Styrenes Grignard reactions

Show how styrene can be prepared using the following reactions somewhere in your synthetic procedure, (a) Hofmann elimination, (b) Grignard reaction, (c) Diels-Alder reaction. Compare the atom economies of each process. Identify any issues raised by using this approach to determine the most efficient synthetic route. 

Styrene is an important olefinic substrate in Heck reactions a styrene carrying an alkoxysilyl moiety should open up a more convergent approach to the synthesis of the title compounds. Silane 15 was prepared via Barbier-Grignard reaction of p-bromostyrene with triethoxymethyl silane [21]. 

The phenylation of styrene with phenyl Grignard reagents as a hard carbon nucleophile proceeds in 75% yield in the presence of PdCl2, LiCl, and K2CO3 at room temperature to give stilbene (207). Selection of the solvent is crucial and the best results are obtained in MeCN. The reaction can be made catalytic by the use of CuCl2[197]. Methyllithium reacts with styrene in the presence of Pd(acac)2 or Pd(OAc)2 to give /3-methylstyrene (208) in 90% yield[198]. 

Interestingly, the first example of a macromonomer, long before the names Macro-mer or macromonomer have been coined 94), is a styrene terminated polydimethyl-siloxane synthesized by the reaction of a Grignard derivative of p-ch loro styrene and an co-chlorodimethylsiloxane oligomer 90) as shown in Reaction Scheme IX. Later, these macromonomers have been reacted with different vinyl monomers such as styrene and acrylates, and relatively well defined graft copolymers have been synthesized. 

The low yields, which are observed among styrenyl adducts, reflect a combination of the poor reactivity of the styrene at the low temperature of the reaction. For example, the combination of t-butyl Grignard with the 2,4-bis-OBoc-benzyl alcohol 15 affords the corresponding benzopyran 50 in only 50% yield even when carried out in the presence of 5-10 equivalents of the styrene (method H, Fig. 4.27).27 Yields for substituted benzopyran styrene adducts are still lower (method G, Fig. 4.27). For example, addition of methyl lithium to 2,4-bis-OBoc-benzylaldehyde 5 followed by the addition of the dienophile and magnesium bromide affords benzopyran 51 in a paltry 27% yield. Method F is entirely ineffective in these cases, because the methyl Grignard reagent competes with the enol ether and with styrene 1,4-addition of methyl supercedes cycloaddition. 

Reaction with Grignard Reagents,104 Styrene, and Acrylonitrile... 

Reactions of Ph" radicals (12h) formed at anodes yield styrene (30), biphenyl (31), p-terphenyl (32), insoluble hydrocarbon of high molecular weight and, in smaller amounts, benzene (33) as well as ethanol (19). 30 was the main product for substituted reagents 5q and 5r but for unsubstituted 5e only if the current efficiency, Teu was low. For higher Y i values 31 became the chief organic product. However, in contrast to aliphatic Grignard reagents, except methyl, the current efficiency was always much below 100%. In order to explain the above results the possibility of another route of anodic oxidation, different... 

Anodic oxidation of Grignard reagents (5) in the presence of styrene (30), butadiene (36) or vinyl ethyl ether (37) was investigated by Schafer and Kuntzel as an interesting (for preparative use) extension of other anodic reactions with olefins. The electrolysis was carried out at constant current density at Pt, Cu or graphite electrodes. It was found that the products obtained depend on the electrode material, as is seen from the data presented in Table 9. 

The coupling of Grignard reagents with alkyl, vinyl or aryl halides under Ni-catalysis provides an economic transformation, but the reaction is limited to halide partners that do not react with organomagnesium compounds. One example is in the industrial-scale production of styrene derivatives, and the Kumada Coupling is the method of choice for the low-cost synthesis of unsymmetrical biaryls. 

The reaction has since been extended to a variety of alkenes (including dienes and styrenes) and alkynes [52, 53], and it has been established that the hydrogen atoms transferred are 3-hydrogen atoms from the Grignard reagent. 

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