Reactivity in alkylation

Pyridazine is the most reactive in alkylation reactions and this again has its origin in the lone-pair/lone-pair interaction between the nitrogen atoms. This phenomenon is known as the a effect and is also responsible, for example, for the relatively higher reactivity of hydrogen peroxide as a nucleophile, compared with water. 

In the absence of strongly polar co-solvents 2-lithiothiophene displays moderate reactivity in alkylations and the reactions have to be carried out at elevated temperatures in the region of 50 °C. Careful control of the temperature is therefore not necessary if the reaction is carried out on a modest scale. The reactivity of 2-lithiothiophene in alkylations can be enhanced enormously by addition of a small amount of HMPT (5-10vol.%) in this case the reaction with butyl bromide proceeds smoothly at 20 °C and is complete within 15 minutes. The organometallic derivative can also be rendered more reactive by adding an equivalent amount of /-BuOK dissolved in THF. Subsequent reaction with butyl bromide proceeds smoothly at —10 to 0 °C. The procedure below can also be applied to prepare other non-volatile alkylthiophenes. We expect secondary alkyl halides to react much less easily dehydrohalogenation may be an important side-reaction, or even the dominant process. 

It should be pointed out that these alkylations are significantly faster than those of intermediates with comparable basicities having the metal linked to sp2-carbon, e.g., phenyllithium or -potassium. Many other sp3-polar organometallic intermediates are more reactive in alkylation reactions than PhLi or PhK, though the differences are not so dramatic as in the cases of benzylic and allylic metal compounds. 

Expectedly, the reactivity in alkylation decreases dramatically with increasing carbon chain size (methyl ethyl > propyl) [41]. However, double activation not only rescued but even increased the reactivity because of conjugative stabilization of the Sj 2-type transition state in vicinity of a double or triple bond [16, 43a, 45]. 

The mixed aliphatic - aromatic ethers are somewhat more reactive in addition to cleavage by strong hydriodio acid and also by constant b.p. hydrobromio acid in acetic acid solution into phenols and alkyl halides, they may be bromi-nated, nitrated and converted into sulphonamides (Section IV,106,2). 

Nitration in sulphuric acid is a reaction for which the nature and concentrations of the electrophile, the nitronium ion, are well established. In these solutions compounds reacting one or two orders of magnitude faster than benzene do so at the rate of encounter of the aromatic molecules and the nitronium ion ( 2.5). If there were a connection between selectivity and reactivity in electrophilic aromatic substitutions, then electrophiles such as those operating in mercuration and Friedel-Crafts alkylation should be subject to control by encounter at a lower threshold of substrate reactivity than in nitration this does not appear to occur. 

Out first example is 2-hydroxy-2-methyl-3-octanone. 3-Octanone can be purchased, but it would be difficult to differentiate the two activated methylene groups in alkylation and oxidation reactions. Usual syntheses of acyloins are based upon addition of terminal alkynes to ketones (disconnection 1 see p. 52). For syntheses of unsymmetrical 1,2-difunctional compounds it is often advisable to look also for reactive starting materials, which do already contain the right substitution pattern. In the present case it turns out that 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-2-butanone is an inexpensive commercial product. This molecule dictates disconnection 3. Another practical synthesis starts with acetone cyanohydrin and pentylmagnesium bromide (disconnection 2). Many 1,2-difunctional compounds are accessible via oxidation of C—C multiple bonds. In this case the target molecule may be obtained by simple permanganate oxidation of 2-methyl-2-octene, which may be synthesized by Wittig reaction (disconnection 1). 

Urea derivadves are of general interest in medicinal chemistry. They may be obtained cither from urea itself (barbiturates, sec p. 306) or from amines and isocyanates. The latter are usually prepared from amines and phosgene under evolution of hydrogen chloride. Alkyl isocyanates are highly reactive in nucleophilic addidon reactions. Even amides, e.g. sulfonamides, are nucleophilic enough to produce urea derivatives. 

All the examples of reactivity in acidic medium (Scheme 40) involve a reagent with a sp C hybridized electrophilic center, but the actual reactive species generated bears a sp C electrophilic center. In this case, exocyclic N-alkylation is not surprising (see Section III.2). 

The nucleophUic reactivity in neutral medium has been used extensively to prepare various thioethers of thiazole (122). In acidic medium, alkylation may be performed with alcohols (123, 124). An unexpected reaction encountered was the decarboxylation of 2-mercapto-4-methyl-5-thiazolecarboxyhc acid (60) when treated with butyl alcohol under acidic conditions (Scheme 27) (123). Reaction between A-4-thiazoline-2-thione... 

It is well known that in nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds the reactivity of alkyl groups is enhanced. In the thiazole series, alkyl groups in the 2-position are reactive towards carbonyl compounds and condensations may be realized. 

The order of alkyl halide reactivity in nucleophilic substitutions is the same as their order m eliminations Iodine has the weakest bond to carbon and iodide is the best leaving group Alkyl iodides are several times more reactive than alkyl bromides and from 50 to 100 times more reactive than alkyl chlorides Fluorine has the strongest bond to car bon and fluonde is the poorest leaving group Alkyl fluorides are rarely used as sub states m nucleophilic substitution because they are several thousand times less reactive than alkyl chlorides... 

Clearly the steric crowding that influences reaction rates in 8 2 processes plays no role in Stvfl reactions The order of alkyl halide reactivity in 8 1 reactions is the same as the order of carbocation stability the more stable the carbocation the more reactive the alkyl halide... 

