Oxalyl chloride acid halide synthesis

Most of the conventional reagents for the synthesis of acid chlorides from carboxylic acids are unsatisfactory for the preparation of a-keto acid chlorides. For example, the reaction of pyruvic acid with phosphorus halides does not give pyruvoyl chloride7 whereas the use of phosgene8 or oxalyl chloride9,10 affords ether solutions of the acid chloride in low yield. Recently a useful preparation of pyruvoyl chloride from trimeth-ylsilyl pyruvate and oxalyl chloride has been described.11... 

Interchange of halogen is a means of synthesis of certain acyl halides which cannot be conveniently prepared by other methods. Acetyl fluoride is made from acetyl chloride and sodium hydrogen fluoride in acetic anhydride solution." By passing a stream of hydrogen bromide through oxalyl chloride an 85% yield of oxalyl bromide, (COBr), is obtained. The bromide cannot be made by the action of phosphorus pentabromide on oxalic acid. The method has also been applied to the preparation of acetyl bromide and iodide and other acyl iodides. ... 

A.iv. Reaction with Acid Chlorides. As briefly mentioned in Section 8.4.C.ii, the reaction of a dialkyl cuprate and an acid chloride is a preferred method to synthesize ketones.399,400 -phe reaction with acyl halides usually requires low temperatures to isolate the ketone product.388,387 -p is method is usually preferable to and more general than one that uses dialkylcadmium reagents (sec. 8.4.C.ii). Masamune et al. used this reaction to convert acid 422 to ketone 423 in a synthesis of erythronolide. In this case, oxalyl chloride was used to prepare the requisite acid chloride because of the sensitive nature of the molecule. 

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