Electrophiles bromine

Aluminum chloride is a stronger Lewis acid than iron(lll) bromide and has been used as a catalyst in electrophilic bromination when as in the example shown the aromatic ring bears a strongly deactivating substituent... 

Ha.logena.tlon, 3-Chloroindole can be obtained by chlorination with either hypochlorite ion or with sulfuryl chloride. In the former case the reaction proceeds through a 1-chloroindole intermediate (13). 3-Chloroindole [16863-96-0] is quite unstable to acidic aqueous solution, in which it is hydroly2ed to oxindole. 3-Bromoindole [1484-27-1] has been obtained from indole using pytidinium tribromide as the source of electrophilic bromine. Indole reacts with iodine to give 3-iodoindole [26340-47-6]. Both the 3-bromo and 3-iodo compounds are susceptible to hydrolysis in acid but are relatively stable in base. 

The major organic reactions of BrCl consist of electrophilic brominations of aromatic compounds. Many aromatic compounds do not react in aqueous solution unless the reaction involves activated aromatic compounds (an example being phenol). Bromine chloride undergoes free-radical reactions more readily than bromine. 

The first step in electrophilic bromination of benzene involves addition of Br, leading to an intermediate bromobenzenium ion. This is then rapidly followed by loss of a proton to give bromobenzene. 

Other electrophilic substitutions proceed with difficulty, or not at all. Nitrosation and diazo coupling require the presence of the strongly activating dimethylamino group (see Section VIII). Bromine adds, in the presence of sunlight, to give tetrabromotetrahydrobenzofuroxan (48) the initial attack is probably free-radical in nature. The product can be dehydrobrominated to form 4,7-, or a mixture of 4,5- and 4,6-dibromobenzofuroxan, depending upon the conditions. More conventional electrophilic bromination conditions have been tried in an attempt to obtain a monosubstituted product, but without success. 

Figure 16.3 An energy diagram for the electrophilic bromination of benzene. The overall process is exergonic.

The pKa of p-cyclopropylbenzoic acid is 4.45. Is cvclopropylbenzene likely to be more reactive or less reactive than benzene toward electrophilic bromination Explain. 

Treatment of 2,7-di-/ert-butylthiepin (1) either directly with bromine at — 78 °C, or with pyridinium bromide perbromide at room temperature, gives the thiophene compound 2. In contrast, bromination with bromine-1,4-dioxane complex or pyridinium bromide perbromide in the presence of acetic acid leads to the thiopyran derivative 3.87 To account for these results a homothiopyrylium ion has been proposed as a common intermediate, formed by electrophilic bromination at C4 in the first step. 

When heated under reflux in 48% hydrobromic acid 4-bromo-2(3W)-benzothiazolones rearranged to the 6-bromo isomers (41). The mechanism is believed to involve initial protonation at C-4, followed by either bromide ion attack at C-6 (with concomitant SN2 expulsion of the 4-bromine), or bromide attack at the 4-bromo group to remove it as molecular bromine. Subsequent electrophilic bromination at the 6-position is then possible. The latter process is favored by the authors. Further bromination of 41 gave a 32% yield of the 4,6-dibromobenzothiazolone (91T2255) (Scheme 26). 

Electrophilic bromination (and nitration) of pyrido[l, 2-a]benzimidazole (analogous to 132) cannot take place in the imidazole moiety. Initial substitution, using NBS as reagent, was shown to occur at the 8-position, and subsequently at C-4 and C-6 (90JOU1166). 

Bromination of 136 in methanol gave the 3-bromo derivative, identical with the product of Sandmeyer reaction of the 3-diazonium salt. When the reactive 3-position was blocked, electrophilic bromination would not take place (66JOC265). Chlorination appears to occur by addition [83AHC(34)79], and perhalides are known [84MI25 90AHC(47)1]. Activating substituents are able to induce some bromination in the pyridine ring. 

Oxidation of sulphoxides to sulphones may be brought about by the use of several different bromine-containing reagents which act as a source of electrophilic bromine. To date, these reagents have not received the same attention as their chlorine analogues. 

Previously published methods for electrophilic bromination of isoquinoline"" lead to mixtures of isomers only separable with difficulty, use expensive additives or large excesses of reactants, or involve multistep procedures. 

This symposium addressed several important issues in bromine chemistry. A major part has been devoted to stereochemistry and mechanism of electrophilic bromination of olefins. Other topics included new selective methods of bromination and oxybromination, brominations in presence of solid supports and catalysts, organobromine compounds as synthons, recent developments in brominated fire retardants and toxicological and environmental aspects of brominated compounds. 

Our recent studies on effective bromination and oxidation using benzyltrimethylammonium tribromide (BTMA Br3), stable solid, are described. Those involve electrophilic bromination of aromatic compounds such as phenols, aromatic amines, aromatic ethers, acetanilides, arenes, and thiophene, a-bromination of arenes and acetophenones, and also bromo-addition to alkenes by the use of BTMA Br3. Furthermore, oxidation of alcohols, ethers, 1,4-benzenediols, hindered phenols, primary amines, hydrazo compounds, sulfides, and thiols, haloform reaction of methylketones, N-bromination of amides, Hofmann degradation of amides, and preparation of acylureas and carbamates by the use of BTMA Br3 are also presented. 

Systematic studies of the selectivity of electrophilic bromine addition to ethylenic bonds are almost inexistent whereas the selectivity of electrophilic bromination of aromatic compounds has been extensively investigated (ref. 1). This surprising difference arises probably from particular features of their reaction mechanisms. Aromatic substitution exhibits only regioselectivity, which is determined by the bromine attack itself, i.e. the selectivity- and rate-determining steps are identical. 

The generally accepted mechanism for electrophilic bromination of olefins in hydroxylic solutions of medium to high polarity, and at low [Br2], is given in equation 1 (ref. 1). 

Apart from a few studies (ref. 7), the use of deuterium kinetic isotope effects (kie s) appears to have had limited use in mechanistic studies of electrophilic bromination of olefins. Secondary alpha D-kie s have been reported for two cases, trans-stilbene fi and p-substituted a-d-styrenes 2, these giving relatively small inverse kie s of... 

NEW MECHANISTIC INSIGHT INTO THE ELECTROPHILIC BROMINATION OF OLEFINS... 

Recent studies by Pincock and Yates (32, 33) have demonstrated the intermediacy of vinyl cations in the electrophilic bromination of arylmethyl-acetylenes in acetic acid. The rates of addition of Brj to a number of substituted phenylmethylacetylenes in acetic acid follow the general equation... 

As with chlorine-containing oxidants, JV-bromo species have been used to oxidize sulphoxides to sulphones (with no bromine incorporation) through the initial formation of a bromosulphonium ion, by nucleophilic attack of the sulphoxide sulphur atom on the electrophilic halogen atom. Such reactions involve JV-bromosuccinimide ° bromamine-T, iV-bromoacetamide ° and iV-bromobenzenesulphonamide. All reported studies were of a kinetic nature and yields were not quoted. In acid solution all oxidations occurred at or around room temperature with the nucleophilic attack on the electrophilic bromine atom being the rate-limiting step. In alkaline solution a catalyst such as osmium tetroxide is required for the reaction to proceed . ... 

The radical versus electrophilic character of triplet and singlet carbenes also shows up in relative reactivity patterns given in Table 10.1. The relative reactivity of singlet dibromocarbene toward alkenes is more similar to electrophiles (bromination, epoxidation) than to radicals ( CCl,). 

Fig. 21 (a) Correlation of the rates (log kBr) of electrophilic bromination in acetic acid... 

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