Preparation azides from alkyl halides

Preparation of alkyl azides The azide ion (N3 ), a good nucleophile, can displace leaving groups from 1° and 2° alkyl halides. Alkyl azides are easily prepared from sodium or potassium azides and alkyl halides. The reaction mechanism resemhles the formation of nitrile. 

Primary amines can be prepared from alkyl halides by 0-44, by 0-63, by 0-61 followed by reduction of the azide (9-53), or by the Gabriel synthesis (0-58). 

The limitations of this approach can be seen in the reaction of a saturated solution of ammonia in 90% ethanol with ethyl bromide in a 16 1 molar ratio, under which conditions the yield of primary amine was 34.2% (at a 1 1 ratio the yield was 11.3%). Alkyl amines can be one type of substrate that does give reasonable yields of primary amine (provided a large excess of NH3 is used) are a-halo acids, which are converted to amino acids. A-Chloromethyl lactams also react with amines to give good yields to the A-aminomethyl lactam. Primary amines can be prepared from alkyl halides by 10-43, followed by reduction of the azide (19-32), or by the Gabriel synthesis (10-41). 

Unfortunately, these reactions don t stop cleanly after a single alkylation has occurred. Because ammonia and primary amines have similar reactivity, the initially formed monoalkylated substance often undergoes further reaction to yield a mixture of mono-, di-, and trialkylated products. A better method for preparing primary amines from alkyl halides is to use azide ion, N3, as the nucleophile rather than ammonia. The product is an alkyl azide, which is not nucleophilic, so overalkylation can t occur. Subsequent reduction of the alkyl azide with LiAlH4 then leads to the desired primary amine. 

Tertiary alkyl azides can be prepared by stirring tertiary alkyl chlorides with NaN3 and ZnCl2 in 82 ° or by treating tertiary alcohols with NaN3 and CF3-COOH or with HN3 andTiCl4 or BF3. Acyl azides, which can be used in the Curtius reaction (18-14), can be similarly prepared from acyl halides, anhydrides, " esters, or other acyl derivatives. ° Acyl azides can also be prepared... 

Mg or Ca in MeOH, " baker s yeast, Sm/l2, LiMe2NBH3, and tin complexes prepared from SnCl2 or Sn(SR)2. This reaction, combined with RX —+ RN3 (10-65), is an important way of converting alkyl halides RX to primary amines RNH2 in some cases the two procedures have been combined into one laboratory step. Sulfonyl azides (RSO2N3) have been reduced to sulfonamides (RSO2NH2) by irradiation in isopropyl alcohol and with NaH. ... 

Alkyl azides are conveniently prepared from the reaction of alkali metal azides with an alkyl halide, tosylate, mesylate, nitrate ester or any other alkyl derivative containing a good leaving group. Reactions usually work well for primary and secondary alkyl substrates and are best conducted in polar aprotic solvents like DMF and DMSO. The synthesis and chemistry of azido compounds is the subject of a functional group series. ... 

Alkyl and aryl azides are prepared by the nucleophilic displacement by azide ion on halide, sulfate, phenyldiazonium, hydroxyl, nitrate, iodoxy, alkoxy, and tosylate groups [6]. Sodium azide is the most useful and practical reagent. The use of silver azide is not necessary in most cases. Some examples from the literature [8-33] employing these methods are shown in Table I. 

Organic azides can be prepared from hydrazines and nitrous acid (Section 24-7A) and by the reaction of sodium azide with acyl halides or with alkyl halides having good SN2 reactivity ... 

A one-pot PTC reaction procedure for the overall conversion of an alkyl halide into a primary amine via an azide is particularly illustrative.204 Thus the reduction of the azide is effected by the addition of sodium borohydride to a reaction mixture arising from the PTC displacement reaction of an alkyl halide with sodium azide (the preparation of 1-octylamine, Expt 5.193). The reaction appears to be applicable to primary and secondary alkyl halides, alkyl methane-sulphonates and benzylic halides. 

Sodium nitrite can be used to prepare nitro compounds from primary or secondary alkyl bromides or iodides, but the method is of limited scope. Silver nitrite gives nitro compounds only when RX is a primary bromide or iodide.Nitrite esters are an important side product in all these cases (10-22) and become the major product (by an S l mechanism) when secondary or tertiary halides are treated with silver nitrite. Alkyl nitro compounds can be prepared from the alkyl halide via the corresponding azide, by treatment with HOF in acetonitrile. 

A better method for preparing primary amines is to use the azide synthesis, in which azide ion, is used for 8 2 displacement of a halide ion from a primary or secondary alkyl halide to give an alkyl azide, RNj. Since alkyl azides are not nucleophilic, overalkylation can t occur. Reduction of the alkyl azide, either by catalytic hydrogenation over a palladium catalyst or by reaction with LiAlH4, leads to the desired primary amine. Although the method works well, low-molecular-weight alkyl azides are explosive and must be handled carefully. 

