Solvents, acidic catalysis

We now have to consider the so-called irregular rearrangements . These involve dissociation by breaking a P —X bond to give a P+ X ionic structure, and have been studied by Westheimer (open chain phosphoranes) (76JA179) and Ramirez (cyclic phosphoranes) (71APO(9)25). Polar solvents, acid catalysis and even change of temperature can influence the equilibrium. 

Desimoni and Righetti have been thoroughly investigating the effect of solvents, acid catalysis and salts on hetero Diels-Alder and ene reactions of 1-oxa-1,3-butadienes for a long time [ 154-156]. Recently, for the cycloaddition of 2-154 and ethyl vinyl ether 2-83 in the presence of lithium perchlorate in different solvents as diethyl ether, acetonitrile, acetone, methanol, iso-propanol to give... 

This chapter introduces the experimental work described in the following chapters. Some mechanistic aspects of the Diels-Alder reaction and Lewis-acid catalysis thereof are discussed. This chapter presents a critical survey of the literature on solvent ejfects on Diels-Alder reactions, with particular emphasis on the intriguing properties of water in connection with their effect on rate and selectivity. Similarly, the ejfects of water on Lewis acid - Lewis base interactions are discussed. Finally the aims of this thesis are outlined. 

Studies on solvent effects on the endo-exo selectivity of Diels-Alder reactions have revealed the importance of hydrogen bonding interactions besides the already mentioned solvophobic interactions and polarity effects. Further evidence of the significance of the former interactions comes from computer simulations" and the analogy with Lewis-acid catalysis which is known to enhance dramatically the endo-exo selectivity (Section 1.2.4). 

The second important influence of the solvent on Lewis acid - Lewis base equilibria concerns the interactions with the Lewis base. Consequently the Lewis addity and, for hard Lewis bases, especially the hydrogen bond donor capacity of tire solvent are important parameters. The electron pair acceptor capacities, quantified by the acceptor number AN, together with the hydrogen bond donor addities. O, of some selected solvents are listed in Table 1.5. Water is among the solvents with the highest AN and, accordingly, interacts strongly witli Lewis bases. This seriously hampers die efficiency of Lewis-acid catalysis in water. 

A combination of the promoting effects of Lewis acids and water is a logical next step. However, to say the least, water has not been a very popular medium for Lewis-acid catalysed Diels-Alder reactions, which is not surprising since water molecules interact strongly with Lewis-acidic and the Lewis-basic atoms of the reacting system. In 1994, when the research described in this thesis was initiated, only one example of Lewis-acid catalysis of a Diels-Alder reaction in water was published Lubineau and co-workers employed lanthanide triflates as a catalyst for the Diels-Alder reaction of glyoxylate to a relatively unreactive diene . No comparison was made between the process in water and in organic solvents. 

In organic solvents Lewis-acid catalysis also leads to large accelerations of the Diels-Alder reaction. Table 2.2 shows the rate constants for the Cu -catalysed Diels-Alder reaction between 2.4a and 2.5 in different solvents. 

Surprisingly, the highest catalytic activity is observed in TFE. One mi t envisage this to be a result of the poor interaction between TFE and the copper(II) cation, so that the cation will retain most of its Lewis-acidity. In the other solvents the interaction between their electron-rich hetero atoms and the cation is likely to be stronger, thus diminishing the efficiency of the Lewis-acid catalysis. The observation that Cu(N03)2 is only poorly soluble in TFE and much better in the other solvents used, is in line with this reasoning. 

In a second attempt to extend the scope of Lewis-acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water, we have used the Mannich reaction to convert a ketone-activated monodentate dienophile into a potentially chelating p-amino ketone. The Mannich reaction seemed ideally suited for the purpose of introducing a second coordination site on a temporary basis. This reaction adds a strongly Lewis-basic amino functionality on a position p to the ketone. Moreover, the Mannich reaction is usually a reversible process, which should allow removal of the auxiliary after the reaction. Furthermore, the reaction is compatible with the use of an aqueous medium. Some Mannich reactions have even been reported to benefit from the use of water ". Finally, Lewis-acid catalysis of Mannich-type reactions in mixtures of organic solvents and water has been reported ". Hence, if both addition of the auxiliary and the subsequent Diels-Alder reaction benefit from Lewis-acid catalysis, the possibility arises of merging these steps into a one-pot procedure. 

