Hunsdiecker reactions

The A -bromoamide, its anion as well as the isocyanate have been identified as intemediates thus supporting the reaction mechanism as formulated above. 

Generally yields are good. R can be alkyl or aryl. Modern variants of the Hofmann rearrangement use lead tetraacetate or iodosobenzene instead of hypo-bromite. 

Silver carboxylates 1 can be decarboxylated by treatment with bromine, to yield alkyl bromides 2 in the so-called Hunsdiecker reaction.  

The reaction is likely to proceed by a radical-chain mechanism, involving intermediate formation of carboxyl radicals, as in the related Kolbe electrolytic synthesis. Initially the bromine reacts with the silver carboxylate 1 to give an acyl hypobromite species 3 together with insoluble silver bromide, which precipitates from the reaction mixture. The unstable acyl hypobromite decomposes by homolytic cleavage of the O—Br bond, to give a bromo radical and the carboxyl radical 4. The latter decomposes further to carbon dioxide and the alkyl radical 5, which subsequently reacts with hypobromite 3 to yield the alkyl bromide 2 and the new carboxyl radical 4  

By trapping experiments, the intermediate radical species have been identified, thus supporting the mechanism as formulated above. 

HgO (excess) / CCI4 or DCE / X2 (1 equiv) in the dark (Cristol and Firth, 1961) 

Alkyl halide step 3 [rCOOXJ R- + X j Alkyl halide 

There are a few efficient methods for the stereoselective synthesis of vinyl halides, and this transformation remains a synthetic challenge. Research by S. Roy showed that the Hunsdiecker reaction can be made metal free and catalytic catalytic Hunsdiecker reaction) and can be used to prepare ( )-vinyl halides from aromatic a,p-unsaturated carboxylic acids. The unsaturated aromatic acids were mixed with catalytic amounts of TBATFA and the A/-halo-succinimide was added in portions over time at ambient temperature. The yields are good to excellent even for activated aromatic rings which do not undergo the classical Hunsdiecker reaction. The fastest halodecarboxylation occurs with NBS, but NCS and NIS are considerably slower. The nature of the applied solvents is absolutely critical, and DCE proved to be the best. This strategy was extended and applied in the form of a one-pot tandem Hunsdiecker reaction-Heck coupling to prepare aryl substituted (2 ,4 )-dienoic acids, esters, and amides. 

The classical Hunsdiecker reaction was utilized in the laboratory of P.J. Chenier for the preparation of a highly strained cyclopropene, tricyclo[3.2.2.0 ]non-2(4)-ene. The Diels-Alder cycloaddition was used to prepare the bicyclic 1,2-diacid, which surprisingly failed to undergo the Cristol-Firth modified Hunsdiecker reaction, most likely due to the unreactive nature of the diacid mercuric salt. However, the classical conditions proved to work better to afford the bicyclic 1,2-dibromide in modest yield. Treatment of this dibromide with f-BuLi generated the desired strained cyclopropene, which was trapped with diphenylisobenzofuran (DPIBF). 

During the final stages of the asymmetric total synthesis of antimitotic agents (+)- and (-)-spirotryprostatin B, the C8-C9 double bond had to be installed, and at the same time the carboxylic acid moiety removed from C8. R.M. Williams et al. found that the Kochi- and Suarez modified Hunsdiecker reaction using LTA or PIDA failed and eventually the Barton modification proved to be the only way to achieve this goal. After the introduction of the bromine substituent at C8, the C8-C9 double bond was formed by exposing the compound to sodium methoxide in methanol. This step not only accomplished the expected elimination but also epimerized the C12 position to afford the desired natural product as a 2 1 mixture of diastereomers at C12. The two diastereomers were easily separated by column chromatography. 

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Sodium thenoate is bromodecarboxylated in low yield, slower than sodium anisate, but more rapidly than sodium benzoate. However, the Hunsdiecker reaction with silver salts has been used preparatively for the synthesis of 2,3-dibromo-4-nitrothiophene from 3-bromo-4-nitro-2-thiophenecarboxylic acid. ... 

Suitable substrates for the Hunsdiecker reaction are first of all aliphatic carboxylates. Aromatic carboxylates do not react uniformly. Silver benzoates with electron-withdrawing substituents react to the corresponding bromobenzenes, while electron-donating substituents can give rise to formation of products where an aromatic hydrogen is replaced by bromine. For example the silver /)-methoxybenzoate 6 is converted to 3-bromo-4-methoxybenzoic acid 7 in good yield ... 

In a modified procedure the free carboxylic acid is treated with a mixture of mercuric oxide and bromine in carbon tetrachloride the otherwise necessary purification of the silver salt is thereby avoided. This procedure has been used in the first synthesis of [1.1.1 ]propellane 10. Bicyclo[l.l.l]pentane-l,3-dicarboxylic acid 8 has been converted to the dibromide 9 by the modified Hunsdiecker reaction. Treatment of 9 with t-butyllithium then resulted in a debromination and formation of the central carbon-carbon bond thus generating the propellane 10." ... 

