Chloride, cupric reaction with aryl diazonium salts

Alkenes activated by an electron-withdrawing group (Z may be C=C, halogen, C=0, Ar, CN, etc.) can be arylated by treatment with a diazonium salt and a cupric chloride catalyst. This is called the Meerwein arylation reaction Addition of... 

Some observations are important for improvement of the yield and for the elucidation of the mechanism of the Meerwein reaction. Catalysts are necessary for the process. Cupric chloride is used in almost all cases. The best arylation yields are obtained with low CuCl2 concentrations (Dickerman et al., 1969). One effect of CuCl2 was detected by Meerwein et al. (1939) in their work in water-acetone systems. They found that in solutions of arenediazonium chloride and sodium acetate in aqueous acetone, but in the absence of an alkene, the amount of chloroacetone formed was only one-third of that obtained in the presence of CuCl2. They concluded that chloroacetone is formed according to Scheme 10-50. The formation of chloroacetone with CuCl2 in the absence of a diazonium salt (Scheme 10-51) was investigated by Kochi (1955 a, 1955 b). Some Cu11 ion is reduced by acetone to Cu1 ion, which provides the electron for the transfer to the diazonium ion (see below). 

Meenvein reaction [1, 166, before references]. The arylation of olefinic com pounds by diazonium halides with copper salt catalysis was discovered by Meerweit (1939).8 Cupric chloride has been usually employed. Cleland,9 however, prefers cuprous bromide (MCB reagent grade) and recommends that the salt (light green) be washed with acetone until the washings are colorless and then with benzene and then with hexane. The resulting solid is dried at 120° and is only faintly colored. He... 

W. A. Waters (Oxford University) Investigations of the extent to which complexes such as (CuCl)+ and undissociated CuCL affect the chain length in the polymerization associated with the Sandmeyer reaction are in progress at Oxford. It is well known that ions that complex well with cupric, e.g., (CN) , can be introduced into aryl nuclei by the Sandmeyer procedure in preference to chloride even when diazonium chlorides have initially been taken. The system, however, is complicated by the fact that the complexing of cuprous and cupric salts alters the redox potential, and this affects the facility of both stages 1 and 3 of the reaction sequence. The effects of introducing polar substituents into the aryl nuclei (Table I) indicates the importance of such effects. 

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