Catalysts for nucleophilic displacement reactions

Phase transfer catalysts were used for nucleophilic displacement reactions of activated leaving groups by hydroxyfurazanyl anions. For example, tetrachloro-pyrazine was found to react with hydroxyfurazans in benzene/Na2C03/tetraalkyl-ammonium salts giving products of mono- or disubstitution (Scheme 173) (94MI1). The course of the reaction depends on the ratio of the reactants and the nature of the ammonium salt. 

The resulting catalyst was highly active for cyanide and acetate ion displacements on 1-bromobutane. As expected, soluble low molecular weight quaternary ammonium salts and a soluble quaternized linear poly(ethyleneimine) were even more active, presumably because they had no mass transfer and intraparticle diffusional limitations. These catalysts had a much higher density of charged sites (at least within the micro domains of the poly(ethyleneimine)) than any of the other active quaternary ammonium ion catalysts reported for nucleophilic displacement reactions. 

Taking into account the former discussion on the difficulties associated with the efficient use of polymer-supported PTC, it is easy to understand that an appropriate design of the overall process is essential for success. Several factors have been found to be critical for the performance of the catalyst. For onium salts, the use of a bulky R groups is preferred, in particular for nucleophilic displacement reactions. For the substitution of bromide by iodide in 1-bromooctane, reaction rates... 

The economic promise of polystyrene-supported phase transfer catalysts depends on their reuse in industrial processes. Under some of the reaction conditions described for nucleophilic displacement reactions and for alkylation of active methylene compounds, the... 

A bifunctional autocatalytic effect of azinones in general is possible in certain nucleophilic reactions such as amination. Zollinger has found that 2-pyridone is the best catalyst for anilino-dechlorination of various chloroazines. It seems likely that examples of autocatalysis will be found when the substrate contains an azinone moiety. The azinone hy-products of displacement reactions may also function in this way as catalysts for the main reaction. 

Direct nucleophilic displacement of halide and sulfonate groups from aromatic rings is difficult, although the reaction can be useful in specific cases. These reactions can occur by either addition-elimination (Section 11.2.2) or elimination-addition (Section 11.2.3). Recently, there has been rapid development of metal ion catalysis, and old methods involving copper salts have been greatly improved. Palladium catalysts for nucleophilic substitutions have been developed and have led to better procedures. These reactions are discussed in Section 11.3. 

The percent ring substitution (% RS) of the polymer with active sites affects catalytic activity. Polystyrenes with < 25 % RS with lipophilic quarternary onium ions are swollen in triphase mixtures almost entirely by the organic phase. Water reduces the activity of anions by hydrogen bonding. In most triphase nucleophilic displacement reactions onium ion catalysts with <25% RS are highly active, and those with >40% RS, such as most commercial ion exchange resins, are much less active. However, low % RS is not critical for the reactions of hydroxide ion with active methylene compounds, as commericial ion exchange resins work well in alkylation of active nitriles. 

The affinity of the polymer-bound catalyst for water and for organic solvent also depends upon the structure of the polymer backbone. Polystyrene is nonpolar and attracts good organic solvents, but without ionic, polyether, or other polar sites, it is completely inactive for catalysis of nucleophilic reactions. The polar sites are necessary to attract reactive anions. If the polymer is hydrophilic, as a dextran, its surface must be made less polar by functionalization with lipophilic groups to permit catalytic activity for most nucleophilic displacement reactions. The % RS and the chemical nature of the polymer backbone affect the hydrophilic/lipophilic balance. The polymer must be able to attract both the reactive anion and the organic substrate into its matrix to catalyze reactions between the two mutually insoluble species. Most polymer-supported phase transfer catalysts are used under conditions where both intrinsic reactivity and intraparticle diffusion affect the observed rates of reaction. The structural variables in the catalyst which control the hydrophilic/lipophilic balance affect both activity and diffusion, and it is often not possible to distinguish clearly between these rate limiting phenomena by variation of active site structure, polymer backbone structure, or % RS. 

