Halides, alkyl, halogen hydrolysis

Reaction XLVm. (a) Action of Alkali Cyanides on Alkyl and Acyl Halides. (Bl., [2], 50, 214.)—This reaction is capable of very wide application, all the simple alkyl halogen compounds, the acyl halides, and the halogen fatty acids come within its scope. The nitriles so formed yield acids by hydrolysis, so it is frequently the first step in the synthesis of an acid—the preparation and hydrolysis of the nitrile are often combined. The preparations of malonic, succinic, tricarballylic and other acids (Preparations 60, 61, 62) illustrate this. The extension of this reaction to acyl halides is important, and should be referred to, as should the interaction of silver cyanide, and alkyl iodides, to give isonitriles. Mercuric and silver cyanides, it may be noted, give with acyl chlorides and bromides better yields of normal acyl nitriles than do the alkali cyanides. 

Simple sulfonyl carbanions which do not contain additional carbanion-stabilising groups, e.g. carbonyl groups or heteroatoms, can be readily alkylated in high yield by modern techniques with the use of alkyllithiums and lithium amide bases. A number of allylic halides have been successfully used. In allylic halides, the halogen directly attached to the double-bonded carbon is relatively inert towards nucleophilic attack (Scheme 41). In this way, sulfones (96) can be transformed via desulfonation into vinyl halides (97) or into ketones (98) by hydrolysis (Scheme 41). In contrast to ordinary alkyl sulfones, triflones (99) can be alkylated under mildly basic conditions (potassium carbonate in boiling acetonitrile) (Scheme 42). The ease of carbanion formation from triflones (99) arises from the additional electron-withdrawing (-1) effect of the trifluoromethyl moiety. 

The replacement of an a hydrogen of an alkyl halide by halogen decreases Sn2 reactivity. Chloroform, however, is about one thousandfold more reactive in basic hydrolysis than methylene chloride . Every bromine-containing halo-form studied (Table 7) is at least 600 times as reactive toward hydroxide ions in 66.7% aqueous dioxan as methylene bromide ". Toward weakly basic nucleophiles, such as thiophenoxide ion, the predicted reactivity order is obeyed haloforms have been found to be less reactive than the corresponding methylene halides . The reaction of haloforms with sodium thiophenoxide is strongly accelerated, however, by the presence of hydroxide ions - . These observations are quite unexplainable in terms of scheme (22). 

In the reduction of alkyl, alkenyl, and aryl halides, the halogen (X = F, Cl, Br, or I) rarely leaves without one or more of the electrons in the bond accompanying it (i.e., it rarely leaves as X+). Thus, even though the halogen generally leaves as an anion or a radical, there are four major reductive pathways that will be considered here. The first three differ from the fourth since, in them, the halogen is directly replaced by hydrogen. The fourth method is more circuitous there is electron transfer from a metal to the alkyl, alkenyl, or aryl halide and then, in a true second step, hydrolysis of the metal-carbon bond. 

If only the monocarboxybc acid is required, the ester after hydrolysis with potash may be strongly acidified with sulphuric acid and the mixture heated under reflux the mineral acid promotes decarboxylation at a temperature just above 100°. The net result is the replacement of the halogen atom of the alkyl halide by —CH COOH thus in the above example ... 

Still another method for the conversion of halides to acid derivatives makes use of Na2Fe(CO)4. As described in 0-102, primary and secondary alkyl halides and tosylates react with this reagent to give the ion RFe(CO)4 (141) or, if CO is present, the ion RCOFe(CO)4 (142). Treatment of 141 or 142 with oxygen or sodium hypochlorite gives, after hydrolysis, a carboxylic acid.1613 Alternatively, 141 or 142 reacts with a halogen (for example, I2) in the... 

Substitution of fluorine for halogen in aromatic and alkyl sulfonyl halides can be carried out with or without using a solvent. An aqueous system such as 70 % aqueous potassium fluoride is also used because the rate of hydrolysis is much slower than the rate of fluorination as reported for the conversion of methanesulfonyl chloride (1) to methanesulfonyl fluoride (2).23... 

The nucleophilic displacement of halogens by fluorine can be successfully carried out by reaction with potassium fluoride under several conditions. Primary and secondary alkyl halides 1 are converted to the corresponding fluorides 2 by heating with a saturated aqueous solution of potassium fluoride in the presence of catalytic amounts of hexadecyltributylphosphonium bromide.56 Small amounts of the corresponding alcohol and the olefinic elimination product are formed as side products. While neopentyl bromide does not react at all, polyhaloalkanes give only products of elimination or hydrolysis. Chlorocyclohexane gives only the elimination product.56... 

When comparing the hydrolysis half-lives of the alkyl halides in Table 13.6, we notice that the reaction rates increase dramatically when going from primary to secondary to tertiary carbon-halogen bonds. In this series, increasing the stabilization... 

Addition of excess CH3I to a solution of [Ni (tmc)]+ results in the rapid loss of the absorption (A = 360 nm, e = 4 x 103 M-1 cm-1) and appearance of a less intense band at A = 346 nm. A subsequent slower reaction gives rise to the weaker absorbance profile of [Ni"(tmc)]2+. The data are interpreted in terms of the formation of an organo-nickel(II) species followed by a slower hydrolysis with breaking of the Ni-C bond. Kinetic studies under conditions of excess alkyl halide show a dependence according to the equation — d[Ni1(tmc)+]/cft = 2 [Ni(I)][RX]. The data have been interpreted in terms of a ratedetermining one-electron transfer from the nickel(I) species to RX, either by outer-sphere electron transfer or by halogen atom transfer, to yield the alkyl radical R. This reactive intermediate reacts rapidly with a second nickel(I) species ... 

Hydroalumination of alkenes. Hydroalumination of alkynes is a well-known reaction, but hydroalumination of alkenes has been achieved only recently under catalysis by TiCU or ZrCU, (8, 288). As expected hydroalumination affords a convenient, high-yield route to primary alkanes (by hydrolysis), terminal primary alcohols (by oxygenation), and primary alkyl halides (reaction with halogens, N-halosuccinimides, or CuXa). ... 

C-Alkylation of the sodio derivative is accomplished by a technique similar to the alkylation of malonic ester. Primary halogen compounds, quaternary ammonium salts,and an alkene oxide have been used as alkylating agents. Alkylation by secondary halides has been less successful. Hydrolysis of the substituted esters to acetylated amino acids is described for leucine (64%) and phenylalanine (83%). Hydrolysis with deacylation has been used to prepare histidine (45%) and phenylalanine (67%). Glutamic acid (75%) is obtained from substituted acylaminomalonates prepared by the Michael condensation of methyl acrylate and the acylated amino esters. ... 

A. Attack by OH at an Alkyl Carbon 10-1 Hydrolysis of Alkyl Halides Hydroxy-de-halogenation... 

Hydrolysis of the alkyl and aryl substituted silicon halides produces silicones (Kipping, 1937). The halogen derivatives themselves are made by passing an alkyl or aryl halide over a copper-silicon alloy at about 300°. Hurd and Rochow (1945) found evidence for the mechanism ... 

The members of two classes of common pollutant chemicals are likely to undergo hydrolysis. One class includes the alkyl halides, which are straight-chain or branched hydrocarbons in which one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a chlorine, fluorine, bromine, or iodine atom. Using X to represent a halogen atom and R to represent the hydrocarbon group, the overall hydrolysis reaction can be written... 

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