Grignard reagents carbonation

The following tertiary alcohols may be prepared from the appropriate Grignard reagent and diethyl carbonate in yields of 75-80 per cent. 

By the action of carbon dioxide upon a suitable Grignard reagent, for example ... 

Alternatively, the solution of the Grignard reagent may be poured on to solid carbon dioxide (Dry Ice)—for experimental details, see under n-Valeric Acid, Section 111,84. 

Unfortunately this route gives only a 40% yield IJ. Amer. Cham. Soc 1951, 73, 3237) in the Grignard reaction, largely because benzyl Grignard reagents easily give radicals which polymerise. In any case, it s poor tactics to chop off carbon atoms one at a time, and a better disconnection would be ... 

This time the one-carbon discoimection a is all right because the Grignard reagent is Ifom a normal alkyl hahde and does not polymerise. 

Another feature of the Pd—C bonds is the excellent functional group tolerance. They are inert to many functional groups, except alkenes and alkynes and iodides and bromides attached to sp carbons, and not sensitive to H2O, ROH, and even RCO H. In this sense, they are very different from Grignard reagents, which react with carbonyl groups and are easily protonated. 

The phenylation of styrene with phenyl Grignard reagents as a hard carbon nucleophile proceeds in 75% yield in the presence of PdCl2, LiCl, and K2CO3 at room temperature to give stilbene (207). Selection of the solvent is crucial and the best results are obtained in MeCN. The reaction can be made catalytic by the use of CuCl2[197]. Methyllithium reacts with styrene in the presence of Pd(acac)2 or Pd(OAc)2 to give /3-methylstyrene (208) in 90% yield[198]. 

The mam synthetic application of Grignard reagents is their reaction with certain carbonyl containing compounds to produce alcohols Carbon-carbon bond formation is rapid and exothermic when a Grignard reagent reacts with an aldehyde or ketone... 

The type of alcohol produced depends on the carbonyl compound Substituents present on the carbonyl group of an aldehyde or ketone stay there—they become sub stituents on the carbon that bears the hydroxyl group m the product Thus as shown m Table 14 3 (following page) formaldehyde reacts with Grignard reagents to yield pri mary alcohols aldehydes yield secondary alcohols and ketones yield tertiary alcohols... 

An ability to form carbon-carbon bonds is fundamental to organic synthesis The addition of Grignard reagents to aldehydes and ketones is one of the most frequently used reactions m synthetic organic chemistry Not only does it permit the extension of carbon chains but because the product is an alcohol a wide variety of subsequent func tional group transformations is possible... 

Therefore one route involves the addition of a methyl Grignard reagent to a five carbon aldehyde... 

Two of the groups bonded to the hydroxyl bearing carbon of the alcohol are the same because they are derived from the Grignard reagent For example... 

Reaction of Grignard reagents with es ters (Section 14 10) Tertiary alcohols in which two of the substituents on the hy droxyl carbon are the same may be pre pared by the reaction of an ester with two equivalents of a Grignard reagent... 

Grignard reagents react with ethylene oxide to yield primary alcohols containing two more carbon atoms than the alkyl halide from which the organometallic compound was prepared... 

The reaction of Grignard reagents with epoxides is regioselective m the same sense Attack occurs at the less substituted carbon of the ring... 

We ve seen how Grignard reagents add to the carbonyl group of aldehydes ketones and esters Grignard reagents react m much the same way with carbon dioxide to yield mag nesium salts of carboxylic acids Acidification converts these magnesium salts to the desired carboxylic acids... 

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