Other Cyanation Reactions

There are many other examples in the literature where sealed-vessel microwave conditions have been employed to heat water as a reaction solvent well above its boiling point. Examples include transition metal catalyzed transformations such as Suzuki [43], Heck [44], Sonogashira [45], and Stille [46] cross-coupling reactions, in addition to cyanation reactions [47], phenylations [48], heterocycle formation [49], and even solid-phase organic syntheses [50] (see Chapters 6 and 7 for details). In many of these studies, reaction temperatures lower than those normally considered near-critical (Table 4.2) have been employed (100-150 °C). This is due in part to the fact that with single-mode microwave reactors (see Section 3.5) 200-220 °C is the current limit to which water can be safely heated under pressure since these instruments generally have a 20 bar pressure limit. For generating truly near-critical conditions around 280 °C, special microwave reactors able to withstand pressures of up to 80 bar have to be utilized (see Section 3.4.4). 

As described, other nucleophilic reactions in the anthraquinone series also involve the production of anion-radicals. These reactions are as follows Hydroxylation of 9,10-anthraquinone-2-sulfonic acid (Fomin and Gurdzhiyan 1978) hydroxylation, alkoxylation, and cyanation in the homoaromatic ring of 9,10-anthraquinone condensed with 2,1,5-oxadiazole ring at positions 1 and 2 (Gorelik and Puchkova 1969). These studies suggest that one-electron reduction of quinone proceeds in parallel to the main nucleophilic reaction. The concentration of anthraquinone-2-sulfonate anion-radicals, for example, becomes independent of the duration time of the reaction with an alkali hydroxide, and the total yield of the anion-radicals does not exceed 10%. Inhibitors (oxygen, potassium ferricyanide) prevent formation of anion-radicals, and the yield of 2-hydroxyanthraquinone even increases somewhat. In this case, the anion-radical pathway is not the main one. The same conclusion is made in the case of oxadiazoloanthraquinone. 

For other cyanations, see Other Reactions of Mines above. 

On the other hand, only few studies have been successful in the asymmetric cyanation of imines compared with that of carbonyl compounds since imines,in general, themselves promote the cyanation reaction without a catalyst. 

Apart from the already mentioned Pd-catalyzed coupling reactions it can be predicted that other coupling reactions will be of value to industry in the foreseeable future. Among others, coupling reactions of aryl hahdes with Grignard reagents, antinations, cyanations. 

Electrochemical Sn reactions have a number of advantages in comparison with chemical routes, such as atom economy, a low cost, ambient temperature and pressure, and high yields of the 8 products [49, 79,164,182], This environmentally friendly approach has been successfully applied to cyanation, amination, alkylation, and other Sn reactions of nitroaromatic compounds [182-186]. The features of electrochemical Sn reactions are discussed in detail in [217], prepared by the Spanish chemists I. GaUardo and G. Guirado. 

Other isocyanate syntheses that have recently been reported include several well-known reactions. One area which has attracted considerable attention is that of the direct production of isocyanates by the carbonylation of nitro-arenes. Both mono- and di-isocyanates are claimed to have been produced using various catalysts palladium, rhodium, and iron compounds often being cited. Other preparative reactions for isocyanates which have appeared in the literature include the acid catalysed hydrolysis of isocyanide dihalides and the reaction between alkyl halides and alkali-metal cyanates, although the latter has been given a modern flavour by the use of a polymer-supported reagent. ... 

In addition to being catalysts for triphasic cyanation reactions, organo hectorite assemblies catalyze a variety of other nucleophilic substitution reactions. Equations 2-6 below illustrate the diverse range of reactions that can be catalyzed by [(n-CgHi7)3NMe]+- hectorite. Reaction conditions and chemical yields for each conversion are provided in Table II. 

Other sequences that transform primary alcohols to primary amines include (a) conversion of the alcohol to a cyanate, rearrangement to an isocyanate, and hydrolysis,3 and (b) conversion of the alcohol to an -V alkylformamide via the Ritter reaction, followed by hydrolysis.4... 

The synthesis of (hetero)aryl cyanides from (hetero)aryl halides via transition-metal catalysis is a very valuable reaction since a nitrile can be easily transformed into several other functional groups. Not until 2000 were the first examples on microwave-assisted cyanation reported in the literature. Alter-man and Hallberg found that 3-bromopyridine and 3-bromothiophene were... 

This is a problem that has been reported by several researchers in other cya-nation methods on heteroaromatic halides. (Hetero)aryl chlorides have also been tackled via in situ halogen exchange to (hetero)aryl bromides followed by sequential cyanation (Scheme 71). For this microwave-assisted process an equimolar amount of NiBr2 and a two-fold excess of NaCN were used. The only heteroaromatic chloride tested was 2-chloropyridine. Although the procedures described involve the use of significant amounts of nickel salts, a clear advantage is that the reactions can be performed in air. Moreover, the cyanat-ing reagents are easily removed since they are water soluble. 

Thus removal of water from classical rather inactive fluoride reagents such as tetrabutylammonium fluoride di- or trihydrate by silylation, e.g. in THF, is a prerequisite to the generation of such reactive benzyl, allyl, or trimethylsilyl anions. The complete or partial dehydration of tetrabutylammonium fluoride di- or trihydrate is especially simple in silylation-amination, silylation-cyanation, or analogous reactions in the presence of HMDS 2 or trimethylsilyl cyanide 18, which effect the simultaneous dehydration and activation of the employed hydrated fluoride reagent (cf, also, discussion of the dehydration of such fluoride salts in Section 13.1). For discussion and preparative applications of these and other anhydrous fluoride reagents, for example tetrabutylammonium triphenyldifluorosilicate or Zn(Bp4)2, see Section 12.4. Finally, the volatile trimethylsilyl fluoride 71 (b.p. 17 °C) will react with nucleophiles such as aqueous alkali to give trimethylsilanol 4, HMDSO 7, and alkali fluoride or with alkaline methanol to afford methoxytri-methylsilane 13 a and alkali fluoride. 

Complexation of an amino acid derivative with a transition metal to provide a cyanation catalyst has been the subject of investigation for some years. It has been shown that the complex formed on reaction of titanium(IV) ethoxide with the imine (40) produces a catalyst which adds the elements of HCN to a variety of aldehydes to furnish the ( R)-cyanohydrins with high enantioselectivity[117]. Other imines of this general type provide the enantiomeric cyanohydrins from the same range of substrates11171. 

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