Substitution reactions processes

A brief account of aromatic substitution may be usefully given here as it will assist the student in predicting the orientation of disubstituted benzene derivatives produced in the different substitution reactions. For the nitration of nitrobenzene the substance must be heated with a mixture of fuming nitric acid and concentrated sulphuric acid the product is largely ni-dinitrobenzene (about 90 per cent.), accompanied by a little o-dinitrobenzene (about 5 per cent.) which is eliminated in the recrystallisation process. On the other hand phenol can be easily nitrated with dilute nitric acid to yield a mixture of ortho and para nitrophenols. It may be said, therefore, that orientation is meta with the... 

Primary carbocations are so high m energy that their intermediacy m nucleophilic substitution reactions is unlikely When ethyl bromide undergoes hydrolysis m aqueous formic acid substitution probably takes place by an 8 2 like process m which water is the nucleophile... 

The reactions of alcohols with hydrogen halides to give alkyl halides (Chapter 4) are nucleophilic substitution reactions of alkyloxonium ions m which water is the leaving group Primary alcohols react by an 8 2 like displacement of water from the alkyloxonium ion by halide Sec ondary and tertiary alcohols give alkyloxonium ions which form carbo cations m an S l like process Rearrangements are possible with secondary alcohols and substitution takes place with predominant but not complete inversion of configuration... 

The reaction of ammonia and amines with esters follows the same general mech anistic course as other nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions (Figure 20 6) A tetrahe dral intermediate is formed m the first stage of the process and dissociates m the second stage... 

In addition to providing fully alkyl/aryl-substituted polyphosphasenes, the versatility of the process in Figure 2 has allowed the preparation of various functionalized polymers and copolymers. Thus the monomer (10) can be derivatized via deprotonation—substitution, when a P-methyl (or P—CH2—) group is present, to provide new phosphoranimines some of which, in turn, serve as precursors to new polymers (64). In the same vein, polymers containing a P—CH group, for example, poly(methylphenylphosphazene), can also be derivatized by deprotonation—substitution reactions without chain scission. This has produced a number of functionalized polymers (64,71—73), including water-soluble carboxylate salts (11), as well as graft copolymers with styrene (74) and with dimethylsiloxane (12) (75). 

Substitution Reactions on Side Chains. Because the benzyl carbon is the most reactive site on the propanoid side chain, many substitution reactions occur at this position. Typically, substitution reactions occur by attack of a nucleophilic reagent on a benzyl carbon present in the form of a carbonium ion or a methine group in a quinonemethide stmeture. In a reversal of the ether cleavage reactions described, benzyl alcohols and ethers may be transformed to alkyl or aryl ethers by acid-catalyzed etherifications or transetherifications with alcohol or phenol. The conversion of a benzyl alcohol or ether to a sulfonic acid group is among the most important side chain modification reactions because it is essential to the solubilization of lignin in the sulfite pulping process (17). 

It is possible to introduce sulfonic acid groups by alternative methods, but these ate Htde used in the dyes industry. However, one worth mentioning is sulfitation, because it provides an example of the introduction of a sulfonic acid group by nucleophilic substitution. The process involves treating an active halogen compound with sodium sulfite. This reaction is used in the purification of m-dinitrohen7ene. 

Amidines and related systems such as guanidines react with a-halogenoketones to form imidazoles. a-Hydroxyketones also take part in this reaction to form imidazoles, and a variety of substituents can be introduced into the imidazole nucleus by these procedures. Reaction of the a-halogenoketone (73) with an alkyl- or aryl-substituted carboxamidine (76) readily gave the imidazole (77) (01CB637, 48JCS1960). Variation of the reaction components that successfully take part in this reaction process is described in Chapter 4.08. 

The two fluids most often studied in supercritical fluid technology, carbon dioxide and water, are the two least expensive of all solvents. Carbon dioxide is nontoxic, nonflammable, and has a near-ambient critical temperature of 31.1°C. CO9 is an environmentally friendly substitute for organic solvents including chlorocarbons and chloroflu-orocarbons. Supercritical water (T = 374°C) is of interest as a substitute for organic solvents to minimize waste in extraction and reaction processes. Additionally, it is used for hydrothermal oxidation of hazardous organic wastes (also called supercritical water oxidation) and hydrothermal synthesis. 

While it may be convenient to use optically active reactants to probe the stereochemistry of substitution reactions, it should be emphasized that the stereochemistry of a reaction is a feature of the mechanism, not the means of determining it. Thus, it is proper to speak of a substitution process such as the hydrolysis of methyl iodide as proceeding... 

Substitution, addition, and group transfer reactions can occur intramolecularly. Intramolecular substitution reactions that involve hydrogen abstraction have some important synthetic applications, since they permit functionalization of carbon atoms relatively remote from the initial reaction site. ° The preference for a six-membered cyclic transition state in the hydrogen abstraction step imparts position selectivity to the process ... 

Two kinds of starting materials have been examined in nucleophilic substitution reactions to this point. In Chapter 4 we saw that alcohols can be converted to alkyl halides by reaction with hydrogen halides and pointed out that this process is a nucleophilic substitution taking place on the protonated fonm of the alcohol, with water serving as the... 

Another approach is therefore to adopt a model process that is very similar to the reactions of interest. Swain and Scott ° selected as a standard reaction the nucleophilic substitution reaction of methyl bromide in water at 25°C. 

