Secondary alkyl halides synthesis

Section 8 13 When nucleophilic substitution is used for synthesis the competition between substitution and elimination must be favorable However the normal reaction of a secondary alkyl halide with a base as strong or stronger than hydroxide is elimination (E2) Substitution by the Sn2 mechanism predominates only when the base is weaker than hydroxide or the alkyl halide is primary Elimination predominates when tertiary alkyl halides react with any anion... 

We see that a secondary alkyl halide is needed as the alkylating agent The anion of diethyl malonate is a weaker base than ethoxide ion and reacts with secondary alkyl halides by substitution rather than elimination Thus the synthesis of 3 methylpentanoic acid begins with the alkylation of the anion of diethyl mal onate by 2 bromobutane... 

Treatment of a thiol with a base, such as NaH, gives the corresponding thiolate ion (RS-), which undergoes reaction with a primary or secondary alkyl halide to give a sulfide. The reaction occurs by an Sn2 mechanism, analogous to the Williamson synthesis of ethers (Section 18.2). Thiolate anions are among... 

A better method for preparing primary amines is to use the azide synthesis, in which azjde ion, N3, is used for SN2 reaction with a primary or secondary alkyl halide to give an alkyl azide, RN3. Because alkyl azides are not nucleophilic, overalkylation can t occur. Subsequent reduction of the alkyl azide, either by catalytic hydrogenation over a palladium catalyst or by reaction with LiAlK4. then leads to the desired primary amine. Although the method works well, low-molecular-weight alkyl azides are explosive and must be handled carefully. 

This is not a new reaction. This is just an Sn2 reaction. We are simply using the alkoxide ion (ethoxide in this case) to function as the attacking nucleophile. But notice the net result of this reaction we have combined an alcohol and an alkyl halide to form an ether. This process has a special name. It is called the Williamson Ether Synthesis. This process relies on an Sn2 reaction as the main step, and therefore, we must be careful to obey the restrictions of Sn2 reactions. It is best to use a primary alkyl halide. Secondary alkyl halides cannot be used because elimination will predominate over substitution (as seen in Sections 10.9), and tertiary alkyl halides certainly cannot be used. 

Nucleophilic substitution reactions of halide anions in aprotic solvents are often accompanied by elimination reactions. For instance, reactions of secondary alkyl halides with potassium fluoride solubilized in acetonitrile with the aid of 18-crown-6 [3] give olefins as the main reaction product (Liotta and Harris, 1974). Similarly, the dicyclohexyl-18-crown-6 complex of potassium iodide acted exclusively as a base in its reaction with 2-bromo-octane in DMF (Sam and Simmons, 1974). The strongly basic character of weakly solvated fluoride has been exploited in peptide synthesis (Klausner and Chorev, 1977 Chorev and Klausner, 1976). It was shown that potassium fluoride solubilized... 

The application of phase-transfer catalysis to the Williamson synthesis of ethers has been exploited widely and is far superior to any classical method for the synthesis of aliphatic ethers. Probably the first example of the use of a quaternary ammonium salt to promote a nucleophilic substitution reaction is the formation of a benzyl ether using a stoichiometric amount of tetraethylammonium hydroxide [1]. Starks mentions the potential value of the quaternary ammonium catalyst for Williamson synthesis of ethers [2] and its versatility in the synthesis of methyl ethers and other alkyl ethers was soon established [3-5]. The procedure has considerable advantages over the classical Williamson synthesis both in reaction time and yields and is certainly more convenient than the use of diazomethane for the preparation of methyl ethers. Under liquidrliquid two-phase conditions, tertiary and secondary alcohols react less readily than do primary alcohols, and secondary alkyl halides tend to be ineffective. However, reactions which one might expect to be sterically inhibited are successful under phase-transfer catalytic conditions [e.g. 6]. Microwave irradiation and solidrliquid phase-transfer catalytic conditions reduce reaction times considerably [7]. 

Tab. 10.8 summarizes the application of rhodium-catalyzed allylic etherification to a variety of racemic secondary allylic carbonates, using the copper(I) alkoxide derived from 2,4-dimethyl-3-pentanol vide intro). Although the allyhc etherification is tolerant of linear alkyl substituents (entries 1-4), branched derivatives proved more challenging in terms of selectivity and turnover, the y-position being the first point at which branching does not appear to interfere with the substitution (entry 5). The allylic etherification also proved feasible for hydroxymethyl, alkene, and aryl substituents, albeit with lower selectivity (entries 6-9). This transformation is remarkably tolerant, given that the classical alkylation of a hindered metal alkoxide with a secondary alkyl halide would undoubtedly lead to elimination. Hence, regioselective rhodium-catalyzed allylic etherification with a secondary copper(l) alkoxide provides an important method for the synthesis of allylic ethers. 

