Furan carboxylic acids decarboxylation

Halogenation of furan carboxylic acids may proceed with decarboxylation to yield the halofuran treatment of sodium furan-2,5-dicarboxylate with iodine and potassium iodide gives 2,5-diiodofuran (see Section 3.11.2.2.5). 

Furan carboxylic acids usually decarboxylate readily, and this method is often used in the laboratory for the preparation of furans. Furan itself can be obtained in good yield from 2-furoic acid in quinoline, with a copper catalyst, while industrial methods employ the catalytic decarbonylation of furfural. Copper powder, copper oxide or copper bronze, or heavy metal oxides,22 are the best catalysts, in combination with quinoline as solvent and weak base.23-28 Dann et al,2fl decarboxylated 2,5-dimethyl-3-furoic acid in 50% yield using barium hydroxide. 3-Furoic acid, which is difficult to obtain in large quantities, is best prepared by controlled decarboxylation of the easily prepared furan tetracarboxylic acid. 

Efficient synthesis of 2-chlorofuran is best achieved by decarboxylation of 2-chlorofuran-5-carboxylic acid (63JGU1397) or via the lithium derivative of furan. When furan or 3-bromofuran were treated in turn with ethyl-lithium and hexachloroethane, 2-chlorofuran (48%) or 3-chlorofuran (54%) was formed, uncontaminated by any polychlorinated products (73SC213). Chlorodesilylation of ethyl 5-trimethylsilyl-2-furoate with sul-furyl chloride in acetonitrile gave the 5-chloro ester in —85% yield (91MI4). 

Pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid easily loses the carboxylic group thermally. Pyrrole-3-carboxylic acid and furan-2- and -3-carboxylic acids also readily decarboxylate on heating to about 200°C. Thiophene-carboxylic acids require higher temperatures or a copper-quinoline catalyst. In furans, 2-carboxylic acid groups are lost more readily than 3-carboxylic acid groups (Scheme 64). 

Ring opening is common in the alkali metal and liquid ammonia reduction of furans unless an anion stabilizing group is present, so most work has been done with derivatives of furancarboxylic acids. Treatment of furan-2-carboxylic acid with lithium and ammonia at -78 °C followed by rapid addition of ammonium chloride affords 2,5-dihydrofuran-2-carboxylic acid (80%). Reductive alkylation similarly gives 2-alkyl-2,5-dihydrofuran-2-carboxylic acids. This method has been used in a synthesis of rosefuran, the intermediate dihydrofuran (66) being converted into the product (67) by oxidative decarboxylation with... 

Carbonation of lithiofurans is a useful method for obtaining these compounds. Furan-2-carboxylic acid (pKa 3.15) is a stronger acid than the 3-carboxylic acid (pKa 4.0) because of the inductive effect of the ring oxygen, and both are stronger than benzoic acid. Furancarboxylic acids can be decarboxylated by the copper-quinoline method or merely by heating. The 2-carboxylic acids are more easily decarboxylated than the 3-isomers, so furan-3-carboxylic acid can be obtained by stepwise decarboxylation of the tetracarboxylic acid via the 2,3,4-tricarboxylic acid and the 3,4-dicarboxylic acid. A more convenient source of the 3-carboxylic acid is by partial hydrolysis and decarboxylation of the readily available diethyl furan-3,4-dicarboxylate (71S545). 

Copper-mediated decarboxylation was observed to convert benzo [. ]furan-2-carboxylic acid into its corresponding benzoMfuran, albeit in low yield (Equation 174) <2002EJ01937>. 

A carboxyl group is removed from a heterocyclic nucleus in much the same way as from an aromatic nucleus (method 13), i.e., by thermal decomposition. The pyrolysis is catalyzed by copper or copper salts and is frequently carried out in quinoline solution. The reaction is important in the synthesis of various alkyl and halo furans. Furoic acid loses carbon dioxide at its boiling point (205°) to give furan (85%). A series of halo furans have been made in 20-97% yields by pyrolysis of the corresponding halofuroic acids. The 5-iodo acid decarboxylates at a temperature of 140°, whereas the 3- and 5-chloro acids requite copper-bronze catalyst at 250°. ... 

