Carboxylic acids, -substituted, relative

Esters are formed in nucleophilic substitution reactions in which the nucleophile is a carboxylate anion. The anions of carboxylic acids are relatively weak nucleophiles towards sp3-hybridized carbon. Swain s nucleophilic constant, n, for acetate ion is 2.7183, slightly smaller than that for chloride. Thus acetate is selectively alkylated by alkyl halides in aqueous solution, e.g. 

Imines act as blocked amines because they hydrolyze to yield free amines, which react with an isocyanate. Ketimines also react directly with isocyanates to yield a variety of products, depending on the particular reactants and conditions. Aldimines react analogously with isocyanates to yield unsaturated substituted ureas. Since aldimines are more stable to hydrolysis than ketimines, the fraction undergoing direct reaction with isocyanate in the presence of water is greater than that with ketimines. Carboxylic acids react relatively slowly to form amides and CO2. Hindered carboxylic acid groups, such as in 2,2-dimethylolpropionic acid (3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropanoic acid) [4767-03-7], react very slowly. 

This general property of 10- and 12-vertex clusters is illustrated in Figure 14.6 with a series of carboxylic acids substituted with a propyl group. The conformations in Figure 14.6 are consistent with experimental molecular structures of mesogenic derivatives and relative stability of the mesophase in isostructural derivatives. 

The trichloroacetimidates are readily displaced to give substitution at C-1. They react with hydrogen halides to give chlorides, bromides, and fluorides, with retention of configurations (reaction 4.64). Carboxylic acids, being relatively weak acids, react to give inversion of configuration (reaction 4.65). 

Because hydride ion is a base as well as a nucleophile, the actual nucleophilic acyl substitution step takes place on the carboxylate ion rather than on the free carboxylic acid and gives a high-energy dianion intermediate. In this intermediate, the two oxygens are undoubtedly complexed to a Lewis acidic aluminum species. Thus, the reaction is relatively difficult, and acid reductions require higher temperatures and extended reaction times. 

Habid and Malek49 who studied the activity of metal derivatives in the catalyzed esterification of aromatic carboxylic acids with aliphatic glycols found a reaction order of 0.5 relative to the catalyst for Ti(OBu)4, tin(II) oxalate and lead(II) oxide. As we have already mentioned in connection with other examples, it appears that the activation enthalpies of the esterifications carried out in the presence of Ti, Sn and Pb derivatives are very close to those reported by Hartman et al.207,208 for the acid-catalyzed esterification of benzoic and substituted benzoic acids with cyclohexanol. These enthalpies also approach those reported by Matsuzaki and Mitani268 for the esterification of benzoic acids with 1,2-ethanediol in the absence of a catalyst. On the other hand, when activation entropies are considered, a difference exists between the esterification of benzoic acid with 1,2-ethanediol catalyzed by Ti, Sn and Pb derivatives and the non-catalyzed reaction268. Thus, activation enthalpies are nearly the same for metal ion-catalyzed and non-catalyzed reactions whereas the activation entropy of the metal ion-catalyzed reaction is much lower than that of the non-catalyzed reaction. 

Nucleophilic substitutions of 0-activated 2-hydroxy carboxylic acids and esters, respectively, are well established, but little is known about the analogous reactions of activated cyanohydrins. Chiral 2-sulfonyloxynitriles, accessible from non-racemic cyanohydrins, have a relatively high configurational stability. They react with nucleophiles under very mild conditions under inversion of configuration (Scheme 8). ° ... 

The recombinantly expressed nitrilase from Pseudomonas fluorescens EBC 191 (PFNLase) was applied in a study aimed at understanding the selectivity for amide versus acid formation from a series of substituted 2-phenylacetonitriles, including a-methyl, a-chloro, a-hydroxy and a-acetoxy derivatives. Amide formation increased when the a-substituent was electron deficient and was also affected by chirality of the a- stereogenic center for example, 2-chloro-2-phenylacetonitrile afforded 89% amide while mandelonitrile afforded 11% amide from the (R)-enantiomer but 55% amide was formed from the (5)-enantiomer. Relative amounts of amide and carboxylic acid was also subject to pH and temperature effects [87,88]. 

Relatively acidic carbon acids such as malonic esters and jS-keto esters were the first class of carbanions for which reliable conditions for alkylation were developed. The reason being that these carbanions are formed using easily accessible alkoxide ions. The preparation of 2-substiuted /i-kcto esters (entries 1, 4, and 8) and 2-substituted derivatives of malonic ester (entries 2 and 7) by the methods illustrated in Scheme 1.5 are useful for the synthesis of ketones and carboxylic acids, since both /1-ketoacids and malonic acids undergo facile decarboxylation ... 

In an effort to explore the chemistry of pyrrolodiazines and their quatemized salts (see Section 6.2.2.2), Alvarez-Builla and co-workers prepared a series of pyrrolo[l,2-c]pyrimidines via methodology developed in their laboratory <99JOC7788>. Cyclocondensation of tosylmethyl isocyanide with substituted pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes 17 produced pyrimidine derivatives 18 sifter removal of the tosyl group. The key to this procedure was the use of tosylmethyl isocyanide, which provided a relatively easily removed tosyl group in comparison to the more problematic decarboxylation of a carboxylic acid functionality. 

Note that the reaction at the phosphorus atom is postulated to occur by an SN2 (no intermediate formed) rather than by an addition mechanism such as we encountered with carboxylic acid derivatives (Kirby and Warren, 1967). As we learned in Section 13.2, for attack at a saturated carbon atom, OH- is a better nucleophile than H20 by about a factor of 104 (Table 13.2). Toward phosphorus, which is a harder electrophilic center (see Box 13.1), however, the relative nucleophilicity increases dramatically. For triphenyl phosphate, for example, OH- is about 108 times stronger than H20 as a nucleophile (Barnard et al., 1961). Note that in the case of triphenyl phosphate, no substitution may occur at the carbon bound to the oxygen of the alcohol moiety, and therefore, neutral hydrolysis is much less important as compared to the other cases (see /NB values in Table 13.12). Consequently, the base-catalyzed reaction generally occurs at the phosphorus atom leading to the dissociation of the alcohol moiety that is the best leaving group (P-0 cleavage), as is illustrated by the reaction of parathion with OH ... 

In contrast with the relatively facile nucleophilic substitution reactions at the 2-position of the indole system, only 3-iodoindole has been reported to react with silver acetate in acetic acid to yield 3-acetoxyindole (59JOC117). This reaction is of added interest as 3-iodo-2-methylindole fails to react with moist silver oxide (72HC(25-2)127). It is also noteworthy that the activated halogen of ethyl 3-bromo-4-ethyl-2-formylpyrrole-5-carboxylate is not displaced during the silver oxide oxidation of the formyl group to the carboxylic acid (57AC(R)167>. 

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