An alternative to the azide synthesis is the Gabriel amine synthesis, which uses a phthalimide alkylation for preparing a primary amine from an alkyl halide. Imides (-CONHCO-) are similar to ethyl acetoacetate in that... 

Triazoles can also be prepared from in situ formation of azides from halo compormds. For example, 1,4-disubstituted-1,2,3-triazoles 138 were obtained in excellent yields by a convenient one-pot procedure from a variety of aryl and alkyl iodides 136 and terminal alkynes 137 without isolation of potentially unstable organic azide intermediates 05SL2941>. Efficient one-pot synthesis of 1,2,3-triazoles from in situ formation of azides from benzyl and alkyl halides with alkynes has also been reported <05SL943>. 

Trimethylsilyl azide (TMSN3) is a more easily handled, stable alternative to hydrazoic acid. It has found many uses in organic synthetic applications. Most recently it has been found to readily convert hindered alkyl halides to alkyl azides in the presence of a Lewis acid. Thus, tertiary alkyl azides can be formed from tertiary alkyl chlorides, trimethylsilyl azide and tin tetrachloride. In this work the azides were converted to the benzamides132 (equation 135). Similar conditions were used by Olah and coworkers133 to prepare secondary and tertiary cyclic azides in good yields (equation 136). 

Click chemistry has been used to prepare a series of l,4-disubstituted-l,2,3-triazoles by a Cu(I)-catalyzed three-component reaction of alkyl halides, sodium azide, and alkynes. The method avoids isolation and handling of potentially unstable small organic azides and provides triazoles in the pure form and high yields (81-89%). Microwave irradiation dramatically reduces reaction times from hours to minutes [50]. 

The alkyl azide is generated in situ from the corresponding alkyl halides and sodium azide, whereupon it is captured by copper(I) acetylide forming the desired triazole 45. The reaction is performed under the action of MW irradiation for 10 min at 125 °C. Although most compounds readily tolerated this temperature, occasionally it resulted in reduced yields. To circumvent these problems these reaction mixtures were irradiated for 15 min at 75 °C. The reaction was performed in a 1 1 mixture of t-BuOH and water and the Cu(I) catalyst was prepared in situ by... 

Alkylation of Azide Ion and Reduction A much better method for preparing a primary amine from an alkyl halide is first to convert the alkyl halide to an alkyl azide (R — N3) by a nucleophilic substitution reaction, then reduce the azide to a primary amine with lithium aluminum hydride. 

This is clearly a much longer sequence to make a primary amine than simple reaction with ammonia. It does not suffer from problems of polyalkylation, however, and the yield of the amine for the two-step sequence is often higher than the direct reaction with an amine. The fact that this procedime is used more often to make aliphatic primary amines than the reaction of ammonia with an alkyl halide suggests the severity of the problems associated with polyalkylation. The preparation of secondary or tertiary amines often requires the use of the S- 2 reaction with amines, however. Other amine surrogates are known, including the azide ion (Section 11.3.4) and the cyanide ion (Section 11.3.5), but both give primary amines as the end product. 

The addition of ozone (O3) to alkenes to give a primary ozonide (molozonide), which rearranges to an ozonide and eventually leads, on reduction, to carbonyl compounds (aldehydes and/or ketones), has already been mentioned and the reaction itself is shown in Scheme 6.11. However, it is important to recognize that this is only one example of a 4th- 2n electrocyclic addition and that orbital overlap for many sets of these reactions dictates their courses as well. Thus, to show the similarity of some of these dipolar 3 -f 2 addition reactions Equations 6.53-6.56 are provided. Although any alkene might be used as an example, (Z)-2-butene is used in each to emphasize that aU of them occur with retention of stereochemistry and, in the first (Equation 6.53), the reaction with ozone to form the primary ozonide (molozonide) is presented again (i.e., see Scheme 6.11). In a similar way, with a suitable azide, R-N3, readily prepared from an alkyl halide (Chapter 7), the same alkene forms a triazoline (Equation 6.54) and with nitrous oxide (N2O) the heterocycle (Chapter 13) cis -4,5-dimethyl-A -l,2,3-oxadiazoline (ds-4,5-dihydro-4,5-dimethyl-l,2,3-oxadiazole) (Equation 6.55). Finally, with a nitrile oxide, such as the oxide derived from ethanenitrile (acetonitrile [CH3ON]), the same alkene yields a different heterocycle, the dihydroisoxazole, 3,4,5-trimethyl-4,5-dihydroisoxazole (Equation 6.56). 

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