Diazomethane, Arndt-Eistert homologation

Arndt, F. Eistert, B. Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1935, 68, 200. Fritz Arndt (1885—1969) was bom in Hamburg, Germany. He discovered the Arndt—Eistert homologation at the University of Breslau where he extensively investigated the synthesis of diazomethane and its reactions with aldehydes, ketones, and acid chlorides. Fritz Arndt s chain-smoking of cigars ensured that his presence in the laboratories was always well advertised. Bernd Eistert (1902-1978), bom in Ohlau, Silesia, was Arndt s Ph.D. student. Eistert later joined I. G. Earbenindustrie, which became BASE after the Allies broke the conglomerate up after WWII. 

This reaction was first reported by Arndt and Eistert in 1935. It is the extension of carboxylic acid by one CH2 unit via the reaction of acyl chloride with diazomethane and is generally known as the Arndt-Eistert synthesis. In addition, this reaction is also occasionally referred to as the Arndt-Eistert acid synthesis, Arndt-Eistert homologation," and Arndt-Eistert reaction. This reaction has been extensively reviewed. Other reagents instead of diazomethane have been similarly applied to extend the length of the carboxylic acids7... 

Preparation of the sulfur analogue involves as the first step cyclization of the terephthalic acid derivative 92. The acid is then converted to the acid chloride and this is allowed to react with diazomethane. Rearrangement of the resulting diazoketone (95) under the conditions of the Arndt-Eistert reaction leads to the homologated acid. 

The Arndt-Eistert Synthesis allows the formation of homologated carboxylic acids or their derivatives by reaction of the activated carboxylic acids with diazomethane and subsequent Wolff-Rearrangement of the intermediate diazoketones in the presence of nucleophiles such as water, alcohols, or amines. 

The homologation of carboxylic acids is a reaction frequently needed in synthetic chemistry. The Arndt-Eistert reaction though aesthetically pleasing, is not preferred today, owing to the use of diazomethane and silver reagents. We provided47 a solution to this problem by the addition of carbon radicals to... 

A carbon chain may be extended by one unit by using the Arndt-Eistert synthesis. In the first step, an acyl halide is treated with diazomethane to form the a-diazo ketone. This is then treated with water and silver oxide. The resultant product is the free acid. If an alcohol is used instead of water, then the related ester is formed. This is the best way of extending a chain by one unit if the carboxylic acid is available. The process of extension in this manner is called homologation. 

The Wolff rearrangement of a-diazocarbonyl compounds (8.58, R = H, alkyl, aryl, OR) has great synthetic importance because in most cases the ketenes formed react smoothly with water, alcohols, and amines (Scheme 8-34). An early application that still has considerable importance is the homologization of carboxylic acids (Arndt-Eistert reaction Arndt and Eistert, 1935). As shown in Scheme 8-34, the reaction starts from the chloride of the acid RCOOH, which leads to an a-diazo ketone with diazomethane (R = H), followed by the Wolff rearrangement and the hydrolysis of the ketene intermediate to give the homologous carboxylic acid (8.59, R =H). In alcohols and amines esters (8.60) and amides (8.61, R = H), respectively. 

An apparently similar reaction to the Arndt-Eistert process is the homologization of aldehydes and ketones by diazomethane. In the lUPAC nomenclature of transformations (1989 c), both are methylene insertions, but the homologization of aldehydes and ketones does not involve a carbene or ketene intermediate. We discussed it therefore in Section 7.7 in the context of dediazoniations via diazonium ions and carbocations. It is worthwhile to draw attention to the early work of Wolff, as mentioned at the beginning of this section. He discussed in one of his early papers the striking fact that, in boiling water, diazoacetophenone yields the expected (at least at that time) product of a hydroxy-de-diazoniation, but, in the presence of silver... 

When working on the acylation of diazomethane, Arndt and Eistert (1935) found the method for homologization of carboxylic acids in which acylation of the diazo ketone with the acid chloride is followed by a Wolff rearrangement (see discussion in Sect. 8.6). 

Any reaction involving diazomethane followed by silver oxide is classifiable as an Arndt-Eistert synthesis. This reaction converts an acid chloride into the next higher homolog in the series. Realizing this, partial structures can be proposed for structures A, B and C. 

Often, esters are homologated by one carbon using the diazomethane-based Arndt-Eistert procedure. Kowalski homologation, addition of the inexpensive dibromomethane followed by a-elimination, is a more scalable alternative. Timothy Gallagher of the University of Bristol recently reported (J. Org. Chem. 2004, 69,4849) the use of Kowalski homologation to prepare P-amino esters from a-amino esters, including the conversion of 3 to 4. Note that the transformation can be carried out without protection of the OH, and that it proceeds without loss of stereochemical integrity. 

Nierenstein reaction is the reaction of an acid chloride 1 with diazomethane at room temperature to yield a a-chloroketone 2. It differs from the Arndt-Eistert reaction in that the latter specifically forms diazoketone, which is used to form the higher homolog of the substrate acid chloride. 

---