If (A i[X ]/A 2[Y ]) is not much smaller than unity, then as the substitution reaction proceeds, the increase in [X ] will increase the denominator of Eq. (8-65), slowing the reaction and causing deviation from simple first-order kinetics. This mass-law or common-ion effect is characteristic of an S l process, although, as already seen, it is not a necessary condition. The common-ion effect (also called external return) occurs only with the common ion and must be distinguished from a general kinetic salt effect, which will operate with any ion. An example is provided by the hydrolysis of triphenylmethyl chloride (trityl chloride) the addition of 0.01 M NaCl decreased the rate by fourfold. The solvolysis rate of diphenylmethyl chloride in 80% aqueous acetone was decreased by LiCl but increased by LiBr. ° The 5 2 mechanism will also yield first-order kinetics in a solvolysis reaction, but it should not be susceptible to a common-ion rate inhibition. 

In 1989, Bartoli reported that vinylmagnesium bromide reacted with 2-nitrotoluene (4) at -40 C in THF to furnish 7-methylindole (5) in 67% yield. The reaction process also proceeded well with other 2-substituted nitrobenzenes. However, the 3- or 4-substituted nitrobenzenes provided either no indole products or indoles in poor yield. ... 

From the foregoing it can be seen that the nitro group can be activated for C-C bond formation in various ways. Classically the nitro group facilitates the Henry reaction, Michael addition, and Diels-Alder reaction. Komblum and Russell have introduced a new substitution reaction, which proceeds via a one electron-transfer process The Spj l reactions have... 

The alkylation process possesses the advantages that (a) a wide range of cheap haloalkanes are available, and (b) the substitution reactions generally occur smoothly at reasonable temperatures. Furthermore, the halide salts formed can easily be converted into salts with other anions. Although this section will concentrate on the reactions between simple haloalkanes and the amine, more complex side chains may be added, as discussed later in this chapter. The quaternization of amines and phosphines with haloalkanes has been loiown for many years, but the development of ionic liquids has resulted in several recent developments in the experimental techniques used for the reaction. In general, the reaction may be carried out with chloroalkanes, bromoalkanes, and iodoalkanes, with the reaction conditions required becoming steadily more gentle in the order Cl Br I, as expected for nucleophilic substitution reactions. Fluoride salts cannot be formed in this manner. 

Recall from Section 5.3 that radical substitution reactions require three kinds of steps initiation, propagation, and termination. Once an initiation step has started the process by producing radicals, the reaction continues in a self-sustaining cycle. The cycle requires two repeating propagation steps in which a radical, the halogen, and the alkane yield alkyl halide product plus more radical to carry on the chain. The chain is occasionally terminated by the combination of two radicals. 

Thomson 40 Click Organic Process to view an animation showing a nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction. 

Both the initial addition step and the subsequent elimination step can affect the overall rate of a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction, but the addition step is generally the rate-limiting one. Thus, any factor that makes the carbonyl group more reactive toward nucleophiles favors the substitution process. 

Esters can also be synthesized by an acid-catalyzed nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction of a carboxylic acid with an alcohol, a process called the Fischer esterification reaction. Unfortunately, the need to use an excess of a liquid alcohol as solvent effectively limits the method to the synthesis of methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butyl esters. 

We said in A Preview ofCnrbonyl Compounds that much of the chemistry of carbonyl compounds can be explained by just four fundamental reaction types nucleophilic additions, nucleophilic acyl substitutions, o substitutions, and carbonyl condensations. Having studied the first two of these reactions in the past three chapters, let s now look in more detail at the third major carbonyl-group process—the a-substitution reaction. 

The Hell-Volhard-Zelinskii reaction is a bit more complex than it looks and actually involves substitution of an acid bromide enol rather than a carboxylic acid enol. The process begins with reaction of the carboxylic acid with PBr3 to form an acid bromide plus HBr (Section 21.4). The HBr then catalyzes enolization of the acid bromide, and the resultant enol reacts with Br2 in an cr-substitution reaction to give an cv-bromo acid bromide. Addition of water hydrolyzes the acid bromide in a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction and yields the a-bromo carboxylic acid product. 

Many of the reactions of amines are familiar from past chapters. Thus, amines react with alkyl halides in S 2 reactions and with acid chlorides in nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions. Amines also undergo E2 elimination to yield alkenes if they are first qualernized by treatment with iodomethane and then heated with silver oxide, a process called the Hofmann elimination. 

Like all anhydrides (Section 21.5), the mixed carboxylic-phosphoric anhydride is a reactive substrate in nucleophilic acyl (or phosphoryl) substitution reactions. Reaction of 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate with ADR occurs in step 7 by substitution on phosphorus, resulting in transfer of a phosphate group to ADP and giving ATP plus 3-phosphoglycerate. The process is catalyzed by phospho-gjvcerate kinase and requires Mg2+ as cofactor. Together, steps 6 and 7 accomplish the oxidation of an aldehyde to a carboxylic acid. 

A further factor which must also be taken into consideration from the point of view of the analytical applications of complexes and of complex-formation reactions is the rate of reaction to be analytically useful it is usually required that the reaction be rapid. An important classification of complexes is based upon the rate at which they undergo substitution reactions, and leads to the two groups of labile and inert complexes. The term labile complex is applied to those cases where nucleophilic substitution is complete within the time required for mixing the reagents. Thus, for example, when excess of aqueous ammonia is added to an aqueous solution of copper(II) sulphate, the change in colour from pale to deep blue is instantaneous the rapid replacement of water molecules by ammonia indicates that the Cu(II) ion forms kinetically labile complexes. The term inert is applied to those complexes which undergo slow substitution reactions, i.e. reactions with half-times of the order of hours or even days at room temperature. Thus the Cr(III) ion forms kinetically inert complexes, so that the replacement of water molecules coordinated to Cr(III) by other ligands is a very slow process at room temperature. 

---