Naphthoxide ions

Reduction of the sodium salt of equilenin 17-ethylene ketal with lithium, sodium or potassium in ammonia at —70° occurs predominantly in the B-ring, affording, after acid hydrolysis, equilin (29) in up to 76% yield (55% isolated). The preferential reduction of the B-ring reflects the relative, but not absolute, resistance to reduction conferred on the A-ring by the naphthoxide ion. Some A-ring reduction does compete kinetically with B-ring reduction, since the epimeric 3-hydroxyestra-5,7,9-trien-17-ones are the major reaction by-products. Simple phenoxide ions usually reduce slowly... 

The alkylation of sodium 2-naphthoxide with benzyl bromide in tetrabutylam-monium and tetrabutylphosphonium halide salts was investigated by Brunet and Badri [50] (Scheme 5.1-21). The yields in this reaction were quantitative, and alkylation occurred predominantly on the oxygen atom of the naphthoxide ion (typically 93-97 %). The rate of the reaction was slower in the chloride salts, due to the benzyl bromide reacting with chloride ion to give the less reactive benzyl chloride. 

Quantitative studies based on kinetic measurements using strongly electrophilic diazonium ions and, as coupling components, 1-naphthol, 2-naphthol-6-sulfonic acid, and resorcinol in aqueous acid were made by Sterba and coworkers (Kropacova et al., 1970 Kavalek et al., 1970 Sterba and Valter, 1972 Machackova et al., 1972a). In a typical case (2,6-dichloro-4-nitrobenzenediazonium ion and 1-naphthol) the dependence of the logarithm of the measured rate constant (ks) on pH was linear with a slope of 1. At pH < 1, however, a practically constant value of ks was obtained. The measured rate constants therefore correspond to Scheme 12-62, in which the first term relates to the reaction of the naphthoxide ion and the second to that of the undissociated naphthol Ka is the acidity constant of 1-naphthol. 

Table 12-2 gives some of Sterba s results for 1-naphthol, resorcinol, 1-methoxy-naphthalene, 3-methoxyphenol and 1,3-dimethoxybenzene. The data in the table show that the 1-naphthoxide ion is 108 times more reactive than the undissociated naphthol, which is 102 times more reactive than 1-methoxynaphthalene. The rate ratios for the monoanion of resorcinol relative to resorcinol, 3-methoxyphenol, and 1,3-dimethoxybenzene are of similar magnitudes. The dissociation of both OH groups of resorcinol gives rise to a rate constant (2.83 X 109 m -1 s-1) which, in our opinion, is probably mixing- or diffusion-controlled (see Sec. 12.9). 

Fig. 12-6. Diagrammatic representation of the preferred conformation of a c-complex in substitutions of 8-substituted 2-naphthoxide ions by the electrophile E+.

Kishimoto et al. (1974, 1981) found a general acid catalysis by protonated pyridines in coupling reactions of the 1-naphthoxide ion if weakly electrophilic diazonium ions were used. In this case it is likely that the general acid protonates the carbonyl oxygen of the o-complex, with a concerted or stepwise deprotonation at the 4-position (transition stage 12.150). 

A true intramolecular proton transfer in the second step of an azo coupling reaction was found by Snyckers and Zollinger (1970a, 1970b) in the reaction of the 8-(2 -pyridyl)-2-naphthoxide ion (with the transition state 12.151). This compound shows neither a kinetic deuterium isotope effect nor general base catalysis, in contrast to the sterically similar 8-phenyl-2-naphthoxide ion. Obviously the heterocyclic nitrogen atom is the proton acceptor. 

Does this model give us a practical solution for the synthesis of monosubstitution products in high yields The model teaches us that reactions are not disguised by micromixing if the intrinsic rate constant (in Scheme 12-84 k2o and k2v>) is significantly less than 1 m-1s-1. As discussed in Section 12.7, the intrinsic rate constant refers to unit concentrations of the acid-base equilibrium species involved in the substitution proper, not to analytical concentrations. Therefore, if the azo coupling reaction mentioned above is not carried out within the range of maximal measured rates (i.e., with the equilibria not on the side of the 1-naphthoxide ion and... 

Kornblum et al. (1963) demonstrated that O- vs. C-alkylation (24) of yS-naphthoxide ion (an ambident ion) is markedly solvent dependent. For example, the reaction with benzyl bromide conducted in dimethylformamide gave 97% O-alkylated product, whereas in water 81% C-alkylated product resulted. The difference is attributed to changes in the solvation of ambident anions. The course of the reaction is also influenced by water concentration in... 

