Hydrogen fluoride with alcohols

Earliest attempts to make organic fluorides involved reactions of hydrogen fluoride with alcohols, but were unsuccessful.6 This is not surprising, the direct conversion of alcohol to fluoride is not easy to achieve. 

Orientation in di- or trialkylation may be regulated by controlling the vigor of the reaction. Relatively mild catalysts, such as boron fluoride (with an alcohol), hydrogen fluoride (with an olefin), or ferric chloride (with an alkyl halide), may lead almost excluavely to p-dialky-lation or 1,2,4-tiialkylation. Under more vigorous conditions, as with excess aluminum chloride at elevated temperatures, the m-dialkyl or sym-trialkyl derivative predominates. 

The order of reactivity of the hydrogen halides parallels their acidity HI > HBr > HCl >> HF Hydrogen iodide is used infrequently however and the reaction of alco hols with hydrogen fluoride is not a useful method for the preparation of alkyl fluorides Among the various classes of alcohols tertiary alcohols are observed to be the most reactive and primary alcohols the least reactive... 

One of the most useful ways of introducing fluorine into organic compounds is the placement of the hydroxyl group in alcohols hydroxy compounds, and carboxylic acids Methyl alcohol reacts with anhydrous hydrogen fluoride at 100 500 °C in the presence of aluminum fluoride [60, 61], zinc fluoride [62] chromium fluonde [63], or a mixture of aluminum and chromium fluondes [64] to give a 20-78% yield of fluoromethane Attempted fluorinations of higher alcohols by this method failed [60]... 

Mixtures of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride and tetrahydrofuran are successfully used as fluorinating agents to convert 1,1,2-trifluoro-l-allcen-3-ols, easily prepared from bromotrifluoroethene via lithiation followed by the reaction with aldehydes or ketones, to 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoro-2-alkenes The yields are optimal with a 5 1 ratio of hydrogen fluoride to tetrahydrofuran The fluorination reaction involves a fluonde lon-induced rearrangement (Sf,j2 mechanism) of allylic alcohols [65] (equation 40)... 

Reactions of alcohols with sulfur tetrafluoride, because of decomposition and/or polymerization, usually do not give fluorinated products However, in the presence of a hydrogen fluoride scavenger like triethylamine or pyridine, even such sensitive substrates as benzylic alcohols [555], 2-phenylethanol, and 2-furylmethanol [554] can be fluorinated to give the expected fluoro derivatives (equation 73)... 

In l-chloro-2-fluoroacenaphthene [58] and in 2,3-dihalo-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran [59, 60], potassium t rt-butoxide eliminates hydrogen fluonde in preference to hydrogen chloride. trares-2-Chloro-3-fluoro-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran loses hydrogen fluoride quantitatively on treatment with sodamide in tert-butyl alcohol [60] (equation 29). 

Notable examples of general synthetic procedures in Volume 47 include the synthesis of aromatic aldehydes (from dichloro-methyl methyl ether), aliphatic aldehydes (from alkyl halides and trimethylamine oxide and by oxidation of alcohols using dimethyl sulfoxide, dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, and pyridinum trifluoro-acetate the latter method is particularly useful since the conditions are so mild), carbethoxycycloalkanones (from sodium hydride, diethyl carbonate, and the cycloalkanone), m-dialkylbenzenes (from the />-isomer by isomerization with hydrogen fluoride and boron trifluoride), and the deamination of amines (by conversion to the nitrosoamide and thermolysis to the ester). Other general methods are represented by the synthesis of 1 J-difluoroolefins (from sodium chlorodifluoroacetate, triphenyl phosphine, and an aldehyde or ketone), the nitration of aromatic rings (with ni-tronium tetrafluoroborate), the reductive methylation of aromatic nitro compounds (with formaldehyde and hydrogen), the synthesis of dialkyl ketones (from carboxylic acids and iron powder), and the preparation of 1-substituted cyclopropanols (from the condensation of a 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol derivative and ethyl-... 

Acetylation of the hydroxymethyl imidazole 63 affords the corresponding ester (64), nitration (65) followed by hydrolysis gives intermediate 66, and reaction of this alcohol with potassium cyanate in hydrogen fluoride gives the carbamate ronidazole (67).16... 

In contrast to alcohols, trimethyl- and triphenylsilanol react with TeF to form the corresponding fluorosilane and pentafluoroorthotelluric acid (71). The system TeF6-ROH has also been studied by reacting Te(OCH3)6 with anhydrous hydrogen fluoride [Eq. (12)]. 

Dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB) reacts with phenols and, which is not of interest here, with amino groups. Hydrogen fluoride is eliminated. DNFB does not react w ith carboxylic acids. Alcohols, if they react at all, form dinitrophenyl ethers very slowly. Very weakly dissociated phenolic hydroxyl groups, e.g., in salicylic acid (pK = 13.4), are inert towards DNFB. 

The formation of silicon-flvxyride bonds on the surface of silica after treatment with hydrogen fluoride was never proven directly. However, there is a pronounced change in the adsorption and wetting properties. The silica becomes hydrophobic as was mentioned in a patent to Kimberlin (279a). Neimark and collaborators (279b) found a type V isotherm in the methanol adsorption on silica gel which had been treated with a solution of SiF in absolute alcohol. Wilska (280) obtained a water-repellent silica when solutions of HaSiPg were precipitated with ammonia. The Si—F bond is hydrolyzed only slowly. A considerable fluorine content of 7-10% F was reported in an older patent (281) for a silica that had been prepared by hydrolysis of SiF. ... 

---