Hydroxymethylation nucleophilic

In many cases, substituents linked to a pyrrole, furan or thiophene ring show similar reactivity to those linked to a benzenoid nucleus. This generalization is not true for amino or hydroxyl groups. Hydroxy compounds exist largely, or entirely, in an alternative nonaromatic tautomeric form. Derivatives of this type show little resemblance in their reactions to anilines or phenols. Thienyl- and especially pyrryl- and furyl-methyl halides show enhanced reactivity compared with benzyl halides because the halogen is made more labile by electron release of the type shown below. Hydroxymethyl and aminomethyl groups on heteroaromatic nuclei are activated to nucleophilic attack by a similar effect. 

Halogenomethyl, hydroxymethyl and aminomethyl groups readily undergo displacement reactions with nucleophilic reagents. Both side-chain and nuclear substitution products have been obtained (Scheme 57). These two possibilities are exemplified by the reaction of furfuryl chloride with sodium cyanide (Scheme 58). 

Oompound 1, 2-(hydroxymethyl )a11y1trimethylsilane, represents a conjunctive reagent which can be considered as the equivalent of zwitterion 2, possessing a nucleophilic allyl anion synthon and an electrophilic allyl... 

Simple alkyl radicals such as methyl are considered to be nonnucleophilic. Methyl radicals are somewhat more reactive toward alkenes bearing electron-withdrawing substituents than towards those with electron-releasing substituents. However, much of this effect can be attributed to the stabilizing effect that these substiments have on the product radical. There is a strong correlation of reaction rate with the overall exothermicity of the reaction. Hydroxymethyl and 2-hydroxy-2-propyl radicals show nucleophilic character. The hydroxymethyl radical shows a slightly enhanced reactivity toward acrylonitrile and acrolein, but a sharply decreased reactivity toward ethyl vinyl ether. Table 12.9 gives some of the reactivity data. 

In general, the reaction between a phenol and an aldehyde is classified as an electrophilic aromatic substitution, though some researchers have classed it as a nucleophilic substitution (Sn2) on aldehyde [84]. These mechanisms are probably indistinguishable on the basis of kinetics, though the charge-dispersed sp carbon structure of phenate does not fit our normal concept of a good nucleophile. In phenol-formaldehyde resins, the observed hydroxymethylation kinetics are second-order, first-order in phenol and first-order in formaldehyde. 

Scheme 10. Mechanislic possibililies for PF condensalion. Mechanism a involves an SN2-like attack of a phenolic ring on a methylol. This attack would be face-on. Such a mechanism is necessarily second-order. Mechanism b involves formation of a quinone methide intermediate and should be Hrst-order. The quinone methide should react with any nucleophile and should show ethers through both the phenolic and hydroxymethyl oxygens. Reaction c would not be likely in an alkaline solution and is probably illustrative of the mechanism for novolac condensation. The slow step should be formation of the benzyl carbocation. Therefore, this should be a first-order reaction also. Though carbocation formation responds to proton concentration, the effects of acidity will not usually be seen in the reaction kinetics in a given experiment because proton concentration will not vary.

Blasius and coworkers have offered a somewhat different approach to systems of this general type. In the first of these, shown in Eq. (6.20), he utilizes a hydroxymethyl-substituted 15-crown-5 residue as the nucleophile. This essentially similar to the Mon-tanari method. The second approach is a variant also, but more different in the sense that covalent bond formation is effected by a Friedel-Crafts alkylation. In the reaction... 

Tomoi, Kihara and Kakiuchi " have prepared a cryptand with a hydroxymethyl group in one of the strands and then utilized this as nucleophile in a reaction with chlo-romethylated polystyrene. The type of compound prepared by this method is illustrated in Eq. (8.16). 

Minisci reactions have also been applied to these compounds. formation by exposure to w-CPBA and O-methylation with Meerwein s reagent converted 54 into 55. Nucleophilic attack of the hydroxymethyl radical, generated with ammonium sulfate, provides an alternate route to 2-hydroxymethyl pyridines 56. 

