Toluene deprotonation

Investigations by Mulvey and his group have uncovered very unusual structures associated with the mixed alkali metal-zinc reagents.For example, it has been found that a 1 1 mixture of KN(SiMe3)2 and ZnfNfSiMe, ), readily deprotonates toluene [Equation (7.1)] to afford... 

Methylbenzyl alcohol 440 can just about be lithiated by treatment with BuLi in E O at room temperature, but the activation of the methyl group is very weak.401 Lateral lithiation of cresol 441 is even harder to achieve, and the superbase conditions required are similar to those used to deprotonate toluene.402 The coordinating effect of the oxyanion is more than outweighed by electron-donation into the ring. 

Organolithium reagents are oligomers (i.e., dimers, trimers, and higher species) in nondonor solvents such as alkanes LiMe is a tetramer with a cubane structure 14.1, for example. RLi forms solvates with THE Addition of the chelating ligand Me2NCH2CH2NMe2 (TMEDA) leads to formation of a monomer, and this increases the reactivity. n-BuLi can deprotonate toluene... 

Potassium Amides. The strong, extremely soluble, stable, and nonnucleophilic potassium amide base (42), potassium hexamethyldisilazane [40949-94-8] (KHMDS), KN [Si(CH2]2, pX = 28, has been developed and commercialized. KHMDS, ideal for regio/stereospecific deprotonation and enolization reactions for less acidic compounds, is available in both THF and toluene solutions. It has demonstrated benefits for reactions involving kinetic enolates (43), alkylation and acylation (44), Wittig reaction (45), epoxidation (46), Ireland-Claison rearrangement (47,48), isomerization (49,50), Darzen reaction (51), Dieckmann condensation (52), cyclization (53), chain and ring expansion (54,55), and elimination (56). 

An extensive series of hydrocarbons has been studied in cyclohexylamine, with the use of cesium cyclohexylamide as base. For many of the compounds studied, spectroscopic measurements were used to determine the relative extent of deprotonation of two hydrocarbons and thus establish relative acidity. For other hydrocarbons, the acidity was derived by kinetic measurements. It was shown that the rate of tritium exchange for a series of related hydrocarbons is linearly related to the equilibrium acidities of these hydrocarbons in the solvent system. This method was used to extend the scale to hydrocarbons such as toluene for which the exchange rate, but not equilibrium data, can be obtained. Representative values of some hydrocarbons withpAT values ranging from 16 to above 40 are given in Table 7.2. 

Bromination has been shown not to exhibit a primary kinetic isotope effect in the case of benzene, bromobenzene, toluene, or methoxybenzene. There are several examples of substrates which do show significant isotope effects, including substituted anisoles, JV,iV-dimethylanilines, and 1,3,5-trialkylbenzenes. The observation of isotope effects in highly substituted systems seems to be the result of steric factors that can operate in two ways. There may be resistance to the bromine taking up a position coplanar with adjacent substituents in the aromatization step. This would favor return of the ff-complex to reactants. In addition, the steric bulk of several substituents may hinder solvent or other base from assisting in the proton removal. Either factor would allow deprotonation to become rate-controlling. 

The easiest access to most benzyllithium, -sodium, or -potassium derivatives consists of the deprotonation of the corresponding carbon acids. Hydrocarbons, such as toluene, exhibit a remarkably low kinetic acidity. Excess toluene (without further solvent) is converted into benzyllithium by the action of butyllithium in the presence of complexing diamines such as A. Af.Af.jV -tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) or l,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) at elevated temperatures1 a procedure is published in reference 2. 

For the deprotonation of less acidic precursors, which do not lead to mesomerically stabilized anions, butyllithium/TMEDA in THF or diethyl ether, or the more reactive, but more expensive,. seobutyllithium under these conditions usually are the most promising bases. Het-eroatomic substitution on the allylic substrate, which docs not contribute to the mesomeric or inductive stabilization often facilitates lithiation dramatically 58. In lithiations, in contrast to most other metalations, the kinetic acidity, caused by complexing heteroatom substituents, may override the thermodynamic acidity, which is estimated from the stabilization of the competing anions. These directed lithiations59 should be performed in the least polar solvent possible, e.g.. diethyl ether, toluene, or even hexane. 

