Ether formation alkylation

Oxonium salt formation. Shake up 0 5 ml. of ether with 1 ml. of cone. HCl and note that a clear solution is obtained owing to the formation of a water-soluble oxonium salt. Note that aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons do not behave in this way. In general diaryl ethers and alkyl aryl ethers are also insoluble in cone. HCl. 

Transesterification of methyl methacrylate with the appropriate alcohol is often the preferred method of preparing higher alkyl and functional methacrylates. The reaction is driven to completion by the use of excess methyl methacrylate and by removal of the methyl methacrylate—methanol a2eotrope. A variety of catalysts have been used, including acids and bases and transition-metal compounds such as dialkjitin oxides (57), titanium(IV) alkoxides (58), and zirconium acetoacetate (59). The use of the transition-metal catalysts allows reaction under nearly neutral conditions and is therefore more tolerant of sensitive functionality in the ester alcohol moiety. In addition, transition-metal catalysts often exhibit higher selectivities than acidic catalysts, particularly with respect to by-product ether formation. 

O- versus C-a kyIation product ratios in the methylation of desoxybenzoin by dimethyl sulphate can be varied between 0.75 and 63 by the choice of catalyst. The reaction can be steered towards enol-ether formation by large, sterically shielded ammonium ions, while C-alkylation is favoured by small ammonium ions (e.g. RMejN" ) and by crown ethers (Dehmlow and Schrader, 1990). 

Such esterifications and acetal formations are achieved through enzyme catalyses. However, such reactions are relatively rare in aqueous conditions chemically. This is because the reversed reactions, hydrolysis, are much more favorable entropically. Kobayashi and co-workers found that the same surfactant (DBSA) that can catalyze the ether formation in water (5.2 above) can also catalyze the esterification and acetal formations reactions in water.52 Thus, various alkanecarboxylic acids can be converted to the esters with alcohols under the DBSA-catalyzed conditions in water (Eq. 5.6). Carboxylic acid with a longer alkyl chain afforded the corresponding ester better than one with a shorter chain at equilibrium. Selective esterification between two carboxylic acids with different alkyl chain lengths is therefore possible. 

It is in the very nature of the catalytic process that the intermediate compound formed between catalyst and reactant is of extreme lability therefore not many cases are on record where the isolation by chemical means, or identification by physical methods, of intermediate compounds has been achieved concomitant with the evidence that these compounds are true intermediaries and not products of side reactions or artifacts. The formation of ethyl sulfuric acid in ether formation, catalyzed by HjSO , and of alkyl phosphates in olefin polymerization, catalyzed by liquid phosphoric acid, are examples of established intermediate compound formation in homogeneous catalysis. With regard to heterogeneous catalysis, where catalyst and reactant are not in the same... 

The result of the retrosynthetic analysis of rac-lO is 2-hydroxyphenazine (9) and the terpenoid unit rac-23, which may be linked by ether formation [29]. The rac-23 component can be dissected into the alkyl halide rac-24 and the (E)-vinyl halide 25. A Pd(0)-catalyzed sp -sp coupling reaction is meant to ensure both the reaction of rac-24 and 25 and the ( )-geometry of the C-6, C-7 double bond. Following Negishi, 25 is accessible via carboalumination from alkyne 27, which might be traced back to (E,E)-farnesyl acetone (28). The idea was to produce 9 in accordance with one of the methods reported in the literature, and to obtain rac-24 in a few steps from symmetrical 3-methyl-pentane-1,5-diol (26) by selective functionalization of either of the two hydroxyl groups. 

The earliest report on such lactim ether formation was from Sammes [72JCS(P1)2494], who converted piperazine-2,5-dione to 2,5-diethoxy-3,6-dihydropyrazine (173) with an excess of triethyloxonium fluoroborate. Subsequently, Rajappa and Advani (73T1299) converted proline-based piperazine-2,5-diones into the corresponding monolactim ethers. The starting material was a piperazinedione in which one of the amino acid units was the secondary amino acid proline, and the other a primary amino acid. This naturally led to the regiospecific formation of a monolactim ether (169) (on O-alkylation) from the secondary amide, whereas the tertiary amide remained intact. This was later extended to piperazine-2,5-diones in which the secondary amino acid was sarcosine [74JCS(P 1)2122], leading to the monolactim ethers (170). 