Such methodology can be seen in the construction of the nucleophilic hydroxymethylating reagents (isopropoxydimethylsilyl)methylmagnesium chloride (1) (8) and (allyldimethylsilyl)methylmagnesium chloride (2) (4) ... 

Pd, or Ni (Scheme 5-3). First, P-H oxidative addition of PH3 or hydroxymethyl-substituted derivatives gives a phosphido hydride complex. P-C bond formation was then suggested to occur in two possible pathways. In one, formaldehyde insertion into the M-H bond gives a hydroxymethyl complex, which undergoes P-C reductive elimination to give the product. Alternatively, nucleophilic attack of the phosphido group on formaldehyde gives a zwitterionic species, followed by proton transfer to form the O-H bond [7]. 

There is a possibiUty that (hydroxymethyl)phosphines might be catalyzing hydration of activated olefinic moieties in lignin. The Michael addition reaction shown in eq. (6a) is catalyzed by 5% THP in water at ambient conditions, with 70% conversion of the acrylonitrile no such reaction is seen with aciyhc acid or the methyl ester, but analogous hydromethoxylation of these compounds is seen in MeOH (42) (eq. (6b), R = H or Me). There is a report on similar catalytic use of tiialkylphosphines, which, like THP, are strong nucleophiles (43). 

Enamine fragments present in quinolizine systems show their expected behavior as nucleophiles. For example, reaction of the indoloquinolizine derivative 78 with formaldehyde at room temperature afforded the unstable hydroxymethyl derivative 79, while reflux of 78 with formaldehyde under acidic conditions led to indole deprotection and allowed the isolation of the pentacyclic derivative 80 (Scheme 4) <2001TL7237>. 

The pyrirnido[ 1,6-/z [3,l [benzoxazin-1 -thionc 230 was formed in a tandem [5+1, 6+0 (/ )] cyclization as depicted in Scheme 38. The first step is the nucleophilic attack of the aniline nitrogen of 228 (X = O) onto the isothiocyanate and then onto the aldehyde carbon to form l-(2-hydroxymethyl)phenyl-6-hydroxy-tetrahydropyrimidine-2-thione, which cyclizes to 230 <2005BMC3185>. 

Katti, 1996 Katti et al., 1999). Nucleophiles react with the hydroxymethyl arms by attack on the electron-deficient carbon atom with loss of water to form secondary or tertiary amine bonds (Reaction 16). 

To summarize briefly, our approach involves initial attack by a relatively nucleophilic metal hydride on coordinated CO. Such reactivity has been demonstrated repeatedly for main-group metal hydrides perhaps the most elegantly worked-out system involves CpRe(C0)2(N0)+ (Cp = Tl-C H ) which, under varying conditions, can be converted to an entire range of products containing CO at different stages of reduction, including formyl, carbene, hydroxymethyl and methyl species (Scheme l). Reactions lead-... 

Another quite common reaction involving nucleophilic attack at a carbon atom of the ring is the hydrolysis of hexahydro-oxazolo[3,4- ]pyridines and tetrahydro-oxazolo[3,4-tf]pyridin-l-ones. This reaction has been known for years and is best performed under acidic conditions, respectively, producing 2-hydroxymethyl-piperidines or pipe-colic acid derivatives in good yields representative examples are collected in Table 9. Ammoniolysis of tetrahydro-oxazolo[3,4-tf]pyridin-l -ones with amino acid derivatives has also been reported and produces substituted pipecolic acid amides in good yields <2003H(61)259>. 

Another mechanism of dearylation has been proven for tris(2-methylphen-yl) phosphate, and it is a pathway whose first step must be cytochrome P450 dependent. As shown in Fig. 9.10, the compound is hydroxylated at a Me group to yield the hydroxymethyl analogue 9.46. The latter then breaks down by intramolecular nucleophilic attack to form 2-(2-methylphenoxy)-4//-l,3,2A5-benzodioxaphosphinin-2-one (9.47, Fig. 9.10). This reaction of cy-clization occurs with loss of a ortho-cresyl moiety and is catalyzed by serum albumin [102], The cyclized product is a more potent inhibitor of esterases than tris(2-methylphenyl) phosphate, and it is also more toxic [100][101],... 

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