Polystyrene electrophilic

Anionic grafting methods (vide infra) can be applied to the synthesis of comb-shaped polymers. As an example, a polystyrene backbone is partially chloromethylated (under mild conditions) and used as an electrophilic deactivator for a living polystyrene 89). The grafting onto process yields well defined species that have been characterized accurately. The branches are distributed randomly along the backbone 90). 

A novel and versatile method for preparing polymer-supported reactive dienes was recently developed by Smith [26]. PS-DES (polystyrene diethyl-silane) resin 28 treated with trifluoromethanesulfonic acid was converted to a polymer-supported silyl triflate 29 and then functionalized with enolizable a,jS-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones to form silyloxydienes 30 and 31 (Scheme 4.4). These reactive dienes were then trapped with dienophiles and the Diels Alder adducts were electrophilically cleaved with a solution of TFA. 

An amide anion will prefer substitution if its basicity is sufficiently lowered by resonance, and can be useful where the neutral nitrogen is unreactive or otherwise unsuitable. Quaterniza-tion cannot be prevented in the alkylation of even free neutral imidazole, but an imidazolide anion will match with only one of the electrophilic sites terminating dimethylene spacer on polystyrene. 

An alternative to the above is esterification by reaction of the salt of the Fmoc-amino acid with the halomethylphenyl-support (see Section 3.17). It was established in the 1960s that this method of esterifying A-alkoxycarbonylamino acids, which does not involve electrophilic activation, is not accompanied by enan-tiomerization. Examples of supports with haloalkyl linkers are bromomethylphe-noxymethyl-polystyrene and 2-chlorotrityl chloride resin (see Section 5.23). 

The selective electrophilic aromatic substitution carried out by displacement of a metallic substituent (Hg, Sn) ( F-fluorodemetallation) using [ F]p2 or [ F]AcOF remains a method of choice to introduce a fluorine atom on a specific position. In the early preparations of [6- F]fluoro-L-DOPA, the reaction of a 6-substituted mercuric derivative with [ F]acetyl hypofluorite yielded the expected compound in 11 % yield [73,74]. Reaction of a mercuric precursor, free or on a modified polystyrene support P-CH2-COOHg(DOPA precursor) allows the preparation of [ F]fluoro-L-DOPA in an overall yield up to 23 %. The polymer supports are easily prepared, require no special treatment for storage and are convenient to use in automated production [75]. 

Aromatic electrophilic substitution is used commercially to produce styrene polymers with ion-exchange properties by the incorporation of sulfonic acid or quaternary ammonium groups [Brydson, 1999 Lucas et al., 1980 Miller et al., 1963]. Crosslinked styrene-divinyl-benzene copolymers are used as the starting polymer to obtain insoluble final products, usually in the form of beads and also membranes. The use of polystyrene itself would yield soluble ion-exchange products. An anion-exchange product is obtained by chloromethylation followed by reaction with a tertiary amine (Eq. 9-38) while sulfonation yields a cation-exchange product (Eq. 9-39) ... 

The polydispersity of polymers prepared in this way is usually very low for example, a value MJM of 1.05 was found for a sample of poly(a-methylsty-rene). Living polymers can also be used for the preparation of block copolymers after the consumption of the first monomer, a second anionically polymerizable monomer is added which then grows onto both ends of the initially formed block. By termination of the living polymer with electrophilic compounds the polymer chains can be provided with specific end groups for example, living polystyrene reacts with carbon dioxide to give polystyrene with carboxylic end groups. 

A number of N-brominated and N-chlorinated heterocycles also provide sources of electrophilic bromine. Examples include 1-chlorobenzotriazole (82JOC4895 87JOC173 88CHE36) and various HBr and Br2 adducts of pyridines, or pyridine perbromides [84SC939 85JAP(K)60/87264], Polymer-supported reagents of this type include 1-cyclohexylpyridinium perbromide linked to polystyrene, effective for the bromination of 1-methylindole, benzo[fc]furan, and benzo[6]thiophene (89T7869). 

Almost all electrophilic substitutions known to proceed in solution with isopropylbenzene can also be performed with polystyrene, using solvents such as nitrobenzene, carbon disulfide, or carbon tetrachloride. These substitutions include bromination [42], nitration [43,44], sulfonylation, Friedel-Crafts acylations [45 49], and alkylations... 

Metallated polystyrenes are versatile intermediates for the preparation of a number of polystyrene derivatives. Metallated polystyrene has been prepared from haloge-nated polystyrenes by halogen-metal exchange [41,42,65,66] and by direct metallation of polystyrene [67-69] (see Chapter 4). Electrophiles suitable for the derivatization of metallated polystyrene include carbon dioxide, carbonyl compounds, sulfur, trimethyl borate, isocyanates, chlorosilanes, alkyl bromides, chlorodiphenylphosphine, DMF, oxirane, selenium [70], dimethyldiselenide [71], organotin halides [69], oxygen [72], etc. [41,42,65-67],... 

