Nucleophiles strongly basic

The nature of the nucleophilic reagent also plays an important role for example, neopentyl bromide reacts with ethoxide ion by the S 2 mechanism and with ethyl alcohol by the SkI mechanism. The strongly nucleophilic (strongly basic) ethoxide ion pushes halogen from the molecule, whereas the weakly nucleophilic ethanol waits to be invited in. 

Interestingly, however, it appears that the rate-determining step in the process shown in Scheme 9.65 is often a function of the particular nitrogenous nucleophile. Strongly basic nucleophiles such as hydroxylamine (G=OH H2NOH) and primary... 

The Claisen condensation is initiated by deprotonation of an ester molecule by sodium ethanolate to give a carbanion that is stabilized, mostly by resonance, as an enolate. This carbanion makes a nucleophilic attack at the partially positively charged carbon atom of the e.ster group, leading to the formation of a C-C bond and the elimination ofan ethanolate ion, This Claisen condensation only proceeds in strongly basic conditions with a pH of about 14. 

In the strongly basic medium, the reactant is the phenoxide ion high nucleophilic activity at the ortho and para positions is provided through the electromeric shifts indicated. The above scheme indicates theorpara substitution is similar. The intermediate o-hydroxybenzal chloride anion (I) may react either with a hydroxide ion or with water to give the anion of salicyl-aldehyde (II), or with phenoxide ion or with phenol to give the anion of the diphenylacetal of salicylaldehyde (III). Both these anions are stable in basic solution. Upon acidification (III) is hydrolysed to salicylaldehyde and phenol this probably accounts for the recovery of much unreacted phenol from the reaction. 

Nonanedione, another 1,3-difunctional target molecule, may be obtained from the reaction of hexanoyl chloride with acetonide anion (disconnection 1). The 2,4-dioxo substitution pattern, however, is already present in inexpensive, symmetrical acetylacetone (2,4-pentanedione). Disconnection 2 would therefore offer a tempting alternative. A problem arises because of the acidity of protons at C-3 of acetylacetone. This, however, would probably not be a serious obstacle if one produces the dianion with strong base, since the strongly basic terminal carbanion would be a much more reactive nucleophile than the central one (K.G. Hampton, 1973 see p. 9f.). 

With the exception of the nuclear amination of 4-methylthiazole by sodium amide (341, 346) the main reactions of nucleophiles with thiazole and its simple alkyl or aryl derivatives involve the abstraction of a ring or substituent proton by a strongly basic nucleophile followed by the addition of an electrophile to the intermediate. Nucleophilic substitution of halogens is discussed in Chapter V. 

The carbon-nitrogen triple bond of nitriles is much less reactive toward nucleophilic addition than is the carbon-oxygen double bond of aldehydes and ketones Strongly basic nucleophiles such as Gngnard reagents however do react with nitriles in a reaction that IS of synthetic value... 

Sinulatly, nucleophilic reagents are suitable for addition reactions only if they are not so strongly basic as to produce the cyanamide anion in large amounts. In such cases, dicyandiamide is produced or a cyanamide salt is obtained. Ai,Ai-Disubstituted cyanamides do not ionize, of course, and react easily with strongly basic nucleophiles. 

Reactions with strongly basic nucleophiles such as potassium amide in liquid ammonia may prove much more complex than direct substitution. 2-Chloro-4,6,7-triphenylpteridine reacts under these conditions via an S ANRORC mechanism to form 2-amino-4,6,7-triphenylpteridine and the dechlorinated analogue (78TL2021). The attack of the nucleophile exclusively at C-4 is thereby in good accord with the general observation that the presence of a chloro substituent on a carbon position adjacent to a ring nitrogen activates the position meta to the chlorine atom for amide attack. 

As a practical matter, elimination can always be made to occur quantitatively. Strong bases, especially bulky ones such as terr-butoxide ion, react even with primary alkyl halides by an E2 process at elevated temperatures. The more difficult task is to find conditions that promote substitution. In general, the best approach is to choose conditions that favor the Sn2 mechanism—an unhindered substrate, a good nucleophile that is not strongly basic, and the lowest practical temperature consistent with reasonable reaction rates. 

Triphenylphosphine is a very powerful nucleophile, yet is not strongly basic. Methyl, primary, and secondary alkyl halides are all suitable substrates. 

The key step of the Cannizzaro reaction is a hydride transfer. The reaction is initiated by the nucleophilic addition of a hydroxide anion to the carbonyl group of an aldehyde molecule 1 to give the anion 4. In a strongly basic medium, the anion 4 can be deprotonated to give the dianionic species 5 ... 

On treatment with a strong base such as sodium hydride or sodium amide, dimethyl sulfoxide yields a proton to form the methylsulfinyl carbanion (dimsyl ion), a strongly basic reagent. Reaction of dimsyl ion with triphenylalkylphosphonium halides provides a convenient route to ylides (see Chapter 11, Section III), and with triphenylmethane the reagent affords a high concentration of triphenylmethyl carbanion. Of immediate interest, however, is the nucleophilic reaction of dimsyl ion with aldehydes, ketones, and particularly esters (//). The reaction of dimsyl ion with nonenolizable ketones and... 

Early efforts to effect the photoinduced ring expansion of aryl azides to 3H-azepines in the presence of other nucleophiles met with only limited success. For example, irradiation of phenyl azide in hydrogen sulfide-diethyl ether, or in methanol, gave 17/-azepine-2(3//)-thione35 (5% mp 106—107 " O and 2-methoxy-3//-azepine (11 %),2 3 respectively. Later workers194 failed to reproduce this latter result, but found that in strongly basic media (3 M potassium hydroxide in methanol/dioxane) and in the presence of 18-crown-6, 17/-azepin-2(3//)-one was produced in 48% yield. In the absence of the crown ether the yield of azepinone falls to 35%. 

The simple hexaalkylditins, RsSnSnRs, do not disproportionate on heating, but, in oxolane (tetrahydrofuran) or acetonitrile in the presence of a base such as a Grignard reagent, or in the more strongly basic solvent hexamethylphosphoric triamide (HMPT), disproportionation readily occurs at room temperature, and, in HMPT, addition occurs to such alkynes as phenylacetylene and diphenylbutadiyne. The disproportionation is considered to proceed by nucleophilic attack upon tin (259, 260), e.g.,... 

To summarize in contrast to the observed nucleophilic attack of strongly basic nucleophiles on the sulfonyl and sulfoxy sulfur of the three-membered ring sulfones and sulfoxides, the acyclic sulfone and sulfoxide groups are attacked by nucleophiles only with difficulty Although the precise reason for this difference is as yet not clear, it is most probably associated with the geometry, electronic structure, bonding and strain energy of the cyclic compounds. 

Organomagnesium and organolithium compounds are strongly basic and nucleophilic. Despite their potential to react as nucleophiles in SN2 substitution reactions, this reaction is of limited utility in synthesis. One limitation on alkylation reactions is competition from electron transfer processes, which can lead to radical reactions. Methyl and other primary iodides usually give the best results in alkylation reactions. 

Since the suggested conversion process does not include a thermally promoted bond-scission step, the question arises of how the addition of hydrogen results in the bond breaking necessary for significant reduction in molecular weight. We have already noted that the nucleophilic action of the basic methanol system was sufficient to cleave diphenyl ether, and a similar route is available in the basic i-PrOH and C0/H20 systems. On the other hand, we showed in control experiments that strongly basic conditions alone were not sufficient for significant conversion of coal. 

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