Hydrocarbons deprotonation

KTB and KTA are superior to alkaU metal hydrides for deprotonation reactions because of the good solubiUties, and because no hydrogen is produced or oil residue left upon reaction. Furthermore, reactions of KTA and KTB can be performed in hydrocarbon solvents as sometimes requited for mild and nonpolar reaction conditions. Potassium alkoxides are used in large quantities for addition, esterification, transesterification, isomerization, and alkoxylation reactions. 

In the discussion of the relative acidity of carboxylic acids in Chapter 1, the thermodynamic acidity, expressed as the acid dissociation constant, was taken as the measure of acidity. It is straightforward to determine dissociation constants of such adds in aqueous solution by measurement of the titration curve with a pH-sensitive electrode (pH meter). Determination of the acidity of carbon acids is more difficult. Because most are very weak acids, very strong bases are required to cause deprotonation. Water and alcohols are far more acidic than most hydrocarbons and are unsuitable solvents for generation of hydrocarbon anions. Any strong base will deprotonate the solvent rather than the hydrocarbon. For synthetic purposes, aprotic solvents such as ether, tetrahydrofuran (THF), and dimethoxyethane (DME) are used, but for equilibrium measurements solvents that promote dissociation of ion pairs and ion clusters are preferred. Weakly acidic solvents such as DMSO and cyclohexylamine are used in the preparation of strongly basic carbanions. The high polarity and cation-solvating ability of DMSO facilitate dissociation... 

It has been found that there is often a correlation between the rate of deprotonation (kinetic acidity) and the thermodynamic stability of the carbanion (thermodynamic acidity). Because of this relationship, kinetic measurements can be used to construct orders of hydrocarbon acidities. These kinetic measurements have the advantage of not requiring the presence of a measurable concentration of the carbanion at any time instead, the relative ease of carbanion formation is judged from the rate at which exchange occurs. This method is therefore applicable to very weak acids, for which no suitable base will generate a measurable carbanion concentration. 

The pK values determined are influenced by the solvent and other conditions of the measurement. The nature of the solvent in which the extent or rate of deprotonation is determined has a significant effect on the apparent acidity of the hydrocarbon. In general. 

An extensive series of hydrocarbons has been studied in cyclohexylamine, with the use of cesium cyclohexylamide as base. For many of the compounds studied, spectroscopic measurements were used to determine the relative extent of deprotonation of two hydrocarbons and thus establish relative acidity. For other hydrocarbons, the acidity was derived by kinetic measurements. It was shown that the rate of tritium exchange for a series of related hydrocarbons is linearly related to the equilibrium acidities of these hydrocarbons in the solvent system. This method was used to extend the scale to hydrocarbons such as toluene for which the exchange rate, but not equilibrium data, can be obtained. Representative values of some hydrocarbons withpAT values ranging from 16 to above 40 are given in Table 7.2. 

The relative stability of the anions derived from cyclopropene and cyclopentadiene by deprotonation is just the reverse of the situation for the cations. Cyclopentadiene is one of the most acidic hydrocarbons known, with a of 16.0. The plCs of triphenylcyclo-propene and trimethylcyclopropene have been estimated as 50 and 62, respectively, from electrochemical cycles. The unsubstituted compound would be expected to fall somewhere in between and thus must be about 40 powers of 10 less acidic than cyclopentadiene. MP2/6-31(d,p) and B3LYP calculations indicate a small destabilization, relative to the cyclopropyl anion. Thus, the six-7c-electron cyclopentadienide ion is enormously stabilized relative to the four-7c-electron cyclopropenide ion, in agreement with the Hixckel rule. 