Alkoxide or aryloxide anions are also reputed to be inactive in Sr I reactions. There is, however, one example of such a reaction at an sp carbon the nitro-derivative of 4-nitrocumyl reacts with phenoxide and 1-methyl-2-naphthoxide ions yielding the corresponding ethers (Kornblum et al., 1967). A similar reaction has been reported for halobenzenes in t-butyl alcohol upon stimulation by sodium amalgam (Rajan and Sridaran, 1977). This reaction could not, however, be reproduced (Rossi and Pierini, 1980) and other attempts to make phenoxide ions react at sp carbons have been equally unsuccessful (Ciminale et al, 1978 Rossi and Bunnett, 1973 Semmelhack and Bargar, 1980). It has been found, more recently, that phenoxide ions react with a series of aryl halides under electrochemical induction, but that the coupling occurs at the p- or o-phenolic carbon rather than at the phenolic oxygen (Alam et al, 1988 Amatore et al, 1988). This is... 

Photolytic. Based on data for phenol, a structurally related compound, an aqueous solution containing 1-naphthoxide ion (3 x 10 M) in room light would be expected to photooxidize to give 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (Tomkiewicz et al., 1971). 1-Naphthol, methyl isocyanate, and other unidentified cholinesterase inhibitors were reported as products formed from the direct photolysis of carbaryl by sunlight (Wolfe et al., 1976). In an aqueous solution at 25 °C, the photolysis half-life of carbaryl by natural sunlight or UV light (X = 313 nm) is 6.6 d (Wolfe et al, 1978a). 

Not all nucleophilic displacement reactions require lightly substituted onium ion catalysts for activity. For alkylation of 2-naphthoxide ion with benzyl bromide (Eq. (6)) 40-100% RS, 2% CL polystyrene catalysts 15 and 16 work well54). A 51 % RS catalyst 11 gave good yields in reactions of anionic oxygen and sulfur nucleophiles with alkyl halides 91). 

Alkylation of 2-naphthoxide ion (Eq. (6)) occurs mainly on carbon in aqueous solvents and mainly on oxygen in aprotic solvents. The product distribution is often used as a probe of the solvent environment in heterogeneous reactions. Brown and Jenkins 54) found that 40-100 % RS spacer chain catalysts 15 and 16 gave up to 98 % O-benzylation of 2-naphthoxide ion with benzyl bromide. The shorter spacer chain catalyst 16 gave 85% O-alkylation, and a conventional benzyltrimethylammonium ion resin 2 gave about 70 % O-alkylation. Because of low activity, product distribution data were obtained with varied amounts of catalyst and were extrapolated to equimolar amounts of catalyst and substrate to obtain the catalyzed O/C product ratios. Interpretation of the data also was complicated by independent evidence that catalysts 15 adsorbed 2-naphthoxide ion, in addition to that bound by ion exchange54). Essentially the same results were obtained with catalysts 24 which lack the ester link in the spacer chain 106). 

The data in Table 7 obtained with equimolar amounts of the polymeric catalysts and the 2-naphthoxide ion should be more reliable because all of the reactive anion is contained within the polymer. These conditions (expts 7-9) gave 100 % O-alkylation, indicating that the active site environment of the polystyrene-bound tri-n-butylphos-phonium ion/naphthoxide ion pair or aggregate is aprotic even with the 60%RS polymer. However, the common benzyltrimethylammonium ion found in commercial ion exchange resins is more hydrophilic, giving both C- and O-alkylation (expts 10 and 11 of Table 7). 

A slow non-competing liquid/liquid reaction with no catalyst present gave only 78 % O-alkylation. Thus the active site of the lipophilic phosphonium ion catalysts appears to be aprotic, just as in analogous phase transfer catalyzed alkylations with soluble quaternary ammonium salts 60), Regen 78) argued that the onium ion sites of both the 17% and the 52% RS tri-n-butylphosphonium ion catalysts 1 are hydrated, on the basis of measurements of water contents of the resins in chloride form. Mon-tanari has reported measurements that showed only 3.0-3.8 mols of water per chloride ion in similar 25 % RS catalysts 74). He argued that such small hydration levels do not constitute an aqueous environment for the displacement reactions. No measurements of the water content of catalysts containing phenoxide or 2-naphthoxide ions have been reported. 