Not all nucleophilic displacement reactions require lightly substituted onium ion catalysts for activity. For alkylation of 2-naphthoxide ion with benzyl bromide (Eq. (6)) 40-100% RS, 2% CL polystyrene catalysts 15 and 16 work well54). A 51 % RS catalyst 11 gave good yields in reactions of anionic oxygen and sulfur nucleophiles with alkyl halides 91). 

Effects of polymer structure on reaction of phenylacetonitrile with excess 1-bromo-butane and 50% NaOH have been studied under conditions of constant particle size and 500 rpm stirring to prevent mass transfer limitations I03). All experiments used benzyltrimethylammonium ion catalysts 2 and addition of phenylacetonitrile before addition of 1-bromobutane as described earlier. With 16-17% RS the rate constant with a 10 % CL polymer was 0.033 times that with a 2 % CL polymer. Comparisons of 2 % CL catalysts with different % RS and Amberlyst macroporous ion exchange resins are in Table 6. The catalysts with at least 40% RS were more active that with 16 % RS, opposite to the relative activities in most nucleophilic displacement reactions. If the macroporous ion exchange resins were available in small particle sizes, they might be the most active catalysts available for alkylation of phenylacetonitrile. 

Complexation constants of crown ethers and cryptands for alkali metal salts depend on the cavity sizes of the macrocycles 152,153). ln phase transfer nucleophilic reactions catalyzed by polymer-supported crown ethers and cryptands, rates may vary with the alkali cation. When a catalyst 41 with an 18-membered ring was used for Br-I exchange reactions, rates decreased with a change in salt from KI to Nal, whereas catalyst 40 bearing a 15-membered ring gave the opposite effect (Table 10)l49). A similar rate difference was observed for cyanide displacement reactions with polymer-supported cryptands in which the size of the cavity was varied 141). Polymer-supported phosphonium salt 4, as expected, gave no cation dependence of rates (Table 10). 

At almost the same time as other polymer-supported phase transfer catalysts were first reported, polymer-supported solvents and cosolvents were found to be effective catalysts for phase transfer reactions 155-156>. Dipolar aprotic solvents such as hexa-methylphosphoramide (HMPA)157, dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO)158), and tertiary amides159,1601 are well known to coordinate strongly with alkali and alkaline earth metal cations, and hence promote nucleophilic displacement reactions of the anions161). Catalysts 44 155-162>163> and 45163),... 

The mechanism for the nucleophilic displacement reaction of benzyl chloride with potassium cyanide has also been studied under multiphasic conditions, i.e., an scC02 phase and a solid salt phase with a tetraheptylammonium salt as the phase-transfer catalyst (PTC) (Scheme 3.8). The kinetic data and catalyst solubility measurements indicate that the reaction pathway involves a catalyst-rich third phase on the surface of solid salt phase. 

The tetracoordinate silicon cation is a rather common species in solution. It may be generated by heterolytic cleavage of a bond from silicon to a reactive ligand, as a result of interaction of the silicon center with an uncharged nucleophile like amine, imine, phosphine, phosphine oxide, and amide. Since these nucleophiles are also known to be effective catalysts for many displacements at silicon including important silylation processes (86,89,235-238), the cations of tetracoordinate silicon have received attention as possible intermediates in these reactions according to Eq. (40) (78,235,239-243). 

As in benzenoid chemistry, some nucleophilic displacement reactions can be copper catalyzed. Illustrative of these reactions is the displacement of bromide from 3-bromothiophene-2-carboxylic acid and 3-bromothiophene-4-carboxylic acid by active methylene compounds (e.g., AcCH2C02Et) in the presence of copper and sodium ethoxide (Scheme 136). Analogously, 2-methoxythiophene can be prepared in 83% yield by refluxing 2-bromothiophene in methanol containing excess sodium methoxide, along with copper(I) bromide as catalyst. For the analogous preparation of 3-methoxythiophene, addition of a polar cosolvent (e.g., l-methyl-2-pyrrolidone) is beneficial. In the case of halothiophenes, an SrnI mechanism is involved. 