Interestingly, at very low concentrations of micellised Qi(DS)2, the rate of the reaction of 5.1a with 5.2 was observed to be zero-order in 5.1 a and only depending on the concentration of Cu(DS)2 and 5.2. This is akin to the turn-over and saturation kinetics exhibited by enzymes. The acceleration relative to the reaction in organic media in the absence of catalyst, also approaches enzyme-like magnitudes compared to the process in acetonitrile (Chapter 2), Cu(DS)2 micelles accelerate the Diels-Alder reaction between 5.1a and 5.2 by a factor of 1.8710 . This extremely high catalytic efficiency shows how a combination of a beneficial aqueous solvent effect, Lewis-acid catalysis and micellar catalysis can lead to tremendous accelerations. 

First of all, given the well recognised promoting effects of Lewis-acids and of aqueous solvents on Diels-Alder reactions, we wanted to know if these two effects could be combined. If this would be possible, dramatic improvements of rate and endo-exo selectivity were envisaged Studies on the Diels-Alder reaction of a dienophile, specifically designed for this purpose are described in Chapter 2. It is demonstrated that Lewis-acid catalysis in an aqueous medium is indeed feasible and, as anticipated, can result in impressive enhancements of both rate and endo-exo selectivity. However, the influences of the Lewis-acid catalyst and the aqueous medium are not fully additive. It seems as if water diminishes the catalytic potential of Lewis acids just as coordination of a Lewis acid diminishes the beneficial effects of water. Still, overall, the rate of the catalysed reaction... 

These reactions are usually performed in water or alcohols as solvents and the alkox ide ion intermediate is rapidly transformed to an alcohol by proton transfer The other involves acid catalysis Here the nucleophile is often... 

High Carbon Yield. Furfuryl alcohol and furfural are reactive solvents (monomers) and are effective in producing high carbon yield (heat induced carbonization in a reducing atmosphere). They function as binders for refractory materials or carbon bodies. Furfuryl alcohol usually requires acidic catalysis and furfural basic catalysis. Mixtures of furfuryl alcohol and furfural are generally catalyzed with acid although some systems may be catalyzed with base. 

In typical processes, the gaseous effluent from the second-stage oxidation is cooled and fed to an absorber to isolate the MAA as a 20—40% aqueous solution. The MAA may then be concentrated by extraction into a suitable organic solvent such as butyl acetate, toluene, or dibutyl ketone. Azeotropic dehydration and solvent recovery, followed by fractional distillation, is used to obtain the pure product. Water, solvent, and low boiling by-products are removed in a first-stage column. The column bottoms are then fed to a second column where MAA is taken overhead. Esterification to MMA or other esters is readily achieved using acid catalysis. 

Substituted Phenols. Phenol itself is used in the largest volume, but substituted phenols are used for specialty resins (Table 2). Substituted phenols are typically alkylated phenols made from phenol and a corresponding a-olefin with acid catalysts (13). Acidic catalysis is frequendy in the form of an ion-exchange resin (lER) and the reaction proceeds preferentially in the para position. For example, in the production of /-butylphenol using isobutylene, the product is >95% para-substituted. The incorporation of alkyl phenols into the resin reduces reactivity, hardness, cross-link density, and color formation, but increases solubiHty in nonpolar solvents, dexibiHty, and compatibiHty with natural oils. 

Gumylphenol. -Cumylphenol (PGP) or 4-(1-methyl-l-phenylethyl)phenol is produced by the alkylation of phenol with a-methylstyrene under acid catalysis. a-Methylstyrene is a by-product from the production of phenol via the cumene oxidation process. The principal by-products from the production of 4-cumylphenol result from the dimerization and intramolecular alkylation of a-methylstyrene to yield substituted indanes. 4-Cumylphenol [599-64-4] is purified by either fractional distillation or crystallization from a suitable solvent. Purification by crystallization results in the easy separation of the substituted indanes from the product and yields a soHd material which is packaged in plastic or paper bags (20 kg net weight). Purification of 4-cumylphenol by fractional distillation yields a product which is almost totally free of any dicumylphenol. The molten product resulting from purification by distillation can be flaked to yield a soHd form however, the soHd form of 4-cumylphenol sinters severely over time. PGP is best stored and transported as a molten material. 

