Carboxylic esters, base halides

Other carbanionic groups, such as acetylide ions, and ions derived from a-methylpyridines have also been used as nucleophiles. A particularly useful nucleophile is the methylsulfinyl carbanion (CH3SOCHJ), the conjugate base of DMSO, since the P-keto sulfoxide produced can easily be reduced to a methyl ketone (p. 549). The methylsulfonyl carbanion (CH3SO2CH2 ), the conjugate base of dimethyl sulfone, behaves similarly, and the product can be similarly reduced. Certain carboxylic esters, acyl halides, and DMF acylate 1,3-dithianes (see 10-10. )2008 Qxj(jatjye hydrolysis with NBS or NCS, a-keto aldehydes or a-... 

The reaction between acyl halides and alcohols or phenols is the best general method for the preparation of carboxylic esters. It is believed to proceed by a 8 2 mechanism. As with 10-8, the mechanism can be S l or tetrahedral. Pyridine catalyzes the reaction by the nucleophilic catalysis route (see 10-9). The reaction is of wide scope, and many functional groups do not interfere. A base is frequently added to combine with the HX formed. When aqueous alkali is used, this is called the Schotten-Baumann procedure, but pyridine is also frequently used. Both R and R may be primary, secondary, or tertiary alkyl or aryl. Enolic esters can also be prepared by this method, though C-acylation competes in these cases. In difficult cases, especially with hindered acids or tertiary R, the alkoxide can be used instead of the alcohol. Activated alumina has also been used as a catalyst, for tertiary R. Thallium salts of phenols give very high yields of phenolic esters. Phase-transfer catalysis has been used for hindered phenols. Zinc has been used to couple... 

The scope of this reaction is similar to that of 10-21. Though anhydrides are somewhat less reactive than acyl halides, they are often used to prepare carboxylic esters. Acids, Lewis acids, and bases are often used as catalysts—most often, pyridine. Catalysis by pyridine is of the nucleophilic type (see 10-9). 4-(A,A-Dimethylamino)pyridine is a better catalyst than pyridine and can be used in cases where pyridine fails. " Nonbasic catalysts are cobalt(II) chloride " and TaCls—Si02. " Formic anhydride is not a stable compound but esters of formic acid can be prepared by treating alcohols " or phenols " with acetic-formic anhydride. Cyclic anhydrides give monoesterified dicarboxylic acids, for example,... 

Hydroxycarbonylation and alkoxycarbonylation of alkenes catalyzed by metal catalyst have been studied for the synthesis of acids, esters, and related derivatives. Palladium systems in particular have been popular and their use in hydroxycarbonylation and alkoxycarbonylation reactions has been reviewed.625,626 The catalysts were mainly designed for the carbonylation of alkenes in the presence of alcohols in order to prepare carboxylic esters, but they also work well for synthesizing carboxylic acids or anhydrides.137 627 They have also been used as catalysts in many other carbonyl-based processes that are of interest to industry. The hydroxycarbonylation of butadiene, the dicarboxylation of alkenes, the carbonylation of alkenes, the carbonylation of benzyl- and aryl-halide compounds, and oxidative carbonylations have been reviewed.6 8 The Pd-catalyzed hydroxycarbonylation of alkenes has attracted considerable interest in recent years as a way of obtaining carboxylic acids. In general, in acidic media, palladium salts in the presence of mono- or bidentate phosphines afford a mixture of linear and branched acids (see Scheme 9). 

As described previously, carboxylic acids may be used as solvents for halide or Lewis base-promoted CO reduction. However, these solvents have the disadvantage of forming the usually less desirable carboxylate esters rather than free alcohol products. Rate or selectivity advantages are not apparent in these solvents. 

Several methods, all based on carbon monoxide or metal carbonyls, have been developed for converting an alkyl halide to a carboxylic acid or an acid derivative with the chain extended by one carbon.1603 When an alkyl halide is treated with SbCl5-S02 at -70°C, it dissociates into the corresponding carbocation (p. 166). If carbon monoxide and an alcohol are present, a carboxylic ester is formed by the following route 1604... 