The acidity of benzylic protons of aromatics complexed to transition-metal groups was first disclosed by Trakanosky and Card with (indane)Cr(CO)3 [61]. Other cases are known with Cr(CO)3 [62], Mn(CO)3 [63], FeCp+ [64, 65], and Fe(arene)2+ [31, 66] but none reported the isolation of deprotonated methyl-substituted complexes. We found that deprotonation of the toluene complex gives an unstable red complex which could be characterized by 13C NMR ( Ch2 = 4.86 ppm vs TMS in CD5CD3) and alkylated by CH3I [58] Eq. (13) ... 

The i factor can be used to help determine the extent to which a substance is dissociated into ions in solution. For example, in dilute solution, HC1 has an i factor of 1 in toluene and 2 in water. These values suggest that HC1 retains its molecular form in toluene but is fully deprotonated in water. The strength of a weak acid in... 

In contrast to oxoesters, the a-protons of thioesters are sufficiently acidic to permit continuous racemization of the substrate by base-catalyzed deprotonation at the a-carbon. Drueckhammer et al. first demonstrated the feasibility of this approach by performing DKR of a propionate thioester bearing a phenylthiogroup, which also contributes to the acidity of the a-proton (Figure 4.14) [39a]. The enzymatic hydrolysis of the thioester was coupled with a racemization catalyzed by trioctylamine. Owing to the insolubility of the substrate and base in water, they employed a biphasic system (toluene/H2O). Using P. cepacia (Amano PS-30) as the enzyme and a catalytic amount of trioctylamine, they obtained a quantitative yield of the corresponding... 

Very significant acceleration in the rate of deprotonation of 2-methylcyclohexanone was observed when triethylamine was included in enolate-forming reactions in toluene. The rate enhancement is attributed to a TS containing LiHMDS dimer and triethylamine. Steric effects in the amine are crucial in selective stabilization of the TS and the extent of acceleration that is observed.18... 

Some of the details of the mechanism may differ for various catalytic systems. There have been kinetic studies on two of the amination systems discussed here. The results of a study of the kinetics of amination of bromobenzene using Pd2(dba)3, BINAP, and sodium r-amyloxide in toluene were consistent with the oxidative addition occurring after addition of the amine at Pd. The reductive elimination is associated with deprotonation of the animated palladium complex.166... 

While ephedrine derivatives showed some selectivity, the most promising results were obtained with cinchona alkaloids. Lithium alkoxides and lithium acetylides (n-BuLi or LiHMDS used to deprotonate both the acetylene and the alcohol) gave better results than the corresponding sodium or magnesium salts. Higher enan-tioselectivity was obtained in THF (homogeneous) than in toluene or diethyl ether (heterogeneous). 

Studies of the thermodynamics of formation of complexes of zinc with 2,2 -bipyridine in the presence of halide and thiocyanate ions in DMF has been carried out.205 The zinc complexes of 2,2 -bipyridine with A-(benzenesulfonyl)glycine and A-(toluene- -sulfonyl)glycine were synthesized and infrared data implied a structural analogy with the cadmium complexes. This suggests that the zinc promotes sulfonamide nitrogen deprotonation in the amino acid ligands in the solid state.206... 

The cyclopentadienes la-e can be deprotonated by potassium in toluene to give the potassium cyclopentadienides 2a-e [2]. These compounds are very soluble in THF and also in hot benzene or toluene, which is indicative of the presence of essentially monomeric units in solution this is due to an intramolecular donor stabilization by the tentacle function [6]. 

Diboratacarbazole heterocycles 137 are obtained in 60% isolated yield by heating the phosphine-stabilized 2,2 -diborabiphenyl derivative 138 with primary amines in toluene for 20h (Scheme 55). Further double deprotonation of the heterocycle 137 (Ar = Ph) with a lithium amide leads to the dianionic 9,11-diboratacarbazole derivative 139 (98%, S nB 31.71 ppm). Structures 137 (Ar = Ph) and 139 were characterized by X-ray crystallography <20040M3085>. 

Acetylacetone was deprotonated with diethylzinc in toluene to afford [EtZn(acac)]2 (Figure 65, 140) which crystallized in dimeric form. The quality of the X-ray data was too low to obtain reliable bond parameters, but the coordination environment about zinc is distorted tetrahedral, with two intramolecular and one intermolecular Zn-O bond.200... 

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