Carboxylic acids, conversion Friedel-Crafts acylation

Acyl-transfer reactions are some of the most important conversions in organic chemistry and biochemistry. Recent work has shown that adjacent cationic groups can also activate amides in acyl-transfer reactions. Friedel-Crafts acylations are known to proceed well with carboxylic acids, acid chlorides (and other halides), and acid anhydrides, but there are virtually no examples of acylations with simple amides.19 During studies related to unsaturated amides, we observed a cyclization reaction that is essentially an intramolecular acyl-transfer reaction involving an amide (eq 15). The indanone product is formed by a cyclization involving the dicationic species (40). To examine this further, the related amides 41 and 42 were studied in superacid promoted conversions (eqs 16-17). It was found that amide 42 leads to the indanone product while 41... 

The cyclization phase of the process is an intramolecular Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction. It requires conversion of the carboxylic acid to the acyl chloride (thionyl chloride is a suitable reagent) followed by treatment with aluminum chloride. 

An important use of the Friedel-Crafts acylation is to effect ring closure." This can be done if an acyl halide, anhydride, or carboxylic acid" group is in the proper position. An example is the conversion of 51 to 52. 

A slight variation on the original Haworth conditions, which promotes the formation of the acylium ion for the intramolecular Friedel-Crafts acylation is the conversion of the carboxylic acid into an acid chloride. The enhanced leaving group ability of the chloride ion allows milder conditions to be used in the final intramolecular acylation step. 

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. 

Numerous new examples of cyclopentenone synthesis from acetylenehexacarbonyl-dicobalt complexes and norbornene derivatives have been disclosed there is evidence of steric control, and the bulky trimethylsilyl group can be employed as a removable direction-determining group to allow synthesis of 3- instead of 2-sub-stituted cyclopentenones. Reaction of (731) with sodamide in toluene gave the new octahydro-2,5-methanoazulene system (732 R = CONHj) successive hydrolysis, reduction, and esterification converted (732 R = CONHj) into (732 R = CHjOTs) which, on solvolysis, gave the homoprotoadamantane derivative (733 X = H, R R = CH2) in high yield.The carboxylic acid (732 R = COjH) underwent spontaneous Friedel-Crafts intramolecular acylation on conversion into its acid chloride to give (733 XX = O R R = CHj) and (733 XX = O, R = Cl, R = Me). Reaction of methyl a-bromocrotonate (mixture of E- and Z-isomers) with the enolates of cyclohex-2-enone affords a mixture of stereoisomeric tricyclo-[3,2,l,0 ]octan-6-ones (734 R —R are variously H or alkyl) in moderate yield. The reaction involves double Michael addition and subsequent substitution. 

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