Reaction with Kolbe radicals

The addition of various Kolbe radicals generated from acetic acid, monochloro-acetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, oxalic acid, methyl adipate and methyl glutarate to acceptors such as ethylene, propylene, fluoroolefins and dimethyl maleate is reported in ref. [213]. Also the influence of reaction conditions (current density, olefin-type, olefin concentration) on the product yield and product ratios is individually discussed therein. The mechanism of the addition to ethylene is deduced from the results of adsorption and rotating ring disc studies. The findings demonstrate that the Kolbe radicals react in the surface layer with adsorbed ethylene [229]. In the oxidation of acetate in the presence of 1-octene at platinum and graphite anodes, products that originate from intermediate radicals and cations are observed [230]. 

The trapping of allyl radicals with other open-shell species can be studied in all reactions in which a sufficiently high concentration of radicals is created and in which the concentration of nonradical trapping agents is low. This prerequisite has been met in Kolbe electrolysis reactions, in which radicals are generated by one-electron oxidation of carboxylate anions. One of the simplest systems, the reaction of methyl radicals with... 

Radicals prepared by anodic oxidation of anions or by the Kolbe reactions can couple with other radicals or add to double bonds. For instance in Scheme 2 [4, 5], the... 

In the past few years, however, very efficient new methods of cyclisation proceeding via radical intermediates have been developed and several reviews [19a] and a comprehensive book by Giese [19b] have been published. Rather than reactions involving the dimerisation of two radicals -as in the Kolbe electrochemical synthesis [20] or the radical induced dehydrodimerisation developed by Viehe [21]-more important are the reactions between a radical with a non-radical species. The advantage of this type of reaction is that the radical character is not destroyed during the reaction and a chain-reaction may be induced by working with catalytic amounts of a radical initiator. However, in order to be successful two conditions must be met i) The selectivities of the radicals involved in the chain-reaction must differ from each other, and ii) the reaction between radicals and non-radicals must be faster than radical combination reactions. 

This reaction resembles decarboxylation of carboxylates during electrode one-electron oxidation (Kolbe reaction). Kolbe reaction also consists of one-electron oxidation, decarboxylation, and culminates in dimerization of alkyl radicals just after their formation at the electrode surface. When the sulfate radical acts as a one-electron oxidant, the caboradical dimerization is hampered. The radicals can be used in preparative procedures. One typical example is alkylation of heterocyclic nitrogen bases (Minisci et al. 1983). This difference between Kolbe reaction and the reaction with the help of a dissolved electrode (the sulfate radical) deserves some explanation. The concentration of the one-electron oxidation products in the electrode vicinity is significantly higher than that in the bulk of the solution. Therefore, in the case of anode-impelled reactions, the dimerization of radicals produced from carboxylates proceeds easily. Noticeably, 864 secures the single electron nature of oxidation more strictly than an anode. In electrode reactions, radical intermediates can... 

Electron donating a-substituents favour the non-Kolbe reaction but the radical intermediates in these anodic processes can be trapped during co-electrolysis with an alkanoic acid. Anodic decarboxylation of sugar uronic acids leads to formation of the radical which is very rapidly oxidised to a carbonium ion, stabilised by the adjacent ether group. However, in the presence of a tenfold excess of an alkanoic acid, the radical intermediate is trapped as the unsymmetrical coupling product [101]. Highly functionalised nucleotide derivatives such as 20 will couple successfully in the mixed Kolbe reaction [102], Other examples include the co-electrolysis of 3-oxa-alkanoic acids with an alkanoic acid [103] and the formation of 3-alkylindoles from indole-3-propanoic acid [104], Anodic oxidation of indole-3-propanoic acid alone gives no Kolbe dimer [105],... 

It is therefore intriguing to understand what is the particular role of the platinum/electrolyte interface in the Kolbe synthesis favoring that reaction path—Eqs. (39a)-(39c)—which is thermodynamically disfavored and unlikely to occur. A closely related reaction whose kinetics are easier to investigate with conventional electrode kinetic methods is the anodically initiated addition of N3 radicals to olefins, discovered by Schafer and Alazrak (275). The consecutive reactions, which follow the initial generation of the reactive intermediate, an Na radical, are somewhat slower than that of the Kolbe radicals, so that their rate influences the shape and potential of the current voltage curves which can be evaluated in terms of reaction rates and rate laws. 

Thus contrary to the naive understanding, Pt does not catalyze but prohibits the thermodynamically favored oxidation, allowing for homogenous dimerization of the Kolbe radicals and similar radicals due to blocking the anode by a layer of adsorption-stabilized species, whereas C anodes allow for physisorption of radicals with subsequent immediate anodic formation of carbenium cations, which constitutes a completely different reaction path. 

Kolbe electrolysis also allows some comparisons with analogous homogeneous reactions with regard to dimerization, substitution, or addition reactions of the generated radicals. Photolytic or thermal decarboxylation of diacylperoxides is a source of alkyl radicals similar to those afforded by the Kolbe electrolysis. The anodic oxidation of propionate has been compared with the thermal decomposition of dipropionyl peroxide [28]. Examination of the yields shows that reaction between radicals is favored in the electrochemical process, whereas in peroxide decomposition hydrogen atom abstraction from the solvent or the substrate occurs to a higher extent. This illustrates the effect of the higher radical concentration at the electrode. 