One of the oldest techniques for overcoming these problems is the use of biphasic water/organic solvent systems using phase-transfer methods. In 1951, Jarrouse found that the reaction of water-soluble sodium cyanide with water-insoluble, but organic solvent-soluble 1-chlorooctane is dramatically enhanced by adding a catalytic amount of tetra-n-butylammonium chloride [878], This technique was further developed by Makosza et al. [879], Starks et al. [880], and others, and has become known as liquid-liquid phase-transfer catalysis (PTC) for reviews, see references [656-658, 879-882], The mechanism of this method is shown in Fig. 5-18 for the nucleophilic displacement reaction of a haloalkane with sodium cyanide in the presence of a quaternary ammonium chloride as FT catalyst. 

Frequently, Pd(PPh3)4 (or another Pd" complex) is used as a catalyst for the displacement of aUyUc acetates or halides by nucleophiles. A general catalytic cycle is depicted in Scheme 30. If chloride ions are present, no ( 7r-allyl)PdL2 forms. Instead, a ((( -allyl)PdL2Cl intermediate is formed. Thus, different precursors (such as aUylic chlorides or aUylic acetates) or different reaction conditions can lead to different reactivities, regioselectivities, and enantioselectivities. 

F-2-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (2-FDG) is normally produced in places where a cyclotron is locally available. Its molecular formula is CsHn FOs with molecular weight of 181.3 daltons. 18F-2-FDG can be produced by electrophilic substitution with 18F-fluorine gas or nucleophilic displacement with 18F-fluoride ions. The radiochemical yield is low with the electrophilic substitution, so the nucleophilic displacement reaction has become the method of choice for 18F-FDG synthesis. Deoxyglucose is labeled with 18F by nucleophilic displacement reaction of an acetylated sugar derivative followed by hydrolysis (Hamacher et al, 1986). In nucleophilic substitution, a fluoride ion reacts to fluorinate the sugar derivative. A solution of 1,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-2-0-trifluoromethane-sulfonyl-/ -D-mannopyranose in anhydrous acetonitrile is added to a dry residue of 18F-fluoride containing aminopolyether (Kryptofix 2.2.2) and potassium carbonate (Fig. 8.1). Kryptofix 2.2.2 is used as a catalyst to enhance the reactivity of the fluoride ions. The mixture is heated... 

Ionic liquids (IL) can be used as solvents for nucleophilic substitution reactions of alkyl halides or tosylates with NaN3. ° The authors studied three ionic liquids (84 and 85), [bmim][PF6], [bmim][N(Tf)2]> [hpyr][N(Tf)2] (where bmim = l-butyl-3-methyl-imidazo-lium, hpyr = 1-hexylpyridinium, PFg = hexafluorophosphate, N(Tf)2 = bis(trifluoromethy lsulfonyl)imide). It was observed that nucleofugacity scales for this reaction are similar to those reported for the same process in cyclohexane. It was also observed that elimination reaction does not compete with substitution even in cases with sterically hindered substrates such as the triflate ester of diacetone-D-glucose 81. The nucleophilic displacement on n-octyl mesylate (86) with potassium azide in a biphase system of supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) and water, in the presence of catalyst Bu4PBr is also an adequate medium for the synthesis of the corresponding azide 87 ° (Scheme 3.11). 

Ref, 19, 20) are well worth describing here in some detail, as they focus on the choice of a phase transfer catalyst and on several other factors which are of importance in the chemical modification of soluble poly(chloromethy1 styrene). In a first series of experiments involving solid-liquid reactions with potassium acetate as a nucleophile, Nishikubo and coworkers observe that while reactions carried out without any added phase transfer catalyst do not work in apolar solvents, satisfactory results can be obtained in DMF (Table 1) this confirms previous observations (Ref. 7, 14, 23, 24) which suggest that DMF and DMSO are excellent solvents for nucleophilic displacements on poly(chloromethyl styrene). 

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