Ester compounds, Favorskii rearrangement

Chinese chemists have reported the synthesis of pentacyclo[4.3.0.0 , 0 ]nonane-2,4-bis(trinitroethyl ester) (88). This compound may find potential use as an energetic plastisizer in futuristic explosive and propellant formulations. The synthesis of (88) uses widely available hydroquinone (81) as a starting material. Thus, bromination of (81), followed by oxidation, Diels-Alder cycloaddition with cyclopentadiene, and photochemical [2 - - 2] cycloaddition, yields the dione (85) as a mixture of diastereoisomers, (85a) and (85b). Favorskii rearrangement of this mixture yields the dicarboxylic acid as a mixture of isomers, (86a) and (86b), which on further reaction with thionyl chloride, followed by treating the resulting acid chlorides with 2,2,2-trinitroethanol, gives the energetic plastisizer (88) as a mixture of isomers, (88a) and (88b). Improvements in the synthesis of nitroform, and hence 2,2,2-trinitroethanol, makes the future application of this product attractive. 

Exposure of uvidin A (3.14) or the esters 3.16-3.20 to methanolic KOH led to the new lactone 3.38, arising by a Favorskii rearrangement of the a,P-epoxyketone function (11). The same rearrangement was observed for 11-O-ethoxyethyluvidin A however, in this case the lactone ring involved the tertiary OH group of compound 3.39. Sesquiterpenes 3.38 and 3.39 have a new... 

The Favorskii reaction has been used to effect ring contraction in the synthesis of strained ring compounds. Entry 4 in Scheme 10.3 illustrates this application of the reaction. With 7,7 -dihalo ketones, the rearrangement is accompanied by dehydrohalo-genation to yield an a,/ -unsaturated ester, as illustrated by entry 3 in Scheme 10.3. 

---