In media such as water and alcohols fluoride ion is strongly solvated by hydro gen bonding and is neither very basic nor very nucleophilic On the other hand the poorly solvated or naked fluoride 10ns that are present when potassium fluoride dis solves m benzene m the presence of a crown ether are better able to express their anionic reactivity Thus alkyl halides react with potassium fluoride m benzene containing 18 crown 6 thereby providing a method for the preparation of otherwise difficultly acces sible alkyl fluorides... 

The value of alkyl halides as starting materials for the preparation of a variety of organic functional groups has been stressed many times In our earlier discussions we noted that aryl halides are normally much less reactive than alkyl halides m reactions that involve carbon-halogen bond cleavage In the present chapter you will see that aryl halides can exhibit their own patterns of chemical reactivity and that these reac tions are novel useful and mechanistically interesting... 

Potassium fluoride [7789-23-3], KF, is the most frequently used of the alkaU metal fluorides, although reactivity of the alkaU fluorides is in the order CsF > RbF > KF > NaF > LiF (6). The preference for KF is based on cost and availabiUty traded off against relative reactivity. In its anhydrous form it can be used to convert alkyl haUdes and sulfonyl haUdes to the fluorides. The versatility makes it suitable for halogen exchange in various functional organic compounds like alcohols, acids and esters (7). For example, 2,2-difluoroethanol [359-13-7] can be made as shown in equation 9 and methyl difluoroacetate [433-53 ] as in equation 10. 

Thermal, Thermooxidative, and Photooxidative Degradation. Polymers of a-olefins have at least one tertiary C-H bond in each monomer unit of polymer chains. As a result, these polymers are susceptible to both thermal and thermooxidative degradation. Reactivity in degradation reactions is especially significant in the case of polyolefins with branched alkyl side groups. For example, thermal decomposition of... 

AH higher a-olefins, in the presence of Ziegler-Natta catalysts, can easily copolymerise both with other a-olefins and with ethylene (51,59). In these reactions, higher a-olefins are all less reactive than ethylene and propylene (41). Their reactivities in the copolymerisation reactions depend on the sise and the branching degree of their alkyl groups (51) (see Olefin polya rs, linear low density polyethylene). 

Resonance effects are the primary influence on orientation and reactivity in electrophilic substitution. The common activating groups in electrophilic aromatic substitution, in approximate order of decreasing effectiveness, are —NR2, —NHR, —NH2, —OH, —OR, —NO, —NHCOR, —OCOR, alkyls, —F, —Cl, —Br, —1, aryls, —CH2COOH, and —CH=CH—COOH. Activating groups are ortho- and para-directing. Mixtures of ortho- and para-isomers are frequently produced the exact proportions are usually a function of steric effects and reaction conditions. 

Cesium forms simple alkyl and aryl compounds that are similar to those of the other alkah metals (6). They are colorless, sohd, amorphous, nonvolatile, and insoluble, except by decomposition, in most solvents except diethylzinc. As a result of exceptional reactivity, cesium aryls should be effective in alkylations wherever other alkaline alkyls or Grignard reagents have failed (see Grignard reactions). Cesium reacts with hydrocarbons in which the activity of a C—H link is increased by attachment to the carbon atom of doubly linked or aromatic radicals. A brown, sohd addition product is formed when cesium reacts with ethylene, and a very reactive dark red powder, triphenylmethylcesium [76-83-5] (C H )2CCs, is formed by the reaction of cesium amalgam and a solution of triphenylmethyl chloride in anhydrous ether. 

Dimethylaminopyrazoles react with alkylating agents to afford quaternary salts (72BSF2807). The nitrogen atom of the dimethylamino group is the most reactive in the case of 3-dimethylamino- and 4-dimethylamino-pyrazoles (formation of 456 and 457 salts, respectively) whereas 5-dimethylaminopyrazoles yield aminopyrazolium salts (458). 

Phenyl isocyanates are generally more reactive than alkyl isocyanates in their reactions with alcohols, but with CuCl catalysis even alkyl isocyanates will react readily with primary, secondary, or tertiary alcohols (45-95% yield). ... 

Detailed mechanistic studies have been carried out on aminolysis of substituted aryl acetates and aryl carbonates. Aryl esters are considerably more reactive than alkyl esters because the phenoxide ions are better leaving groups than alkoxide ions. The tetrahedral intermediate formed in aminolysis can exist in several forms which differ in extent and site of protonation ... 

The reactivities of the substrate and the nucleophilic reagent change vyhen fluorine atoms are introduced into their structures This perturbation becomes more impor tant when the number of atoms of this element increases A striking example is the reactivity of alkyl halides S l and mechanisms operate when few fluorine atoms are incorporated in the aliphatic chain, but perfluoroalkyl halides are usually resistant to these classical processes However, formal substitution at carbon can arise from other mecharasms For example nucleophilic attack at chlorine, bromine, or iodine (halogenophilic reaction, occurring either by a direct electron-pair transfer or by two successive one-electron transfers) gives carbanions These intermediates can then decompose to carbenes or olefins, which react further (see equations 15 and 47) Single-electron transfer (SET) from the nucleophile to the halide can produce intermediate radicals that react by an SrnI process (see equation 57) When these chain mechanisms can occur, they allow reactions that were previously unknown Perfluoroalkylation, which used to be very rare, can now be accomplished by new methods (see for example equations 48-56, 65-70, 79, 107-108, 110, 113-135, 138-141, and 145-146)... 

The relative reactivity of alkyl halides in SnI reactions is exactly the opposite of Sn2 ... 

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