The reaction of styrene with carbomethoxymethyl radicals generated in homogeneous solution and by Kolbe electrolysis has been compared [Eq. (4)] (Table 2) [37] ... 

In addition to the aromatic and unsaturated species already considered, several saturated materials may be oxidised anodically in organic solvent systems. Organic anions are invariably oxidisable. Carboxylate anions undergo decarboxylation reactions to form radicals, which may lead to Kolbe dimers, and carbonium ions which usually attack the solvent, e.g. reaction with acetonitrile results in acetamida-tion. ... 

Free-radical reactions may be divided into two classes. In the first, the product results from the combination of two radicals, as in the Kolbe synthesis. Electrolysis of the alkali metal salts of aliphatic carboxyhc acids results in the Hberation of alkyl radicals at the anode and their subsequent dimerization (Scheme 4.46). In the second class, the product results from the reaction of a radical with a molecule, as in the case of photochemical chlorination of methane. The fundamental difference between the two types of reaction is that the latter class involves a chain reaction. 

Oxidative decarboxylation, as in the Kolbe reaction, is one of the oldest of all electrochemical oxidations. Whether such reactions parallel any reactions that occur in nature is still in question. Actually, the reaction can take two courses loss of an electron from a carboxylate and decarboxylation to form a radical which dimerizes or reacts with another radical, or loss of an electron followed by decarboxylation and loss of a second electron to form a carbocation (The Hofer-Moest reaction, 33). The carbocation may then be neutralized by reaction with nucleophile or another source of electrons. 

In organic chemistry well known is the electrosynthesis reaction of Kolbe, in which the electrolysis of sodium salts of carboxylic acids, carried out imder appropriate conditions, leads to the formation of free radicals at the anode. These free radicals undergo decarboxylation and linking with the formation of saturated hydrocarbons ... 

The reaction is likely to proceed by a radical-chain mechanism, involving intermediate formation of carboxyl radicals, as in the related Kolbe electrolytic synthesis. Initially the bromine reacts with the silver carboxylate 1 to give an acyl hypobromite species 3 together with insoluble silver bromide, which precipitates from the reaction mixture. The unstable acyl hypobromite decomposes by homolytic cleavage of the O-Br bond, to give a bromo radical and the carboxyl radical 4. The latter decomposes further to carbon dioxide and the alkyl radical 5, which subsequently reacts with hypobromite 3 to yield the alkyl bromide 2 and the new carboxyl radical 4Z... 

Suitable starting materials for the Kolbe electrolytic synthesis are aliphatic carboxylic acids that are not branched in a-position. With aryl carboxylic acids the reaction is not successful. Many functional groups are tolerated. The generation of the desired radical species is favored by a high concentration of the carboxylate salt as well as a high current density. Product distribution is further dependend on the anodic material, platinum is often used, as well as the solvent, the temperature and the pH of the solution." ... 

The current-potential relationship indicates that the rate determining step for the Kolbe reaction in aqueous solution is most probably an irreversible 1 e-transfer to the carboxylate with simultaneous bond breaking leading to the alkyl radical and carbon dioxide [8]. However, also other rate determining steps have been proposed [10]. When the acyloxy radical is assumed as intermediate it would be very shortlived and decompose with a half life of t 10" to carbon dioxide and an alkyl radical [89]. From the thermochemical data it has been concluded that the rate of carbon dioxide elimination effects the product distribution. Olefin formation is assumed to be due to reaction of the carboxylate radical with the alkyl radical and the higher olefin ratio for propionate and butyrate is argued to be the result of the slower decarboxylation of these carboxylates [90]. 

A mixture of water/pyridine appears to be the solvent of choice to aid carbenium ion formation [246]. In the Hofer-Moest reaction the formation of alcohols is optimized by adding alkali bicarbonates, sulfates [39] or perchlorates. In methanol solution the presence of a small amount of sodium perchlorate shifts the decarboxylation totally to the carbenium ion pathway [31]. The structure of the carboxylate can also support non-Kolbe electrolysis. By comparing the products of the electrolysis of different carboxylates with the ionization potentials of the corresponding radicals one can draw the conclusion that alkyl radicals with gas phase ionization potentials smaller than 8 e V should be oxidized to carbenium ions [8 c] in the course of Kolbe electrolysis. This gives some indication in which cases preferential carbenium ion formation or radical dimerization is to be expected. Thus a-alkyl, cycloalkyl [, ... 

The photo-Kolbe reaction is the decarboxylation of carboxylic acids at tow voltage under irradiation at semiconductor anodes (TiO ), that are partially doped with metals, e.g. platinum [343, 344]. On semiconductor powders the dominant product is a hydrocarbon by substitution of the carboxylate group for hydrogen (Eq. 41), whereas on an n-TiOj single crystal in the oxidation of acetic acid the formation of ethane besides methane could be observed [345, 346]. Dependent on the kind of semiconductor, the adsorbed metal, and the pH of the solution the extent of alkyl coupling versus reduction to the hydrocarbon can be controlled to some extent [346]. The intermediacy of alkyl radicals has been demonstrated by ESR-spectroscopy [347], that of the alkyl anion by deuterium incorporation [344]. With vicinal diacids the mono- or bisdecarboxylation can be controlled by the light flux [348]. Adipic acid yielded butane [349] with levulinic acid the products of decarboxylation, methyl ethyl-... 

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