Nitrites reaction with alkyl sulfonates

The reactions of alkyl sulfonates with superoxide ion and with nitrite ion directly afford the corresponding inverted alcohols. - Although displacement by superoxide ion has been successfully utilized in prostaglandin chemistry, elimination again takes place to some extent, depending on the structures of the substrates. In the reaction with nitrite ion, ketone and nitroalkane are also formed. The inversion of cyclopentanol derivatives via tosylates has been studied by the use of various methods involving displacement by benzoate, nitrite ion and superoxide ion as well as the diethyl azodicarboxylate (DEAD)-PhsP procedure, where varied amounts of elimination products are invariably formed. ... 

The reaction of alkyl halides with metal nitrites is one of the most important methods for the preparation of nitroalkanes. As a metal nitrite, silver nitrite (Victor-Meyer reaction), potassium nitrite, or sodium nitrite (Kornblum reaction) have been frequently used. The products are usually a mixture of nitroalkanes and alkyl nitrites, which are readily separated by distillation (Eq. 2.47). The synthesis of nitro compounds by this process is well documented in the reviews, and some typical cases are listed in Table 2.3.92a Primary and secondary alkyl iodides and bromides as well as sulfonate esters give the corresponding nitro compounds in 50-70% yields on treatment with NaN02 in DMF or DMSO. Some of them are described precisely in vol 4 of Organic Synthesis. For example, 1,4-dinitrobutane is prepared in 41 -46% yield by the reaction of 1,4-diiodobutane with silver nitrite in diethyl ether.92b 1-Nitrooctane is prepared by the reaction with silver nitrite in 75-80% yield. The reaction of silver nitrite with secondary halides gives yields of nitroalkanes of about 15%, whereas with tertiary halides the yields are 0-5%.92c Ethyl a-nitrobutyrate is prepared by the reaction of ethyl a-bromobutyrate in 68-75% yield with sodium nitrite in DMF.92d Sodium nitrite is considerably more soluble in DMSO than in DMF as a consequence, with DMSO, much more concentrated solutions can be employed and this makes shorter reaction times possible.926... 

X-ray diffraction data,4-6 molecular-orbital considerations,7 and the fact that the potassium and thallium(I) salts are obtained by the reaction of the corresponding hydroxylaminemonosulfonates with alkyl nitrites are all in agreement with the suggestion9 that these compounds are salts of A-nitrosohydroxylamine-A-sulfonic acid, HON(NO)SOjH. 

The vast literature on applications of PTC in substitution reactions is mainly restricted to nucleophilic substitution reactions with an anionic reagent. However, recently the use of PTC in electrophilic reactions, like diazotization andazocou-pling C-and N-nitrosation, C-alkylation, acid hydrolysis of esters, chloromethylation, nitrite-initiated nitrations, and so on have been reported(Velichko et al., 1992 Kachurin et al., 1995). Alkylbenzene sulfonates and lipophilic sodium tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenylboranate are typical electrophilic PT catalysts. Lipophilic dipolar molecules of the betaine type and zwitterionic compounds also function well as PT agents for both nucleophilic as well as electrophilic reactions. 

The use of dry aryldiazonium salts of naphthalene-1-sulfonic [70], naphthalene-1,5-disulfonic [70], ZnCl2 complex [70], hexafluorophosphoric or tetrafluoroboric acid [61] in non-aqueous medium under as mild as possible reaction conditions is substantial to reach higher yields of biaryls. An alternative method for non-aqueous GBH reaction is the aprotic diazotation of aromatic amines with alkyl nitrites such as butyl or pentyl nitrite with subsequent arylation of aromatic compound, as demonstrated by Cadogan [71,72]. This method is realized by simple heating the mixture of aromatic amine, alkyl nitrite and liquid arene at an elevated temperature. When a mixture of 3-aminopyridine (46), benzene and pentyl nitrite is heated at reflux, 3-phenylpyridine (47) is obtained with a 55% yield [71], Scheme 16. 

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