In the Hunsdiecker reaction

Other reagents can be used in the Hunsdiecker reaction, as shown in Figure 12-46. 

Fragmentation with loss of CO2 also occurs in the Hunsdiecker reaction, in which a silver salt of a carboxylic acid reacts with bromine to produce an alkyl halide. The reaction results in shortening of the carbon chain by one carbon. The overall reaction is as follows ... 

In the Hunsdiecker reaction, the silver salt of a carboxylic acid (RCC Ag) is treated with Br2 to give an alkyl bromide RBr with one fewer C atom. The re-... 

Thallous carboxylates have also been utilized by Taylor and McKillop6 in the Hunsdiecker reaction yields of primary aliphatic bromides are extremely high, fle-... 

In addition to Ag, many other metals (Hg, Pb, Tl, and Mn) can be used in the Hunsdiecker reaction.13-20 The Cristol-Firth modification is a one-pot reaction using excess red HgO and one equivalent of halogen.13 The advantage of the Cristol-Firth modification is that the mercury carboxylate does not need to be isolated and purified, unlike the Hunsdiecker reaction using the silver carboxylate. Therefore, as depicted by transformations 6— 714 and 8— 9,15 the Cristol-Firth modification is operationally more straightforward and more widely used than the classical Hunsdiecker reaction using silver carboxylate 1. 

FIGURE 17.58 The decarboxylation of the carboxylate radical is also involved in the Hunsdiecker reaction, a synthesis of alkyl bromides from carboxylic acids. The recycling, chain-propogating carboxyl radical is highlighted. 

In the Hunsdiecker reaction, treatment of silver salts of carboxylic acids with bromine furnishes the alkyl(aryl) bromides with one less carbon atom. Improvements that do not require the preparation of the dry silver salts include the use of mer-cury(II) salts (Cristol-Firth modification) (eq 28), thallium(I) salts, and photostimulation. ... 

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 ... 

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... 

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... 

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. 

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-... 

The Hunsdiecker reaction is a free-radical reaction for the synthesis of an alkyl halide. The starting material comes from the reaction of a silver carboxylate with a solution of a halogen in a solvent such as carbon tetrachloride (see Figure 12-44). The overall free-radical mechanism is shown in Figure 12-45. 

Decarboxylation of the silver salts of carboxylic acids in the presence of bromine or chlorine, the Hunsdiecker reaction, often is useful for the synthesis of alkyl halides ... 

The Hunsdiecker reaction has certain disadvantages, mainly because it requires use of the pure dry silver salt, which is often difficult to prepare. With some acids, however, excellent results can be obtained using the acid itself and an excess of red mercuric oxide in place of the silver salt,... 

In a Hunsdiecker reaction, the silver salt of an aromatic carboxylic acid is converted by bromine treatment to an acyl halide. 

One great advantage of the decarboxylative halogenation with O-acyl esters of A-hydroxy-2-thiopyridone is that the reaction does not require any heavy metal such as Ag or Hg, unlike the Hunsdiecker reaction [24, 25]. Moreover, decarboxylative bromination of p-methoxybenzoic acid can be also carried out in good yield, while it does not proceed with the Hunsdiecker reaction instead, electrophilic bromination on the aromatic ring occurs. 

The following reaction, known as the Hunsdiecker reaction, proceeds by a radical chain mechanism. Show the steps in this mechanism. (Hint The weakest bond in the compound, the oxygen-bromine bond, is broken in the initiation step.)... 

Of lesser relevance to this discussion are halogenation methods involving the modification of the carbon skeleton (synthesis and degradation). The Hunsdiecker reaction, as applied to certain heterocyclic acids, has had limited application for the synthesis of halogen derivatives. The preparation of 3-bromo-4,6-dimethyl-2-pyridone from the silver salt of the respective 3-carboxylic acid by treatment with bromine in carbon tetrachloride is a rare example of success.13 The interaction of carbenes with heterocycles also has been employed infrequently, but recent advances in carbene generation may reactivate this approach.14 The Ciamician-Dennstedt ring expansion of pyrrole to / -halopyridines is a case in point18 [Eq. (4)] ... 

Silver-mediated C—X bond formation was known for many years as the Hunsdiecker reaction, in which substrates bearing carboxylic acids are oxidatively decarboxylated to give alkyl halides in the presence of halogens (142). If olefins are used with silver benzoate and I2, the Prevost reaction occurs to yield diols (143). 

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