Phenyl esters acylation

In summary, reactions of nitronates with acid anhydrides or acyl chlorides give the O-acylated products, and reactions with acyl imidazoles, phenyl esters, acyl nitriles, and enol-lactones gives the C-acylated products, (see Eq. 5.13).25 The C/O selectivity of nitronate acylation by RCOX is qualitatively correlated with strength (pKJ of the acid HX conjugated to the leaving group X .25... 

O-Acyltyrosine derivatives bear the disadvantage of being active esters capable of acylating amino groups or other nucleophiles in a particularly efficient manner by intermolecular O—> N transfer (Scheme 9). Due to the reactivity of these phenyl esters, acyl groups such as acetyl or benzoyl, which are commonly used in carbohydrate chemistry, cannot be recommended for the protection of the tyrosine hydroxy group.f l... 

Although acyl imidazoles can be replaced by phenyl esters in some cases," acyl imidazoles are more effecdve for the acyladon of nitroalkanes A combinadon of diethyl phosphorcyani-dates and triethylamime allows the direct C-acyladon of nitromethane by aromadc carboxylic... 

Zeolites have also been described as efficient catalysts for acylation,11 for the preparation of acetals,12 and proved to be useful for acetal hydrolysis13 or intramolecular lactonization of hydroxyalkanoic acids,14 to name a few examples of their application. A number of isomerizations and skeletal rearrangements promoted by these porous materials have also been reported. From these, we can underline two important industrial processes such as the isomerization of xylenes,2 and the Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime to e-caprolactam,15 which is an intermediate for polyamide manufacture. Other applications include the conversion of n-butane to isobutane,16 Fries rearrangement of phenyl esters,17 or the rearrangement of epoxides to carbonyl compounds.18... 

An additional example is the observed moderate acceleration in the cleavage of particular phenyl esters in the presence of a cyclodextrin. In such cases, the bound ester is attacked by an hydroxyl group on the cyclodextrin to yield a new ester. There was found to be a significant enhancement of phenol release from meta-substituted phenyl acetate on interaction with cyclodextrin (relative to other esters which do not fit the cavity so well) (Van Etten, Clowes, Sebastian Bender, 1967). During the reaction, the acyl moiety transfers to an hydroxyl group on the... 

Fries rearrangement.1 Rearrangement of phenyl esters with Lewis acids results in a mixture of ortho- and para-phenolic ketones. In contrast, reaction of an o-bromophenyl ester with sec-butyllithium results in exclusive formation of the orf/jo-phenolic ketone by an intramolecular acyl rearrangement.2... 

Hubbard and Kirsch (1972) have recently proposed that histidine may act as a nucleophile in a-chymotrypsin acylation reactions of esters having a good leaving group (jO-nitrophenol). This suggestion was based on a similarity in p-value for acylation by p-substituted nitrophenyl and dinitrophenyl benzoates and nucleophilic attack on these compounds by imidazole, in contrast with less positive p-values for hydroxide ion catalysis. Hammett p-values for hydrolysis of substituted phenyl esters are given in Table 6 and show little apparent trend. The values for hydroxide ion and alcoholate ions are... 

The aromatic amides have attracted considerable interest from the photochemical point of view. However, anilides are less prone to photochemical rearrangements than the analogous phenyl esters. For this reason, the side reactions involving other parts of the molecule may compete favorably with PFR. Shizuka started the study of anilides in the 1960, and thereafter a number of papers have appeared dealing with the PFR of A -acyl anilines, carbazoles, indoles, and so forth. 

Some phenyl esters give rise to photodecarbonylation as a side reaction [37], This is also the case for certain phenylpropionamides, which implies cleavage of the CO—C bond in the acyl radical, after the breaking of the N—CO bond [99], If CO—C cleavage occurs prior to N—CO cleavage, then an isocyanate is formed (Scheme 38) and PFR does not occur. 

Immobilized, highly reactive phenyl esters can be prepared by acylating resin-bound 4-acyl-2-nitrophenol (Entry 4, Table 3.13 [285-288]) or 4-(aminocarbonyl)-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorophenol (Entries 7 and 8, Table 3.13). These esters are similar to oxime esters (see Section 3.3.3.3), and even react with weak nucleophiles such as anilines or alcohols. This type of linker is not, therefore, well suited for long synthetic sequences on insoluble supports, but only for the preparation of simple acid derivatives. Because cleavage yields the unchanged phenol, these resins can be reused several times, which renders this strategy of preparing acid derivatives quite cost-effective. 

Other less commonly used coupling reagents include EEDQ (formation of mixed carboxylic carbonic anhydrides), Bop-Cl (formation of mixed carboxylic phosphinic anhydrides [52,53]), DPPA (formation of acyl azides), DECP (formation of acyl cyanides), MSNT (formation of mixed carboxylic sulfonic anhydrides), and benzisoxazo-lium salts (generation of phenyl esters [54]). 

Examples of the use of these methods are given in Expts 5.148 and 5.149. The use of an acyl chloride or acid anhydride is the method of choice for the synthesis of phenyl esters (e.g. phenyl cinnamate see also Section 9.6.6), which cannot be prepared by the direct esterification methods described above. 

The various methods for introducing a formyl group (—COH) into a phenolic nucleus are discussed in Section 6.10.1, p. 990. The formation of phenolic ketones (e.g. HO-C6H4-COR) by the standard Friedel-Crafts acylation procedure (i.e. the reaction of a phenol with an acid chloride in the presence of aluminium chloride) does not always give acceptable yields except in the case of polyhydroxyphenols (p. 1006). The preferred method is to convert the phenol into the phenyl ester and to subject this to rearrangement (the Fries reaction) in the presence of aluminium chloride. 

All other carboxylic acid derivatives in Table 6.1, in which the leaving group is bound to the carboxyl carbon through an O atom, are increasingly better acylating agents than carboxylic acid alkyl esters (entry 3) in the order carboxylic acid phenyl ester (entry 4) < acyl isourea (entry 7) < mixed carboxylic acid/carbonic acid anhydride (entry 8) < carboxylic acid anhydride (entry 9) < mixed carboxylic acid anhydride (entry 10). 

We have pursued such ester hydrolysis by artificial enzymes further. With a cyclodextrin dimer related to 25 we have hydrolyzed an ordinary doubly bound ester, not just the more reactive nitrophenyl esters [116], with catalytic turnovers. Also, with a catalyst consisting of a cyclodextrin linked to a metal ligand carrying a Zn2+ and its bound oxime anion, we saw good catalyzed hydrolysis of bound phenyl esters with what is called burst kinetics (fast acylation, slower deacylation), as is seen with many enzymes [117]. 

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