Carboxylic acids electron-withdrawing substituents

Table 19 3 lists the ionization constants of some substituted benzoic acids The largest effects are observed when strongly electron withdrawing substituents are ortho to the carboxyl group An o nitro substituent for example increases the acidity of benzoic acid 100 fold Substituent effects are small at positions meta and para to the carboxyl group In those cases the values are clustered m the range 3 5-4 5... 

Pyrrole Carboxylic Acids and Esters. The acids are considerably less stable than benzoic acid and often decarboxylate readily on heating. However, electron-withdrawing substituents tend to stabilize them toward decarboxylation. The pyrrole esters are important synthetically because they stabilize the ring and may also act as protecting groups. Thus, the esters can be utilized synthetically and then hydrolyzed to the acid, which can be decarboxylated by heating. Often P-esters are hydrolyzed more easily than the a-esters. 

Similarly, carboxylic acid and ester groups tend to direct chlorination to the / and v positions, because attack at the a position is electronically disfavored. The polar effect is attributed to the fact that the chlorine atom is an electrophilic species, and the relatively electron-poor carbon atom adjacent to an electron-withdrawing group is avoided. The effect of an electron-withdrawing substituent is to decrease the electron density at the potential radical site. Because the chlorine atom is highly reactive, the reaction would be expected to have a very early transition state, and this electrostatic effect predominates over the stabilizing substituent effect on the intermediate. The substituent effect dominates the kinetic selectivity of the reaction, and the relative stability of the radical intermediate has relatively little influence. 

An electron-withdrawing substituent leads to a product where it is bound to a saturated carbon center. Benzoic acid 9 is reduced to the cyclohexa-2,5-diene carboxylic acid 10 ... 

For the Flofmann rearrangement reaction, a carboxylic amide 1 is treated with hypobromite in aqueous alkaline solution. Initially an iV-bromoamide 4 is formed. With two electron-withdrawing substituents at nitrogen the A -bromoamide shows NFI-acidity, and can be deprotonated by hydroxide to give the anionic species 5. 

Suitable substrates for the Hunsdiecker reaction are first of all aliphatic carboxylates. Aromatic carboxylates do not react uniformly. Silver benzoates with electron-withdrawing substituents react to the corresponding bromobenzenes, while electron-donating substituents can give rise to formation of products where an aromatic hydrogen is replaced by bromine. For example the silver /)-methoxybenzoate 6 is converted to 3-bromo-4-methoxybenzoic acid 7 in good yield ... 

Although there are several reports in the literature on boron-mediated amide formations, the boron reagents had to be used in stoichiometric amounts.1-4-5-6-7-8-9 Recently, Yamamoto et al. presented the first truly catalytic method allowing for a direct amide formation from free carboxylic acids and amines as the reaction partners.10-1112 Best results were obtained by using phenylboronic acids bearing electron withdrawing substituents in the meta- and/or para-positions such as 3,4,5-trifluorophenylboronic acid or 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)boronic acid as the catalysts. 

Benzene and naphthalene rings having an electron withdrawing carboxylic acid or ester substituent are more easily reduced by an electron transfer process than the parent hydrocarbons themselves, Phthalic acid 13 and terephthalic acid 14 are converted to the dihydro derivatives at a lead cathode in sulphuric acid [49, 50]. These... 

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