In the Beckmann rearrangement

Zeolites and other mesoporous materials are excellent catalysts for industrial and laboratory applications. Favourable characteristics are their capacity to immobihze homogenous catalysts rendering them heterogeneous, their thermal stability, and the ease of separation from the reaction products and reuse in hquid- and gas-phase conditions. The pore size and Brpnsted and Lewis acidic properties are determinant for their use as catalyst in the Beckmann rearrangement. Recently, a review on the use of zeolites and mesoporous materials in the Beckmann rearrangement was published. ... 

Also, chlorosulfonic acid was demonstrated to be an efficient catalyst in the Beckmann rearrangement of a variety of ketoximes in refluxing toluene, and excellent conversion and selectivity was observed . This procedure can also be applied to the dehydration of aldoximes yielding the corresponding nitriles. 

Due to its Lewis acidic properties, the use of chloral (trichloroacetaldehyde) in the Beckmann rearrangement was investigated . When a variety of ketoximes is admixed with chloral hydrate and the mixture is heated at low pressure in nitrogen atmosphere, the Beckmann rearrangement afforded the corresponding amides in excellent yields (73-98%). The transformation occurs under neutral, relatively mild and solvent-free conditions. 

Pathway 2 of Scheme 9 corresponds to one of the most interesting developments in the Beckmann rearrangement chemistry. By trapping of the electrophilic intermediate with a nucleophile (Nu ) other than water, an imine derivative 227 is produced that may be used for further transformations. Carbon or heteroatom nucleophiles have been used to trap the nitrilium intermediate. Reducing agents promote the amine formation. More than one nucleophile may be added (for example, two different Grignard reagents can be introduced at the electrophilic carbon atom). Some of the most used transformations are condensed in Scheme 11. 

One of the most famous examples of intramolecular attack of oxygen on the nitriUnm ion intermediate was observed in the Beckmann rearrangement of Erythromycin oxime derivatives and was used in the discovery and synthesis of the commercial macrolide antibiotic Azithromycin 464. In fact, the Beckmann rearrangement of Erythromycin A 9( )-oxime 460 produced only small amounts (5%) of the expected amide 463, along with two isomeric imino ethers (461 and 462) in a fair yield (38 and 43%) (equation 198). 

That intermediate 105 in Equation 6.54 is formed in the Beckmann rearrangement has been amply demonstrated both by diverting it to other products155 and by direct observation by nmr.156... 

Nitrilium ions are generally indicated as discrete intermediates in the Beckmann rearrangement of oximes (equation 37, Y = OH2) and in the Schmidt rearrangement (equation 37, Y = N2) of ketones and aldehydes with hydrogen azide. The first stage of these reactions has been defined as an ionization by rearrangement process through a transition state of type 183 (Smith, 1963). 

Dunlop and Peters1 suggested an interpretation of the reaction. They considered that the first phase involves the formation of a cation similar to that which is present in the Beckmann rearrangement. 

In the Beckmann rearrangement (Problem 6, p. 919) oximes are converted into amides by the action of acids. For example ... 

One synthetically interesting development in the Beckmann rearrangement is the trapping of the intermediate nitrilium ion with heteroatom nucleophiles other than water, since the resulting imine derivatives may be further manipulated into various amine derivatives. 

In the Beckmann rearrangement, an oxime is classically treated with PC15 in concentrated... 

Note also that the Toray company in Japan produces cyclohexanone oxime directly from cyclohexane by the PNC (photonitrozation of cyclohexanone oxime) process, where cyclohexane is reacted with nitrosyl chloride (NOCl) under UV irradiation. The HCl eliminated in the Beckmann rearrangement process is recovered and recycled into the NOCl production. Also, this process does not produce ammonium sulfate, but it is still too costly. 

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