Decarboxylation of aromatic acids

The decarboxylation of aromatic acids is most often carried out by heating with copper and quinoline. However, two other methods can be used with certain substrates. In one method, the salt of the acid (ArCOO ) is heated, and in the other the carboxylic acid is heated with a strong acid, often sulfuric. The latter method is accelerated by the presence of electron-donating groups in ortho and para positions and by the steric effect of groups in the ortho positions in benzene systems it is... 

Decarboxylation of aromatic acids 1-41 Desulfonation of aromatic sulfonic acids... 

The 1,2-oxides of benzoic acids are also of interest as possible intermediates in the ortho hydroxylation and oxidative decarboxylation of aromatic acids. Ultraviolet studies indicate that benzene oxide 218 predominantly exists as its... 

DECARBOXYLATION OF AROMATIC ACIDS WITH METHYL, METHOXY AND HYDROXY SUBSTITUENTS... 

Some work has been done on the kinetics of decarboxylation of aromatic acids in non-aqueous solutions at high temperatures [233]. Usually, the reactions are much faster in aqueous solutions [239] particularly if they are acid catalyzed. Therefore, emphasis in this article will be on decarboxylation in aqueous solution. A brief review has been published in 1968 [240]. In almost all cases, rates can be conveniently followed with the aid of the UV spectrophotometric method. 

When the concentration of bases much stronger than water is not very high (< 0.1 M) the experimental facts support the following mechanism for the decarboxylation of aromatic acids with strong electron-releasing substituents in dilute aqueous acid solution, viz. 

Decarboxylation of Aromatic Acids Hydro-de-carboxylation or Decarboxylation... 

Side group reactions are common during pyrolysis and they may take place before chain scission. The presence of water and carbon dioxide as main pyrolysis products in numerous pyrolytic processes can be explained by this type of reaction. The reaction can have either an elimination mechanism or, as indicated in Section 2.5 for the decarboxylation of aromatic acids, it can have a substitution mechanism. Two other examples of side group reactions were given previously in Section 2.2, namely the water elimination during the pyrolysis of cellulose and ethanol elimination during the pyrolysis of ethyl cellulose. The elimination of water from the side chain of a peptide (as shown in Section 2.5) also falls in this type of reaction. Side eliminations are common for many linear polymers. However, because these reactions generate smaller molecules but do not affect the chain of the polymeric materials, they are usually continued with chain scission reactions. 

The formation of MAHs in soft drinks and some foods can be explained by decarboxylation of aromatic acids, whether natural or used as additives. The second case corresponds to the formation of benzene in soft drinks and fermented vegetables preserved with benzoic acid, which in the presence of ascorbic acid can yield benzene by decarboxylation. The reaction is catalysed by traces of transition metals. Traces of benzene found in cranberry and mango products that were not preserved with benzoic acid were due to a higher content of naturally present benzoic acid. 

Benzoic acid [65-85-0] C H COOH, the simplest member of the aromatic carboxyHc acid family, was first described in 1618 by a French physician, but it was not until 1832 that its stmcture was deterrnined by Wn b1er and Liebig. In the nineteenth century benzoic acid was used extensively as a medicinal substance and was prepared from gum benzoin. Benzoic acid was first produced synthetically by the hydrolysis of benzotrichloride. Various other processes such as the nitric acid oxidation of toluene were used until the 1930s when the decarboxylation of phthaUc acid became the dominant commercial process. During World War II in Germany the batchwise Hquid-phase air oxidation of toluene became an important process. 

Despite its synthetic importance, the mechanism of the copper-quinoline method has been studied very little, but it has been shown that the actual catalyst is cuprous ion. In fact, the reaction proceeds much faster if the acid is heated in quinoline with cuprous oxide instead of copper, provided that atmospheric oxygen is rigorously excluded. A mechanism has been suggested in which it is the cuprous salt of the acid that actually undergoes the decarboxylation. It has been shown that cuprous salts of aromatic acids are easily decarboxylated by heating in quinoline and that arylcopper compounds are intermediates that can be isolated in some cases. Metallic silver has been used in place of copper, with higher yields. ... 

Decarboxylation of aromatic carboxylic acids has been encountered extensively in facultatively anaerobic Enterobacteriaceae. For example, 4-hydroxycinnamic acid is... 

