Acyl Rearrangement

Modified Curtius rearrangement. Acyl azides, preferably prepared in situ under phase-transfer conditions by reaction of acid chlorides and NaN, are converted to tri-fluoroacetamides by reaction with CF,COOH in refluxing CH CI, solution. These products are cleaved to primary amines under mild conditions (equation I). ... 

Figure 22 Acyl glucuronide rearrangements acyl migration (RXN-1) and transesterification (RXN-2).

Envirocat EPIC General acid catalysis Beckmann rearrangements Acylations with carboxylic acids and alkylations with alkenes Strong, solid Bronsted acid Improved product quality Easier separation... 

The mechanism of the Fries reaction is not known with certainty. One mechanism regards it as a true intramolecular rearrangement in which the acyl group migrates directly from the oxygen atom to the carbon atoms of the ring. Another scheme postulates that the ester is cleaved by the reagent... 

The reaction of trivalent carbocations with carbon monoxide giving acyl cations is the key step in the well-known and industrially used Koch-Haaf reaction of preparing branched carboxylic acids from al-kenes or alcohols. For example, in this way, isobutylene or tert-hutyi alcohol is converted into pivalic acid. In contrast, based on the superacidic activation of electrophiles leading the superelectrophiles (see Chapter 12), we found it possible to formylate isoalkanes to aldehydes, which subsequently rearrange to their corresponding branched ketones. 

Again we want to use Friedel-Crafts but we must use acylation rather than alkylation or we shall get rearrangement. 

Acyl azides may loose N2 on heating and rearrange to isocyanates (Curtius rearrangement), which may be solvolyzed. Some of the possibilities of classical carboxyl conversions are exemplified in the schemes below, which are taken from a triquinacene synthesis (R. Russo, 1971 C. Merder, 1973) and the ergotamine synthesis of A. Hofmann (1963). 

In these cases the acyl azides formed have been used to prepare amines via Curtius rearrangement. The acyl chloride or azide intermediates can. however, also be reacted with amines or alcohols to form amides or esters. 

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