Electrophilic attack on arenes

One important mechanism for homogeneous catalytic activation of aromatic C—H bonds is electrophilic attack by transition-metal complexes on the aromatic substrates. It is presumed t -aryl complexes are important intermediates in these reactions, but they are rarely isolated. Direct electrophilic metallation of aromatic substrates is closely related to reactions observed with nontransition metals ( 5.6., auration 5.7.2., mercuration and 5.3., thallation - ). References to metal-aryl complexes synthesized by electrophilic attack on arenes by transition metals are sununarized in Table 1. Reviews are available " . 

TabieI. Examples of (t- Aryl Complexes Synthesized by Electrophilic Attack on Arenes ... 

The lanthanides and actinides are also active in electrophilic attack on arenes. Bis(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)lutetium methyl or hydride complexes react readily with benzene to give phenyl complexes and methane or dihydrogen . Similar reactions are observed for Sc and Th In a remarkable reaction benzene can be dimetallated by Lu, yielding II ... 

Electrophilic attack on coordinated cyclopentadienyl rings, particularly those in ferrocene, is well established. This process occurs in a similar fashion to electrophilic attack on arenes and was used to establish the binding mode of the Cp ligand in ferrocene (see Equation 3.88). These reactions of the Cp ligand with electrophiles are described in more detail in Chapter 12, which covers electrophilic attack on coordinated ligands. Friedel-Crafts acylation, formylation, aminomethylation, and mercuration are all known. - ... 

Step (1) is reminiscent of electrophilic addition to an alkene. Aromatic substitution differs in that the intermediate carbocation (a benzenonium ion) loses a cation (most often to give the substitution product, rather than adding a nucleophile to give the addition product. The benzenonium ion is a specific example of an arenonium ion, formed by electrophilic attack on an arene (Section 11.4). It is also called a sigma complex, because it arises by formation of a o-bond between E and the ring. See Fig. 11-1 for a typical enthalpy-reaction curve for the nitration of an arene. 

A bizarre silylene insertion into the I—I bond has been suggested as the initial step in the mechanism for the low-temperature (—90 °C) reaction of dihalosilylenes (SiF2, SiCl2, SiBr2) with solutions of iodine in toluene, as shown in equation 58125. These reactions can be considered to involve electrophilic attack on an arene by SiX2l+126. 

Functionalization of C—H bonds via aromatic substitution is an important means of adding functional groups to all kinds of arenes and as such is of significant relevance to many areas of chemistry. Notably, the key step in several industrially important reactions is an electrophilic attack on aromatic Jt-systems by carbocations or other strong electrophiles. 

Arenes usually undergo electrophilic substitution, and are inert to nucleophilic attack. However, nucleophile attack on arenes occurs by complex formation. Fast nucleophilic substitution with carbanions with pKa values >22 has been extensively studied [44]. The nucleophiles attack the coordinated benzene ring from the exo side, and the intermediate i/2-cvclohexadienyl anion complex 171 is generated. Three further transformations of this intermediate are possible. When Cr(0) is oxidized with iodine, decomplexation of 171 and elimination of hydride occur to give the substituted benzene 172. Protonation with strong acids, such as trifluoroacetic acid, followed by oxidation of Cr(0) gives rise to the substituted 1,3-cyclohexadiene 173. The 5,6-trans-disubstituted 1,3-cyclohexadiene 174 is formed by the reaction of an electrophile. 

The consistent picture being painted for this arene hydroxylation is an electrophilic attack of the bound peroxo ligand. The k2 value observed for [Cu2(H—XYL—D)]2+ (10-D) is within experimental error of that seen for the -H parent compound (10) this lack of deuterium isotope effect is consistent with electrophilic attack on the arene substrate n system, which precludes C—H bond cleavage in the rate-determining step. 

