Lithium iodide, reaction with esters

Lil in boiling pyridine or other weak nucleophilic bases can cleave alkyl esters to alkyl iodides and lithium carboxylates (Scheme 28). The reaction is mainly used for mild, aprotic cleavage of esters to car-boxylates. The high degree of dissociation for Lil and the nucleophilic strength of the iodide ion explain the reaction with esters, which is not useful with the other halides. Trimethylchlorosilane and sodium iodide also give alkyl iodides from esters. ... 

Carboxylic esters where R is methyl or ethyl can be cleaved by heating with lithium iodide in refluxing pyridine or a higher boiling amine. " The reaction is useful where a molecule is sensitive to acid and base (so that 10-10 cannot be used) or where it is desired to cleave selectively only one ester group in a molecule containing two or more. For example, refluxing O-acetyloleanolic acid methyl ester... 

In summary, we have examined several new methods for cleaving ester groups in poly(styrene-b-alkyl methacrylates). Short blocks of methyl methacrylate are very difficult to hydrolyze, but can be cleaved with reagents such as lithium iodide and potassium trimethylsilanolate. These latter reagents, however, result in side-reactions which appear to crosslink the polymer. 

The concave acids 38 and the esters 39 could be interconverted. Reaction of the acids 38 with diazomethane led to the methyl esters 39. 8 2 dealkylation of the esters 39 by lithium iodide in pyridine gave the acids 38 [27]. 

Perfluoroalkyl lithium reagents undergo reactions typical of their hydrocarbon analogs. For example, perfluoroalkyl lithium reagents generated in situ from perfluoroalkyl iodides and alkyl lithiums reacted readily with aldehydes and ketones to yield the corresponding secondary and tertiary carbinols, and with esters to give either ketones or tertiary carbinols [12]. No 1,4-addition product is observed when a,/ -unsaturated ketones and esters are employed. 

Fig. 2.2. Cleavage of aromatic methyl ether using Sn2 reactions. In the dipolar aprotic solvent DMF, thiolate and chloride ions are particularly good nucleophiles for want of solvation through hydrogen bonding. In pyri-dinium hydrochloride a similar effect occurs because for each chloride only one N5 —H5 group is available for hydrogen bonding. The same increase in nucleophilicityin a dipolar aprotic solvent is used to cleave /i-ketomethyl esters with lithium iodide in DMF (cf. Figure 13.29).

Alkyl halides (particularly bromides) undergo oxidative addition with activated copper powder, prepared from Cu(I) salts with lithium naphthalenide, to give alkylcopper species10. The alkyl halides may be functionalized with ester, nitrile and chloro functions ketone and epoxide functions may also be tolerated in some cases11. The resulting alkylcopper species have been shown to react efficiently with acid chlorides, enones (conjugate addition) and (less efficiently) with primary alkyl iodides and allylic and benzylic bromides (equations 5 and 6). If a suitable ring size can be made, intramolecular reactions with epoxides and ketones are realized. 

In the initial studies about the reaction of /V.zV-disubstituted formamides with alkaline metals to give glyoxylic amides, the participation of carbamoyl metal derivatives as intermediates was postulated83. The first preparation of the carbamoyllithium 77 was described two years later by a mercury-lithium transmetallation from compound 76 at —75 °C (Scheme 20)84. The authors proposed also an aminocarbene structure 78 and studied its reactivity with methanol, methyl iodide, carbonyl compounds, esters, acyl chlorides, mercury(II) chloride and tri-n-butyltin chloride providing compounds 79. 

Homoconjngate addition to cyclopropanes. Corey and Fuchs have investigated the reaction of cyclopropanes with organocopper reagents as a possible synthetic route to prostanoids. For example, the tricyclic lactone ester (1) reacts with divinylcopper-lithiura (2.0 eq.) in ether at -12° (19 hr.) to give the vinylcyclopentane lactone ester (2). Tliis product was treated directly with lithium iodide (5 eq.) in pyridine (1,615-616) at reflux for 3 hr. to give the lactone (3) in about 37% yield. 

Keto stannylenolates can be prepared by the reaction of Sn-O or Sn-N bonded compounds with diketene, which can be regarded as a cyclic enol ester. The adducts formed from bis(tributyltin) oxide can undergo further reaction, with subsequent decarboxylation, to give the same products as those from the simple enolates. Alkylation with alkyl iodides or benzyl or allyl bromides is strongly catalysed by lithium bromide (e.g. Scheme 14-5). Double alkylation can be achieved with HMPA as solvent.120 The product of alkylation before the final hydrolysis is itself a tin enolate, which can be used in reactions with further carbon electrophiles. 

Several esters highly resistant to hydrolysis by base have been hydrolyzed successfully by refluxing with anhydrous lithium iodide in collidine. The reaction is often slow, for example, hydrolysis of the ester (1) required refluxing under nitrogen... 

This reaction had been effected previously with lithium iodide in refluxing 2,6-lutidine (1, 615-616). This combination afforded 25-28% of starting material, 49-51% of the desired acetoxy acid, and 5-10% of the hydroxy acid. Use of the mercaptide reagent converted the acetoxy ester into 3/3-acetoxy-A5-etiani c acid in 92% yield (25°, 24 hours). 

The silylated methyl ester was then a-methylated with lithium diisopropylamide and methyl iodide in tetrahydrofuran. Reduction of methyl 10-( erl-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-2-methyldecanoate with DIBAL in ether at -78°C afforded the corresponding aldehyde. The 10- tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-2-methyldecanal was subsequently coupled in a Wittig reaction with 1-hexyltriphenylphosphonium bromide and n-butyllithium affording (Z)- and ( )-1 -(teri-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-9-methyl-10-hexadecene in a 9 1 ratio, respectively. Deprotection with tetrabutylammonium fluroride (TBAF) in tetrahydrofuran and final oxidation with pyridinium dichromate (PDC) in dimethylformamide resulted in a 9 1 mixture of (Z)- and ( )-9-methyl-10-hexadecenoic acid as shown in Fig. (7). As was also the case with acid 6, the stereochemistry at C-9 in 7 is not known. The key step in the synthesis of the allylic methyl group was a-methylation of a methyl ester, followed by reduction to the corresponding aldehyde, which was used in the subsequent Wittig reaction. 

---