Free-radical Halogenations by Tethered Reagents

In the course of carrying out the benzophenone photochemistry described in the previous section, we noted that the use of CCI4 as solvent led to the formation of some chlorinated steroid products. Therefore we examined such halogenations further [36], and found that the simple free-radical chlorination of cholestanyl acetate with phenyliodine dichloride afforded the 9-chloro- and 14-chlorosteroids as the major products. Similar results were seen in bromination by bromotrichloromethane. We extended such selective radical halogenations to suppress reactions other than at C-9 and C-14 by appropriate substituent effects, but more significantly we used tethers to achieve essentially complete selectivity in the halogenations [36]. 

In this work a reagent, an aryl iodide dichloride, was directly attached to the substrate through a tether, but it had disadvantages. With such a scheme only stoichiometric amounts of the reagent could be used, and the reactions led to some recovered starting material. Thus we considered whether a new process was possible in which we would use both a tether and a template to direct halogenations. We decided to try to invent what we called a radical relay process. 

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