Thioamide formation benzodiazepinone, 505 heteiodiazepinone, 621 phosphorus pentasulf ide, 323, 600 Thioazole formation, nitrile addition, 301 Thiocarbamate formation, 588 phenol, 95 rearrangement, 517 Thioenol ether formation, 185, 517 addition-elimination, 554 Thioester formation, mixed anhydride, 184 Thioether formation, 241, 300, 413, 416 alkylation, 586, 588 aromatic displacement, 416 Thiohydantoin formation, 293 Thiol interchange, benzothiazole formation, 422... 

In the Sepracor synthesis of chiral cetirizine di hydrochloride (4), the linear side-chain as bromide 51 was assembled via rhodium octanoate-mediated ether formation from 2-bromoethanol and ethyl diazoacetate (Scheme 8). Condensation of 4-chlorobenzaldehyde with chiral auxiliary (/f)-f-butyl sulfinamide (52) in the presence of Lewis acid, tetraethoxytitanium led to (/f)-sulfinimine 53. Addition of phenyl magnesium bromide to 53 gave nse to a 91 9 mixture of two diastereomers where the major diasteromer 54 was isolated in greater than 65% yield. Mild hydrolysis conditions were applied to remove the chiral auxiliary by exposing 54 to 2 N HCl in methanol to provide (S)-amine 55. Bisalkylation of (S)-amine 55 with dichlonde 56 was followed by subsequent hydrolysis to remove the tosyl amine protecting group to afford (S)-43. Alkylation of (5)-piperizine 43 with bromide 51 produced (S)-cetirizine ethyl ester, which was then hydrolyzed to deliver (S)-cetirizine dihydrochloride, (5)-4. 

It is clear that O-alkylation is favoured over C-alkylation with the heterogeneous system. Homogeneous BF3 reactions generally favour C-alkylation due to the rearrangement of the ether. The selectivity of the heterogeneous system towards ether formation is further illustrated by the reaction of phenol with... 

At lower temperatures the oxonium salt or the alkyl hydrogen sulfate may react by an SN displacement mechanism with excess alcohol in the reaction mixture, thereby forming a dialkyl ether. Although each step in the reaction is reversible, ether formation can be enhanced by distilling away the ether as fast as it forms. Diethyl ether is made commercially by this process ... 

Friedel-Crafts alkylation of benzene,220 221 toluene,222para-xylene,220 and naphthalene223 with benzyl alcohols have been studied over Nafion-silica nano-composite catalysts, including the kinetics of alkylation.221,223 In most cases, 13% Nafion-silica showed the highest activity, testifying again to the much higher accessibility of the active sites. Complete conversion of para-xylene was found in the presence of triflic acid, and it was the only reaction when ether formation as side reaction did not occur. 

Interestingly, it is possible to etherify hydroxybenzoic acids without the need to protect the carboxyl group (Scheme 6.19). The high charge delocalization of the car-boxylate obviously leads to a sufficient decrease of nucleophilicity to enable clean ether formation under certain conditions. During the planning of such reactions it should, however, be kept in mind that carboxylates can be O-alkylated under conditions similar to those required for the O-alkylation of phenols (see Section 6.9). 

We have systematically examined the facility with which DTPP promotes the cyclodehydration of simple diols to cyclic ethers 1,3-propanediol (1) - oxetane (2) (2-5%) 1,4-butanediol (3) te-trahydrofuran (4) (85%) 1,5-pentanediol (5) - tetrahydropyran (6) (72%) 1,6-hexanediol (7) - oxepane (8) (55-68%). Increased alkyl substitution at the carbinol carbon s gnificantly diminishes the facility for cyclic ether formation. For example, a mixture of meso- and d, 1 —2, 6-heptanediol gave only 6-10% of the cis- and trans-2,6-dimethyltetrahydropyrans when treated with DTPP. While diol 1 resists cyclodehydration with DTPP to oxetane, some 2,2-di-substituted 1,3-propanediols are readily converted to the appropriate oxetanes [e.g., 2-ethyl-2-phenyl-l,3-propanediol -> 3-ethyl-3-phenyloxetane (78%)]. 

Sn2 reactions can occur at elements other than carbon. Common examples in organic chemistry are silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and the halogens. The formation of the tosylate above by attack of the alcohol on TsCl is an example of an Sn2 reaction at sulfur. Later in this chapter you will see that alcohols attack phosphorus very easily and that we use the reaction between ROH and PBra to make alkyl bromides. Alcohols also react rapidly with Si-CI compounds such as MegSiCI to give silyl ethers by an Sn2 reaction at silicon. You have already seen several examples of silyl ether formation (p. 240, for example), though up to this point we have not discussed the mechanism. Here it is B represents a base such as triethyl amine. 

---