Substitution, radical allylic bromination

It was envisaged that the enones were produced following abstraction of H-1 (a process facilitated by the ability of sulfur atoms to stabilize radicals on bonded carbon centers), radical bromination, elimination of hydrogen bromide to give substituted glycals, allylic bromination at C-3, and loss of acetyl bromide. In the formation of compound 6, hydrogen abstraction from C-5 was deemed to compete with that from C-1, and to lead to substitution at the former site with the formation of a relatively stable product. 

As we saw when discussing allylic bromination in Section 10.4, A-bromosuccin-imide (NBS) is a convenient free-radical brominating agent. Benzylic brominations with NBS are nonnally perfonned in carbon tetrachloride as the solvent in the presence of peroxides, which are added as initiators. As the exanple illustrates, free-radical bromination is selective for substitution of benzylic hydrogens. 

The relative stabilities of radicals follow the same trend as for carhoca-tions. Like carbocations, radicals are electron deficient, and are stabilized by hyperconjugation. Therefore, the most substituted radical is most stable. For example, a 3° alkyl radical is more stable than a 2° alkyl radical, which in turn is more stable than a 1° alkyl radical. Allyl and benzyl radicals are more stable than alkyl radicals, because their unpaired electrons are delocalized. Electron delocalization increases the stability of a molecule. The more stable a radical, the faster it can be formed. Therefore, a hydrogen atom, bonded to either an allylic carbon or a benzylic carbon, is substituted more selectively in the halogenation reaction. The percentage substitution at allylic and benzyhc carbons is greater in the case of bromination than in the case of chlorination, because a bromine radical is more selective. 

Novel results were reported for allylic bromination. In radical bromination of cyclohexene in CCI4 under light the selectivity of substitution over addition was shown to be controlled by bromine concentration.304 Substitution via the corresponding allyl radical, while relatively slow, is irreversible and fast enough to maintain the concentration of bromine at a sufficiently low level to prevent significant addition. The reaction of two strained alkenes, fZ)-1,2-dimethyl-1,2-di-ferf-butylethylene and the -isomer (14), leads to the corresponding bromosubstituted product, instead of addition 305... 

If we wish to direct the attack of halogen to the alkyl portion of an alkene molecule, then, we choose conditions that are favorable for the free-radical reaction and unfavorable for the ionic reaction. Chemists of the Shell Development Company found that, at a temperature of 500-600°, a mixture of gaseous propylene and chlorine yields chiefly the substitution product, 3-chloro-l-propene, known as allyl chloride (CH2=CH—CH2— = allyl). Bromine behaves similarly. 

Radical substitution reactions, such as the light-induced chlorination of methane and the allylic bromination of alkenes with M-bromosuccinimide (Review Table 3, reaction 5), are also common. The key step in all these reactions is that a radical abstracts an atom from a neutral molecule, leaving a new radical. 

Formation of isomers in free-radical allylic substitution is a general rule. In this case, abstraction of a hydrogen atom from C4 of the parent molecule leads to the formation of a delocalized allylic radical, with spin density distributed between two carbon atoms C-4 and C-6. Then this radical abstracts the bromine atom from NBS and adds it to one or the other position (Fig. 8) ... 

Allylic hydrogens are especially reactive in radical substitution reactions. We can synthesize allylic halides by substitution of allylic hydrogens. For example, when propene reacts with bromine or chlorine at high temperatures or under radical conditions where the concentration of the halogen is small, the result is allylic substitution. 

Bromination appears to involve substitution rather than addition. Baldwin and Kuntz (I960) report that bromination of butyl rubber with elemental bromine is accompanied by the formation of large amounts of HBr. Using ozonolysis techniques it was found that unsaturation did not greatly change with bromination. It has thus been inferred (Makowski, 1%9) that the reaction proceeds by a free radical allylic substitution rather than by an ionic mechanism, e.g. 

Alkenes undergo radical substitution at allylic carbons. NBS is used for bromination at allylic carbons (Section 13.9). The mechanism of the reaction is shown on page 574. 