A flexible means of access to functionalized supports for solid-phase synthesis is based on metallated, cross-linked polystyrene, which reacts smoothly with a wide range of electrophiles. Cross-linked polystyrene can be lithiated directly by treatment with n-butyllithium and TMEDA in cyclohexane at 60-70 °C [1-3] to yield a product containing mainly meta- and para-Iithiated phenyl groups [4], Metallation of noncross-linked polystyrene with potassium ferf-amylate/3-(lithiomethyl)heptane has also been reported [5], The latter type of base can, unlike butyllithium/TMEDA [6], also lead to benzylic metallation [7]. The C-Iithiation of more acidic arenes or heteroar-enes, such as imidazoles [8], thiophenes [9], and furans [9], has also been performed on insoluble supports (Figure 4.1). These reactions proceed, like those in solution, with high regioselectivity. 

C-Alkylations have been performed with both support-bound carbon nucleophiles and support-bound carbon electrophiles. Benzyl, allyl, and aryl halides or triflates have generally been used as the carbon electrophiles. Suitable carbon nucleophiles are boranes, organozinc and organomagnesium compounds. C-Alkylations have also been accomplished by the addition of radicals to alkenes. Polystyrene can also be alkylated under harsh conditions, e.g. by Friedel-Crafts alkylation [11-16] in the presence of strong acids. This type of reaction is incompatible with most linkers and is generally only suitable for the preparation of functionalized supports. Few examples have been reported of the preparation of alkanes by C-C bond formation on solid phase, and general methodologies for such preparations are still scarce. 

Alternatively, boranes can be prepared in solution and then coupled with support-bound carbon electrophiles. The Suzuki coupling of alkylboranes, generated in situ from 9-BBN and alkenes, with brominated cross-linked polystyrene has been used to link substituted alkyl chains directly to the polymer (Entry 4, Table 5.3). Alkylboranes have also been used to alkylate polystyrene-bound aryl iodides (Entries 3 and 5, Table 5.3). 

Most C,H-acidic compounds can be condensed with aldehydes or ketones to yield alkenes. Some of these reactions have also been realized on insoluble supports, with either the C,H-acidic (nucleophilic) reactant or the electrophilic reactant linked to the support. Some illustrative examples are listed in Table 5.6. Polystyrene-bound malonic esters or amides, cyanoacetamides, nitroacetic ester [95], and 3-oxo esters undergo Knoevenagel condensation with aromatic or aliphatic aldehydes. Catalytic amounts of piperidine and heating are generally required, although reactive substrates can react at room temperature. 

Sulfonamides of primary amines are readily deprotonated (pAia 9-11) and can thus be N-alkylated or N-arylated. Because of their high nucleophilicity and low basicity, deprotonated sulfonamides also react smoothly with less reactive electrophiles, such as n-alkyl bromides [136] (Table 8.9). Sulfonamides can also be N-alkylated with aliphatic alcohols under Mitsunobu conditions. Suitable solvents for the N-alkylation of sulfonamides on polystyrene by Mitsunobu reaction are DCM, toluene, and THF. 

Sulfonamides can also be alkylated by support-bound electrophiles (Table 8.10). Polystyrene-bound allylic alcohols have been used to N-alkylate sulfonamides under the conditions of the Mitsunobu reaction. Oxidative iodosulfonylamidation of support-bound enol ethers (e.g. glycals Entry 3, Table 8.10) has been used to prepare /V-sulfonyl aminals. Jung and co-workers have reported an interesting variant of the Baylis-Hillman reaction, in which tosylamide and an aromatic aldehyde were condensed with polystyrene-bound acrylic acid to yield 2-(sulfonamidomethyl)acrylates (Entry 4, Table 8.10). 

Dihydropyrroles have recently become readily available by ring-closing metathesis. For this purpose, N-acylated or N-sulfonylated bis(allyl)amines are treated with catalytic amounts of a ruthenium carbene complex, whereupon cyclization to the dihydropyrrole occurs (Entries 6 and 7, Table 15.3 [30,31]). Catalysis by carbene complexes is most efficient in aprotic, non-nucleophilic solvents, and can also be conducted on hydrophobic supports such as cross-linked polystyrene. Free amines or other soft nucleophiles might, however, compete with the alkene for electrophilic attack by the catalyst, and should therefore be avoided. 

Thiophene is sufficiently acidic to be directly metallated upon treatment with n-BuLi (see Figure 4.1). This direct lithiation can also be realized with polystyrene-bound 3-(alkoxymethyl)thiophene [96]. The resulting organolithium compounds react as expected with several electrophiles, such as amides (to yield ketones), alkyl halides, aldehydes, and Me3SiCl [96]. 

Polystyrene-bound 2-bromothiophene can be metallated by treatment with Grignard reagents. The resulting thienylmagnesium compounds can be directly treated with carbon electrophiles to yield the corresponding derivatized thiophenes. For some types of electrophile, transmetallation with CuCN might be required in order to obtain clean products (Entry 6, Table 15.10). 

This method was applied to synthesize various networks, with elastic chains of different nature polystyrene, polymethacrylates, polyvinylpyridine, and more recently polydienes. In some cases ethylene dimethacrylate is used to achieve cross-linking9, because of its higher electrophilicity. 

It is evident that this type of grafting is restricted to those monomers which are polymerizable by a cationic mechanism moreover, electrophilic substitution on the aromatic nucleus must be possible. Nevertheless, alkylvinyl ethers, isobutene and iV-vinylpyrrolidone could not be grafted on polystyrene, polyvinyltoluene or poly- >-methoxystyrene. The limitation of the method to the system styrene/poly-/j-methoxystyrene is very surprising and not well understood until now. 

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