Oxetanes Friedel-Crafts reaction

Oxetanes have also been used as alkylating agents in the Friedel-Crafts reaction for example, 2-isopropyloxetane was reacted with benzene in superacidic trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFSA) to give a mixture of alkylated aromatic products (Equation 9) <2003CAL1>. The main product of the reaction was the tetralin derivative 46 which could be isolated in up to 75% yield. Other notable side products are shown, resulting from monoalkylation or other skeletal rearrangements. 

The Friedel-Crafts alkylation of aromatic compounds by oxetanes in the presence of aluminum chloride is mechanistically similar to the solvolyses above, since the first step is electrophilic attack on the ring oxygen by aluminum chloride, followed by a nucleophilic attack on an a-carbon atom by the aromatic compound present. The reaction of 2-methyloxetane and 2-phenyloxetane with benzene, toluene and mesitylene gave 3-aryl-3 -methyl-1-propanols and 3-aryl-3-phenyl-l-propanols as the main products and in good yields (equation 27). Minor amounts of 3-chloro-l-butanol and 4-chloro-2-butanol are formed as by-products from 2-methyloxetane, and of 3-phenyl-l-propanol from 2-phenyloxetane (73ACS3944). 

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