Electrophilic metalation of arenes

Electron-deficient rhodium(III) complexes participate in the electrophilic metalation of arenes, as originally shown by Aoyama, Ogoshi, and co-workers [60,61], Highly electrophilic rhodium(III) complexes have also been employed in other reactions that involve the C-H functionalization of arenes, such as the carboxylation of... 

The stoichiometric electrophilic metallation of arenes also works according to the same principle using Tl, Pb and Sn reagents. The corresponding catalytic reaction has been reported in 1995 by Fujiwara involving the oxidative carbonyla-tion of arenes using Pd(OAc)2 as the catalyst, an oxidant and The para-... 

Another instructive scenario may be found when considering the metalation of arenes. There are two distinct mechanisms for the metalation of aromatic C-H bonds - electrophilic substitution and concerted oxidative addition (Box2). The classical arene mercuration, known for more than a century, serves to illustrate the electrophilic pathway whereas the metal hydride-catalyzed deuterium labeling of arenes document the concerted oxidative addition mechanism [8, 17]. These two processes differ both in kinetic behavior and regioselectivity and thus we may appreciate the need to differentiate these two types of process. However, the choice of C-H bond activation to designate only one, the oxidative addition pathway, creates a similar linguistic paradox. Indeed, it is hard to argue that the C-H bond in the cationic cr-complex is not activated. 

The [(OEP)Rh]+ scaffold, while efficient at the metalation of arenes, is ill-suited for catalytic biaryl bond formation. The generation of an intermediate bearing two aryl groups cis to each other as a typical precursor to biaryls through reductive elimination is impossible due to the ligand-imposed geometry at the metal center. Nonetheless, other highly electron-deficient Rh(III) complexes can offer suitable entries into catalytic routes for electrophilic arene arylation. This is especially the case if the electrophilic Rh(III) center can be accessed in situ from the oxidative addition of Ar-X to a Rh(I) complex (Scheme 4). 

Thanks to their low cost and easy availability, many metal-exchanged clays have been patented as efficient solid catalysts in Friedel-Crafts acylation reactions. A great number of arylketones is prepared by electrophilic acylation of arenes with anhydrides in the presence of ion-exchanged clays at 150°C-250°C. Thus, for example, aluminum-enriched mica promotes the reaction of BAN with mcto-xylene at reflux for 4 h in 99% yield. 

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 " . 

A few reactions of electrophilic metalation of an aromatic nucleus with transition metal complexes are known. The porphyrin complex of rhodium(III) PorphRhCl reacts with benzene and its derivatives in the presence of a silver salt to give the metalated arene [17] ... 

It was demonstrated by Heck in the late 1960s that arylpaUadium salts, prepared by trans-metallation of organomercury compounds, constitute useful reactants in various vinylic substitution reactions.f t Independently, Moritani, Fujiwara, and colleagues conducted similar vinylic substitutions, but generated the organopalladium intermediates by direct electrophilic palladation of arenes.t ° In these reactions the palladium(II) salt employed is reduced to paUadium(O) (Scheme ). ... 

An important route for the C-H activation of arenes and heteroarenes is through electrophilic metallation of an aromatic ring, followed by reaction with an alkene. There are numerous simple examples with arenes and heteroarenes reacting with alkenes under palladium catalysis." This has been referred to as the dehydro-genative Heck reaction and the oxidative Heck reaction, as well as the Fujiwara reaction, or Fujiwara-Heck reaction. Both benzene 3.4 and its derivatives (Schemes 3.6 and 3.7) and heteroarenes (Schemes 3.8 and 3.9) can be used. While the reaction has been carried out with a stoichiometric amount of palladium, catalytic processes, with an added oxidant are widespread. 

There has been a review of the electrophilic borylation of arenes. It has been shown that the direct reaction of arylboroxines with 0-benzoylhydroxylamines in the presence of base, but without transition metal catalysis, may yield aromatic amines. 

Reduction of arenes by catalytic hydrogenation was described m Section 114 A dif ferent method using Group I metals as reducing agents which gives 1 4 cyclohexadiene derivatives will be presented m Section 1111 Electrophilic aromatic substitution is the most important reaction type exhibited by benzene and its derivatives and constitutes the entire subject matter of Chapter 12... 

