Carboxylic acid derivatives Esters Nitriles

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. 

Carboxylic acid chlorides. See Acyl chlorides Carboxylic acid derivatives, 774—830. See also Acyl chlorides Amides Carboxylic acid anhydrides Esters Nitriles... 

The conversion of carboxylic acid derivatives (halides, esters and lactones, tertiary amides and lactams, nitriles) into aldehydes can be achieved with bulky aluminum hydrides (e.g. DIBAL = diisobutylaluminum hydride, lithium trialkoxyalanates). Simple addition of three equivalents of an alcohol to LiAlH, in THF solution produces those deactivated and selective reagents, e.g. lithium triisopropoxyalanate, LiAlH(OPr )j (J. Malek, 1972). 

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... 

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. 

Formally related reactions are observed when anthracene [210] or arylole-fines [211-213] are reduced in the presence of carboxylic acid derivatives such as anhydrides, esters, amides, or nitriles. Under these conditions, mono- or diacylated compounds are obtained. It is interesting to note that the yield of acylated products largely depends on the counterion of the reduced hydrocarbon species. It is especially high when lithium is used, which is supposed to prevent hydrodimerization of the carboxylic acid by ion-pair formation. In contrast to alkylation, acylation is assumed to prefer an Sn2 mechanism. However, it is not clear if the radical anion or the dianion are the reactive species. The addition of nitriles is usually followed by hydrolysis of the resulting ketimines [211-213]. 

Scheme 2.4. Addition Reactions of Carbanions Derived from Esters, Carboxylic Acids, Amides, and Nitriles... 

The methyl and benzyl esters of proline were also used as chiral auxiliaries in respective acrylamides, but the isoxazoline cycloadducts were obtained with only poor to modest stereoselectivity (189,190). The related indoline-2-carboxylic acid derivative 33, however, showed excellent ability to direct nitrile oxide attack, favoring one rotamer (Scheme 6.37), and thereby leading to 3-phenylisoxazoline-5-carboxamide... 

The condensation of 1,4-diamines with a variety of carboxylic acid derivatives, e.g. imidate esters, orthoformic esters, /V-ethoxycarbonylthioamides (77JOC2530), nitriles and ethoxyacetylene, produces the cyclic amidine linkage —N = C(R)NH— (67AHC(8)2l, p. 40). Cyclic ureas, —NHC(0)NH—, have been similarly produced using carbonyl chloride, A, A -carbonyldi imidazole, carbon monoxide, thiocarbonyl chloride or carbon disulfide (67AHC(8)21, p. 38). 

The carbonyl and 2,3-double bond of pyran-4-ones and their monobenzo derivatives are reducible and therefore attempts to reduce functional groups such as carboxaldehyde, carboxylate ester, carboxylic acid chloride or nitrile need careful selection of reagents. The reducibility of a particular group varies with the nature of other substituents present and it is not possible to generalize about the conditions required for each reaction. 

Alcohols are easily accessible by reduction of carbonyl compounds, such as aldehydes, ketones or carboxylic acid derivatives. While aldehydes, ketones and esters have been frequently used in microwave-assisted reductions, there have been no reports about the use of microwave technology in the reduction of nitriles or amides. 

Mercaptobenzophenone reacts with ajl-unsaturated esters and nitriles in the presence of magnesium bis(diiso-propyUamide (MBDA) to yield 4-hydroxythiochroman-3-carboxylic acid derivatives. Dehydration to the thiochro-mene is facile (Scheme 169) <1999J(P1)1547>. 

Problem-Solving Strategy Proposing Reaction Mechanisms 1007 Mechanism 21-8 Transesterification 1008 21-7 Hydrolysis of Carboxylic Acid Derivatives 1009 Mechanism 21-9 Saponification of an Ester 1010 Mechanism 21-10 Basic Hydrolysis of an Amide 1012 Mechanism 21-11 Acidic Hydrolysis of an Amide 1012 Mechanism 21-12 Base-Catalyzed Hydrolysis of a Nitrile 1014 21-8 Reduction of Acid Derivatives 1014... 

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. 

Almost all recorded purine syntheses from imidazoles involve the cyclization of 5(4)-aminoimidazole-4(5)-carboxylic acid derivatives especially the carboxamides, thiocar-boxamides, carboxamidines, carboxamidoximes, nitriles and esters. The intermediates used for completion of the purine ring are much the same as have been used for Traube cyclization of diaminopyrimidines (Section 4.09.7.3), especially formic and carbonic acid derivatives, and cyclization generally occurs-under much milder conditions. This feature has been of special value in the synthesis of purine nucleosides from imidazole nucleoside precursors. The resultant purine will have variable substituents at C-2 and C-6 and it is convenient to discuss and classify the various preparations largely in terms of the introduced 2-substituents. The C-6 substituents largely reflect the type of carboxylic acid moiety used and do not vary very much between amino, oxo and thioxo. 

This method is highly selective for unsaturated ketones and aldehydes, whereas reduction of a,p-un-saturated carboxylic acid derivatives, such as esters, amides and nitriles, is very sluggish. Thus, benz-ylideneacetone was selectively and cleanly reduced in the presence of methyl cinnamate, cinnamonitrile or cinnamamide. ... 

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