Organocopper compounds decomposition

Basically, three decomposition mechanisms have been described for organocopper compounds. One involves the formation of free radicals... 

The thermal decomposition of aryl- and vinylcopper compounds is an alternative method of obtaining dimeric products from organocopper compounds. Both methods have been used extensively by Kauffmann and co-workers 153-164). Thermal decomposition of organocopper compounds of the type ZN=C(R)—CHRCu affords suitable precursors for a variety of 1,4-diketones. Thermal decomposition is not applicable to all organocopper compounds (see Section III,B,3). Various oxidations and dimerizations are listed in Table V. 

H. Gilman R. G. Jones L. A. Woods "The Preparation of Methylcopper and some Observations on the Decomposition of Organocopper Compounds Org. Chem. 1952, 17, 1630-1634. 

The intrinsic instability of organocopper] 11) compounds is most probably associated with the redox properties of copper. Decomposition of organocopper] 11) compounds can occur by two different routes (i) formation of an organocopper]I) compound and an organic radical R" that can undergo further reactions, which formally represents a one-electron reduction process, and (ii) direct formation of R-R and Cu]0), which is formally a two-electron reduction process (reductive elimination cf Eqns. 1 and 2 in Scheme 1.3). 

An organocopper intermediate was detected by Lewin and Cohen in the reaction of / -iodotoluene with copper in a good complexing solvent (184). Analysis of protonated aliquots from a reaction performed in quinoline indicated an accumulation of />-tolylcopper to a maximum of 43% after 95 hours, at which point the iodide was consumed, and then a slow decrease to by dimerization. Other experiments also indicate the formation of an arylcopper compound in Ullmann reactions (127,141, 210). The isolation of deuterated products, presumably from the decomposition of an intermediate organocopper species in deuterated benzene and cyclohexane, suggested decomposition to free radicals (127). Decompositions of certain o-haloarylcopper intermediates by a benzyne mechanism cannot be totally excluded. The formation of a dichlorobenzene and by-products such as dibenzofuran and triphenylene from only the ortho isomer of the chloroiodobenzenes in Ullmann coupling reactions (210)... 

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