The survey of reactivity of oxepines given in CHEC-I <84CHEC-I(7)547> is still noteworthy. The survey in CHEC-I covers such topics as (i) thermal and photochemical reactions, (ii) electrophilic attack on the ring oxygen atom, (iii) nucleophilic attack on carbon atoms, and (iv) reactions involving cyclic transition states. Considering other reactions of oxepines, the existence of oxepin-arene oxide equilibrium should be taken into account since some of the reactions can involve the latter form. Specific properties of the arene oxide system make it possible to interpret why electrophilic attack at carbon, and nucleophilic attack at the hydrogen atom, are not characteristic of oxepines. There is a lack of information devoted to reactions of oxepines with, for example, radicals and carbenes. 

As noted in Chapters 2 and 11, a series of -q -arene complexes of osmium have been prepared, and the reactivity of these species has been studied extensively by Harman. The reactions of iq -arene complexes of Os(II) illustrate how strong backbonding can cause the uncoordinated portion of an aromatic system to be more susceptible to electrophilic attack than the corresponding free arene. ° Osmium(II) pentamine complexes of phenols, anilines, acetanilides, and anisoles react with electrophiles at the uncoordinated portion of the ring. For example, the simple phenol complex in Equation 12.78 reacts with Michael acceptors at the 4-position of the coordinated phenol in the presence of a mild tertiary amine base. This reactivity and selectivity for reaction at the 4-position is greater than the reactivity of free phenol. The reactions of electrophiles with aniline derivatives occur in a similar fashion and lead to products from alkylation of the aromatic ring predominantaly at the 4-position (Equation 12.79). Related reactions occur with complexes of electron-rich five-membered pyrrole and furan heterocycles. Examples of electrophilic attack on -q -pyrrole complexes of Os(II) are shown in Equation 12.80. ... 

Since the early reports of the Fujiwara-Moritani reaction [2], catalytic alkenylation procedures for a broad range of aromatic substrates with various alkenes have been developed. A proposed mechanism for these Fujiwara-Moritani-type reactions is illustrated in Scheme 18.4 [4]. The reaction is initiated by electrophilic attack on an arene by a cationic palladium species [PdOAc]+, generated in situ from Pd(OAc)2, to form an arylpalladium intermediate. Subsequent alkene insertion and fi-hydrogen elimination may occur to produce an alkenylarene derivative and HPdOAc. The latter may be reoxidized by an oxidant to regenerate Pd(OAc)2. 

A second indirect method involves derivatisation of a preformed arene complex and is particularly useful with highly functionalised complexes. Included here are a wide range of reactions such as nucleophilic additions on the aromatic nucleus, electrophilic attacks on m-iitu-generated carbanions (e.g. aldol condensation ) and the quenching of carbocations with nucleophiles. ... 

At present, we do not completely understand why only some of these very similar m-xylyl dicopper(I) complexes systems described above undergo ligand oxygenation reactions. However, based on the results outlined above, we can speculate on a number of aspects of this 02-activation process. Our studies implicate the presence of a copper-dioxygen (peroxo dicopper(II)) adduct as an intermediate in the oxygenation reaction and more recent kinetic studies (51) further support this conclusion. This adduct then either directly or via some further intermediate undergoes an electrophilic attack of the arene. The unique nature of this very fast reaction 2->3, and the observed inability to intercept the active... 

The synthetic application of vicarious nucleophilic substitution, whereby hydrogen of an electrophilic arene is replaced by an a-functionalized alkyl substituent, has been reviewed 177 the sequence usually involves attack on a nitroalkene by a carbanion containing a leaving group X at the carbanionic centre, /i-elimination of HX from the er-adduct, and rearomatization on subsequent protonation. 

Arenes are inert to nucleophilic attack and normally undergo electrophilic substitution. However, arenes coordinate to Cr(CO)6 to form the i/fi-arenechromium tricarbonyl complex 79, and facile nucleophilic attack on the arene generates the anionic jy5-cyclohexadienyl complex 80, from which substituted arene 81, or cyclohexadiene is obtained by oxidative decomplexation. In this reaction, strongly... 

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