Lewis acids with aryl halides

Simple reaction occurs with aryl halides only when the ring is sufficiently substituted with electron-withdrawing functions to allow attack by the nucleophilic phosphorus.53-56 Generally, reaction with aryl halides requires the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst or some other means of reaction initiation. These reactions will be considered in detail in Chapter 6 of this work. Interestingly, while reactions involving vinylic halides seem to correlate with those of aromatic halides (see Chapter 6), acetylenic halides undergo facile reaction with these phosphorus reagents.57 58... 

Lewis acids are also used in conjunction with acyl halides. The reagent Nal—BF3 etherate selectively cleaves ethers in the order benzylic ethers > alkyl methyl ethers > aryl methyl ethers. 

Carbon monoxide rapidly inserts into the carbon—zirconium bond of alkyl- and alkenyl-zirconocene chlorides at low temperature with retention of configuration at carbon to give acylzirconocene chlorides 17 (Scheme 3.5). Acylzirconocene chlorides have found utility in synthesis, as described elsewhere in this volume [17]. Lewis acid catalyzed additions to enones, aldehydes, and imines, yielding a-keto allylic alcohols, a-hydroxy ketones, and a-amino ketones, respectively [18], and palladium-catalyzed addition to alkyl/aryl halides and a,[5-ynones [19] are examples. The acyl complex 18 formed by the insertion of carbon monoxide into dialkyl, alkylaryl, or diaryl zirconocenes may rearrange to a r 2-ketone complex 19 either thermally (particularly when R1 = R2 = Ph) or on addition of a Lewis acid [5,20,21]. The rearrangement proceeds through the less stable... 

To be really satisfactory, a Friedel-Crafts alkylation requires one relatively stable secondary or tertiary carbocation to be formed from the alkyl halide by interaction with the Lewis acid, i.e. cases where there is not going to be any chance of rearrangement. Note also that we are unable to generate carboca-tions from an aryl halide - aryl cations (also vinyl cations, see Section 8.1.3) are unfavourable - so that we cannot nse the Friedel-Crafts reaction to join aromatic gronps. There is also one further difficulty, as we shall see below. This is the fact that introduction of an alkyl substitnent on to an aromatic ring activates the ring towards fnrther electrophilic substitution. The result is that the initial product from Friedel-Crafts alkylations is more reactive than the... 

When arylhydrazones of aldehydes or ketones are treated with a catalyst, elimination of ammonia takes place and an indole is formed, in the Fischer indole synthesis.515 Zinc chloride is the catalyst most frequently employed, but dozens of others, including other metal halides, proton and Lewis acids, and certain transition-metals have also been used. Arylhydrazones are easily prepared by the treatment of aldehydes or ketones with phenylhydrazine (6-2) or by aliphatic diazonium coupling (2-7). However, it is not necessary to isolate the arylhy-drazone. The aldehyde or ketone can be treated with a mixture of phenylhydrazine and the catalyst this is now common practice. In order to obtain an indole, the aldehyde or ketone must be of the form RCOCH2R (R = alkyl, aryl, or hydrogen). 

The scope and limitations of the Lewis acid-catalyzed additions of alkyl chlorides to carbon-carbon double bonds were studied.51 Since Lewis acid systems are well-known initiators in carbocationic polymerizations of alkenes, the question arises as to what factors govern the two transformations. The prediction was that alkylation products are expected if the starting halides dissociate more rapidly than the addition products.55 In other words, addition is expected if the initial carbocation is better stabilized than the one formed from the dissociation of the addition product. This has been verified for the alkylation of a range of alkyl-and aryl-substituted alkenes and dienes with alkyl and aralkyl halides. Steric effects, however, must also be taken into account in certain cases, such as in the reactions of trityl chloride.51... 

Because of the special structural requirements of the resin-bound substrate, this type of cleavage reaction lacks general applicability. Some of the few examples that have been reported are listed in Table 3.19. Lactones have also been obtained by acid-catalyzed lactonization of resin-bound 4-hydroxy or 3-oxiranyl carboxylic acids [399]. Treatment of polystyrene-bound cyclic acetals with Jones reagent also leads to the release of lactones into solution (Entry 5, Table 3.19). Resin-bound benzylic aryl or alkyl carbonates have been converted into esters by treatment with acyl halides and Lewis acids (Entry 6, Table 3.19). Similarly, alcohols bound to insoluble supports as benzyl ethers can be cleaved from the support and simultaneously converted into esters by treatment with acyl halides [400]. Esters have also been prepared by treatment of carboxylic acids with an excess of polystyrene-bound triazenes here, diazo-nium salts are released into solution, which serve to O-alkylate the acid (Entry 7, Table 3.19). This strategy can also be used to prepare sulfonates [401]. 

Polysilanes have also been modified by removal of aryl groups under acidic conditions, to give Si-functional polymers. Phenyl or other aryl groups on silicon can be selectively replaced by halogens, upon treatment with a hydrogen halide and a Lewis acid. 

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