The Hiickel rule predicts aromaticity for the six-7c-electron cation derived from cycloheptatriene by hydride abstraction and antiaromaticity for the planar eight-rc-electron anion that would be formed by deprotonation. The cation is indeed very stable, with a P Cr+ of -1-4.7. ° Salts containing the cation can be isolated as a product of a variety of preparative procedures. On the other hand, the pK of cycloheptatriene has been estimated at 36. ° This value is similar to those of normal 1,4-dienes and does not indicate strong destabilization. Thus, the seven-membered eight-rc-electron anion is probably nonplanar. This would be similar to the situation in the nonplanar eight-rc-electron hydrocarbon, cyclooctatetraene. 

Where do hydrocarbons lie on the acidity scale As the data in Table 8.1 show, both methane (pKa 60) and ethylene (plC, = 44) are very weak acids and thus do not react with any of the common bases. Acetylene, however, has piCa = 25 and can be deprotonated by the conjugate base of any acid whose pKa is greater than 25. Amide ion (NH2-), for example, the conjugate base of ammonia (pKa - 35), is often used to aeprotonate terminal aikynes. 

The easiest access to most benzyllithium, -sodium, or -potassium derivatives consists of the deprotonation of the corresponding carbon acids. Hydrocarbons, such as toluene, exhibit a remarkably low kinetic acidity. Excess toluene (without further solvent) is converted into benzyllithium by the action of butyllithium in the presence of complexing diamines such as A. Af.Af.jV -tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) or l,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) at elevated temperatures1 a procedure is published in reference 2. 

Deprotonation of OsH4(PMe2Ph)3 with excess KH in thf at 70°C leads to lipophilic K+[/ac-OsH3(PMe2Ph)3]-. In the solid state, this has a dimeric structure with phenyl rings helping it present a hydrocarbon-like exterior to solvents (Os-H 1.66-1.69 A, Os-P 2.271-2.28 A) [166]. 

The analogous dimerization of alkynes over Fe(C0)5 is not applicable, so clearly a different route towards alkynylated derivatives of 25 was needed. Comparison of 25 to cymantrene suggests that metallation of the hydrocarbon ligand should be the route of choice for the synthesis of novel substituted cyclobutadienes. In the literature, addition of organolithium bases (MeLi, BuLi) to the CO ligands with concomitant rearrangement had been observed [25]. But the utilization of LiTMP (lithium tetramethylpiperidide, Hafner [26]) or sec-BuLi as effectively non-nucleophilic bases led to clean deprotonation of the cyclobuta-... 

On the contrary, the oxidation of fluorene in a basic solution is not limited by the deprotonation of hydrocarbon [284]. This is in agreement with the oxidation of fluorene and 9,9-dideuterofluorene at the same rate in DMSO and 1,1-dimethylethanol solution. The stoichiometry of fluorene oxidation is close to unity (except oxidation in HMPA) and the main product of the reaction is fluorenone. The stoichiometry and the initial rate of the reaction depends on the solvent (conditions 300 K, [fluorene] = 0.1 mol L 1, [Me3COK] = 0.2mol L 1,p02 = 97kPa). 

Acetylene is sufficiently acidic to allow application of the gas-phase proton transfer equilibrium method described in equation l7. For ethylene, the equilibrium constant was determined from the kinetics of reaction in both directions with NH2-8. Since the acidity of ammonia is known accurately, that of ethylene can be determined. This method actually gives A f/ acid at the temperature of the measurement. Use of known entropies allows the calculation of A//ac d from AG = AH — TAS. The value of A//acij found for ethylene is 409.4 0.6 kcal mol 1. But hydrocarbons in general, and ethylene in particular, are so weakly acidic that such equilibria are generally not observable. From net proton transfers that are observed it is possible sometimes to put limits on the acidity range. Thus, ethylene is not deprotonated by hydroxide ion whereas allene and propene are9 consequently, ethylene is less acidic than water and allene and propene (undoubtedly the allylic proton) are more acidic. Unfortunately, the acidity of no other alkene is known as precisely as that of ethylene. 

