Nucleophiles ethylene oxide

Alkyl halides and magnesium react to form Grignard reagents, which are good nucleophiles. Ethylene oxide Is an electrophile, with the C-0 bond polarised by the electronegative oxygen there Is substantial ring strain present. 

This kind of chemical reactivity of epoxides is rather general Nucleophiles other than Gng nard reagents react with epoxides and epoxides more elaborate than ethylene oxide may be used All these features of epoxide chemistry will be discussed m Sections 16 11-16 13... 

We saw an example of nucleophilic ring opening of epoxides in Section 15 4 where the reaction of Grignard reagents with ethylene oxide was described as a synthetic route to primary alcohols... 

Ethylene oxide is a very reactive substance It reacts rapidly and exothermically with anionic nucleophiles to yield 2 substituted derivatives of ethanol by cleaving the car bon-oxygen bond of the nng... 

As we ve just seen nucleophilic ring opening of ethylene oxide yields 2 substituted derivatives of ethanol Those reactions involved nucleophilic attack on the carbon of the ring under neutral or basic conditions Other nucleophilic ring openings of epoxides like wise give 2 substituted derivatives of ethanol but either involve an acid as a reactant or occur under conditions of acid catalysis... 

FIGURE 16 6 The mecha nism for the acid catalyzed nucleophilic ring opening of ethylene oxide by water... 

Virtually all of the organo derivatives of CA are produced by reactions characteristic of a cycHc imide, wherein isocyanurate nitrogen (frequendy as the anion) nucleophilically attacks a positively polarized carbon of the second reactant. Cyanuric acid and ethylene oxide react neady quantitatively at 100°C to form tris(2-hydroxyethyl)isocyanurate [839-90-7] (THEIC) (48—52). Substitution of propylene oxide yields the hydroxypropyl analogue (48,49). At elevated temperatures (- 200° C). CA and alkylene oxides react in inert solvent to give A/-hydroxyalkyloxazohdones in approximately 70% yield (53). Alternatively, THEIC can be prepared by reaction of CA and 2-chloroethanol in aqueous caustic (52). THEIC can react further via its hydroxyl fiinctionahty to form esters, ethers, urethanes, phosphites, etc (54). Reaction of CA with epichlorohydrin in alkaline dioxane solution gives... 

The reactions are highly exothermic. Under Uquid-phase conditions at about 200°C, the overall heat of reaction is —83.7 to —104.6 kJ/mol (—20 to —25 kcal/mol) ethylene oxide reacting (324). The opening of the oxide ring is considered to occur by an ionic mechanism with a nucleophilic attack on one of the epoxide carbon atoms (325). Both acidic and basic catalysts accelerate the reactions, as does elevated temperature. The reaction kinetics and product distribution have been studied by a number of workers (326,327). 

Polymerization. The reaction of ethylene oxide with a nucleophile introduces the hydroxyethyl group ... 

With Ammonia and Amines. Ethylene oxide reacts with ammonia to form a mixture of mono-, di-, and triethanolamines. Nitrogen is a stronger nucleophile than oxygen (59). A small amount of water is essential for the reaction (60). 

Many other reactions of ethylene oxide are only of laboratory significance. These iaclude nucleophilic additions of amides, alkaU metal organic compounds, and pyridinyl alcohols (93), and electrophilic reactions with orthoformates, acetals, titanium tetrachloride, sulfenyl chlorides, halo-silanes, and dinitrogen tetroxide (94). 

In basic sohition, the alkoxide ions formed by deprotonation are even more effective nucleqrhiles. In ethanol containing sodium ethoxide, 2-chloroethanol reacts about 5000 times faster than ediyl chloridelThe product is ethylene oxide, confirming the involvement of the oxygoi atom as a nucleophile. 

The nucleophilicity of the organocuprate cluster derives mainly from the filled copper 3d orbital, in combination with the carbon orbital associated with bonding to copper. These orbitals for the TS for reaction with methyl bromide and ethylene oxide are shown in Figure 8.4. 

Figure I indicates the approach used to synthesize poly(oxyethylene)-b-poly(pivalolactone) telechelomers. An acetal capped anionic initiator, X (13) polymerizes ethylene oxide (EO) to give 2> a potassium alkoxide of a masked polyether, and this "new" initiator is to be used to polymerize pivalolactone (PVL). Since potassium alkoxides are strong nucleophiles, they can randomly attack at both the carbonyl carbon and the 3-methylene carbon in lactones, (Figure 2) such a random attack would result in a pivalolactone segment containing irregularities. Lenz (15), and Hall (16), and Beaman (17) have investigated PVL polymerization and have shown that the less nucleophilic carboxylate anion is preferable in polymerizing PVL smoothly. The weaker carboxylate anion will attack only at the methylene...

More traditional carbon nucleophiles can also be used for an alkylative ring-opening strategy, as exemplified by the titanium tetrachloride promoted reaction of trimethylsilyl enol ethers (82) with ethylene oxide, a protocol which provides aldol products (84) in moderate to good yields <00TL763>. While typical lithium enolates of esters and ketones do not react directly with epoxides, aluminum ester enolates (e.g., 86) can be used quite effectively. This methodology is the subject of a recent review <00T1149>. 

Functionalization of these reactive anionic chain ends can be achieved by a variety of methods all based on the general concepts of carbanion chemistry. For example, reaction with C02 or succinnic anhydride leads to the carboxy terminated derivatives [10], while hydroxy-terminated polymers can be easily obtained by reaction with ethylene oxide (Scheme 3) [11]. In select functionalization reactions, such as alkylation with p-vinyl benzyl chloride, the nucleophilicity of the carbanionic species may be necessary and this can be achieved by reaction of the chain end with 1,1-diphenylethene followed by functionalization [12,13]. 