Alkenes lacking phenyl substituents appear to react by a similar mechanism. Both the observation of general acid catalysis and the kinetic evidence of a solvent isotope effect are consistent with rate-limiting protonation with simple alkenes such as 2-metlQ lpropene and 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene. 

The intervention of mesoionic intermediates is suggested by the facile transformation of steroidal dienones, and by a number of acid-catalyzed nonphotolytic reactions which either parallel the photoisomerizations or correlate photoproducts from reactions in protic and aprotic solvents. The isomerization (175) -> (176) -l- (177) has also beeen achieved in the dark by acetic and formic acid catalysis and clearly involves the conjugate acid of the proposed mesoionic intermediate (199) in the dark reaction. Further,... 

Acid catalysis is an important kinetic phenomenon, and its study often requires the use of concentrated acid solutions, in which the conventional pH scale is not applicable. In sueh solutions (e.g., sulfuric acid-water mixtures covering the full range of compositions) the acid component simultaneously functions both as an acid and as a solvent thus, a medium effect is superimposed on the acidity effect. In this section we briefly describe the acidity function approach to coping with this problem. (A comparable approach can be taken to the study of highly... 

Although acid catalysis is thought to be necessary for the Biginelli reaction, there has been a report disputing this requirement. Ranu and coworkers surveyed over 20 aldehydes and showed that excellent yields of DHPMs could be achieved at 100-105°C in 1 h in the absence of catalyst and solvent with no by-products formed. In contrast Peng and Deng reported no significant formation of DHPM 15 when a mixture of benzaldehyde (5), ethyl acetoacetate (6), and urea (3a) was heated at 100°C for 30 min. 

Indole itself forms a dimer or a trimer, depending on experimental conditions the dimer hydrochloride is formed in aprotic solvents with dry HCl, whereas aqueous media lead to dimer or trimer, or both. It was Schmitz-DuMont and his collaborators who beautifully cleared up the experimental confusion and discovered the simple fact that in aqueous acid the composition of the product is dictated by the relative solubilities of the dimer and trimer hydrochlorides/ -This, of course, established the very important point that there is an equilibrium in solution among indole, the dimer, the trimer, and their salts. It was furthermore demonstrated that the polymerization mechanism involves acid catalysis and that in dilute solution the rate of reaction is dependent on the concentration of acid. 

Similar additions may be performed with the enamine 13. However, with 3-buten-2-one or methyl 2-propenoate Lewis acid catalysis is needed to activate the Michael acceptor chloro-trimethylsilane proved to be best suited for this purpose. A remarkable solvent effect is seen in these reactions. A change from THF to HMPA/toluene (1 1) results in a reversal of the absolute configuration of the product 14, presumably due to a ligand effect of HMPA235. 

With 77 % aqueous acetic acid, the rates were found to be more affected by added perchloric acid than by sodium perchlorate (but only at higher concentrations than those used by Stanley and Shorter207, which accounts for the failure of these workers to observe acid catalysis, but their observation of kinetic orders in hypochlorous acid of less than one remains unaccounted for). The difference in the effect of the added electrolyte increased with concentration, and the rates of the acid-catalysed reaction reached a maximum in ca. 50 % aqueous acetic acid, passed through a minimum at ca. 90 % aqueous acetic acid and rose very rapidly thereafter. The faster chlorination in 50% acid than in water was, therefore, considered consistent with chlorination by AcOHCl+, which is subject to an increasing solvent effect in the direction of less aqueous media (hence the minimum in 90 % acid), and a third factor operates, viz. that in pure acetic acid the bulk source of chlorine ischlorineacetate rather than HOC1 and causes the rapid rise in rate towards the anhydrous medium. The relative rates of the acid-catalysed (acidity > 0.49 M) chlorination of some aromatics in 76 % aqueous acetic acid at 25 °C were found to be toluene, 69 benzene, 1 chlorobenzene, 0.097 benzoic acid, 0.004. Some of these kinetic observations were confirmed in a study of the chlorination of diphenylmethane in the presence of 0.030 M perchloric acid, second-order rate coefficients were obtained at 25 °C as follows209 0.161 (98 vol. % aqueous acetic acid) ca. 0.078 (75 vol. % acid), and, in the latter solvent in the presence of 0.50 M perchloric acid, diphenylmethane was approximately 30 times more reactive than benzene. 

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