Reduction of carboxylic acids 9-42 Reduction of carboxylic esters 9-43 Reduction of carboxylic esters with titanocene dichloride 9-44 Reduction of anhydrides 9-45 Reduction of acyl halides 9-53 Reduction of nitriles 9-57 Reduction of hydroperoxides 9-60 Reduction of peroxides 9-69 Reaction between aldehydes and base (Cannizzaro)... 

Hydroxylamines and hydrazines can be acylated on insoluble supports using the same type of acylating agent as is used for the acylation of amines [146-149]. Because of their higher nucleophilicity, hydroxylamines or hydrazines can be acylated more readily than amines, and unreactive acylating agents such as carboxylic esters can sometimes be successfully employed (Table 13.10). Polystyrene-bound O-alkyl hydroxamic acids can be N-alkylated by treatment with reactive alkyl halides and bases such as DBU (Entry 5, Table 13.10). 

The wide range of standard procedures that are available for the formation of carboxylic esters of primary and secondary alcohols in the presence of suitable acid catalysts is discussed in detail in Section 5.12.3, p. 695. Also included is the mild method for methyl ester formation from the carboxylic acid and diazomethane, and a method appropriate for sterically hindered esters involving the acid, a secondary or tertiary alkyl halide, and the non-nucleophilic base DBU (Expt 5.151). An example of the formation of a t-butyl ester is noted in Expt 6.165. 

In the presence of alkyl halides and base, alkyltetracarbonylcobalt complexes are formed with Co2(CO)8 these species [RCo(CO)4] carbonylate a wide range of aryl halides or heterocyclic halides to various products, which depend upon the specific conditions. In the presence of alcohols, carboxylic esters are formed. Under phase transfer conditions and with iodomethane, mixtures of methyl ketone and carboxylic acid formation are realized (equation 207). In the presence of sodium sulfide or NaBH4 in water-Ca(OH)2 (equation 208) good amounts of double carbonylation are realized under very mild conditions412-414. 

Metallated 1-ethoxy-1,3-dienes 697 and 712, obtained from the corresponding acetals by means of the LICKOR base, have been treated with alkyl halides, epoxides, carbonyl compounds, carbon dioxide and carboxylic esters affording ( )-l-substituted 1-ethoxy-1,3-dienes and, after hydrolysis, a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds1007-1010 (Scheme 186). Intermediates 697 and 712 have been transformed into the corresponding vinyl stan-nanes, which were submitted to Stille couplings with iodobenzene and benzoyl chloride823. 

Another method for the conversion of alkyl hahdes to carboxylic esters is treatment of a halide with nickel carbonyl Ni(CO)4 in the presence of an alcohol and its conjugate base. When R is primary, RX may only be a vinylic or an aryl halide retention of configuration is observed at a vinylic R. Consequently, a carbocation intermediate is not involved here. When R is tertiary, R may be primary alkyl as well as vinylic or aryl. This is thus one of the few methods for preparing esters of tertiary alcohols. Alkyl iodides give the best results, then bromides. In the presence of an amine, an amide can be isolated directly, at least in some instances. 

Reaction of thiols or thiolates with acyl halides, chlorides in particular, represents the standard method for preparing thiol carboxylic esters (c/. ref. 33 and the literature cited therein). Since thiols ate strong nucleophiles, the acylation even takes place in the absence of base. However, to obtain excellent yields under mild conditions, tertiary amines are added or metal (Si, Sn, T1 Cu ) derivatives of the thiols are used. The following examples demonstrate the scope of the method. 

Before discussing the double carbonylation processes it may be helpful to understand the mechanism of the single carbonylation of aryl halides into carboxylic acid derivatives (Heck processes). The first step in the catalytic process is oxidative addition of an aryl halide to Pd(0) species formed from a catalyst precursor to yield an arylpal-ladium halide intermediate (A) in Scheme 1. Insertion of carbon monoxide into the aryl-palladium bond in A gives an acylpalladium halide complex (B). Attack of a nucleophile such as alcohol, amine, and water assisted by a base on the acylpalladium complex yields carboxylic ester, amide, and carboxylic acid, although details of the mechanism have not been unequivocally established. The palladium(O) species regenerated in the process further undergoes oxidative addition to carry out the catalytic cycle (Scheme 1). 

