Halide salts, ionic enhancement

In the absence of die polyether, potassium fluoride is insoluble in benzene and unreactive toward alkyl halides. Similar enhancement of solubility and reactivity of other salts is observed in the presence of crown ethers The solubility and reactivity enhancement result because the ionic compound is dissociated to a tightly complexed cation and a naked anion. Figure 4.13 shows the tight coordination that can be achieved with a typical crown ether. The complexed cation, because it is surrounded by the nonpolar crown ether, has high solubility in the nonpolar media. To maintain electroneutrality, the anion is also transported into the solvent. The cation is shielded from interaction with the anion as a... 

In 1967, Pedersen described the preparation and properties of crown ethers,3 which are macrocyclic polyethers capable of sequestering metal cations. These catalysts can enhance the solubility and reactivity of salts in nonpolar solvents. For example, 18-crown-6, i.e., yxo-anhydro-hexaethylene glycol, forms a host-guest complex with potassium cation (K+) (Equation (1)). This association enables ionic potassium fluoride (KF) to dissociate in nonpolar benzene. And since the nucleophilic F counterions are not complexed,4 the yield of the Finkelstein reaction,5 i.e., halide-halide exchange, is increased 6... 

Tanaka and his associates demonstrated for the first time how to use non-volatile ionic liquids (ILs) as solvents in palladium-catalyzed carbonylations [163], In the case of alkoxycarbonylation of bromobenzene, higher yields were obtained when 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [bmim][BF4] was used as the reaction medium compared with standard conditions. And the selectivity for the monocarb-onylation of iodobenzene with t -PrOH or Et2NH was significantly enhanced by [bmim][BF4]. After separation of the products, the solvent-catalyst system was easily recycled and exhibited catalytic activity up to seven times. Since then the replacement of traditional solvents with quaternary ammonium halides, imidazoli-um- or pyridinium-derived ILs has gained increasing importance [164—173]. Recently, the phosphonium salt IL trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium bromide has proven to be an effective reaction medium for various carbonylation reactions of aryl and vinyl bromides or iodides under mild conditions (Scheme 2.17) [174]. 

The solubility of ionic substances in relatively nonpolar aprotic solvents can be greatly enhanced by using catalytic quantities of macrocyclic polyethers, such as 18-crown-6, the structure of which is shown in Fig. 5.5. These macrocyclic ethers selectively solvate the cation, both enhancing solubility and also leaving the anion in a very weakly solvated state. The anions behave under these conditions as highly reactive species, sometimes termed naked anions. A study of the relative rates of nucleophilic substitution on benzyl tosylate by potassium salts in acetonitrile in the presence of 18-crown-6 revealed a pronounced leveling effect. " All the potassium halides (fluoride, chloride, bromide, and iodide) were approximately equal in their reactivity. Potassium acetate was observed to be almost ten times more reactive than potassium iodide under these conditions—a reversal of the normal reactivity of acetate ion versus iodide ion in nucleophilic substitution reactions. As measured by cHji values in Table 5.5, iodide is 3 log units, i.e., 10 times, more reactive than acetate ion in the protic solvent methanol. 

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