Phenols disubstituted 2-

The selectivity of the oxidation of 2,6-disubstituted phenols depends on the type of oxidizing agent. For example, with a series of cobalt-containing catalysts of the salcomine type, oxidation of 2,6-dimethylphenol produces three products the poly(phenylene oxide), the diphenoquinone, and... 

Polymerization Mechanism. The mechanism that accounts for the experimental observations of oxidative coupling of 2,6-disubstituted phenols involves an initial formation of aryloxy radicals from oxidation of the phenol with the oxidized form of the copper—amine complex or other catalytic agent. The aryloxy radicals couple to form cyclohexadienones, which undergo enolization and redistribution steps (32). The initial steps of the polymerization scheme for 2,6-dimethylphenol are as in equation 6. 

Halogen Displacement. Poly(phenylene oxide)s can also be prepared from 4-halo-2,6-disubstituted phenols by displacement of the halogen to form the ether linkage (48). A trace of an oxidizing agent or free radical initiates the displacement reaction. With 4-bromo-2,6-dimethylphenol, the reaction can be represented as in equation 10 ... 

Various 2,6-di8ubstituted p-benzoquinones have been prepared by oxidation of the corresponding 2,6-disubstituted phenols with potassium nitrosodisulfonate or lead dioxide in formic acid. Oxidative coupling of 2,6-disubstituted phenols to poly-2,6-disubstituted phenylene ethers followed by treatment of the polymers in acetic acid with lead dioxide is reported to give low yields of the corresponding 2,6-disubstituted p-benzoquinones. 

Salcomine is a useful catalyst for the selective oxygenation of 2,6-disubstituted phenols to the corresponding p-benzoquinones when dimethylformamide is used as the solvent laborious procedures are avoided and high yields of pure p-benzoquinones are obtained. Following the procedure described above, the authors have prepared 2,6-diphenyl-p-benzoquinone (m.p. 134—135°, yield 86%) and 2,6-dimethoxy-p-benzoquinone (m.p. 252°, yield 91%) from the appropriate phenols. 

A huge group of macrocycles which contain 2,6-disubstituted phenols are the calixarenes [51]-[53]. Their conformation has been investigated intensively (Gutsche, 1989, 1991). In most conformations, however, the phenolic rings are oriented almost vertically in relation to the plane of the macrocydic ring. Therefore the OH functions are not oriented in an intra-annular fashion. Nevertheless the pK values of calixarenes [51] differ from those of other comparable phenols. The reason for this is the... 

In hydrogenation, early transition-metal catalysts are mainly based on metallocene complexes, and particularly the Group IV metallocenes. Nonetheless, Group III, lanthanide and even actinide complexes as well as later metals (Groups V-VII) have also been used. The active species can be stabilized by other bulky ligands such as those derived from 2,6-disubstituted phenols (aryl-oxy) or silica (siloxy) (vide infra). Moreover, the catalytic activity of these systems is not limited to the hydrogenation of alkenes, but can be used for the hydrogenation of aromatics, alkynes and imines. These systems have also been developed very successfully into their enantioselective versions. 

We were interested in the behaviour of polymeric catalysts in order to confirm that typical polymer effects may occur. Oxidative coupling of 2,6-disubstituted phenols, as developped by Hay (7), was chosen as a model reaction and the catalytic activities of coordination complexes of copper with several polymeric tertiary amines were compared with the activities of their low molecular weight analogs. The overall reaction scheme is presented in scheme 1. 

Figure 4. Schematic of electron transfer processes for 2,6-disubstituted phenol. The ligand groups are indicated as Am and the intermediate polymer chain segments as straight lines, (a) Hydroxo-bridged catalyst (b) chloro-bridged catalyst.

Table I Kinetic results on oxidative coupling of 2,6-disubstituted phenols at 25°C in the solvent mixture 1,2-dichlorobenzene/methanol (13 2 v/v).

Electro-oxidative polymerization of 2,6-disubstituted phenols is listed in Table I, with the polymerizations catalyzed by the copper-pyridine complex and oxidized by lead dioxide. 2,6-Dimethylphenol was electro-oxidatively polymerized to yield poly(2,6-dimethylphen-yleneoxide) with a molecular weight of 10000, as was attained by other polymerization methods. The NMR and IR spectra were in complete agreement with those measured for the other polymerization... 

Table I. Electro-oxidative Polymerization of 2,6-Disubstituted Phenols...

Among other in vitro enzymatic polymerizations that have been studied are the oxidative polymerizations of 2,6-disubstituted phenols to poly(p-phenylene oxide)s (Sec. 2-14b) catalyzed by horseradish peroxidase [Higashimura et al., 2000b] and the polymerization of P-cellobiosyl fluoride to cellulose catalyzed by cellulase [Kobayashi, 1999 Kobayashi et al., 2001],... 

Scheme 6.20. This ruthenium catalyst (10 mol%) was active for the cydization of ds-1 -ethynyl-2-vinyloxiranes to afford various 2,6-disubstituted phenols in reasonable yields. Under similar conditions, 1,1,2,2,-tetrasubstituted oxiranes gave the 2,3,6-trisubstituted phenols with a skeleton reorganization [22]. The 1,2-deuterium shift of the alkynyl deuterium of d-Sle was indicative of mthenium vinylidene intermediates (Scheme 6.20).