The Hunsdiecker reaction is the treatment of the dry silver salt of a carboxylic acid with bromine in carbon tetrachloride. Decarboxylation occurs, and the product isolated is the corresponding organic bromide 16). Since dry silver salts are tedious to prepare, a modification of the reaction discovered by Cristol and Firth (77) is now... 

Bromotrithiatriazepine 8 can also be obtained from the carboxylic acid 6 in 52 % yield by a modified Hunsdiecker reaction involving irradiation of a mixture of the acid, bromine, mer-cury(II) oxide and carbon tetrachloride. The iodo derivative is formed when iodine is employed418... 

The Hunsdiecker reaction has been used to convert indazole carboxylic acids into the bromo heterocycles [67HC(22)1],... 

Bromocyclopropane has been prepared by the Hunsdiecker reaction by adding silver cyclopropanecarboxylate to bromine in dichlorodifluoromethane at —29° (53% yield) or in tetrachloro-ethane at —20° to —25° (15-20% yield).3 Decomposition of the peroxide of cyclopropanecarboxylic acid in the presence of carbon tetrabromide gave bromocyclopropane in 43% yield.4 An attempt to prepare the bromide via the von Braun reaction was unsuccessful.3... 

When iodine is the reagent, the ratio between the reactants is very important and determines the products. A 1 1 ratio of salt to iodine gives the alkyl halide, as above. A 2 1 ratio, however, gives the ester RCOOR. This is called the Simonini reaction and is sometimes used to prepare carboxylic esters. The Simonini reaction can also be carried out with lead salts of acids." A more convenient way to perform the Hunsdiecker reaction is by use of a mixture of the acid and mercuric oxide instead of the salt, since the silver salt must be very pure and dry and such pure silver salts are often not easy to prepare. 

A related method for conversion of carboxylic acids to bromides with decarboxylation is the Hunsdiecker reaction.276 The usual method for carrying out this transformation involves heating the carboxylic acid with mercuric oxide and bromine. 

The decarboxylation of carboxylic acid in the presence of a nucleophile is a classical reaction known as the Hunsdiecker reaction. Such reactions can be carried out sometimes in aqueous conditions. Man-ganese(II) acetate catalyzed the reaction of a, 3-unsaturated aromatic carboxylic acids with NBS (1 and 2 equiv) in MeCN/water to afford haloalkenes and a-(dibromomethyl)benzenemethanols, respectively (Eq. 9.15).32 Decarboxylation of free carboxylic acids catalyzed by Pd/C under hydrothermal water (250° C/4 MPa) gave the corresponding hydrocarbons (Eq. 9.16).33 Under the hydrothermal conditions of deuterium oxide, decarbonylative deuteration was observed to give fully deuterated hydrocarbons from carboxylic acids or aldehydes. 

Decarboxylativehalogenation (12,417). The Hunsdiecker reaction is not useful for aromatic acids, but decarboxylative halogenation of these acids can be effected in useful yield by radical bromination or iodination of the thiohydroxamic esters, as reported earlier for aliphatic acids.1 Thus when the esters 2 are heated at 100° in the presence of AIBN, carbon dioxide is evolved and the resulting radical is trapped by BrCCl3 to provide bromoarenes (3). Decarboxylative iodination is effected with iodoform or methylene iodide as the iodine donor. 

Hunsdiecker reaction, modified for preparation of 1-bromo-3-chlorocyclobutan9, 51, 106 Hydrazine, anhydrous, 50, 3, 4, 6... 

Methyl oxetane-2-carboxylate derivatives (e.g., 284), obtained by ring contraction of aldonolactones, have been employed for the synthesis (279) of the nucleoside / -noroxetanocin [9-(/ -D-eryt/iro-oxetanosyl)adenine, 304] and its a-anomer via an a-chloride obtained by a modified Hunsdiecker reaction. Displacement of chloride by adenine and debenzylation gave 304. The threo isomer of304, /J-epinoroxetanocin (305), was likewise synthesized from D-lyxono-1,4-lactone. The oxetane nucleosides display potent antiviral activity against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). 

The procedure described here allows for a convenient and efficient preparation in very high yields of large quantities of bromides from carboxylic acids containing an olefinic functionality. The Hunsdiecker reaction is traditionally accomplished by treating anhydrous silver carboxylates with bromine or iodine.2 Heavy metal salts such as mercury,3 lead,4 and thallium5 have also been used successfully as well as tert-butyl hypoiodite.6 The major disadvantages associated with the above methods, such as use of heavy metal salts and non-tolerance towards olefins, has led to the development of a more versatile method using O-acyl thiohydroxamates.7 8 The O-... 

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