Dialkyl ethers, hydrolysis

Even polyalkoxy-s-triazines are quite prone to nucleophilic substitution. For example, 2,4,6-trimethoxy-s-triazine (320) is rapidly hydrolyzed (20°, dilute aqueous alkali) to the anion of 4,6-dimethoxy-s-triazin-2(l )-one (331). This reaction is undoubtedly an /S jvr-4r2 reaction and not an aliphatic dealkylation. The latter type occurs with anilines at much higher temperatures (150-200°) and with chloride ion in the reaction of non-basified alcohols with cyanuric chloride at reflux temperatures. The reported dealkylation with methoxide has been shown to be hydrolysis by traces of water present. Several analogous dealkylations by alkoxide ion, reported without evidence for the formation of the dialkyl ether, are all associated with the high reactivity of the alkoxy compounds which ai e, in fact, hydrolyzed by usually tolerable traces of water. Brown ... 

The advance of sulfur trioxide as sulfating agent largely depended on advances in sulfonation/sulfation reactor development and changes in raw material quality. Undiluted sulfur trioxide cannot be used as a sulfating agent except in special cases where suitable equipment is used because of its violent nature. Sulfur trioxide diluted in an inert gas, usually air, when used in batch processes can cause excessive dehydration and dark-colored products. However, batch processes were used years ago and inert liquid solvents were often suggested or used to moderate the reaction. Inadequate reaction conditions lead to a finished product that can contain dialkyl sulfate, dialkyl ether, isomeric alcohols, and olefins whereas inadequate neutralization conditions can increase the content of the parent alcohol due to hydrolysis of the unstable acid sulfate accompanied by an increase of mineral sulfate. 

Mildly basic liquiddiquid conditions with a stoichiometric amount of catalyst prevent hydrolysis during alkylation [101] and, more recently, it has been established that solid-liquid or microwave promoted reactions of dry materials are more effective for monoalkylation [102-106] of the esters and also permits dialkylation without hydrolysis. Soliddiquid phase-transfer catalytic conditions using potassium f-butoxide have been used successfully for the C-alkylation of diethyl acetamido-malonate and provides a convenient route to a-amino acids [105, 107] use of potassium hydroxide results in the trans-esterification of the malonate, resulting from hydrolysis followed by O-alkylation. The rate of C-alkylation of malonic esters under soliddiquid phase-transfer catalytic conditions may be enhanced by the addition of 18-crown-6 to the system. The overall rate is greater than the sum of the individual rates observed for the ammonium salt or the crown ether [108]. 

ZIEGLER METHOD. Cydization of dinitriles at high dilution in dialkyl ether in the presence of ether-soluble metal alkylamlide and hydrolysis of the resultant imino-nitril with formation of macrocyclic ketones in good yields. 

Addition of deuterium to carbonyl double bonds and their nitrogen analogs is accomplished by complex metal hydrides in an increasing number of examples. In this reduction two deuterium atoms are transferred of course, only the deuterium on carbon is firmly bound, and that attached to the hetero atom can be removed in the usual way. Since such reactions can in general be carried out with LiAlD4 in aprotic solvents, the use of lithium aluminum deuteride, LiAlH4,. offers no peculiarities. The necessary LiAlD4, which is extremely sensitive to hydrolysis, is commercially available. It can be conveniently handled as a solution in a dry dialkyl ether or in tetrahydrofuran at temperatures up to ca. 130°. 

Ether cleavage. The reagent is also useful for cleavage of aryl alkyl ethers to phenols (80-907o yield). It also cleaves dialkyl ethers to alkyl trimethylsilyl ethers which are then hydrolyzed to alcohols. This reaction is particularly useful for hydrolysis of methyl ethers (equation III). 

The fourth item in the table, phenol (hydroxybenzene), is alkylated on oxygen, forming an ether, methoxybenzene (anisol), with the powerful alkylating agent trimethyloxonium tetrafluoroborate [(CH30)3 BFt]. Other alkoxonium tetrafluo-roborates are also commercially available and can be used to the same end with phenols, enols, and alcohols, forming aryl ethers, enol ethers, and dialkyl ethers, respectively. In contrast to dialkyl, diaryl, and aralkyl ethers, which are quite inert and are often used as solvents, enol ethers are capable of acid-catalyzed hydrolysis to produce ketones (or their equivalent enol) and the alcohol from which the enol ether is formed (Scheme 8.47). 

Like simple dialkyl ethers, aliphatic and alicyclic crown ethers are chemically stable [179]. Aromatic crown ethers react like anisole, that is, they can be halo-genated or nitrated and they react with formaldehyde [182]. Hydrolysis takes place only in special cases [183]. Crown ethers are also thermally stable dibenzo-18-crown-6 can be distilled at 380°C without decomposition [184]. With hydrogen ions [185] and in the presence of Lewis acids (AICI3, TiCU), oxonium compounds are formed [186]. 

The ethereal solutions of these iodides do not fume in air, and removal of the solvent gives a liquid, which on further heating evolves dense white fumes, probably of beryllium oxide. Heating changes the alkyl beryllium halides to beryllium dialkyls. All the alkyl halide compounds are decomposed by water, with formation of the corresponding hydrocarbon. When carbon dioxide is passed through ethereal beryllium methyl iodide for three hours, the solution still gives a positive test and no acetic acid is found after hydrolysis. Acetanilide is formed from beryllium methyl iodide and phenyl isocyanate. 

The results of a series of reactions of Fischer carbene complexes with enynes are summarized in Tables 1 and 2. Cyclopropane synthesis is accomplished in the alkoxy series (Y = OMe) by the generation of a mixture of geometric isomers of enol ethers, whereas in the dialkyl-amino series, ketones are directly obtained after hydrolysis of the enamines. Higher yields have been obtained using the amino analog pentacarbonyl(l-pyrrolidinoethylidene)chromium [Y = N(CH2)J. - ... 

Because the exploitation of the chemistry of unprotected phosphonylated acetaldehydes is handicapped by the sensitivity of the P-C bond in acidic media, a reliable alternative procedure for the preparation of dialkyl 1-chloro-1-formylmethylphosphonates from dialkyl 2-ethoxy-vinylphosphonates has been developed. Room-temperatme chlorination of 2-ethoxyvinylphosphonates with dry chlorine in CCI4 followed by hydrolysis of the phosphonylated a,p-dichloro ethers with water at 50-60°C gives the expected monochlorinated aldehydes in 73-82% yields (Scheme 5.70). A similar treatment with bromine in water at 0°C converts diisopropyl 2-ethoxyvinylphosphonate smoothly into diisopropyl 1-bromo-1-formylmethylphosphonate in 92% yield. ... 

Interaction of trialkyl alanes with elementary sulfur in equimolar amounts gives dialkyl-alkylmercapto alanes in relatively good yield. Attempts to introduce more sulfur into the organoaluminum compound gave no well-defined products. Hydrolysis of these compounds produced, in addition to thiols, hydrogen sulfide, dialkyl thioethers, and compounds with a higher sulfur content (dialkyl dithio and trithio ethers) (114, 271). The products from the reaction of trialkyl alanes with selenium were of similar complexity (271). 

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