Tetraalkyl pyrophosphates

The purified tetraethyl pyrophosphate is a colorless, odorless, water-soluble, hygroscopic liquid (24, 4 )- It possesses a very high acute toxicity (28), exceeding that of parathion, and is rapidly absorbed through the skin. There is no spray-residue problem, however, for tetraethyl pyrophosphate hydrolyzes even in the absence of alkali to nontoxic diethyl phosphoric acid. Hall and Jacobson (24) and Toy (47) have measured its rate of hydrolysis, which is a first-order reaction. Its half-life at 25° C. is 6.8 hours and at 38° C. is 3.3 hours. Coates (10) determined the over-all velocity constant at 25° C. k = 160 [OH-] + 1.6 X 10 3 min.-1 Toy (47) has described an elegant method for preparing this ester as well as other tetraalkyl pyrophosphates, based upon the controlled hydrolysis of 2 moles of dialkyl chlorophosphate ... 

The hydrogen chloride is removed either by reduced pressure or by salt formation with pyridine or sodium bicarbonate the latter procedure gave high yields of the pure ester. Toy (47) also measured the hydrolysis rates and compared the toxicities of a series of tetraalkyl pyrophosphates. Of these tested, the tetraethyl ester was the most toxic to white mice. 

Steinberg, G.M., Reactions of dialkyl phosphites — synthesis of dialkyl chlo-rophosphates, tetraalkyl pyrophosphates, and mixed orthophosphate esters, /. Org. Chem., 15, 673, 1950. 

The tetrasodium salt of carbonylbisphosphonate was originally synthesized by Quimby et al. [76], using hydrolysis of a tetraalkyl dichloromethylenebisphos-phonate in aqueous NaOH. In aqueous solution, the yellow ketone form reversibly converts to its colorless hydrate at acidic pH [76], a process which can be assessed by a combination of 31P-NMR and uv-visible spectroscopy at pH 7, the ketone predominates [93]. The salt moderately inhibits HIV reverse transcriptase in a p24 assay, whereas the parent methylene compound is inactive [64], displays some activity vs the pyrophosphate-dependent phosphofructose kinase of the parasite T. gondii [94] and has found use as a selective inhibitor of PCNA-independent DNA polymerase 6, allowing its enzyme activity to be distinguished from that of DNA polymerase a [95]. 

The esters also react readily with aryl hydrazines to give aryl hydrazone derivatives. Examples of the latter were first synthesized (prior to the availability of tetraalkyl carbonylphosphonates) from tetraalkyl methylenebisphosphonates and aryl diazonium salts, analogously to the phosphonoglyoxylate hydrazone synthesis described in a previous section. First made as possible precursors in a ketone synthesis, several of these compounds, converted to free acid salts by treatment with BTMS followed by dicyclohexylamine in methanol, proved to have unexpected inhibitory activity vs the pyrophosphate-dependent phospho-fructokinase of the parasite T. gondii, which causes a potentially lethal opportunistic infection in immunocompromised persons such as AIDS patients [94]. In fact, the 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone of carbonylbisphosphonic acid (as the tetrasodium salt) dramatically abated toxoplasmosis lesions in infected human foreskin fibroblasts [94]. Animal toxicity in this compound, probably arising from in vivo hydrolysis to the highly toxic hydrazine, precluded its future development, but the result remains an interesting lead. 

As a further method, vhich is also suitable for the synthesis of mixed tetraalkyl pyrophosphates (5), the reaction of dialkyl chlorcphosfhates with dialkyl hydrogen phosphates in the presence of molar amounts of a tertiary amine has been established (Figure 3). 

Oxidation of dialkyl H-phosphonale with nitrogen dioxide [70] or with nitiosyl chloride in pyridine [71] leads to the formation of tetraalkyl pyrophosphate. 

TABLE 5.27 Tetraalkyl Pyrophosphates - Physical Data Refractive... 

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