Carboxylation, Kolbe

The pyrrole anion also undergoes the Kolbe carboxylation reaction The Kolbe reaction is best... 

This process is referred to as high-pressure Kolbe carboxylation of sodium phenoxide. Upon acidification of the alkaline solution, salicylic acid is isolated as a solid, mp 157-159 C. 

Kolbe reaction The pre >aration of saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbons by the electrolysis of solutions of the alkali salts of aliphatic carboxylic acids. Thus, ethanoic acid gives ethane,... 

Salicylic acid. The preparation of salicylic acid by passing carbon dioxide into dry sodium phenoxide at 170-190° is the classical example of the Kolbe-Schmltt reaction. The latter is a method for introducing a carboxyl group directly into a phenol nucleus. 

CARBOXYLATION OF PHENOLS ASPIRIN AND THE KOLBE-SCHMITT REACTION... 

Carboxylation of Phenols Aspirin and the Kolbe-Schmitt Reaction... 

Section 24 10 The Kolbe-Schmitt synthesis of salicylic acid is a vital step m the preparation of aspirin Phenols as their sodium salts undergo highly regioselective ortho carboxylation on treatment with carbon dioxide at elevated temperature and pressure... 

Alkylphenols undergo a carboxylation reaction known as the Kolbe Schmidt reaction. In the following example, the phenolate anion of /)-nonylphenol (15) reacts with carbon dioxide under pressure. Neutralization generates a sahcyhc acid (16) (10). 

A large number of salts of sahcyhc acid have been prepared and evaluated for therapeutic or other commercial use. Table 7 hsts those most frequently referenced. Sodium sahcylate has analgesic, antiinflammatory, and antipyretic activities and was used extensively in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a remedy, prepared from natural sources, for arthritis and rheumatism. In the 1990s the salt can be obtained directly from Kolbe-Schmitt carboxylation or by the reaction of sahcyhc acid with either aqueous sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate. The resulting mixture is heated until effervescence stops the salt is then isolated by filtration and evaporation to dryness at low temperatures. Generally, the solution must be kept slightly acidic so that a white product is obtained if the mixture is basic, a colored product results. The USP product contains 99.5—100.5% NaC H O (anhydrous). The May 1996 price was 8.15/kg (18). 

Manufacture. Several methods have been described for the preparation of -hydroxyben2oic acid. The commercial technique is similar to that of salicylic acid, ie, Kolbe-Schmitt carboxylation of phenol. The modification includes the use of potassium hydroxide in place of caustic (51). The dried potassium phenate is heated under pressure, 270 kPa (2.7 atm) or more, with dry carbon dioxide at 180—250°C. The potassium salt [16782-08-4] of Nhydroxyben2oic acid forms almost quantitatively and can be converted to free acid by using a mineral acid. 

Aminotriazole is carboxylated at the 5-position by heating with aqueous sodium bicarbonate in a Kolbe-type reaction (7lJCS(C)l50l). 2-Thiazolinones undergo the Gatter-mann and Reimer-Tiemann reactions at the 4-position, and 3- and 4-pyrazolinone anions on alkylation give 4-alkyl as well as O- and N-alkyl derivatives. 

A classic reaction involving electron transfer and decarboxylation of acyloxy radicals is the Kolbe electrolysis, in which an electron is abstracted from a carboxylate ion at the anode of an electrolysis system. This reaction gives products derived from coupling of the decarboxylated radicals. 

Electrolysis of carboxylic acid salts m solution causes decaboxyladve coupling similar to Kolbe reaction. Thus, eleclrolysis of 3,3,3-trifluoro-2-trifluoromethyl-propanoic acid in die presence of some of its potassium salt gives the corresponding fluoroalkane in a satisfactory yield [7d] (equation 67). 

The reaction is likely to proceed by a radical-chain mechanism, involving intermediate formation of carboxyl radicals, as in the related Kolbe electrolytic synthesis. Initially the bromine reacts with the silver carboxylate 1 to give an acyl hypobromite species 3 together with insoluble silver bromide, which precipitates from the reaction mixture. The unstable acyl hypobromite decomposes by homolytic cleavage of the O-Br bond, to give a bromo radical and the carboxyl radical 4. The latter decomposes further to carbon dioxide and the alkyl radical 5, which subsequently reacts with hypobromite 3 to yield the alkyl bromide 2 and the new carboxyl radical 4Z... 

The anodic oxidation of the carboxylate anion 1 of a carboxylate salt to yield an alkane 3 is known as the Kolbe electrolytic synthesis By decarboxylation alkyl radicals 2 are formed, which subsequently can dimerize to an alkane. The initial step is the transfer of an electron from the carboxylate anion 1 to the anode. The carboxyl radical species 4 thus formed decomposes by loss of carbon dioxide. The resulting alkyl radical 2 dimerizes to give the alkane 3 " ... 

Suitable starting materials for the Kolbe electrolytic synthesis are aliphatic carboxylic acids that are not branched in a-position. With aryl carboxylic acids the reaction is not successful. Many functional groups are tolerated. The generation of the desired radical species is favored by a high concentration of the carboxylate salt as well as a high current density. Product distribution is further dependend on the anodic material, platinum is often used, as well as the solvent, the temperature and the pH of the solution." ... 

The Kolbe synthesis of nitriles is an important method for the elongation of an alkyl chain by one carbon center (see also the Arndt-Eistert synthesis). The nitrile 2 can for example easily be converted to the corresponding carboxylic acid by hydrolysis. 

NCarboxylic Acids to Efliers, Esters and Aktdiols. .117... 

Conversion of Carboxylic Adds into Olefins by Non-Kolbe Electrolysis. .. 126... 

