Coupling of alkanes

Table 5.2. Standard Potential of Redox Couples of Alkanes in HF (at H0 22.1) and Acidity Levels of Oxidation (pHR in HF).79...

Reductive coupling of alkanals. Two laboratories have reported reductive coupling of alkanals (equation I). A similar reaction of aromatic aldehydes has... 

In 2000, Guy reported the stoichiometric coupling of alkane thiols and arylboronic acids, which was initially thought to be mediated by Cu(ll) [71]. Liebeskind proposed that the reaction was more likely catalyzed by Cu(l), generated by oxidation of the alkane thiols into dialkyl disulfides. Based on this hypothesis, Liebeskind predicted that disulfides and disulfide equivalents should be effective reagents for thioether formation [34]. This process would constitute a modification of the Chan-Evans-Lam, which involves the coupling of arylboronic acids and amines or alcohols in the presence of tertiary amine bases, generating aryl amines and ethers, respectively. Indeed, the coupling of diphenyl disulfide with phenyl boronic acid would yield diphenyl sulfide. 

One of the classical reactions in organic chemistry for the synthesis of alkanes through symmetrical coupling of alkane carboxylic acids is the Kolbe reaction . There are... 

The coupling of alkyl Grignard reagents with alkyl iodides to afford alkanes by use of dppf as a ligand has been reported[449], but re-examination of the reaction has shown that only reduction takes place, and no coupling was observed[450]. 

Preparation of alkanes using lithium di alkylcuprates (Section 14 11) Two alkyl groups may be coupled together to form an alkane by the reaction of an alkyl hal ide with a lithium dialkylcuprate Both alkyl groups must be primary (or meth yl) Aryl and vinyl halides may be used in place of alkyl halides... 

The coupling of alkyl halides 1 upon treatment with a metal, e.g. elemental sodium, to yield symmetrical alkanes 2, is called the Wurtz reaction. Aryl alkanes can be prepared by the Wurtz-Fittig reaction, i.e. the coupling of aryl halides with alkyl halides. 

The few known cases of azo coupling reactions of alkane- and alkenediazonium ions will be reviewed in the forthcoming second book (Zollinger, 1995, Sec. 6.1). We will not discuss systematically the chemical, spectroscopic, or other properties of the azo compounds formed in azo coupling reactions (see Zollinger, 1991, Ch. 7). However, two phenomena are important for this book, as discussed below. 

Even with the limitation on yield implied by the statistical process, cross-dimerization is still useful when one of the reactants is an alkane, because the products are easy to separate, and because of the few other ways to functionalize an alkane. The cross-coupling of an alkane with trioxane is especially valuable, because hydrolysis of the product (10-6) gives an aldehyde, thus achieving the conversion RH RCHO. The mechanism probably involves abstraction of H by the excited Hg atom, and coupling of the resulting radicals. 

The use of tetraoctylammonium salt as phase transfer reagent has been introduced by Brust [199] for the preparation of gold colloids in the size domain of 1-3 nm. This one-step method consists of a two-phase reduction coupled with ion extraction and self-assembly using mono-layers of alkane thiols. The two-phase redox reaction controls the growth of the metallic nuclei via the simultaneous attachment of self-assembled thiol monolayers on the growing clusters. The overall reaction is summarized in Equation (5). 

In contrast to the borylation of alkane C-H bonds, the coupling of aryl halides with amines was based on a literature precedent from another group published about a decade before our initial studies. Kosugi, Kameyama and Migita published the coupling of aryl halides with tin amides." Mechanistic studies we conducted on this process led us to the perhaps obvious realization that the reaction" could be conducted with amines and a silylamide base instead of tin amides (equation 4)." Surveys of bases with similar p a values led Janis Louie to conduct reactions with alkoxide bases. Similar studies were conducted at nearly the same time by Steve Buchwald and coworkers."... 

These precursors are generally prepared by alkane elimination (Equation (7a)) or—especially useful with bulkier substituents—the coupling of metal chlorides with lithium pnictides or silyl arsines (Equation (7b)) or salt elimination or silyl halide elimination reactions (Equation (7c)) ... 

In summary, the advances of the past few years have well demonstrated both the challenges and the promise of the Pt(II)/Pt(IV) redox couple for alkane functionalization. It should also be mentioned that the emerging conceptual understanding of the elementary steps involved in this process has also contributed to the development of methods to activate and functionalize alkyl groups in complex organic molecules. 

There is ample evidence that the reductive elimination of alkanes (and the reverse) is a not single-step process, but involves a o-alkane complex as the intermediate. Thus, looking at the kinetics, reductive elimination and oxidative addition do not correspond to the elementary steps. These terms were introduced at a point in time when o-alkane complexes were unknown, and therefore new terms have been introduced by Jones to describe the mechanism and the kinetics of the reaction [5], The reaction of the o-alkane complex to the hydride-alkyl metal complex is called reductive cleavage and its reverse is called oxidative coupling. The second part of the scheme involves the association of alkane and metal and the dissociation of the o-alkane complex to unsaturated metal and free alkane. The intermediacy of o-alkane complexes can be seen for instance from the intramolecular exchange of isotopes in D-M-CH3 to the more stable H-M-CH2D prior to loss of CH3D. 

I 5 Anodic Reactions of Alkanes, Alkenes, and Aromatic Compounds Tab. 12 Anodic coupling of arylethers... 

The preparation and application of SAM systems patterned by STM and their use in catalysis was demonstrated by Wittstock and Schuhmann [123]. The patterning (local desorption) of SAMs from alkane thiols on gold was performed by scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), followed by the assembly of an amino-deriva-tized disulfide and coupling of glucose oxidase to form a catalytically active pattern of the enzyme. The enzymatic activity could be monitored/imaged by SECM. 

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