The ability of the stable carbene 218 to deprotonate acidic hydrocarbons was examined by NMR in (CD3)2S0.153 Indene (pJta = 20.1) was completely converted to its anion whereas 9-phenylxanthene (pAfa = 27.7) was not measurably deprotonated. The NMR spectra of 1 1 mixtures of 218 with fluorene (pXa = 22.9) and 2,3-benzofluorene (pA"a = 23.5) showed separate absorptions for the hydrocarbons and their anions. From the integration of these spectra, P a = 24.0 for 218 was derived. In THF, 218 failed to deprotonate fluorene but almost completely deprotonated indene. The proton transfer from hydrocarbons to 218 creates ions (ion pairs) from neutral species, which will be less favorable in solvents of lower polarity. 

In fluorosulfonic acid the anodic oxidation of cyclohexane in the presence of different acids (RCO2H) leads to a single product with a rearranged carbon skeleton, a 1-acyl-2-methyl-1-cyclopentene (1) in 50 to 60% yield (Eq. 2) [7, 8]. Also other alkanes have been converted at a smooth platinum anode into the corresponding a,-unsaturated ketones in 42 to 71% yield (Table 1) [8, 9]. Product formation is proposed to occur by oxidation of the hydrocarbon to a carbocation (Eq. 1 and Scheme 1) that rearranges and gets deprotonated to an alkene, which subsequently reacts with an acylium cation from the carboxylic acid to afford the a-unsaturated ketone (1) (Eq. 2) [8-10]. In the absence of acetic acid, for example, in fluorosulfonic acid/sodium... 

In trifluoroacetic acid [0.4 M TBABF4 (tetrabutyl ammonium tetrafluoroborate)] unbranched alkanes are oxidized in fair to good yields to the corresponding triflu-oroacetates (Table 2) [16]. As mechanism, a 2e-oxidation and deprotonation to an intermediate carbenium ion, that undergoes solvolysis is proposed. The isomer distribution points to a fairly unselective CH oxidation at the methylene groups. Branched hydrocarbons are preferentially oxidized at the tertiary CH bond [17]. 

Under special conditions, C(PPh3)2 can be protonated to form the cations (HC (PPh3 2) and (H2C(PPh3 2), respectively by deprotonation of solvents like halogenated hydrocarbons, THF, DMSO, etc. ((3) and (4)). No reports are known about protonation in aqueous solution [83] ... 

Oligospirocyclopropanated bicyclopropylidenes can be functionalized in the same manner as the parent compound 1 (see Scheme 8), but in the deprotonations and subsequent electrophilic substitutions on unsymmetrical hydrocarbons like 55 and 57, very little selectivity at best was observed [54]. 

Dianions of anellated rings can either be generated by deprotonation of the hydrocarbons or by two-fold electron transfer. Both five-membered rings in the pentalene dianion in [(DME)2Li2(C8H6)]" (81) are -coordinated at both sides by the metal in... 

Standard organolithium reagents such as butyllithium, ec-butyllithium or tert-butyllithium deprotonate rapidly, if not instantaneously, the relatively acidic hydrocarbons of the 1,4-diene, diaryhnethane, triarylmethane, fluorene, indene and cyclopentadiene families and all terminal acetylenes (1-alkynes) as well. Butyllithium alone is ineffective toward toluene but its coordination complex with A/ ,A/ ,iV, iV-tetramethylethylenediamine does produce benzyllithium in high yield when heated to 80 To introduce metal into less reactive hydrocarbons one has either to rely on neighboring group-assistance or to employ so-called superbases. 

As pointed out above, neither methane nor its higher homologs (ethane, propane, hexane) can be effectively metalated. The introduction of a hetero-substituent changes this outset profoundly. Second-row and third-row elements (such as silicon, phosphorus and sulfur) will not be considered in this context as they are known to acidify hydrocarbons strongly due to d-orbital resonance (or polarization) effects. But also the first-row elements nitrogen, oxygen and fluorine can distinctly facilitate the deprotonation of paraffinic hydrocarbons. 

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