O-Alkylations of carboxylic acids

Scheme 7.102 Polymer-supported O-alkylation of carboxylic acids.

The group of Lindau has demonstrated the effective O-alkylation of carboxylic acids using a polymer-supported O-methylisourea reagent [123], Under conventional conditions, complete esterifications were observed only after refluxing for several hours in tetrahydrofuran, and the acidic work-up required limited the scope of applicable substituents. In contrast, employing microwave heating led to complete esterifications within 15-20 min, with only 2 equivalents of the polymer-bound... 

Three different strategies are generally used for the attachment of carboxylic acids to resins as benzyl esters (a) acylation of resin-bound benzyl alcohols [38-40], (b) O-alkylation of carboxylates by resin-bound benzylic halides [4143], or (c) O-alkylation of carboxylic acids under Mitsunobu conditions [44,45] (Figure 3.3). These reactions are treated in detail in Section 13.4. 

Crosignani, S., White, P.D. and Linclau, B., Microwave-accelerated O-alkylation of carboxylic acids with O-alkylisoureas, Org. Lett., 2002, 4, 2961. 

Scheme 6.35. O-Alkylation of carboxylic acids with S-propargyl xanthates [134],...

Barium oxide and sodium hydride are more potent catalysts than silver oxide. With barium oxide catalysis, reactions occur more rapidly but O-acetyl migration is promoted. With sodiun hydride, even sterically hindered groups may be quantitatively alkylated but unwanted C-alkylation Instead of, or in addition to, 0-alkylatlon is a possibility. Sodium hydroxide is a suitable catalyst for the alkylation of carboxylic acids and alcohols [497J. 

For each alkylated extract, there was an absorption at 1700 cm which was absent in the untreated extract. This absorption may be attributed to esters that form from alkylation of carboxylic acids. This interpretation is consistent with the NMR analysis described below. For each O-alkylated extract, there was an increase in the intensity of the C-H absorption bands at 2800-3000 cm consistent with the introduction of aliphatic carbon. 

The O-alkylation of carboxylates is a useful alternative to the acid-catalyzed esterification of carboxylic acids with alcohols. Carboxylates are weak, hard nucleophiles which are alkylated quickly by carbocations and by highly reactive, carbocation-like electrophiles (e.g. trityl or some benzhydryl halides). Suitable procedures include treatment of carboxylic acids with alcohols under the conditions of the Mitsunobu reaction [122], or with diazoalkanes. With soft electrophiles, such as alkyl iodides, alkylation of carboxylic acid salts proceeds more slowly, but in polar aprotic solvents, such as DMF, or with non-coordinating cations acceptable rates can still be achieved. Alkylating agents with a high tendency to O-alkylate carboxylates include a-halo ketones [42], dimethyl sulfate [100,123], and benzyl halides (Scheme 6.31). 

Treatment of aldehydes or ketones with acceptor-substituted carbene complexes leads to formation of enol ethers [1271-1274], oxiranes [1048], or 1,3-dioxolanes [989,1275] by O-alkylation of the carbonyl compound. Carboxylic acid derivatives... 

In 2003, Banerjee et al. designed an efficient photoremovable protecting group for the release of carboxylic acids based on similar p-elimination from photoenols (Scheme 14). They showed that o-alkyl acetophenone derivatives with various ester groups in the p-position release their ester moiety in high chemical yields. The authors proposed that the photorelease took place as shown in Scheme 14 but did not support the mechanism with transient spectroscopy. Formation of 21, which is expected to be the major product in the reaction, was not confirmed, and thus, the authors speculated that 21 undergoes polymerization to yield oligomers. 

Polymeric phosphonium salt-bound carboxylate, benzenesulphinate and phenoxide anions have been used in nucleophilic substitution reactions for the synthesis of carboxylic acid esters, sulphones and C/O alkylation of phenols from alkyl halides. The polymeric reagent seems to increase the nucleophilicity of the anions376 and the yields are higher than those for corresponding polymer phase-transfer catalysis (reaction 273). 

Because of the special structural requirements of the resin-bound substrate, this type of cleavage reaction lacks general applicability. Some of the few examples that have been reported are listed in Table 3.19. Lactones have also been obtained by acid-catalyzed lactonization of resin-bound 4-hydroxy or 3-oxiranyl carboxylic acids [399]. Treatment of polystyrene-bound cyclic acetals with Jones reagent also leads to the release of lactones into solution (Entry 5, Table 3.19). Resin-bound benzylic aryl or alkyl carbonates have been converted into esters by treatment with acyl halides and Lewis acids (Entry 6, Table 3.19). Similarly, alcohols bound to insoluble supports as benzyl ethers can be cleaved from the support and simultaneously converted into esters by treatment with acyl halides [400]. Esters have also been prepared by treatment of carboxylic acids with an excess of polystyrene-bound triazenes here, diazo-nium salts are released into solution, which serve to O-alkylate the acid (Entry 7, Table 3.19). This strategy can also be used to prepare sulfonates [401]. 

Highly stereoselective aldol reactions of lithium ester enolates (LiCR1 R2CC>2R3) with (/0-2-(/ -tolylsulfiny I (cyclohexanone have been attributed to intermediacy of tricoordinate lithium species which involve the enolate and the sulfinyl and carbonyl oxygens of the substrates.43 The O-metallated /<-hydroxyalkanoatcs formed by aldol-type reaction of carbonyl compounds with enolates derived from esters of alkanoic acids undergo spontaneous intramolecular cyclization to /1-lactones if phenyl rather than alkyl esters are used the reaction has also been found to occur with other activated derivatives of carboxylic acids.44... 

Interestingly, it is possible to etherify hydroxybenzoic acids without the need to protect the carboxyl group (Scheme 6.19). The high charge delocalization of the car-boxylate obviously leads to a sufficient decrease of nucleophilicity to enable clean ether formation under certain conditions. During the planning of such reactions it should, however, be kept in mind that carboxylates can be O-alkylated under conditions similar to those required for the O-alkylation of phenols (see Section 6.9). 

Although sulfonamides (pKa 9-11) are rather acidic and undergo deprotonation as quickly as carboxylic acids, selective O-alkylations of sulfonamide-containing carboxylic acids are possible under carefully controlled conditions (Scheme 6.32). 

Despite the huge structural diversity of known carboxylic acids, most of these are readily converted into esters or amides. Even sterically hindered acids, for example pivalic, triphenylacetic [1], or 2,6-disubstituted benzoic acids [1, 2], can be converted into suitable acylating reagents for alcohols or amines (Scheme 7.1). Esters of sterically demanding carboxylic acids can, alternatively, also be prepared by O-alkylation of the corresponding carboxylates [3, 4]. 

Half-life of the decay of O-acyl esters (2) at 80 °C is shown below (eq. 8.2) and it depends on the used primary-, secondary-, and tertiary-alkyl chained carboxylic acids. 

Refluxing or photolytic treatment of O-acyl esters (2) in the presence of a hydrogen donor such as Bu3SnH or ter -BuSH, provides the corresponding reduction products via alkyl radicals. This reaction can be applied to primary-, secondary-, and tertiary-alkyl chained carboxylic acids, and can also be used for steroids, sugars, and peptides as shown in eq. 8.4 [9-14]. Racemization does not occur at other chiral centers. 

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