Esters, sulfonate elimination with base

The sulfonyl halides (ArSOjCl) convert the alcohol into a sulfonate (ArSOjOR), which is a better leaving group than the hydroxyl group. This allows a range of nucleophilic substitutions to be carried out, many of which parallel those found with alkyl halides. Alkyl halides such as iodides are formed by the nucleophilic substitution of the sulfonate by an iodide ion. The reaction in this case proceeds with inversion of configuration. Treatment of the sulfonate esters with bases such as sodium methoxide or collidine (2,4,6-trimethylpyridine), or even just heating them, can lead to the elimination of toluene-4-sulfonic acid and the formation of an alkene. 

Piperine (25) [56] and trichonine (13) [57] have been prepared by reaction of the corresponding a-sulfonyl organolithium compound with N-(4-oxobutanoyl)piperidine and pyrrolidine, respectively, followed by acetylation of the resulting (3-hydroxy sulfone and final base-promoted double elimination (Scheme 13). Using 4-oxobutanoic ethyl ester, this methodology has been applied to the synthesis of dodecatetraeneamide (19) [23],... 

Ester eliminations are normally one of two types, base catalyzed or pyrolytic. The usual choice for base catalyzed j5-elimination is a sulfonate ester, generally the tosylate or mesylate. The traditional conditions for elimination are treatment with refluxing collidine or other pyridine base, and rearrangement may occur. Alternative conditions include treatment with variously prepared aluminas, amide-metal halide-carbonate combinations, and recently, the use of DMSO either alone or in the presence of potassium -butoxide. 

Amides are very weak nucleophiles, far too weak to attack alkyl halides, so they must first be converted to their conjugate bases. By this method, unsubstituted amides can be converted to N-substituted, or N-substituted to N,N-disubstituted, amides. Esters of sulfuric or sulfonic acids can also be substrates. Tertiary substrates give elimination. O-Alkylation is at times a side reaction. Both amides and sulfonamides have been alkylated under phase-transfer conditions. Lactams can be alkylated using similar procedures. Ethyl pyroglutamate (5-carboethoxy 2-pyrrolidinone) and related lactams were converted to N-alkyl derivatives via treatment with NaH (short contact time) followed by addition of the halide. 2-Pyrrolidinone derivatives can be alkylated using a similar procedure. Lactams can be reductively alkylated using aldehydes under catalytic hydrogenation... 

The first evidence that an elimination-addition mechanism could be important in nucleophilic substitution reactions of alkanesulfonyl derivatives was provided by the observation (Truce et al., 1964 Truce and Campbell, 1966 King and Durst, 1964, 1965) that when alkanesulfonyl chlorides RCH2S02C1 were treated in the presence of an alcohol R OD with a tertiary amine (usually Et3N) the product was a sulfonate ester RCHDS020R with exactly one atom of deuterium on the carbon alpha to the sulfonyl group. Had the ester been formed by a base-catalysed direct substitution reaction of R OD with the sulfonyl chloride there would have been no deuterium at the er-position. Had the deuterium been incorporated by a separate exchange reaction, either of the sulfonyl chloride before its reaction to form the ester, or of the ester subsequent to its formation, then the amount of deuterium incorporated would not have been uniformly one atom of D per molecule. The observed results are only consistent with the elimination-addition mechanism involving a sulfene intermediate shown in (201). Subsequent kinetic studies... 

Sulfonates with a sulfur-bound C,H group can also eliminate alkoxide when treated with a strong base [82]. Phenylmethanesulfonic esters, for instance, are sufficiently base-labile to be useful protective groups for alcohols (Scheme 4.17). 

Now, let us take a simple functional group such as an OH and substitute it on our carbon atom. The carbinol we now have is capable of yielding only one C-C bond by way of substitution or one unsaturation on our carbon by means of elimination. Alcohols should then be classified under the FN = 1 group. Other oxygen based substituents such as ethers, carboxylic and sulfonic esters, and other heteroatom-containing derivatives such as amines and sulfides behave similarly, as long as we have only one of the heteroatoms substituted on our central carbon. By the same token, alkyl halides, diazonium salts, and even the carbenium ion itself are all capable of giving only one C-C bond with carbon... 

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