The decarboxylation of carboxylic acid in the presence of a nucleophile is a classical reaction known as the Hunsdiecker reaction. Such reactions can be carried out sometimes in aqueous conditions. Man-ganese(II) acetate catalyzed the reaction of a, 3-unsaturated aromatic carboxylic acids with NBS (1 and 2 equiv) in MeCN/water to afford haloalkenes and a-(dibromomethyl)benzenemethanols, respectively (Eq. 9.15).32 Decarboxylation of free carboxylic acids catalyzed by Pd/C under hydrothermal water (250° C/4 MPa) gave the corresponding hydrocarbons (Eq. 9.16).33 Under the hydrothermal conditions of deuterium oxide, decarbonylative deuteration was observed to give fully deuterated hydrocarbons from carboxylic acids or aldehydes. 

Most coenzymes have aromatic heterocycles as major constituents. While enzymes possess purely protein structures, coenzymes incorporate non-amino acid moieties, most of them aromatic nitrogen het-erocycles. Coenzymes are essential for the redox biochemical transformations, e.g., nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD, 13) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD, 14) (Scheme 5). Both are hydrogen transporters through their tautomeric forms that allow hydrogen uptake at the termini of the quinon-oid chain. Thiamine pyrophosphate (15) is a coenzyme that assists the decarboxylation of pyruvic acid, a very important biologic reaction (Scheme 6). 

Deoxygenation by full decarboxylation is the best route to make fuel precursors from bio-oil, because paraffin is produced and expensive hydrogen is not required. Decarboxylation of bio-oil has been tried over zeolites, yielding an aromatic product with a too low yield and excessive coke formation (Section 6.9.3). Selective decarboxylation of organic acids makes the bio-oil less acidic and corrosive. If acids can be removed selectively as CO2, it would also improve the energy... 

The usual sources used for the homolytic aromatic arylation have been utilized also in the heterocyclic series. They are essentially azo- and diazocompounds, aroyl peroxides, and sometimes pyrolysis and photolysis of a variety of aryl derivatives. Most of these radical sources have been described in the previous review concerning this subject, and in other reviews concerning the general aspects of homolytic aromatic arylation. A new source of aryl radicals is the silver-catalyzed decarboxylation of carboxylic acids by peroxydisulfate, which allows to work in aqueous solution of protonated heteroaromatic bases, as for the alkyl radicals. 

Secondary aliphatic amines reacted readily with mercaptoaldimines (279), which could be prepared readily by the action of Na/NH3 on the aldehyde diacetals (278). The resulting N,N- dialkyl derivatives (280) were alkylated on sulfur by a-halocarbonyl compounds such as bromoacetic acid the resulting products (281) underwent spontaneous ring closure and aromatization via loss of the secondary amine to yield the acids (282 Scheme 97). Decarboxylation of the acids (282) furnished the substituted thieno[2,3-6 ]thiophenes (283). The use of other a-halocarbonyl compounds, such as bromoacetone or phenacyl bromide for the alkylation, led to the formation of the 2-acetyl or 2-benzoyl derivatives, (284) and (285) respectively (76AHC(19)123). 

Sarca and Laali386 have developed a convenient process for transacylation of sterically crowded arenes such as acetylmesitylene [Eq. (5.150)] and tetramethyl- and pentamethylacetophenones to activated aromatics using triflic acid in the presence of imidazolium-type ionic liquids under mild conditions. When the reactions are run without an activated arene acceptor, efficient deacylation takes place. Simple 4-methoxyaryl methyl ketones can be transacetylated with toluene and para-xylene as acceptors with triflic acid.387 Nafion-H has been found to be an efficient catalyst for the decarboxylation of aromatic carboxylic acids as well as deacetylation of aromatic ketones.388... 

Finally, the decarboxylation of amino acids catalyzed by several pyridoxal phosphate-dependent enzymes has been shown to proceed by a retention of configuration at the Ca atom144. The stereochemical course of the decarboxylation of 5-hydroxy tryptophan to 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) catalyzed by the pyridoxal phosphate-dependent aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (equation 15) exemplifies such studies145. 

Decarboxylation of alkanoic acids means of LTA in benzene as solvent is hindered by die formation of all lbenzenes as by-products. This side reaction is especially pronounced widi radicals derived from primary acids or odier acids from which the radical is not easily oxidized LTA. In some cases, such as that of apocamphane-l-carboxylic acid (equation 54), good yields of alkylbenzene can be obtained. Intramolecular versions of this reaction in which the radical cyclizes onto an aromatic nucleus at the appropriate position in the chain have also been observed. 

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