Friedel-Crafts acylation with acyl carbocations

The Friedel-Crafts acylation of alkanes requires hydride abstraction, which can be induced by the acylium ion itself, to form the corresponding carbocation. This may undergo carbocationic rearrangements prior to a proton loss to form an alkene, which then reacts with the acylating agent. Similar to the acylation of alkenes, the product is an unsaturated ketone. The reaction is limited to alkanes that are prone to undergo hydride transfer. 

As would be expected, high rate accelerations can result when reactions proceeding through ionic intermediates, e.g. carbocations, are performed in ionic liquids. For example, Seddon and coworkers [100] studied the Friedel-Crafts acylation of toluene, chlorobenzene (Fig. 7.30) and anisole with acetyl chloride in [emi-m][Al2Cl7], whereby the ionic liquid is acting both as solvent and catalyst. They ob-... 

The acyl halides (RCOX) on treatment with anhydrous aluminium chloride (AICI3) give a complex, which decomposes to give acyl electrophile, an acylium ion (RCO+). Friedel-Crafts acylation of aromatic compounds involves the formation of a carbocation that acts as an electrophile (see section 2.1.3). 

New C—C bonds to arenes can be made by Friedel-Crafts reactions. Friedel-Crafts alkylations are traditionally executed with an alkyl chloride and catalytic AICI3 or an alkene and a strong Brpnsted or Lewis acid the key electrophilic species is a carbocation. Friedel-Crafts acylations are usually executed with an acyl chloride and an excess of AICI3 the key electrophilic species is an acylium ion (RC=0+). In the Bischler-Napieralski reaction, intramolecular attack on a nitrilium ion (RC=NR) occurs. 

By comparison with the reactions with aromatic substrates, the absence of the driving force of rearo-matization by proton loss in electrophilic acylations of alkenes leads to competition between alternative pathways for the carbocation intermediate. In particular, capture of halide to form 3-halo ketones can become dominant. Hence, the aliphatic Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction need not necessarily result in substitution of an acyl residue for a hydrogen atom in an alkene, nor in the formation of unsaturated ketones. Indeed, within this broader scope, acylations of alkynes and some classes of alkanes can be synthetically useful. 

The regioselectivity of Friedel-Crafts acylations of unsymmetrical alkenes can often be predicted simply by consideration of the alternative carbenium ions formed in an initial electrophilic attack. Pathways via tertiary carbocations are generally preferred over those involving secondary ions. It is the subsequent fate of the initially generated ion that determines the products formed. As has been indicated already, elimination of a proton completes a substitution, although there is a predominance of nonconjugated unsaturated ketone formed, and treatment with base is required to form the conjugated product."... 

Benzene s aromaticity causes it to undergo electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions. The electrophilic addition reactions characteristic of alkenes and dienes would lead to much less stable nonaromatic addition products. The most common electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions are halogenation, nitration, sulfonation, and Friedel-Crafts acylation and alkylation. Once the electrophile is generated, all electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions take place by the same two-step mechanism (1) The aromatic compound reacts with an electrophile, forming a carbocation intermediate and (2) a base pulls off a proton from the carbon that... 

A more important variation of this reaction is the Friedel-Crafts acylation with acid chlorides and AICI3. Aluminium chloride behaves with acyl chlorides much as it does with alkyl chlorides—it removes chloride to leave behind a cation. In this case the cation is a linear acylium ion, with the carbocation stabilized by the adjacent oxygen lone pair. When the acy-lium ion attacks the benzene ring it gives an aromatic ketone the benzene ring has been acylated. 

In the preceding section, benzene reacted with cations to form substituted benzene derivatives. The cations of interest include Br+, C1+, the nitronium ion, and sulfur trioxide or sulfuric acid, which react as electrophiles. In principle, benzene may react with any cation, including carbocations, once that cation is formed. Carbocations are generated by several different methods they react with nucleophiles, as described for reactions of alkenes with acids such as HX (Chapter 10, Section 10.2) and for S l reactions (Chapter 11, Section 11.4). If benzene reacts with a carbocation, a new carbon-carbon bond is formed, and electrophilic aromatic substitution will give an arene. The reaction of benzene and its derivatives with carbocations is generically called the Friedel-Crafts reaction, after the work of French chemist Charles Friedel (France 1832-1899) and his American protege, James M. Crafts (1839-1917). The reaction takes two fundamental forms Friedel-Crafts alkylation and Friedel-Crafts acylation. Both variations will be discussed, beginning with the alkylation reaction. 

The Friedel-Crafts acylation, the reaction of an aromatic compound with an acid chloride and a Lewis acid (such as AICI3), adds an acyl group to the aromatic ring to give an aromatic ketone product. like the previously discussed alkylation reaction, it involves a strongly electrophilic carbocation (called an acylium ion), but this carbocation is not subject to rearrangement since it is stabilized by resonance. 

In contrast to the aromatic counterpart, very few works have been devoted to the mechanism of the aliphatic Friedel-Crafts acylation. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the reaction of 1-methylcyclohexene in acetic acid with zinc chloride catalyst that exclusively gives the 6-acetyl-l-methylcyclohexene. Early discussions by Deno suggest a carbo-cation intermediate. Finally, the observations by Beak of a product isotope effect in the absence of a corresponding kinetic isotope effect in the series of deuterated cyclenes is compelling evidence for a reaction intermediate, such as carbocation species. In the meantime, H.M.R. Hoffmann observed that the acylation of various olefins with acetyl hexachloroantimonate in methylene chloride in the presence of hindered amines affords 8,T-unsaturated ketones. He suggested that the non-conjugated enone is formed via an ene reaction. 

Tricarbonylchromium stabilized benzylic carbocations can be captured by a large variety of nucleophiles, such as alcohols, amines, thiols, nitriles, trimethylsilyl enol ethers, allylsilanes, electron-rich aromatics, dialkylzincs, and tri-alkylaluminums (eq 19). The relative stereochemistry formed during these reactions via carbocations in acyclic systems proceeds with net retention. Friedel-Crafts acylation of (styrene)chromium complexes has been explored via the benzylic cations (eq 20). Tricarbonylchromium-stabilized oxonium ions are also utilized for steroselective carbon-carbon bond forming reactions (eq 21). ... 

Alkyl halides and sulfonates are the most frequently used alkylating acceptor synthons. The carbonyl group is used as the classical a -synthon. O-Silylated hemithioacetals (T.H. Chan, 1976) and fomic acid orthoesters are examples for less common a -synthons. In most synthetic reactions carbon atoms with a partial positive charge (= positively polarized carbon) are involved. More reactive, "free carbocations as occurring in Friedel-Crafts type alkylations and acylations are of comparably limited synthetic value, because they tend to react non-selectively. 

Many variations of the reaction can be carried out, including halogenation, nitration, and sulfonation. Friedel-Crafts alkylation and acylation reactions, which involve reaction of an aromatic ling with carbocation electrophiles, are particularly useful. They are limited, however, by the fact that the aromatic ring must be at least as reactive as a halobenzene. In addition, polyalkylation and carbocation rearrangements often occur in Friedel-Crafts alkylation. 

Alkenes can be acylated with an acyl halide and a Lewis acid catalyst in what is essentially a Friedel-Crafts reaction at an aliphatic carbon. ° The product can arise by two paths. The initial attack is by the acyl cation RCO (or by the acyl halide free or complexed see 11-14) at the double bond to give a carbocation ... 

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