Carboxylic acid derivatives Acyl chlorides Amides

FIGURE 20.1 Structure, reactivity, and carbonyl-group stabilization in carboxylic acid derivatives. Acyl chlorides are the most reactive, amides the least reactive. Acyl chlorides have the least stabilized carbonyl group, amides the most. Conversion of one class of compounds to another is feasible only in the direction that leads to a more stabilized carbonyl group that is, from more reactive to less reactive. 

Among the various carboxylic acid derivatives, acyl chlorides are especially useful because they are readily converted to acid anhydrides, esters, and amides by nucleophilic acyl substitution (Table 19.1). Yields are high and the reaction rates are much... 

Carbonyl stretching frequencies in the IR spectra are diagnostic of the carboxylic acid derivatives Acyl chlorides absorb at 1790-1815 cm , anhydrides at 1740-1790 and 1800-1850 cm , esters at 1735-1750 cm and amides at 1650-1690 cm . ... 

There are large differences in reactivity among the various carboxylic acid derivatives, such as amides, esters, and acyl chlorides. One important factor is the resonance stabilization provided by the heteroatom. This decreases in the order N > O > Cl. Electron donation reduces the electrophilicity of the carbonyl group, and the corresponding stabilization is lost in the tetrahedral intermediate. 

The classes of compounds which are conveniently considered together as derivatives of carboxylic acids include the carboxylic acid anhydrides, acyl chlorides, esters, and amides. In the case of simple aliphatic and aromatic acids, synthetic transformations among these derivatives are usually a straightforward matter involving such fundamental reactions as ester saponification, formation of acyl chlorides, and the reactions of amines with acid anhydrides or acyl chlorides ... 

In synthetic target molecules esters, lactones, amides, and lactams are the most common carboxylic acid derivatives. In order to synthesize them from carboxylic acids one has generally to produce an activated acid derivative, and an enormous variety of activating reagents is known, mostly developed for peptide syntheses (M. Bodanszky, 1976). In actual syntheses of complex esters and amides, however, only a small selection of these remedies is used, and we shall mention only generally applicable methods. The classic means of activating carboxyl groups arc the acyl azide method of Curtius and the acyl chloride method of Emil Fischer. 

Conversions of acid anhydrides to other carboxylic acid derivatives are illustrated m Table 20 2 Because a more highly stabilized carbonyl group must result m order for nucleophilic acyl substitution to be effective acid anhydrides are readily converted to carboxylic acids esters and amides but not to acyl chlorides... 

This chapter concerns the preparation and reactions of acyl chlorides acid anhydrides thioesters esters amides and nitriles These com pounds are generally classified as carboxylic acid derivatives and their nomenclature is based on that of carboxylic acids... 

Carboxylic acid derivative (Section 20.1) Compound that yields a carboxylic acid on hydrolysis. Carboxylic acid derivatives include acyl chlorides, acid anhydrides, esters, and amides. 

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. 

Carboxylic acid derivatives are compounds that possess an acyl group (R—C=0) linked to an electronegative atom, e.g. —Cl, —CO2 R, —OR or —NH2. They can be converted to carboxylic acids via simple acidic or basic hydrolysis. The important acid derivatives are acid chlorides, acid anhydrides, esters and amides. Usually nitriles are also considered as carboxylic acid derivatives. Although nitriles are not directly carboxylic acid derivatives, they are conveniently hydrolysed to carboxylic acids by acid or base catalysts. Moreover, nitriles can be easily prepared through dehydration of amides, which are carboxylic acid derivatives. 

The carboxylic acid derivatives vary greatly in their reactivities in the acyl substitution reactions. In general, it is easy to convert more reactive derivatives into less reactive derivatives. Therefore, an acid chloride is easily converted to an anhydride, ester or amide, but an amide can only be hydrolysed to a carboxylic acid. Acid chlorides and acid anhydrides are hydrolysed easily, whereas amides are hydrolysed slowly in boiling alkaline water. 

Acid chlorides are the most reactive carboxylic acid derivatives, and easily converted to acid anhydrides, esters and amides via nucleophilic acyl substitutions (see Section 5.5.5). Acid chlorides are sufficiently reactive with H2O, and quite readily hydrolysed to carboxylic acid (see Section 5.6.1). 

Furyl ketones can be easily obtained by Friedel-Crafts acylation of furans. They can also be obtained from derivatives of furan-2-carboxylic acid such as the amides, nitriles and chlorides by literature reactions. The 3-furyl ketones are also obtained by similar methods. 

The carbonyl group of an amide is stabilized to a greater extent than that of an acyl chloride, acid anhydride, or ester amides are formed rapidly and in high yield from each of these carboxylic acid derivatives. 

The T2 linker has recently been shown to be a versatile backbone amide anchor. Immobilized disubstituted triazenes were acylated with carboxylic acid anhydrides or chlorides to give amide derivatives. These amides were cleaved under very mild conditions using trimethyl chlorosilane. This sequence thus employs the T2 system as backbone amine linker and was demonstrated in the automated library synthesis of substituted amide derivatives.54... 

Acid derivatives differ in the nature of the nucleophile bonded to the acyl carbon —OH in the acid, —Cl in the acid chloride, —OR in the ester, and —NH2 (or an amine) in the amide. Nucleophilic acyl substitution is the most common method for interconverting these derivatives. We will see many examples of nucleophilic acyl substitution in this chapter and in Chapter 21 ( Carboxylic Acid Derivatives ). The specific mechanisms depend on the reagents and conditions, but we can group them generally according to whether they take place under acidic or basic conditions. 

Hlectronically, we find that strongly polarized acyl compounds react more readily than less polar ones. I hus, add chlorides are the most reactive because the electronegative chlorine atom withdraws electrons from the carbonyl carbon, whereas amides are the least reactive. Although subtle, electrostatic potential maps of various carboxylic acid derivatives indicate the differences by the relative blueness on the C=0 carbons. Acyl phosphates are hard to place on this scale because they are not used in the laboratory, but in biological systems they appear to be somewhat more reactive than thioesters. 

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. 

Carboxylic acid derivatives, like esters or acid chlorides, behave as reactive electrophiles, acylating species. This activity is greatly reduced for acid amides. Thus the latter derivatives can be utilized for the protection of carboxyl groups in a number of reactions.In general, it is not considered to be a convenient protecting group because its removal may require rather drastic conditions. 

Chapter 22 focuses on carbonyl compounds that contain an acyl group bonded to an electronegative atom. These include the carboxylic acids, as well as carboxylic acid derivatives that can be prepared from them acid chlorides, anhydrides, esters, and amides. 

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