The chain propagation step consists of a reaction of allylic radical 3 with a bromine molecule to give the allylic bromide 2 and a bromine radical. The intermediate allylic radical 3 is stabilized by delocalization of the unpaired electron due to resonance (see below). A similar stabilizing effect due to resonance is also possible for benzylic radicals a benzylic bromination of appropriately substituted aromatic substrates is therefore possible, and proceeds in good yields. 

Alkenes. When the substrate molecule contains a double bond, treatment with chlorine or bromine usually leads to addition rather than substitution. However, for other radicals (and even for chlorine or bromine atoms when they do abstract a hydrogen) the position of attack is perfectly clear. Vinylic hydrogens are practically never abstracted, and allylic hydrogens are greatly preferred to other positions of the moleeule. Allylic hydrogen abstraction from a cyclic alkenes is usually faster than abstraction from an acyclic alkene. ... 

The mechanism is usually electrophilic (see p. 972), but when free-radical initiators (or UV light) are present, addition can occur by a free-radical mechanism. Once Br-or Cl- radicals are formed, however, substitution may compete (14-1 and 14-2). This is espiecially important when the alkene has allylic hydrogens. Under free-radical conditions (UV light) bromine or chlorine adds to the benzene ring to give, respectively, hexabromo- and hexachlorocyclohexane. These are mixtures of stereoisomers (see p. 161). ... 

That the mechanism of bromination by NBS was a free radical one was first suggested by Goldfinger et al (1953, 1956) and later supported by Dauben and Me Coy in 1959 and also by Tedder et al in 1960 and 1961. The strongest point in favour of the reaction being a free radical one is that it is catalysed by free radical initiators like peroxides and is also promoted by light. Indeed new substitution at the allyl position is often used to detect free radicals. Like free radical reactions, it is also retarded by inhibitors. 

Addition of the dicyanomethyl radical to propadiene (la) occurs exclusively at Q (not shown in Scheme 11.8) [60]. On the other hand, methyl-substituted allenes, e.g. Id, undergo /3-selective reactions with 2-bromomalodinitrile (15). The significant /3-selectivity has been associated with the steric demand of the incoming radical 16, which favors addition to the sterically least hindered site at the diene Id to provide allylic radical 17. However, it seems likely that a stabilization of an intermediate allylic radical, e.g. 17, by methyl substituents contributes significantly to the observed regioselectivity of product formation. Trapping of intermediate 17 with bromine atom donor 15 proceeds at the least substituted carbon to afford allylic bromide 18. 

The radical addition of halogen to an alkene has been referred to briefly in Section 9.3.2. We saw an example of bromination of the double bond in cyclohexene as an unwanted side-reaction in some allylic substitution reactions. The mechanism is quite straightforward, and follows a sequence we should now be able to predict. 

When chlorination or bromination of alkenes is carried out in the gas phase at high temperature, addition to the double bond becomes less significant and substitution at the allylic position becomes the dominant reaction.153-155 In chlorination studied more thoroughly a small amount of oxygen and a liquid film enhance substitution, which is a radical process in the transformation of linear alkenes. Branched alkenes such as isobutylene behave exceptionally, since they yield allyl-substituted product even at low temperature. This reaction, however, is an ionic reaction.156 Despite the possibility of significant resonance stabilization of the allylic radical, the reactivity of different hydrogens in alkenes in allylic chlorination is very similar to that of alkanes. This is in accordance with the reactivity of benzylic hydrogens in chlorination. 

The specific substitution into the allylic position is the result of a radical process which requires the generation of a low concentration of molecular bromine, probably by way of the action of traces of hydrogen bromide on the bromoimide. 

In the first propagation step of the Wohl-Ziegler bromination, the bromine atom abstracts a hydrogen atom from the allylic position of the alkene and thereby initiates a substitution. This is not the only reaction mode conceivable under these conditions. As an alternative, the bromine atom could react with the C=C double bond and thereby start a radical addition to it (Figure 1.27). Such an addition is indeed observed when cyclohexene is reacted with a Br2/AIBN mixture. 

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