Ethoxide nucleophilicity

Scheme 5.4 Schematics of the crown complexed metal species occurring in solutions of ligand 17, strontium ion, ethoxide nucleophile, and carboxylate substrate.

Alkylation can also be accomplished with electrophilic alkenes. There is a dichotomy between basic and acidic conditions. Under basic conditions, where the indole anion is the reactive nucleophile, A-alkylation occurs. Under acidic conditions C-alkylation is observed. The reaction of indole with 4-vinylpyri-dine is an interesting illustration. Good yields of the 3-alkylation product are obtained in refluxing acetic acid[18] whereas if the reaction is done in ethanol containing sodium ethoxide 1-alkylation occurs[19]. Table 11.2 gives some examples of 3-alkylation using electrophilic alkenes. 

Tertiary alkyl halides are so sterically hindered to nucleophilic attack that the pres ence of any anionic Lewis base favors elimination Usually substitution predominates over elimination m tertiary alkyl halides only when anionic Lewis bases are absent In the solvolysis of the tertiary bromide 2 bromo 2 methylbutane for example the ratio of substitution to elimination is 64 36 m pure ethanol but falls to 1 99 m the presence of 2 M sodium ethoxide... 

Benzylic halides that are secondary resemble secondary alkyl halides in that they undergo substitution only when the nucleophile is weakly basic If the nucleophile is a strong base such as sodium ethoxide elimination by the E2 mechanism is faster than substitution... 

Rates of debromination of bromonitro-thiophenes and -selenophenes with sodium thio-phenoxide and sodium selenophenoxide have been studied. Selenophene compounds were about four times more reactive than the corresponding thiophene derivatives. The rate ratio was not significantly different whether attack was occurring at the a- or /3-position. As in benzenoid chemistry, numerous nucleophilic displacement reactions are found to be copper catalyzed. Illustrative of these reactions is the displacement of bromide from 3-bromothiophene-2-carboxylic acid and 3-bromothiophene-4-carboxylic acid by active methylene compounds (e.g. AcCH2C02Et) in the presence of copper and sodium ethoxide (Scheme 77) (75JCS(P1)1390). 

Isoxazoles unsubstituted in the 3-position react with hydroxide or ethoxide ions to give )3-keto nitriles (243) -> (244). This reaction involves nucleophilic attack at the 3-CH group. 1,2-Benzisoxazoles unsubstituted in the 3-position similarly readily give salicylyl nitriles (67AHC(8)277), and 5-phenyl-l,3,4-oxadiazole (245) is rapidly converted in alkaline solution into benzoylcyanamide (246) (61CI(L)292). A similar cleavage is known for 3-unsubstituted pyrazoles and indazoles the latter yield o-cyanoanilines. 

Deacylations are known. C-Acyl groups in 1,3,4-thiadiazoles are cleaved by sodium ethoxide in ethanol (68AHC(9)165). Imidazole-2-carbaldehyde behaves similarly, yielding imidazole and ethyl formate this reaction involves an ylide intermediate. 3-Acylisoxazoles (405) are attacked by nucleophiles in a reaction which involves ring opening (79AHC(25)147). 

The addition of nucleophiles to double and triple bond systems is often a convenient way of effecting an intramolecular ring closure. Addition to cyano groups has received considerable attention, as in addition to ring formation it provides a convenient method for the introduction of an amino group. Reaction of methyl Af-cyanodithiocarbimidate with Af-methylaminoacetonitrile resulted in displacement of methanethiol and formation of (314). Sodium ethoxide treatment in DMF converted (314) into a 4-amino-5-cyanoimidazole... 

In basic sohition, the alkoxide ions formed by deprotonation are even more effective nucleqrhiles. In ethanol containing sodium ethoxide, 2-chloroethanol reacts about 5000 times faster than ediyl chloridelThe product is ethylene oxide, confirming the involvement of the oxygoi atom as a nucleophile. 

