Halo esters elimination reactions

Usually, after hydrolysis, the alcohol is the product, but sometimes (especially with aryl aldehydes) elimination follows directly and the product is an olefin. By the use of Bu,P along with Zn, the olefin can be made the main product,454 making this an alternative to the Wittig reaction (6-47). Since Grignard reagents cannot be formed from a-halo esters, the method is quite useful, though there are competing reactions and yields are sometimes low. A similar reaction (called the Blaise reaction) has been carried out on nitriles 455... 

As a rule, stoichiometric cuprate reagents have provided the most consistently successful results in reactions with primary alkyl electrophiles. Diethyl ether is the solvent of choice for reactions of alkyl sulfonates, while reactions of alkyl halides appear to be facilitated by THF. The enhanced basicity of the cuprate reagent in THF may be problematic, however, when racemization of an adjacent chiral center or elimination is a competing side reaction. For example, reactions of serine-derived 3-halo esters must be performed in ether, since elimination by-products are the only products isolated when THF is employed as the solvent elimination is more problematic with sulfonate than with halide leaving groups. 

Et3B is an effective tool for halogen atom transfer radical reactions (see also Chap. 1.5). Perfluoroalkyl iodide [29], a-halo nitrile and a-halo ester [30] added to alkenes and alkynes at low temperature. Not only terminal alkenes but also internal alkenes can be employed to furnish iodine atom transfer adducts (Scheme 23). Furthermore, addition of perfluoroalkyl iodide to silyl and germyl enolate provided a-perfluoroalkyl ketones [31]. The reaction would involve the elimination of a tri-... 

Other interesting syntheses of mPEG butyric acid have also been published in the patent literature [80]. For example, ortho-ester 23 can be obtained by a two-step procedure from 4-bromobutanoyl chloride and 3-methyl-3-oxetanemethanol 22 (Equation 3.8). A nucleophilic substitution reaction of 23 with mPEG-alkoxide, followed by hydrolysis, gives the required acid 19b (Equation 3.8). The decrease in the acidity of the proton a- to the now protected carbonyl, removes the possibility of elimination reactions observed with 3-bromopropionate and related halo-esters. 

Both ( )- and (Z)-l-halo-l-alkenes can be prepared by hydroboration of 1-alkynes or 1-halo-l-alkynes followed by halogenation of the intermediate boronic esters (244,245). Differences in the addition—elimination mechanisms operating in these reactions lead to the opposite configurations of iodides as compared to bromides and chlorides. 

The method is quite useful for particularly active alkyl halides such as allylic, benzylic, and propargylic halides, and for a-halo ethers and esters, but is not very serviceable for ordinary primary and secondary halides. Tertiary halides do not give the reaction at all since, with respect to the halide, this is nucleophilic substitution and elimination predominates. The reaction can also be applied to activated aryl halides (such as 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene see Chapter 13), to epoxides, " and to activated alkenes such as acrylonitrile. The latter is a Michael type reaction (p. 976) with respect to the alkene. 

Aromatic halides react with crown ether-complexed K02 by an electron-transfer mechanism and not by nucleophilic attack, as was shown by Frimer and Rosenthal (1976) using esr spectroscopy. The corresponding phenol is the main reaction product (Yamaguchi and Van der Plas, 1977). Esters are saponified by the K02/18-crown-6 complex in benzene, presumably by an addition-elimination pathway (San Fillippo et al., 1976). The same complex has been used to cleave cr-keto-, or-hydroxy-, and or-halo-ketones, -esters, and -carboxylic acids into the corresponding carboxylic acids in synthetically useful quantities (San Fillippo et al., 1976). 

Vinyl ethers have also been prepared by addition of alkoxides to acetylene,6 7 6 elimination from halo ethers and related precursors,6 8 and vinyl exchange reactions.6 Reaction of an electrophilic tungsten carbenoid with methylene phosphorane or diazomethane also produces vinyl ethers.9 Enol ethers have resulted from the reaction of some tantalum and niobium carbenoids with esters,10 and the reaction of phosphoranes with electrophilic esters.4... 

Owing to the emphasis in our treatment on criteria rather than on individual reactions, the various arguments that a specific reaction series followed the addition-elimination route were spread among the different sections. It is worthwhile to summarize that the use of stereochemical, isotope exchange, kinetics and element effects show that the a-arylsulphonyl-j8-haloethylenes (Modena et al.), the j3-halo-a-nitro-styrenes (Modena et al.,) the a-aroyl-/ -haloethylenes (Montanari et al.) and the /3-halocrotonic esters and nitriles (Theron, 1967) systems react with thioanions via this route. Use of some of these criteria together show its operation for other reaction systems. 

The 5-position in 1,2,4-thiadiazoles is most reactive in nucleophilic substitution reactions. Chlorine, for example, may be displaced by nucleophiles (Nu) such as fluoride, hydroxide, thiol, amino, hydrazino, sulfite and azido groups (Scheme 11). Active methylene compounds such as malonic, acetoacetic and cyanoactic esters as their sodio derivatives also displace the 5-halo substituent (65AHC(5)ll9). The reaction follows second-order kinetics, the rate determining step being addition of the nucleophile at C-5 followed by rapid elimination of X. 

Several variations of this reaction are possible. The halo acid is boiled with a solution of sodium in absolute alcohol as in the formation of y-bu-tyrolactone (67%), or the dry sodium salt of a halo acid is heated under vacuum as in the preparation of 8-valerolactone (30%). The corresponding esters are sometimes refluxed with alcoholic potassium hydroxide or decomposed thermally at 15 180° whereby a molecule of an alkyl halide is eliminated. The latter process is valuable in making a-alkyl-y-lac-tones of higher-molecular-weight acids since the y-bromo esters are available by the free-radical addition of a-bromo esters to 1-olefins. 

In the case of cyclic a-halo ketones, ring contraction occurs. A similar reaction occurs on )0-halo ketones via the elimination of a hydrogen halide to cyclobutanone followed by the scission of cyclobutanone, known as the homo-Favorskii rearrangement.This reaction has been proved to be a useful tool for synthesizing the highly strained esters. 

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