In 1959 Hay, et al., (36) reported that certain 2.6-disubstituted phenols reacted with oxygen in the presence of an amine complex of a... 

Polymerization also takes place when 4-halo-2.6-disubstituted phenols are oxidized with copper-amine catalysts and oxygen (5,35). In this case, stoichiometric amounts of copper salt or some other chloride acceptor (inorganic bases or strongly basic amines) are necessary since the amine complexes of copper (II) halides are not catalysts for the polymerization. Blanchard (5) has also described the polymerization of these 4-halo-phenols under conditions similar to those used by Price using certain copper (II) complexes as initiators. 

A large number of other 2,6-disubstituted phenols have been oxidatively coupled. A representative list of the results is presented below. 

Copper(I) salts in the presence of a tertiary amine catalyze the oxidation of 2,6-disubstituted phenols by 02 into poly(phenylene oxides) (high amine/copper ratio) or biphenyl-4,4 -quinones (low amine/copper ratio). When R is a bulky substituent (e.g. Bu ), biphenyl-4,4 -quinone is the sole product (equations 270 and 271).599... 

T he reaction of 2,6-disubstituted phenols with oxygen in the presence... 

Block copolymers may also be made by condensation polymerization. Elastomer fibers are produced in a three-step operation. A primary block of a polyether or polyester of a molecular weight of 1000-3000 is prepared, capped with an aromatic diisocyanate, and then expanded with a diamine or dihydroxy compound to a multiblock copolymer of a molecular weight of 20,000. The oxidative coupling of 2,6-disubstituted phenols to PPO is also a condensation polymerization. G. D. Cooper and coworkers report the manufacture of a block copolymer of 2,6-dimethyl-phenol with 2,6-diphenylphenol. In the first step, a homopolymer of diphenylphenol is preformed by copper-amine catalyst oxidation. In the second step, oxidation of dimethylphenol in the presence of the first polymer yields the block copolymer. 

Oxidation of mixtures of 2,6-disubstituted phenols leads to linear poly(arylene oxides). Random copolymers are obtained by oxidizing mixtures of phenols. Block copolymers can be obtained only when redistribution of the first polymer by the second monomer is slower than polymerization of the second monomer. Oxidation of a mixture of 2,6-di-methylphenol (DM ) and 2fi-diphenylphenol (DPP) yields a random copolymer. Oxidation of DPP in the presence of preformed blocks of polymer from DMP produces either a random copolymer or a mixture of DMP homopolymer and extensively randomized copolymer. Oxidation of DMP in the presence of polymer from DPP yields the block copolymer. Polymer structure is determined by a combination of differential scanning calorimetry, selective precipitation from methylene chloride, and NMR spectroscopy. 

Organic compounds having labile hydrogens, such as phenols [41,42], phenylene-diamines [43], and acetylenes [44], can be oxidatively coupled in the presence of specific metal complexes to form polymeric compounds. The oxidative polymerization of 2,6-disubstituted phenols with a copper-amine complex produces poly(2,6-disubstituted phenylene ether) [45-51], Poly(2,6-dimethylphenylene ether) and poly(2,6-diphenylphenylene ether) are commercially produced from 2,6-dimethyl phenol and 2,6-diphenylphenol, respectively (Figure 5). These polymers exhibit excellent performance as engineering plastics. 

Also of interest is the oxidative polycondensation of 2,6-disubstituted phenols with transition metal catalysts such as palladium complexes, which produces aromatic polyethers [2]. 

The oxidative coupling of 2,6-disubstituted phenols to poly-(arylene oxides) is a polycondensation reaction, in which polymer molecules couple with other polymer molecules as well as with monomer. Unstable quinone ketals formed by coupling of a polymeric aryloxy radical at the para position of the phenolic ring of a second radical are believed to be intermediates or the reaction. The ketals may be converted to polymeric phenols either by a series of intramolecular rearrangements or by disproportionation to aryloxy radicals, leading to a mobile equilibrium between polymer molecules of varying degree of polymerization. Both processes have been shown to occur, with their relative importance determined by the reaction conditions. 

Other 2,6-disubstituted phenols react in the same manner, provided the substituents are not too large oxidation of phenols with bulky ortho substituents, such as 2,6-di-tert-butylphenol, yields the diphenoquinone as the major product (16) (Reaction 2). 

Many amine-copper complexes, as well as a few amine complexes of other metals, and certain metal oxides have since been shown to induce similar reactions (17, 18, 22, 23, 30). This chapter is concerned largely with the mechanism of oxidative polymerization of phenols to linear polyarylene ethers most of the work reported has dealt with the copper-amine catalyzed oxidation of 2,6-xylenol, which is the basis for the commercial production of the polymer marketed under the trade name PPO, but the principal features of the reaction are common to the oxidative polymerization of other 2,6-disubstituted phenols. 

The experiments discussed above deal with the copper-amine catalyzed oxidation of 2,6-xylenol, but oxidation of xylenol by metal oxides takes place by the same mechanism (22). The oxidative coupling of other 2,6-disubstituted phenols has the same characteristics as the oxida-... 

Transalkylation reactions under acidic conditions have been reported for 2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)propane with 2,6-dialkylphenol [97], 2,6-diphen-ylphenol [98], diphenyl ether [99], and with 4-bromophenyl phenyl ether [99]. For example, the reaction of 2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)propane and a 2,6-disubstituted phenol is shown in Fig. 29. 

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