Esters, sulfonate reaction with bases

Dimethyl malonate derivatives containing an allenyl sulfone substituent at the y- or 3-position undergo endo-mode ring closure to give cyclopentene or cyclohexene derivatives upon treatment with 1.5 equiv of t-BuOK in t-BuOH at rt. The intermediate unsaturated cycloadducts undergo demethoxycarbonylation and double bond isomerization under the reaction conditions (eq 53). Other active methine compounds behave similarly. A threefold excess of i-BuOK is more effective than certain amine bases for the conversion of phenylsulfonyl methyl derivatives of aromatic or heteroaromatic compounds into the corresponding dithio esters upon reaction with an excess of elemental sulfur. ... 

Direct, acid catalyzed esterification of acryhc acid is the main route for the manufacture of higher alkyl esters. The most important higher alkyl acrylate is 2-ethyIhexyi acrylate prepared from the available 0x0 alcohol 2-ethyl-1-hexanol (see Alcohols, higher aliphatic). The most common catalysts are sulfuric or toluenesulfonic acid and sulfonic acid functional cation-exchange resins. Solvents are used as entraining agents for the removal of water of reaction. The product is washed with base to remove unreacted acryhc acid and catalyst and then purified by distillation. The esters are obtained in 80—90% yield and in exceUent purity. 

Sulfonic esters are most frequently prepared by treatment of the corresponding halides with alcohols in the presence of a base. The method is much used for the conversion of alcohols to tosylates, brosylates, and similar sulfonic esters. Both R and R may be alkyl or aryl. The base is often pyridine, which functions as a nucleophilic catalyst, as in the similar alcoholysis of carboxylic acyl halides (10-21). Primary alcohols react the most rapidly, and it is often possible to sulfonate selectively a primary OH group in a molecule that also contains secondary or tertiary OH groups. The reaction with sulfonamides has been much less frequently used and is limited to N,N-disubstituted sulfonamides that is, R" may not be hydrogen. However, within these limits it is a useful reaction. The nucleophile in this case is actually R 0 . However, R" may be hydrogen (as well as alkyl) if the nucleophile is a phenol, so that the product is RS020Ar. Acidic catalysts are used in this case. Sulfonic acids have been converted directly to sulfonates by treatment with triethyl or trimethyl orthoformate HC(OR)3, without catalyst or solvent and with a trialkyl phosphite P(OR)3. ... 

Imidazolides of aromatic sulfonic acids react much more slowly in alcoholysis reactions than the carboxylic acid imidazolides. Although the reaction with phenols is quantitative when a melt is heated to 100 °C for several hours, with alcohols under these conditions only very slight alcoholysis is observed. In the presence of 0.05 equivalents (catalytic amount) of sodium ethoxide, imidazole sodium, of NaNH2, however, imidazolides of sulfonic acids react with alcohols almost quantitatively and exothermically at room temperature in a very short time to form sulfonic acid esters (sulfonates). (If the ratio of sulfonic acid imidazolide to alcoholate is 1 2, ethers are formed see Chapter 17). The mechanism of catalysis by base corresponds to that operative in the synthesis of carboxylic esters by the imidazolide method. Because of the more pronounced nucleophilic character of alkoxide ions, sulfonates can also be prepared in good yield by alcoholysis of their imidazolides in the presence of hydroxide ions i.e., with alcoholic sodium hydroxide. 45 Examples of syntheses of sulfonates are presented below. 

In recent years, a variety of aryl boronic acids are commercially available, albeit in some cases they may be expensive for large scale purposes. During our work in the mid-1990 s boronic acid (II) was not commercially available and so two different protocols were used to prepare this acid. The first approach involved the transmetallation with n-butyl lithium of aryl bromide (I) and trapping the lithio species generated with trialkyl borate followed by an acid quench. Aryl bromide (I) is easily prepared by reaction of o-bromobenzenesulfonyl chloride with 2-propanol in the presence of pyridine as a base. The second approach was a directed metallation of isopropyl ester of benzene sulfonic acid (VII), to generate the same lithio species and reaction with trialkyl borate. The sulfonyl ester is prepared by reaction of 2-propanol with benzenesulfonyl chloride. From a long-term strategy the latter approach is... 

In a preliminary step, adjacent ester groups undergo initial hydrolysis or alcoholysis, by the base, to the oxide anion. This step is reasonable for carboxylic esters, which are rapidly hydrolyzed under the conditions usually employed, but is rather more surprising for sulfonic esters, which are usually hydrolyzed only slowly by the nucleophilic attack on sulfur required for this reaction. With these disulfonic esters, the ease of hydrolysis has been explained by the inductive effect of the adjacent sulfonyloxy group.7... 

Deoxy-6-nitro derivatives may be prepared analogously, but in lower yields, as a high percentage of nitrous ester is simultaneously formed.147,148 On treatment with base, the glycosidic linkage of 85 is cleaved,146 as indicated in Scheme 12. The further reactions of the unsaturated sulfone 86 have not yet been investigated, but it has been... 

Benzoxathiin 2,2-dioxides (245) are prepared from 2-acylphenols by reaction with a sulfonyl chloride, followed by base-catalyzed cyclization of the sulfonate ester (244) (66HC(21-2)792). 

The conjugate addition of heteronucleophiles to activated alkenes has been used very often in organic synthesis to prepare compounds with heteroatoms [3 to various activating functional groups, e.g. ketones, esters, nitriles, sulfones, sulfoxides and nitro groups. As in the Michael reaction, a catalytic amount of a weak base is usually used in these reactions (with amines as nucleophiles, no additional base is added). 

King and Gill have been studying the reaction of alkyl 2,2,2-trifluoroethanesulfonate esters (tresylates) (308) in aqueous base (pH >9) in the presence of a primary or secondary amine.282 Reaction with hydroxide is found to be a reversible ElcB process and reaction with water is the normal sulfonic ester hydrolysis. 

Esters of aliphatic and aromatic sulfonic acids are conveniently prepared in high yields from alcohols and sulfonyl halides. A basic medium is required. By substituting sodium butoxide for sodium hydroxide in butanol, the yield of n-butyl p-toluenesulfonate is increased from 54% to 98%. Ethyl benzenesulfonate and nuclear-substituted derivatives carrying bromo, methoxyl, and nirro groups are prepared from the corresponding sulfonyl chlorides by treatment with sodium ethoxide in absolute ethanol the yields are 74-81%. Pyridine is by far the most popular basic medium for this reaction. Alcohols (C -Cjj) react at 0-10° in 80-90% yields, and various phenols can be converted to aryl sulfonates in this 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. 

Sulfonyl chlorides as well as esters and amides of sulfonic acids can be hydrolyzed to the corresponding acids. Sulfonyl chlorides can by hydrolyzed with water or with an alcohol in the absence of acid or base. Basic catalysis is also used, though of course the salt is the product obtained. Esters are readily hydrolyzed, many with water or dilute alkali. This is the same reaction as 10-4, and usually involves R —O cleavage, except when R is aryl. However, in some cases retention of configuration has been shown at alkyl R, indicating S—O cleavage in these cases. Sulfonamides are generally not hydrolyzed by alkaline treatment, not even with hot concentrated alkali. Acids, however, do hydrolyze sulfonamides, but less readily than they do sulfonyl halides or sulfonic esters. Of course, ammonia or the amine appears as the salt. However, sulfonamides can be hydrolyzed with base if the solvent is HMPA. ... 

The foregoing ring-closure reaction requires that O-protecting groups be stable to basic conditions however, the sulfonate ester group survives both the cyclization and the subsequent further treatment with base. 

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