Phosphorus esters, cleavage

In contrast to phosphorus esters, sulfur esters are usually cleaved at the carbon-oxygen bond with carbon-fluorine bond formation Cleavage of esteri nf methanesulfonic acid, p-toluenesidfonic acid, and especially trifluoromethane-sulfonic acid (tnflic acid) by fluoride ion is the most widely used method for the conversion of hydroxy compounds to fluoro derivatives Potassium fluoride, triethylamine trihydrofluoride, and tetrabutylammonium fluoride are common sources of the fluoride ion For the cleavage of a variety of alkyl mesylates and tosylates with potassium fluoride, polyethylene glycol 400 is a solvent of choice, the yields are limited by solvolysis of the leaving group by the solvent, but this phenomenon is controlled by bulky substituents, either in the sulfonic acid part or in the alcohol part of the ester [42] (equation 29)... 

L. Ya. Zakharova, F. G. Valeeva, A. R. Ibragimova, M. A. Voronin, L. A. Kudryavtseva, V. V. Syakaev, E. Kh. Kazakova, N. A. Makarova, Yu. E. Morozova, N. B. Mel nicova, O. E. Zemniakova, A. I. Konovalov, Supramolecular catalytic systems based on anionic amphiphiles and polyethyleneimine for hydrolytic cleavage of phosphorus ester bonds, Izvestia Academii Nauk, Seria Khimicheskaya, 2008, 366-373. 

Esters of penta- and trivalentphosphorus acids and their derivatives readily undergo cleavage of the phosphorus-oxygen bond under extremely mild conditions with formation of the phosphorus-fluorine bond Phosphates and phosphi-... 

DNA is not susceptible to alkaline hydrolysis. On the other hand, RNA is alkali labile and is readily hydrolyzed by dilute sodium hydroxide. Cleavage is random in RNA, and the ultimate products are a mixture of nucleoside 2 - and 3 -monophosphates. These products provide a clue to the reaction mechanism (Figure 11.29). Abstraction of the 2 -OH hydrogen by hydroxyl anion leaves a 2 -0 that carries out a nucleophilic attack on the phosphorus atom of the phosphate moiety, resulting in cleavage of the 5 -phosphodiester bond and formation of a cyclic 2, 3 -phosphate. This cyclic 2, 3 -phosphodiester is unstable and decomposes randomly to either a 2 - or 3 -phosphate ester. DNA has no 2 -OH therefore DNA is alkali stable. 

We discovered a complementary procedure for conversion of OMen to other functional groups. The ester P-OMen bond was shown to be cleaved in a stereoselective manner reductively [85,86]. The cleavage takes place with almost complete preservation of stereochemical integrity at phosphorus. The reducing agents are usually sodium or Hthium naphthalenide, lithium biphenyUde, and Hthium 4,4 -di-fert-butylbiphenyl (LDBB). The species produced is then quenched with an alkyl hahde or methanol to afford tertiary or secondary phosphines, respectively (Scheme 5b). Overall, the displacement reaction proceeds with retention of configuration. 

The mechanism of phosphate ester hydrolysis by hydroxide is shown in Figure 1 for a phosphodiester substrate. A SN2 mechanism with a trigonal-bipyramidal transition state is generally accepted for the uncatalyzed cleavage of phosphodiesters and phosphotriesters by nucleophilic attack at phosphorus. In uncatalyzed phosphate monoester hydrolysis, a SN1 mechanism with formation of a (POj) intermediate competes with the SN2 mechanism. For alkyl phosphates, nucleophilic attack at the carbon atom is also relevant. In contrast, all enzymatic cleavage reactions of mono-, di-, and triesters seem to follow an SN2... 

In the instances of phosphorous and phosphonous acid systems, the generation of a new C-P bond via the classical Michaelis-Arbuzov reactions as noted above leads to products that are esters themselves. Isolation of the free acid product requires cleavage of the ester linkage in a separate reaction step, generally after isolation and purification of the initial product. The advent of silyl phosphorus reagents for the Michaelis-Arbuzov reaction allowed free acid products to be isolated simply by water workup of the reaction system. Further, since the byproduct was a silyl-halide, the general concern that the by-product halide would participate in an extraneous Michaelis-Arbuzov reaction was obviated. 

For example, in the instance of 9-chloroacridine, the attachment of the halogen (leaving group) at a suitably electrophilic carbon site allows the occurrence of a replacement reaction, presumably occurring via an addition-elimination procedure for phosphorus attachment, followed by the common nucleophilic displacement (ester cleavage) of the Michaelis-Arbuzov process (Figure 6.1).4... 

The mechanism for the reactions with phosphorus halides can be illustrated using phosphorus tribromide. Initial reaction between the alcohol and phosphorus tribromide leads to a trialkyl phosphite ester by successive displacements of bromide. The reaction stops at this stage if it is run in the presence of an amine which neutralizes the hydrogen bromide that is formed.9 If the hydrogen bromide is not neutralized the phosphite ester is protonated and each alkyl group is successively converted to the halide by nucleophilic substitution by bromide ion. The driving force for cleavage of the C—O bond is the... 

The BBrs reaction with 1. l-dimethoxy-2.4.6-di-tert-butyl-4-(4 -methoxyphenyl)-X -phosphorin 200 leads to cleavage of both methoxy groups in addition to the methoxy group at the phosphorus, the 4 -methoxy group is attacked. The 2-hydro-4-(4 -hydroxyphenyl)-phosphinic acid methyl ester 201 can be methylated with methyl iodide in methanol/sodium methylate at the phenolic group, leading to 202, which can also be prepared by hydrogen peroxide oxidation of 2.6-di-tert-butyl-4-(4 -methoxy phenyl)-X -phosphorin 204 to 203, followed by diazomethane methylation (see Table 13, p. 61). 

The solvolysis of tetrabenzyl pyrophosphate catalyzed by lutidine (see above) is further catalyzed a thousandfold by calcium ions. In the presence of 0.02M calcium ion and 0.2M lutidine, the solvolysis of tetrabenzyl pyrophosphate (with cleavage of the P—O bond) is increased by a factor of the order of 1,COO,000 over the uncatalyzed reaction (63). The bivalent cation chelates with two oxygen atoms of the pyrophosphate ester, and the positive charge in the chelate greatly enhances the susceptibility of the phosphorus atom toward nucleophilic attack. 

---