Peroxides with arenes

Shirakawa and Hayashi reported the iron-catalyzed oxidative coupling of arylboronic acids with arenes and heteroarenes (Eq. 28) [66]. They used iron(lll) triflate, a bipyridine-type ligand, and a peroxide as an oxidant. For substituted arenes, a mixture of ortho-, meta-, and para-substituted compounds was obtained, with modest selectivity for the ortho-isomer. The authors propose that Fe(lll) mediates generation of t-BuO radical from the peroxide, which oxidizes the arylboronic acid to generate an aryl radical that adds to the arene substrate. 

Usually, a-bromo-substituted arenes have been prepared through the reaction of arenes with bromine under ultraviolet irradiation. In the presence of benzoyl peroxide, N-bromosuccinimide can also be used for this purpose. 

Avramoff et al. have already reported that the reaction of hydrocarbons such as toluene with tetramethylammonium tribromide (TMA Br3) in benzene, in the presence of benzoyl peroxide at room temperature gave benzylic bromination products (ref. 21). However, TMA Br3 is not easy to handle in comparison with the stable BTMA Br3 because of its hydroscopic character. Furthermore, as shown in their literature, a large excess of TMA Br3 is necessary to brominate arenes. 

We found that the reaction of arenes with a calculated amount of BTMA Br3 in refluxing benzene in the presence of AIBN gave a-bromo-substituted arenes in fairly good yields. In this method, it was found that AIBN was a more effective free radical initiator than benzoyl peroxide (Fig. 15) (ref. 22). 

The publication (70) in 1976 of the preparation of optically active epoxyketones via asymmetric catalysis marked the start of an increasingly popular field of study. When chalcones were treated with 30% hydrogen peroxide under (basic) phase-transfer conditions and the benzylammonium salt of quinine was used as the phase-transfer catalyst, the epoxyketones were produced with e.e. s up to 55%. Up to that time no optically active chalcone epoxides were known, while the importance of epoxides (arene oxides) in metabolic processes had just been discovered (71). The nonasymmetric reaction itself, known as the Weitz-Scheffer reaction under homogeneous conditions, has been reviewed by Berti (70). 

The involvement of transition metal peroxo species in the oxidative functionalization of alkanes and arenes has been postulated for several metals with both hydrogen peroxide and alkyl hydroperoxides. 

Typical examples referring to titanium derivatives are alkoxides with TBHP and titanosilicate (in particular TS-1) in the presence of H202. Based on this latter system, ENICHEM" commercialized a procedure for hydroxylation of phenol to cathecol and hydroquinone. Other activated arenes are also hydroxylated by TS-1 and hydrogen peroxide". Interestingly, for TS-1 catalysis a mechanism similar to that proposed... 

Phenanthrene and pyrene on treatment with diisopropylcarbodiimide, hydrogen peroxide, and acetic acid in ethyl acetate at room temperature give 1 and 4 in 28% and 27% yields, respectively.17 Similar reaction occurs with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide and cyclohexylbenzylcarbodiimide. The hydrogen peroxide can be either 98% or a 30% aqueous solution. Use of silica gel, Dowex 50W-X8, or diphenylphosphinic acid instead of acetic acid is also permissible. However, because of the sensitivity of arene oxides toward strong acids, hydrochloric, sulfuric, or polyphosphoric acids cannot be used. 

At least two systems can be cited as catalysts of peroxide oxidation the first are the iron (III) porphyrins (44) and the second are the Gif reagents (45,46), based on iron salt catalysis in a pyridine/acetic acid solvent with peroxide reagents and other oxidants. The author s opinion is that more than systems for stress testing these are tools useful for the synthesis of impurities, especially epoxides. From another point of view, they are often considered as potential biomimetic systems, predicting drug metabolism. Metabolites are sometimes also degradation impurities, but this is not a general rule, because enzymes and free radicals have different reactivity an example is the metabolic synthesis of arene oxides that never can be obtained by radical oxidation. 

Not only alkenes and arenes but also other types of electron-rich compound can be oxidized by oxygen. Most organometallic reagents react with air, whereby either alkanes are formed by dimerization of the metal-bound alkyl groups (cuprates often react this way [80]) or peroxides or alcohols are formed [81, 82]. The alcohols result from disproportionation or reduction of the peroxides. Similarly, enolates, metalated nitriles, phenolates, enamines, and related compounds with nucleophilic carbon can react with oxygen by intermediate formation of carbon-centered radicals to yield dimers (Section 5.4.6 [83, 84]), peroxides, or alcohols. The oxidation of many organic compounds by air will, therefore, often proceed faster in the presence of bases (Scheme 3.21). 

Direct palladation of C-H bonds can be achieved by treatment of, for example, electron-rich arenes with Pd(II) salts (see also Section8.11). After cross-coupling via reductive elimination the resulting Pd(0) must be reoxidized to Pd(II) if Pd-catalysis is the aim [85], Reoxidation of Pd(0) with Cu or Ag salts (as in the Wacker process) is not always well suited for C-C bond-forming reactions [86], but other oxidants, for example peroxides, have been used with success (Scheme8.9). The required presence of oxidants in the reaction mixture limits the scope of these reactions to oxidation-resistant starting materials. 

A homobimetallic cerium(IV)-calix[8]arene complex was used together with hydrogen peroxide in the regioselective hydroxylation of simple phenols (Eq. 38), Just 0.5 mol of the cerium complex was sufficient to convert 1 mol phenolic substrate [260],... 

The first example of the direct hydroxylation of arenes to phenols was reported in 1900 and described oxidation of benzene with a mixture of iron(II) sulfate and hydrogen peroxide (Fenton s reagent) [1], Low yields of phenol (21% yield based on H202) are typically obtained in such cases, in addition to significant amounts of biphenyl (24% yield based on H202) [1-3]. Both selectivity to phenol and overall... 

Arenes activated with an electron-withdrawing group may react with alkyl peroxides directly, by nucleophilic attack at the ortho- or para-position. Nitroarenes can be hydroxylated with alkyl hydroperoxides in strongly basic media in moderate to good yields (Eq. 7) [39]. 

Use of transition metal catalysts opens up previously unavailable mechanistic pathways. With hydrogen peroxide and catalytic amounts of methyl trioxorhe-nium (MTO), 2-methylnaphthalene can be converted to 2-methylnaphtha-l,4-qui-none (vitamin K3 or menadione) in 58 % yield and 86 % selectivity at 81 % conversion (Eq. 10) [43, 44]. Metalloporphyrin-catalyzed oxidation of 2-methylnaphtha-lene with KHSOs can also be used to prepare vitamin K3 [45]. The MTO-catalyzed process can also be applied to the synthesis of quinones from phenols [46, 47]. In particular, several benzoquinones of cardanol derivatives were prepared in this manner [48], The oxidation is thought to proceed through the formation of arene oxide intermediates [47]. 

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