Esters are usually prepared from carboxylic acids by the methods already discussed. Thus, carboxylic acids are converted directly into esters by SK2 reaction of a carboxyfate ion with a primary alkyl halide or by Fischer esterification of a carboxylic acid with an alcohol in the presence of a mineral acid catalyst. In addition, acid chlorides are converted into esters by treatment with an alcohol in the presence of base (Section 21.4). 

Alpha hydrogen atoms of carbonyl compounds are weakly acidic and can be removed by strong bases, such as lithium diisopropylamide (LDA), to yield nucleophilic enolate ions. The most important reaction of enolate ions is their Sn2 alkylation with alkyl halides. The malonic ester synthesis converts an alkyl halide into a carboxylic acid with the addition of two carbon atoms. Similarly, the acetoacetic ester synthesis converts an alkyl halide into a methyl ketone. In addition, many carbonyl compounds, including ketones, esters, and nitriles, can be directly alkylated by treatment with LDA and an alkyl halide. 

In the course of this study, the authors determined /Lvalues for dibenzyl, methyl phenyl, methyl p-nitrophenyl, di-p-tolyl, di-isopropyl and tetramethylene sulphoxides and for diethyl, dipropyl and dibutyl sulphites. The /Lscales are applied to the various reactions or the spectral measurements. The /Lscales have been divided into either family-dependent (FD) types, which means two or more compounds can share the same /Lscale, family-independent (FI) types. Consequently, a variety of /Lscales are now available for various families of the bases, including 29 aldehydes and ketones, 17 carboxylic amides and ureas, 14 carboxylic acids esters, 4 acyl halides, 5 nitriles, 10 ethers, 16 phosphine oxides, 12 sulphinyl compounds, 15 pyridines and pyrimidines, 16 sp3 hybridized amines and 10 alcohols. The enthalpies of formation of the hydrogen bond of 4-fluorophenol with both sulphoxides and phosphine oxides and related derivatives fit the empirical equation 18, where the standard deviation is y = 0.983. Several averaged scales are shown in Table 1588. 

Sulfonic esters are most frequently prepared by treatment of the corresponding halides with alcohols in the presence of a base. The method is much used for the conversion of alcohols to tosylates, brosylates, and similar sulfonic esters. Both R and R may be alkyl or aryl. The base is often pyridine, which functions as a nucleophilic catalyst, as in the similar alcoholysis of carboxylic acyl halides (10-21). Primary alcohols react the most rapidly, and it is often possible to sulfonate selectively a primary OH group in a molecule that also contains secondary or tertiary OH groups. The reaction with sulfonamides has been much less frequently used and is limited to N,N-disubstituted sulfonamides that is, R" may not be hydrogen. However, within these limits it is a useful reaction. The nucleophile in this case is actually R 0 . However, R" may be hydrogen (as well as alkyl) if the nucleophile is a phenol, so that the product is RS020Ar. Acidic catalysts are used in this case. Sulfonic acids have been converted directly to sulfonates by treatment with triethyl or trimethyl orthoformate HC(OR)3, without catalyst or solvent and with a trialkyl phosphite P(OR)3. ... 

The oxygen nucleophiles that are of primary interest in synthesis are the hydroxide ion (or water), alkoxide ions, and carboxylate anions, which lead, respectively, to alcohols, ethers, and esters. Since each of these nucleophiles can also act as a base, reaction conditions are selected to favor substitution over elimination. Usually, a given alcohol is more easily obtained than the corresponding halide so the halide-to-alcohol transformation is not used extensively for synthesis. The hydrolysis of benzyl halides to the corresponding alcohols proceeds in good yield. This can be a useful synthetic transformation because benzyl halides are available either by side chain halogenation or by the chloromethylation reaction (Section 11.1.3). 

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