Other metals capable of electrophilic substitution of C-H bonds are salts of palladium and, environmentally unattractive, mercury. Methane conversion to methanol esters have been reported for both of them [29], Electrophilic attack at arenes followed by C-H activation is more facile, for all three metals. The method for making mercury-aryl involves reaction of mercury diacetate and arenes at high temperatures and long reaction times to give aryl-mercury(II) acetate as the product it was described as an electrophilic aromatic substitution rather than a C-H activation [30],... 

Various effective synthetic routes can be based on metallation of organic substrates with lithium arenes, obtained in situ from metallic lithium and an arene present in substoichio-metric amounts. Immediate quenching of the lithiated intermediates may be considered as a reduction reaction of the original substrate. Otherwise, further functionalization may be attained when using diverse electrophiles. Various examples of such processes follow (see also equation 69 in section VI.B.l). 

The same polymeric arenes that served as metallation catalysts in equation 119 can also be used for silylation in Barbier-type reactions (equation 131). The polymer is presumably converted to a lithium arene adduct that activates metallic lithium for metallation of the halogenated substrates, before addition of an electrophile to achieve the synthetic goal. Equations 132-135 illustrate some of the cases investigated. The products can be characterized by the usual spectroscopic methods . 

A flexible means of access to functionalized supports for solid-phase synthesis is based on metallated, cross-linked polystyrene, which reacts smoothly with a wide range of electrophiles. Cross-linked polystyrene can be lithiated directly by treatment with n-butyllithium and TMEDA in cyclohexane at 60-70 °C [1-3] to yield a product containing mainly meta- and para-Iithiated phenyl groups [4], Metallation of noncross-linked polystyrene with potassium ferf-amylate/3-(lithiomethyl)heptane has also been reported [5], The latter type of base can, unlike butyllithium/TMEDA [6], also lead to benzylic metallation [7]. The C-Iithiation of more acidic arenes or heteroar-enes, such as imidazoles [8], thiophenes [9], and furans [9], has also been performed on insoluble supports (Figure 4.1). These reactions proceed, like those in solution, with high regioselectivity. 

Since trimethylsilylarenes can be prepared by metallation of the arene followed by treatment with chlorotrimethylsilane, this provides an alternative route into a range of difficult substitution patterns. For example, the ortho/para directing effects of the methoxy groups in 1,3-dimethoxybenzene 75 direct the electrophile to the 4-position. However, lithiation of 1,3-dimethoxybenzene takes place at the 2-position. Reaction with chlorotrimethylsilane then gives the 2-trimethylsilyl compound 76, which undergoes ipso substitution with the electrophile to give the 1,2,3-trisubstituted product 77 (equation 39)101,102. 

As shown by the last reaction in Scheme 5.23, the metalation of benzamides is complicated by several potential side reactions (Scheme 5.24). Thus, benzamides can also undergo ortho-metalation [181, 217-222] or metalation at benzylic positions [223-225], Ortho-metalation seems to be promoted by additives such as TMEDA, and benzylic metalation can be performed selectively with lithium amide bases [217,224], which are often not sufficiently basic to mediate ortho- or a-amino metalation. If deprotonation of the CH-N group succeeds, the resulting product might also undergo cydization by intramolecular attack at the arene [214, 216] (see also Ref. [226] and Scheme 5.27) instead of reacting intermolecularly with an electrophile. That this cydization occurs, despite the loss of aromatidty, shows how reactive these intermediates are. 

Benzyl methyl ether or allyl methyl ethers can be selectively metalated at the benzylic/allylic position by treatment with BuLi or sBuLi in THF at -40 °C to -80 C, and the resulting organolithium compounds react with primary and secondary alkyl halides, epoxides, aldehydes, or other electrophiles to yield the expected products [187, 252, 253]. With allyl ethers mixtures of a- and y-alkylated products can result [254], but transmetalation of the lithiated allyl ethers with indium yields y-metalated enol ethers, which are attacked by electrophiles at the a position (Scheme 5.29). Ethers with ft hydrogen usually undergo rapid elimination when treated with strong bases, and cannot be readily C-alkylated (last reaction, Scheme 5.29). Metalation of benzyl ethers at room temperature can also lead to metalation of the arene [255] (Section 5.3.11) or to Wittig rearrangement [256]. Epoxides have been lithiated and silylated by treatment with sBuLi at -90 °C in the presence of a diamine and a silyl chloride [257]. 

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