Vinyl halides mechanism

A key step in the reaction mechanism appears to be nucleophilic attack on the alkyl halide by the negatively charged copper atom but the details of the mechanism are not well understood Indeed there is probably more than one mechanism by which cuprates react with organic halogen compounds Vinyl halides and aryl halides are known to be very unreactive toward nucleophilic attack yet react with lithium dialkylcuprates... 

The original Sonogashira reaction uses copper(l) iodide as a co-catalyst, which converts the alkyne in situ into a copper acetylide. In a subsequent transmeta-lation reaction, the copper is replaced by the palladium complex. The reaction mechanism, with respect to the catalytic cycle, largely corresponds to the Heck reaction.Besides the usual aryl and vinyl halides, i.e. bromides and iodides, trifluoromethanesulfonates (triflates) may be employed. The Sonogashira reaction is well-suited for the synthesis of unsymmetrical bis-2xy ethynes, e.g. 23, which can be prepared as outlined in the following scheme, in a one-pot reaction by applying the so-called sila-Sonogashira reaction ... 

Vinylic halides can react by a SrnI mechanism (p. 855) in some cases. An example is the FeCl2 catalyzed reaction of l-bromo-2-phenylethene and the enolate anion of pinacolone (t-BuCOCH2 ), which gave a low yield of substitution products along with alkynes. ... 

Cooper(I) carboxylates give esters with primary (including neopentyl without rearrangement), secondary, and tertiary alkyl, allylic, and vinylic halides. A simple Sn mechanism is obviously precluded in this case. Vinylic halides can be converted to vinylic acetates by treatment with sodium acetate if palladium(II) chloride is present. ... 

The C-F bond activations in C6F6 and related compounds with ruthenium [200, 201] and rhodium [17, 78, 201] complexes, for which an SNAr mechanism is energetically unfavorable, have been explained by SET pathways. Both SN2 [128, 129, 131, 170-174, 199, 202] and SET [130, 132, 199] mechanisms have been proposed for the reaction of Co(I) complexes with alkyl and vinyl halides. 

Photolysis of vinyl halides can induce both heterolysis of the C-X bond, thereby generating vinyl cations, and homolysis giving vinyl radicals. This competition between the two mechanisms was studied for 3-vinyl halides, 1,2,2-triphenylbromoethane (136) and 1-phenyl-2,2-bis(o-methoxyphenyl)-l-bromoethene and /3-styrene. Incursion of the photo-induced SrnI process, through the intermediate vinyl radical, is verified in the presence of reducing nucleophiles, such as the enolate ions of ketones and in part with (EtO)2PO . Incursion of the heterolytic pathway and the intermediacy of the radical cation, occurs in the presence of weak electron-donor anions, such as N02, Ns and Cl . The vinyl cation of /3-styrene gives phenylacetylene via an El-type elimination. 

Little mechanistic work has been reported on the direct reaction of F-vinyl halides with Zn°. Jairaj and Burton have studied the mechanistic details of the reaction between Z-l-iodopentafluoropropene with Zn° and have presented mechanistic evidence consistent with the formation of a vinyl carbanion that is captured in situ by zinc halide to form the vinylzinc reagent45. Their mechanism is presented in Scheme 1. 

All of the new Pt and Pd complexes were prepared by LDA-induced elimination of HBr from an appropriate vinyl halide, as illustrated for the preparation of a mixture of 222a and 222b [Eq. (40)]. The mechanism of formation of these complexes is not clear. For some time it had been presumed that free cycloheptadienyne was trapped by the metal. However, as discussed earlier for formation of the bis(triphenylphosphine)plati-num(0) complex of cyclopentyne (240), elimination from an initially formed 7r-complex2-82 (258) [Eq. (41)] is also possible. Elimination from either of the two possible insertion products was excluded by their isolation and the finding that neither reacts with LDA to give 222.98... 

The production of the (Z)-haloalkenes is thought to proceed via initial exchange of the tetrafluoroborate and halide ions and collapse of the resulting vinyliodonium halides by the addition-elimination (Ad-E) mechanism (equations 203 and 204)84. As with Ad-E reactions of moderately activated vinyl halides (X = Cl, Br), which typically occur with configurational retention (> 95%)143 145, the intermediate carbanions apparently prefer a least motion rotation of 60° prior to the expulsion of iodobenzene. It has been demonstrated by an NMR study that anion exchange between (Z)-(2)-phenylsulfonyl-l-decenyl)-phenyliodonium tetrafluoroborate and tetrabutylammonium chloride occurs instantaneously in deuteriochloroform84. Furthermore, when authentic halide salts of the... 

Among the halides that react through this process are unactivated aromatic and heteroaromatic halides, vinyl halides, activated alkyl halides [nitroalkyl, nitroallyl, nitro-benzyl and other benzylic halides substituted with electron-withdrawing groups (EWG) as well as the heterocyclic analogues of these benzylic systems] and non-activated alkyl halides that have proved to be unreactive or poorly reactive towards polar mechanisms (bicycloalkyl, neopentyl and cycloalkyl halides and perfluoroalkyl iodides). 

In this review we will present the distinctive features of the proposed mechanism as well as main experimental and theoretical evidence for it. The reaction of organic halides will be further discussed according to the following sequence mechanistic features of the S l reaction in Section II, alkyl halides with electron-withdrawing groups in Section III, alkyl halides without electron-withdrawing groups in Section IV, aromatic halides in Section V and vinyl halides in Section VI. 

The coupling takes place as if a carbanion (R ) were present and the carbanion attacked the alkyl halide to displace the halide ion. This is probably not the actual mechanism, however, because dialkylcuprates also couple with vinyl halides and aryl halides, which are incapable of undergoing SN2 substitutions. 

Probably both reactant stabilization and the already evaluated relative instability of the cationic transition state contribute to the slowness of the solvolysis of vinyl components, but other factors are certainly involved. The most obvious experimental problem is whether the compounds compared react by a unimolecular mechanism or nucleophilic attack by the solvent is involved to a certain extent. In the case of vinylic systems, for instance, nucleophilic solvation from the rear is in general much more hindered than in the case of saturated compounds and the transition state is likely to be stabilized only by electrophilic solvation of the leaving group (Rappoport and Atidia, 1970). The low m values observed in the case of vinyl halides or sulphon-ates may be taken as a strong indication of poor solvation of the transition state in solvolytic reactions of vinyl derivatives. These and other complications, such as differences in hyperconjugation, differences in electronegativity of the -—C= and —- bonds (Jones and Maness,... 

Brunet, Sidot and Caubere [63] have demonstrated Co2(CO)8 catalyzed carbony-lation of aryl and vinyl halides under phase-transfer catalysis (PTC) conditions only when the reaction medium is irradiated. A S l mechanism may be operative... 

SnI and Sn2 reactions occur only at sp hybridized carbon atoms. Now that we have learned about the mechanisms for nucleophilic substitution we ean understand why vinyl halides and aryl halides, which have a halogen atom bonded to an sp hybridized C, do not undergo nucleophilic substitution by either the S l or Sn2 mechanism. The diseussion here eenters on vinyl halides, but similar arguments hold for aryl halides as well. 

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