A fluormated enol ether formed by the reaction of sodium ethoxide with chlorotnfluoroethylene is much less reactive than the starting fluoroolefin To replace the second fluorine atom, it is necessary to reflux the reaction mixture. The nucleophilic substitution proceeds by the addition-elimination mechanism [30] (equation 26). 

In the second major method of peptide synthesis the carboxyl group is activated by converting it to an active ester, usually a p-nitrophenyl ester. Recall from Section 20.12 that esters react with ammonia and amines to give fflnides. p-Nitrophenyl esters are much more reactive than methyl and ethyl esters in these reactions because p-nitrophenoxide is a better (less basic) leaving group than methoxide and ethoxide. Simply allowing the active ester and a C-protected amino acid to stand in a suitable solvent is sufficient to bring about peptide bond formation by nucleophilic acyl substitution. 

The effect of the leaving group is illustrated in the comparison of fluoro- and chloro-nitrobenzenes (Table VIII) in their reactions with ethoxide ion (lines 5 and 8) and with piperidine (lines 7 and 9). Rate ratios F Cl are 23 1 (opposing and entropy of activation changes) and 201 1 (E effect), respectively, for the two nucleophiles. For the reasons discussed in Section II, D, 1, a fluorine substituent produces a lower energy of repulsion of the nucleophile and thus facilitates reaction. 

The reactivities of 4- and 2-halo-l-nitronaphthalenes can usefully be compared with the behavior of azine analogs to aid in delineating any specific effects of the naphthalene 7r-electron system on nucleophilic substitution. With hydroxide ion (75°) as nucleophile (Table XII, lines 1 and 8), the 4-chloro compound reacts four times as fast as the 2-isomer, which has the higher and, with ethoxide ion (65°) (Table XII, lines 2 and 11), it reacts about 10 times as fast. With piperidine (Table XII, lines 5 and 17) the reactivity relation at 80° is reversed, the 2-bromo derivative reacts about 10 times as rapidly as the 4-isomer, presumably due to hydrogen bonding or to electrostatic attraction in the transition state, as postulated for benzene derivatives. 4-Chloro-l-nitronaphthalene reacts 6 times as fast with methanolic methoxide (60°) as does 4-chloroquinoline due to a considerably higher entropy of activation and in spite of a higher Ea (by 2 kcal). ... 

Nevertheless, the adjacent position of the amide and acetylenic groups was used in another type of heterocyclization. The nitrogen atom in the amide group is a weak nucleophile. Therefore, the N anion should be generated by potassium ethoxide. There are two possible variants of nucleophilic addition to the triple bond. Only one takes place, i.e., the formation of y-lactam. After 7 h of heating in EtOH in the presence of KOH, amide 72 isomerized into the known isoindoline 73 in 80% yield (Scheme 128). 

Nucleophilic attack by carbanion occurs in the reaction of 2-nitrobenzamides 154 treated with sodium ethoxide (72JCS(P1)835). The reaction mixtures usually contain small amounts of nitrile 155 and carboxamide 156, the product of decarboxylation 158 being usually the principal product (Scheme 24). The corresponding bromo derivatives under the used conditions did not react. 

An a ,/3-epoxycarboxylic ester (also called glycidic ester) 3 is formed upon reaction of a a-halo ester 2 with an aldehyde or ketone 1 in the presence of a base such as sodium ethoxide or sodium amide. Mechanistically it is a Knoevenagel-type reaction of the aldehyde or ketone 1 with the deprotonated a-halo ester to the a-halo alkoxide 4, followed by an intramolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction to give the epoxide 3 ... 

Base-catalyzed epoxide opening is a typical S -2 reaction in which attack of the nucleophile takes place at the less hindered epoxide carbon. For example, 1,2-epoxypropane reacts with ethoxide ion exclusively at the less highly substituted, primary, carbon to give l-ethoxy-2-propanol. 

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