The Gabriel synthesis of amines uses potassium phthalimide (prepared from the reaction of phthalimide with potassium hydroxide). The structure and preparation of potassium phthalimide is shown in Figure 13-13. The extensive conjugation (resonance) makes the ion very stable. An example of the Gabriel synthesis is in Figure 13-14. (The N2H4 reactant is hydrazine.) The Gabriel synthesis employs an 8, 2 mechanism, so it works best on primary alkyl halides and less well on secondary alkyl halides. It doesn t work on tertiary alkyl halides or aryl halides. 

Intermolecular reactions of hydroxylamines with secondary alkyl halides and mesylates proceed slower than with alkyl triflates and may not provide sufficiently good yield and/or stereoselectivity. A nseful alternative for these reactions is application of more reactive anions of 0-alkylhydroxamic acids or 0-alkoxysulfonamides ° like 12 (equation 8) as nucleophiles. The resulting Af,0-disubstituted hydroxamic acids or their sulfamide analogs of type 13 can be readily hydrolyzed to the corresponding hydroxylamines. The same strategy is also helpful for synthesis of hydroxylamines from sterically hindered triflates and from chiral alcohols (e.g. 14) through a Mitsunobu reaction (equation 9). 

Primary nitro compounds RNO were oxidised to RCOOH (the Nef reaction e.g. nitroethane to acetic acid) [RuO ] from RuCl3/(Br03)7aq. M Na2(C03) activated primary aUcyl halides RCl to RCOOH and secondary alkyl halides were similarly oxidised to ketones [213]. Secondary nitro compounds were converted to ketones by TPAP/NM0/PMS/K3(C03)/CH3CN (c/ 5.6.4, Fig. 5.19) [514]. As part of the total synthesis of the natural product ( )-erythrodiene a nitro-alcohol intermediate was converted to the diketone by TPAP/NMO/PMS/CH Clj [127]. 

Following these results with the salen complex, Bedford reported on the synthesis of a series of Fe(iii)-salen-type complexes and the use of one of them, 75 (Figure 14), for the coupling of aryl Grignard reagents with primary and secondary alkyl halides, in Et20 at 45 Fiirstner subsequently reported on the use of the tetrakis(ethylene)fer-... 

An important reaction for synthesis of alkyl and dialkylethanoic acids (RX and R X are primary or secondary alkyl halides) dicarboxylic acids (RX = haloester) unsaturated acids (RX = an unsaturated halide, best for allylic halides) /3-keto acids (R = acyl chloride) (see Sections 18-8C and 18-8D). 

The Williamson ether synthesis is not a useful reaction with secondary alkyl halides. 

This is the difficult step in the synthesis it requires a nucleophilic substitution of the SN2 type involving a secondary alkyl halide. Competition of elimination with substitution results in only a 37% observed yield of alkylated diethyl acetamidomalonate. 

Thioethers (or sulphides) can be prepared by the SN2 reaction of primary or secondary alkyl halides with a thiolate anion (RS ). The reaction is similar to the Williamson ether synthesis. 

The E2 reaction is the most effective for the synthesis of alkenes from alkyl halides and can be used on primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl halides. The El reaction is not so useful from a synthetic point of view and occurs in competition with the SN1 reaction of tertiary alkyl halides. Primary and secondary alkyl halides do not generally react by this mechanism. 

We have already seen most of the common methods for synthesizing ethers. We review them at this time, looking more closely at the mechanisms to see which methods are most suitable for preparing various kinds of ethers. The Williamson ether synthesis (Section 11-14) is the most reliable and versatile ether synthesis. This method involves the Sn2 attack of an alkoxide ion on an unhindered primary alkyl halide or tosylate. Secondary alkyl halides and tosylates are occasionally used in the Williamson synthesis, but elimination competes, and the yields are often poor. 

This means that it can be used to build up heavily branched esters and carboxylic acids—the sort that are hard to make by alkylation because of the problems of hindered enolates and unreactive secondary alkyl halides. Heavily substituted acids, where CO2H is attached to a tertiary carbon atom, would be hard to make by any other method. And the Favorskii rearrangement is a key step in this synthesis of the powerful painkiller Pethidine. 

The malonic ester synthesis converts a primary or secondary alkyl halide into a carboxylic acid with two more carbons (a substituted acetic acid). Identify the component that originates from malonic ester (the acid component). The rest of the molecule comes from the alkyl halide, which should be primary or methyl. 

In the case of most alkoxides and primary or secondary alkyl halides, the mechanism of the Williamson ether synthesis proceeds via an Sn2 process. When the alkyl halide Is secondary (R"=H) with a given absolute configuration, the product ether will have a complete Inversion of configuration at that particular stererocenter. E.C. Ashby demonstrated, however, that the reaction between lithium alkoxides and alkyl Iodides proceeds via singleelectron transfer. 

Williamson ether synthesis Alkylation of alkali alkoxides with primary or secondary alkyl halides to form ethers. 484... 

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