Decarbonylations of furfuraldehyde to furan continue to be of commercial interest and various new catalysts have been recommended.253 Decarboxylations are still occasionally useful,254 and the selective decarboxylation of furan-3,4-dicarboxylic acid to furan-3-carboxylic acid is said to be much improved by omitting any solvent.255 The easy decarboxylation of furan acetic acid derivatives is formulated in structure 139, although the acidic conditions need not preclude ring opening.2553... 

The intrinsically high reactivity of the furan nucleus is further exempUlied by the reaction of furfural with excess halogen to produce mucohalic acids incidentally, mucobromic acid reacts with formamide to provide a useful synthesis of 5-bromopyrimidine. On the other hand, with control, methyl furoate can be cleanly converted into its 5-monobromo or 4,5-dibromo derivatives hydrolysis and decarboxylation of the latter then affording 2,3-dibromofuran bromination of 3-furoic acid produces 5-bromofuran-3-carboxylic acid. ... 

As in the case of <%-amino carboxylic acids, the zwitterions of N- and O-heterocyclic a-carboxylic acids can be decarboxylated thus <%-picolinic, thiazole-2-carboxylic, quinaldic, and chelidonic acid afford, respectively, pyridine, thiazole, quinoline, and 4-pyrone. Furan is best prepared by removal of carbon dioxide from pyromucic acid (2-furoic acid) by heat in early work this was effected by heating the acid in a sealed tube or with soda-lime, but Wilson19 has described a convenient method that involves only simple apparatus and affords the very good yields of 72-78% ... 

The Feist-Benary furan synthesis is most commonly used for the preparation of 2-substituted 3-furoates, including ethyl 2-methyl-3-furoate, the original compound prepared by Benary. The resulting ester is generally converted into a carboxylic acid for use in a variety of transformations, including decarboxylation to produce the corresponding 2-substituted furan. For example, reaction of ethyl 7-methyl-3-oxooct-6-enoate with... 

However, it was originally prepared (over a century ago) from pentoses (five-carbon carbohydrates see Chapter 11), which, on sulfuric acid treatment, produce furfural (furan 2-carboxaldehyde) (Scheme 8.75), and which, in turn, can be easily oxidized to the corresponding carboxylic acid (2-furoic acid). The acid (2-furoic add) is then readily decarboxylated (i.e., loss of CO2) to furan (oxa-2,4-cyclopentadiene) and the resulting product is catalytically reduced with hydrogen (H2) (Scheme 8.102) over a Ni catalyst to yield the desired five-membered heterocyclic compound (oxalane, oxacyclopentane,THF). 

Scheme 3.24 Cu-catalyzed decarboxylative coupling of alkynyl carboxylic acids (a) and decarboxylative furan synthesis (b), as described by Xue and coworkers [41].

Vinylation and Alkylation of Indoles. Indole-3-carboxylic acids undergo a palladium-catalyzed vinylation/decarboxylation reaction to provide 2-vinylindoles (eq 156). It is hypothesized that the carboxylic acid moiety acts as removable directing group for the transformation. Other heterocyclic-carboxylic acids such as furan, thiophene, benzofuran, or benzothiphene also react with butyl acrylate under the reaction conditions. Notably, 3-vinylindoles can also be accessed from the corresponding indole-2-carboxylic acid. 

Silver(I) carbonate functioned as an cooxidant with TEMPO. Tricyclohexylphosphine was employed to suppress homocoupling between heteroarenes. Substituted thiophenes, furans, and indoles could be selectively olefinated (C5-alkenylation for thiophenes and furans, C3-alkenylation for indoles, E/Z > 99 1). Unsubstituted thiophenes produced poor yields (24%) however, formyl, acetyl, and ketyl substituents were well tolerated. For electron-deficient substrates, tricyclohexylphosphine was reduced to 10 mol % to achieve good conversions. A variety of ketones could be employed using 2-methyl thiophene as a coupling partner. A related methodology employing saturated ketones and heterocyclic carboxylic acids via a Pd-catalyzed decarboxylative process was also reported (eq 44). ... 

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