Kolbe electrolysis is a powerful method of generating radicals for synthetic applications. These radicals can combine to symmetrical dimers (chap 4), to unsymmetrical coupling products (chap 5), or can be added to double bonds (chap 6) (Eq. 1, path a). The reaction is performed in the laboratory and in the technical scale. Depending on the reaction conditions (electrode material, pH of the electrolyte, current density, additives) and structural parameters of the carboxylates, the intermediate radical can be further oxidized to a carbocation (Eq. 1, path b). The cation can rearrange, undergo fragmentation and subsequently solvolyse or eliminate to products. This path is frequently called non-Kolbe electrolysis. In this way radical and carbenium-ion derived products can be obtained from a wide variety of carboxylic acids. 

Faraday, in 1834, was the first to encounter Kolbe-electrolysis, when he studied the electrolysis of an aqueous acetate solution [1], However, it was Kolbe, in 1849, who recognized the reaction and applied it to the synthesis of a number of hydrocarbons [2]. Thereby the name of the reaction originated. Later on Wurtz demonstrated that unsymmetrical coupling products could be prepared by coelectrolysis of two different alkanoates [3]. Difficulties in the coupling of dicarboxylic acids were overcome by Crum-Brown and Walker, when they electrolysed the half esters of the diacids instead [4]. This way a simple route to useful long chain l,n-dicarboxylic acids was developed. In some cases the Kolbe dimerization failed and alkenes, alcohols or esters became the main products. The formation of alcohols by anodic oxidation of carboxylates in water was called the Hofer-Moest reaction [5]. Further applications and limitations were afterwards foimd by Fichter [6]. Weedon extensively applied the Kolbe reaction to the synthesis of rare fatty acids and similar natural products [7]. Later on key features of the mechanism were worked out by Eberson [8] and Utley [9] from the point of view of organic chemists and by Conway [10] from the point of view of a physical chemist. In Germany [11], Russia [12], and Japan [13] Kolbe electrolysis of adipic halfesters has been scaled up to a technical process. 

The yield and selectivity of Kolbe electrolysis is determined by the reaction conditions and the structure of the carboxylate. The latter subject is treated in chaps 3, 4. Experimental factors that influence the outcome of the Kolbe electrolysis are the current density, the temperature, the pH, additives, the solvent, and the electrode material. 

Foreign cations can increasingly lower the yield in the order Fe, Co " < Ca " < Mn < Pb " [22]. This is possibly due to the formation of oxide layers at the anode [42], Alkali and alkaline earth metal ions, alkylammonium ions and also zinc or nickel cations do not effect the Kolbe reaction [40] and are therefore the counterions of choice in preparative applications. Methanol is the best suited solvent for Kolbe electrolysis [7, 43]. Its oxidation is extensively inhibited by the formation of the carboxylate layer. The following electrolytes with methanol as solvent have been used MeOH-sodium carboxylate [44], MeOH—MeONa [45, 46], MeOH—NaOH [47], MeOH—EtsN-pyridine [48]. The yield of the Kolbe dimer decreases in media that contain more than 4% water. 

Dimethylformamide is also a suitable solvent [50], it has, however, the disadvantage of being oxidized at fairly low potentials to A-acyloxy-iV-methyl formamide [51]. The influence of the composition of the ternary system water/methanol/dimethyl-formamide on the material and current yield has been systematically studied in the electrolysis of co-acetoxy or -acetamido substituted carboxylates [32]. Acetonitrile can also be used, when some water is.added [52]. The influence of various solvents on the ratio of Kolbe to non-Kolbe products is shown in Table 1 [53]. 

The nature of the cathode material is not critical in the Kolbe reaction. The reduction of protons from the carboxylic acid is the main process, so that the electrolysis can normally be conducted in an undivided cell. For substrates with double or triple bonds, however, a platinum cathode should be avoided, as cathodic hydrogenation can occur there. A steel cathode should be used, instead. 

The current-potential relationship indicates that the rate determining step for the Kolbe reaction in aqueous solution is most probably an irreversible 1 e-transfer to the carboxylate with simultaneous bond breaking leading to the alkyl radical and carbon dioxide [8]. However, also other rate determining steps have been proposed [10]. When the acyloxy radical is assumed as intermediate it would be very shortlived and decompose with a half life of t 10" to carbon dioxide and an alkyl radical [89]. From the thermochemical data it has been concluded that the rate of carbon dioxide elimination effects the product distribution. Olefin formation is assumed to be due to reaction of the carboxylate radical with the alkyl radical and the higher olefin ratio for propionate and butyrate is argued to be the result of the slower decarboxylation of these carboxylates [90]. 

Carboxylates, which are chiral in the a-position totally lose their optical activity in mixed Kolbe electrolyses [93, 94]. This racemization supports either a free radical or its fast dynamic desorption-adsorption at the electrode. A clearer distinction can be made by looking at the diastereoselectivity of the coupling reaction. Adsorbed radicals should be stabilized and thus react via a more product like transition state... 

Two equal carboxylates can be coupled to symmetrical dimers (Eq. 4). In spite of the high anode potential, that is necessary for Kolbe electrolysis, a fair number of... 

A great number of Kolbe dimerizations have been tabulated in refs. [9, 17-19]. Here no comprehensive coverage is intended, but to demonstrate with selected examples the range and limitations of Kolbe dimerization. In the following discussion and in Table 2 the carboxylates are arranged according to their functional groups in the order alkyl-, ester-, keto-, halo- and olefinic substituents. 

The coupling of carboxylic acids has been profitably used in natural product synthesis. Kolbe electrolysis of 10 is part of a (+) x-onocerin synthesis [120], the dimerization of il leads to a pentacyclosqualene [121], the electrolysis of 12 afforded a dime-with two quaternary carbon atoms [122], and 2,6,10,15,19,23-hexamethyltetracontane has been synthesized from 13 [123]. 

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