The first attempts to use macroporous polystyrene supports for onium ion catalysts were reported in the early papers of Brown and Jenkins 54) and of Regen 89). The lightly cross-linked macroporous Rohm and Haas XE-305, 46 % RS as spacer chain catalyst 15, gave O- and C-alkyl products from 2-naphthoxide ion and benzyl bromide... 

Unactivated aryl iodides undergo the conversion Arl — ArCHj when treated with tris(diethylamino)sulfonium difluorotrimethylsilicate and a palladium catalyst.131 A number of methods, all catalyzed by palladium complexes, have been used to prepare unsymmetrical biaryls (see also 3-16). In these methods, aryl bromides or iodides are coupled with aryl Grignard reagents,152 with arylboronic acids ArB(OH)2,153 with aryltin compounds Ar-SnR3,154 and with arylmercury compounds.155 Unsymmetrical binaphthyls were synthesized by photochemically stimulated reaction of naphthyl iodides with naphthoxide ions in an SrnI reaction.156 Grignard reagents also couple with aryl halides without a palladium catalyst, by the benzyne mechanism.157 OS VI, 916 65, 108 66, 67. 

The photoinduced SRN1 reaction of ArX with ArO ions, mainly 2,6 and 2,4-di-t-butyl phenoxides and 1- and 2-naphthoxide ions, represents another approach to C—C... 

In the reaction of 1-naphthoxide ions, a mixture of 2- and 4-aryl-, along with 2,4-diaryl-l-naphthol, is formed. However, substitution occurs only at C4 with the 2-Me-substituted anion (50-70% yields) [1[. On the other hand, 2-naphthoxide ions react with ArX to give substitution only at Cj of the naphthalene ring [32, 33]. The reactivity of the 2-naphthoxide ions allows the synthesis of naphthylpyridines, naphthylquinolines, and naphthylisoquinolines via their coupling reactions with the corresponding halo arenes, in good to excellent yields (50-95%) [33], The photostimulated reaction between 2-naphthoxide ions and l-iodo-2-methoxy-naphthalene was explored in liquid ammonia, as a novel approach to the synthesis of [1,1 ] binaphthalenyl-2,2 -diol (BINOL) derivatives (Scheme 10.23). This procedure has also been applied to the synthesis of BINOL in moderate yield (40%), which represents the first report of an SRN1 reaction in water [34]. 

The photostimulated reaction of 2-naphthoxide ions (239) with ortho-diiodobenzene (240) in liquid ammonia in the presence of an excess of potassium terf-butoxide gives the substitution product 241 (20%), the cyclized product 242 (16%) and a small amount of Phi (equation 180)663,664. The substitution product 241 is formed via the usual S l reaction. In the solution, 241 is deprotonated and it is proposed that it receives another electron to give... 

The substitution of l-chloro-2-naphthoxide ion by sulfite ion in water can also be initiated by visible light (436 nm) with the complex [Ru(bipy)2]Cl as the sensitizer and the complex [Co(bipy)3](C104)2 as the intermediate electron carrier3315. Another possibility is a dye photoinitiated reaction. In the latter example, the excited triplet of the dye (fluorescein, eosine or erythrosine) receives an electron from S03 2 whose radical anion (S03) reacts with halonaphthoxides to give finally the substitution product33c. 

Acceleration by KI in the substitution reaction of aryl halides with potassium diethyl phosphite or with the 2-naphthoxide ion has also been explained on the basis of an ET through the exciplex of the charge-transfer complex formed between the aryl halide and the iodide ions34a. It has also been reported that iodide ions catalysed the photostimulated reaction of bromoarenes with diethyl phosphite ion34b. 

The photostimulated reaction between l-halo-2-naphthoxide ions and CN" ions gave the substitution product, which was suggested to be formed by the S l mechanism. The quantum yield of the reaction with l-chloro-2-naphthoxide ions is greater than unity, and depends on the pH, being ca 15 at pH greater than 10. These reactions are inhibited by 02, nitroxyl radicals and electron acceptors209. 

More recent studies, however, have proved that these anions, mainly di-7-butyl substituted phenoxides and 1- and 2-naphthoxide ions, are excellent nucleophiles under electrochemical or photostimulated conditions. These anions behave as bidentate nucleophiles and couple with radicals through the carbons of their aromatic ring. This has been proved to be a powerful route to biaryls unsymmetrically substituted by EWG and electron-acceptor groups, which are of interest in non-linear optics, as well as in the synthesis of cyclic compound (Section V.E.2). 

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