Oxidation is the first step for producing molecules with a very wide range of functional groups because oxygenated compounds are precursors to many other products. For example, alcohols may be converted to ethers, esters, alkenes, and, via nucleophilic substitution, to halogenated or amine products. Ketones and aldehydes may be used in condensation reactions to form new C-C double bonds, epoxides may be ring opened to form diols and polymers, and, finally, carboxylic acids are routinely converted to esters, amides, acid chlorides and acid anhydrides. Oxidation reactions are some of the largest scale industrial processes in synthetic chemistry, and the production of alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, epoxides and carboxylic acids is performed on a mammoth scale. For example, world production of ethylene oxide is estimated at 58 million tonnes, 2 million tonnes of adipic acid are made, mainly as a precursor in the synthesis of nylons, and 8 million tonnes of terephthalic acid are produced each year, mainly for the production of polyethylene terephthalate) [1]. 

Thioetherification of PECH is feasibly performed in DA-solvents as already described in the patent (20J. For example, the highest substitution was obtained by the reaction of P(ECH-EO)(1 1 copolymer of epichloro-hydrin and ethylene oxide) and equimolar thiophenoxide in HMPA at 100°C for 10 h as DS 83% for sodium and 93% for potassium salts. The DS in our nucleophilic substitution was estimated by the elemental analysis as well as the titration of liberated chloride ion with mercuric nitrate (21). In the latter method, reacted medium was pretreated with hydrogen peroxide when the reductive nucleophiles which can react with mercuric ion were used. As described before for PVC, thiolation was also achieved conveniently with iso-thiuronium salt followed by alkaline hydrolysis without the direct use of ill-smelling thiolate. The thiolated PECH obtained are rubbery solids, soluble in toluene, methylene chloride, ethyl methyl ketone and DMF and insoluble in water, acetone, dioxane and methanol. 

Danehy, J.P. and Noel, C.J. The relative nucleophilic character of several mercaptans toward ethylene oxide, 7 Am. Chem. Soc., 82(10) 2511-2515, 1960. 

The reaction of a -halocarboxylic acids with sodium nitrite has been used to synthesize ni-tromethane, nitroethane and nitropropane, although the reaction fails for higher nitroalkanes. " A number of other reactions have been reported which use nitrite anion as a nucleophile, including (1) reaction of alkyl halides with potassium nitrite in the presence of 18-crown-6, (2) reaction of alkyl halides with nitrite anion bound to amberlite resins, (3) synthesis of 2-nitroethanol from the acid-catalyzed ring opening of ethylene oxide with sodium nitrite, and (4) reaction of primary alkyl chlorides with sodium nitrite in the presence of sodium iodide. ... 

In the example shown, reaction of a Grignard reagent with the epoxide electrophile ethylene oxide proceeds as expected, and after acidification results in formation of an alcohol that is two carbons longer than the original nucleophile. 

Ethylene oxide is a polar molecule with an excess of electron density on the oxygen making it the site for acid attack, whereas the ethylene moiety is electron-poor and the site for nucleophillic attack by the base. 

The range of monomers that can be incorporated into block copolymers by the living anionic route includes not only the carbon-carbon double-bond monomers susceptible to anionic polymerization but also certain cyclic monomers, such as ethylene oxide, propylene sulfide, lactams, lactones, and cyclic siloxanes (Chap. 7). Thus one can synthesize block copolymers involving each of the two types of monomers. Some of these combinations require an appropriate adjustment of the propagating center prior to the addition of the cyclic monomer. For example, carbanions from monomers such as styrene or methyl methacrylate are not sufficiently nucleophilic to polymerize lactones. The block copolymer with a lactone can be synthesized if one adds a small amount of ethylene oxide to the living polystyryl system to convert propagating centers to alkoxide ions prior to adding the lactone monomer. 

In most, but not all, instances substituents are introduced onto the carbazole nitrogen via a carbazol-9-yl anion formed by base N-deprotonation. It seems now that the conditions often used in earlier work to generate the carbazol-9-yl anion were unnecessarily severe and that much milder conditions can be utilized. Anionic carbazole nitrogen, in common with other heteroanionic centers, is about 80 times less nucleophilic than a pK -comparable carbanionic center. The order of reactivity is carbazole > 3-chlorocarbazole > 3,6-dichlorocarbazole > 3-nitrocarbazole in the reaction of the corresponding 9-yl anions with ethylene oxide. This illustrates the relative stabilities of these anions as measured by the acidities of the car-bazoles (see Section II,A,3) the more acidic the carbazole, the more stable and less reactive its anion as a nucleophile. 

Polyethers are prepared by the ring opening polymerization of three, four, five, seven, and higher member cyclic ethers. Polyalkylene oxides from ethylene or propylene oxide and from epichlorohydrin are the most common commercial materials. They seem to be the most reactive alkylene oxides and can be polymerized by cationic, anionic, and coordinated nucleophilic mechanisms. For example, ethylene oxide is polymerized by an alkaline catalyst to generate a living polymer in Figure 1.1. Upon addition of a second alkylene oxide monomer, it is possible to produce a block copolymer (Fig. 1.2). 

Figure 1.4 Polymerization of ethylene oxide by nucleophilic mechanism...

Preparation of diols Acid-catalysed epoxides are easily cleaved by water. Water reacts as the nucleophile, and this is referred to as a hydrolysis. For example, hydrolysis of ethylene oxide in the presence of acid-catalyst produces 1,2-ethanediol (ethylene glycol). 

These and related heterocyclic monomers are usually highly polar and strongly nucleophilic conpounds. During polymerization chains containing heteroatoms are formed and they can, as well as monomers themselves, interact with components of ionic growing species. The interaction of the macroion-pairs with the elements of the chains has well been documented for the polymerization of ethylene oxide [Z]. 

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