Preparation of Reactive Reagents for Acylation

The traditional method for transforming carboxylic acids into reactive acylating agents capable of converting alcohols to esters or amines to amides is by formation of the acyl chloride. Molecules devoid of acid-sensitive functional groups can be converted to acyl chlorides with thionyl chloride or phosphorus pentachloride. When milder conditions are necessary, the reaction of the acid or its sodium salt with oxalyl chloride provides the acyl chloride. When a salt is used, the reaction solution remains essentially neutral. 

Acyl chlorides are highly reactive acylating agents and react very rapidly with amines. For alcohols, preparative procedures often call for use of pyridine as a catalyst. Pyridine catalysis involves initial formation of an acylpyridinium ion, which then reacts with the alcohol. Pyridine is a better nucleophile than the neutral alcohol, but the acylpyridinium ion reacts more rapidly with the alcohol than the acyl chloride.94 95 

An even stronger catalytic effect is obtained when 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) is used as a nucleophilic catalyst.96 The dimethylamino group acts as an electron-donor 

The inclusion of DMAP to the extent of 5-20 mol% in acylations by acid anhydrides and acyl chlorides increases acylation rates by up to four orders of magnitude and permits successful acylation of tertiary and other hindered alcohols. 

Trimethylsilyl triflate is also a powerful catalyst for acylations by anhydrides. Reactions of alcohols with a modest excess (1.5 equiv) of anhydride proceed in inert solvents at 0°C. Even tertiary alcohols react rapidly.101 The active acylation reagent is 

An even stronger catalytic effect is obtained when 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) is 

SECTION 3.4. SYNTHETIC INTERCONVERSION OF CARBOXYLIC ACID DERIVATIVES 

CHAPTER 3 FUNCTIONAL GROUP INTERCONVERSION BY NUCLEOPHILIC SUBSTITUTION 

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Several improvements in acylation techniques were announced. Butyllithium wwas determined to be superior to sodium amide in preparation of amide ions for ammonolysis reactions with esters. Phosgene is more reactive than ethyl chloroformate toward eneamines. The intermediate acyl chlorides may then be converted to a variety of products. a-Acetylenic aldehydes are easily prepared by the action of acetylenic Grignard reagents upon ethyl formate. ... 

There are a wide variety of methods for introduction of substituents at C3. Since this is the preferred site for electrophilic substitution, direct alkylation and acylation procedures are often effective. Even mild electrophiles such as alkenes with EW substituents can react at the 3-position of the indole ring. Techniques for preparation of 3-lithioindoles, usually by halogen-metal exchange, have been developed and this provides access not only to the lithium reagents but also to other organometallic reagents derived from them. The 3-position is also reactive toward electrophilic mercuration. 

The acylation of Wittig reagents provides the most convenient means for the preparation of allenes substituted with various electron-withdrawing substituents. The preparation of o-allenic esters has been accomplished by the reaction of resonance-stabilized phosphoranes with isolable ketenes and ketene itself and with acid chlorides in the presence of a second equivalent of the phosphorane. The disadvantages of the first method are the necessity of preparing the ketene and the fact that the highly reactive mono-substituted ketenes evidently cannot be used. The second method fails when the a-carbon... 

The reaction of benzylmagnesium chlorides wnth thiophenealde-hydes and thienyl ketones has been used for the preparation of styrylthiophenes and 1,2,2-triarylethylenes, which are of biological interest. In stilbene and 1,2,2-triphenylethylene the reactivity toward electrophilic reagents is transferred with deactivation to the double bond. However, styrylthiophene is formylated and acylated... 

By far the most common method for preparation of amides is the reaction of ammonia or a primary or secondary amine with one of the reactive reagents described in Section 3.4.1. When acyl halides are used, some provision for neutralizing the hydrogen halide is necessary, because it will otherwise react with the reagent amine to form the corresponding salt. Acid anhydrides give rapid acylation of most amines and are convenient if available. The Schotten-Bauman conditions, which involve shaking an amine with excess anhydride or acyl chloride and an alkaline aqueous solution, provide a very satisfactory method for preparation of simple amides. 

The above reagents serve as condensing reagents and have different reactivities for peptides 279, p-lactams 281, esters, thioesters, and mixed phosphates, as well as for the direct preparation of 3-acyl-2(3F/)-oxazolones. The bis(2-oxo-3-oxazohnyl)phosphinate 282 is useful for Zr(IV)-catalyzed phosphorylation of alcohols, leading to the general synthesis of acid- and base-labile mixed phosphate esters 284 (Fig. 5.67). ... 

An additional modification in the above synthetic scheme is possible by introducing the aromatic diamine in the form of its trimethylsilyl derivative [72]. Monotrimethylsilyl-substituted amines are readily prepared from the free amine with hexamethyldisilazane or trimethylsilyl chloride in the presence of a tertiary amine [73, 74] whereas bis(trimethylsilyl)-substituted amines require more aggressive reagents, such as butyllithium in conjunction with trimethylsilyl chloride [75]. As illustrated in Scheme 19, monotrimethylsilyl-substituted amines react with acyl chlorides to form the corresponding amides and liberate trimethylsilyl chloride. Monotrimethylsilyl-substituted amines are reported to display increased reactivity with acyl chlorides [76], This is of great synthetic importance since the increased reactivity allows for reaction with low basicity amines. Bis(trimethylsilyl)-substituted amines, on the other hand, react with acyl chlorides to form the corresponding JV-trimethylsilyl amides, see Scheme 20. The JV-trimethylsilyl amides are much more soluble in common organic solvents. However, they are hydrolytically unstable and readily convert back to the free amides. 

For the preparation of large compound libraries, the cost of reagents and resins is a further issue that must be considered. Some supports, e.g. resin-bound phenols or N-hydroxybenzotriazole, which enable the preparation of resin-bound, reactive esters (Section 3.3.3), can be reused many times without the need to dismantle the reactor, and are therefore much more cost-efficient than supports that can only be used once [136,137], Reactions such as the acylation of amines with resin-bound acylating agents have the additional advantage that only one equivalent of amine is needed, which again leads to a substantial reduction of costs. 

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