analysis of p-(l-adamantyl)thiacalix[4]arene [109] demonstrated that it contained four CHCI3 molecules, one of which was located inside the host molecule cavity, and the host molecule assumed the cone-like conformational shape (Fig. 30). 

The literature presents a large number of examples concerning the use of known oxazolidinones as chiral auxiliaries in many kinds of reactions. Rare is the use of A-amino derivatives of oxazolidinones, which were used to synthesise new A-acylhydrazones 207. Radical addition reactions occurred with high diastereoselectivity <00JA8329>. The use of glycolate oxazolidinones 210 proved to be efficient for the enantioselective preparation of a-alkoxy carboxylic acid derivatives . Photochemical reaction of vinyl... 

Transacylation is the transfer of the acyl group from one G group to another, resulting in the formation of various acid derivatives. Figure 16-1 summarizes the transacylation reactions. Notice that the more reactive derivatives are convertible to the less reactive ones. Because acetic anhydride reacts less violently, it is used instead of the more reactive acetyl chloride to make derivatives of acetic acid. In aqueous acid, the four kinds of carboxylic acid derivatives in the figure are hydrolyzed to RCOOH in base, to RCOO". 

The polarity alternation rule (PAR) considers two kinds of substituents. The donors are. those having unshared electronic pairs or -electrons, and +1 groups. These include OH, OR, OCOR, NH2, NRR, N(R)COR, SH, SR, halogens and alkyl groups. The donor properties of the alkyl groups may reflect the existence of hyperconjugation. On the other hand, the acceptors are electron sinks, i.e. polarizable it-bonds, atoms with empty orbitals, and —I groups. Examples of acceptors are C=0 (aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acid derivatives), CN, S02, N02, SiRj. 

Structures 24 are conveniently thought of as derivatives of carboxylic acids, and include acids, esters, anhydrides, acyl halides, and amides. These structures (and others less commonly encountered) can be readily interconverted, either directly or indirectly the number of different reactions is therefore large.109 Because these processes occupy an important place in organic chemistry and because carboxylic acid derivatives are of central importance in biochemical systems and therefore of considerable interest in the study of enzyme action, they have been the subject of intensive investigation.110 We shall outline briefly the main features, and in order to give an idea of the kinds of mechanistic questions involved, we consider ester hydrolysis in somewhat greater detail. 

At oxidation level 3, acid chlorides occupy a key position, since they may serve as a nearly universal substrate for an isohypsic transformation into any kind of carboxylic acid derivative. Acid halides are electrophiles that are synthetically equivalent to acyl cations (RCO ). In this capacity they are used for the synthesis of such important compounds as esters, amides (and hence, nitriles), thioesters, etc. (see Scheme 2.57), and for the formation of C-C bonds in the Friedel-Crafts reaction (see above). Acid chlorides may readily lose HCl upon treatment with triethylamine. This isohypsic conversion leads to ketenes, important reagents widely employed in [2 + 2] cycloadditions, as we will see later. 

Closely related to the carboxylic acids discussed in the previous chapter are carboxylic acid derivatives, compounds in which the acyl group is bonded to an electronegative atom or substituent -Y that can act as a leaving group in a substitution reaction. Many kinds of acid derivatives are known, but... 

Acid halides are among the most reactive of carboxylic acid derivatives aiv can be converted into many other kinds of compounds. For example, we already seen the value of acid chlorides in preparing aromatic alkyl ketono by the Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction (Section 16.4). 

Acid halides are among the most reactive carboxylic acid derivatives and can be converted into many kinds of substance, for example, to aldehydes by hydrogenolysis on Pd/BaS04 (Rosenmund reduction)[94-96]. The catalysts usually contain additives to moderate their activity and prevent over-reduction [97]. Tetra-methylthiourea was the most effective additive [98]. These additives probably do not block active sites but rearrange the surface structure of the catalysts [99]. Undec-lO-enoyl chloride was hydrogenolyzed, however, to undec-lO-enal on Pd/C without any inhibitor [100]. 

All carboxylic acid derivatives can form enols of some kind. Those of esters are particularly important and either enols or enolates are easily made. It is obviously necessary to avoid water in the presence of acid or base, as esters hydrolyse under these conditions. One solution is to use the alkoxide belonging to the ester (MeO with a methyl ester, EtO with an ethyl ester, and so on) to make enolate ions. 

Carbonylation reaction offers the production of more functionalized products starting from readily available feedstocks. The process represents industrial core technologies for converting various bulk chemicals such as olefins to aldehydes, alcohols and carboxylic acid derivatives. Advancement in the synthesis and knowledge of various metal carbonyls give access to various new kinds of carbonylation reactions and help in functionalization of various substrates which are otherwise difficult to synthesize. Various types of carbonylation reactions are summarized in Table 10.2. 

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