Alcohols sulfonate esters

An advantage that sulfonate esters have over alkyl halides is that their prepara tion from alcohols does not involve any of the bonds to carbon The alcohol oxygen becomes the oxygen that connects the alkyl group to the sulfonyl group Thus the configuration of a sulfonate ester is exactly the same as that of the alcohol from which It was prepared If we wish to study the stereochemistry of nucleophilic substitution m an optically active substrate for example we know that a tosylate ester will have the same configuration and the same optical purity as the alcohol from which it was prepared... 

The reaction of alcohols with acyl chlorides is analogous to their reaction with p toluenesulfonyl chloride described earlier (Section 8 14 and Table 15 2) In those reactions a p toluene sulfonate ester was formed by displacement of chloride from the sulfonyl group by the oxygen of the alcohol Carboxylic esters arise by displacement of chlonde from a carbonyl group by the alcohol oxygen... 

Acidic Hydrolysis. Hydrolysis of esters by use of water and a mineral acid leads to an equiUbrium mixture of ester, alcohol, and free carboxyHc acid. Complete reaction can only be achieved by removal of alcohol or acid from the equiUbrium. Because esters have poor solubiUty in water, the reaction rate in dilute acids is fairly low. Therefore, emulsifiers such as sulfonated oleic acid or sulfonated aromatic compounds (TwitcheU reagent) are added to facihtate the reaction. 

The utility of methanesulfinyl chloride lies in its great chemical reactivity. Through its ready hydrolysis, it serves as a convenient source of methanesulfinic acid. It reacts at low temperature with aromatic amines to form sulfinamides, and with alcohols to form sulfinate esters. When it is hydrolyzed in the presence of an equimolar quantity of sulfenyl chloride, a thiol-sulfonate ester is produced. 

Sulfonate esters are especially useful substrates in nucleophilic substitution reactions used in synthesis. They have a high level of reactivity, and, unlike alkyl halides, they can be prepared from alcohols by reactions that do not directly involve bonds to the carbon atom imdeigoing substitution. The latter aspect is particularly important in cases in which the stereochemical and structural integrity of the reactant must be maintained. Sulfonate esters are usually prepared by reaction of an alcohol with a sulfonyl halide in the presence of pyridine ... 

Tertiary alcohols are more difficult to convert to sulfonate esters, and because of their high reactivity they are often difficult to isolate. ... 

The most common leaving groups are sulfonate esters and halides. For the sake of convenience, the discussion of certain dehalogenation reactions is also included in this section even though they may not involve 8 2 type displacement. Benzylic alcohols are also known to be displaced by hydrides or deuterides, but there is no evidence for the application of these reactions to the steroid field. 

The most satisfactory method of dehydrating 12a-alcohols appears to be through the sulfonate esters Engel and coworkers have shown (ref. 236 and ref. cited therein) that treatment of such sulfonates with alumina gives A -compounds. The reaction appears to be subject to steric acceleration in that bulky IToc-substituents and cw-fused A-rings aid elimination, and that yields increase with increasing size of the sulfonate employed. 

Conversion to p-toluenesulfonate esters (Section 8.14) Alcohols react with p-toluenesulfonyl chloride to give p-toluenesulfonate esters. Sulfonate esters are reactive substrates for nucleophilic substitution and elimination reactions. The p-toluenesulfonate group is often abbreviated —OTs. 

The direct reaction of 1-alkenes with strong sulfonating agents leads to surface-active anionic mixtures containing both alkenesulfonates and hydroxyalkane sulfonates as major products, together with small amounts of disulfonate components, unreacted material, and miscellaneous minor products (alkanes, branched or internal alkenes, secondary alcohols, sulfonate esters, and sultones). Collectively this final process mixture is called a-olefinsulfonate (AOS). The relative proportions of these components are known to be an important determinant of the physical and chemical properties of the surfactant [2]. 

Impurities consist of unreacted material, including alkanes and internal or branched alkenes, and other material which can be detected in the neutral oil fraction of AOS. Examination of this fraction also indicates the amount of unhydrolyzed material (sulfonate esters and sultones) and byproducts (secondary alcohols, unsaturated and 2-chloro-y-sultones) in the sample. Salt calculations are made to determine inorganic sulfates and sodium chloride. Determinations for alkalinity, color, and water are required to meet product... 

Neutral oil consists of unreacted alkenes, alkanes, secondary alcohol byproducts, sulfonate esters, and sultones. Calculation of the concentration of neutral oil present in AOS, taken together with separate determinations for alkenes and alcohols (see below) and nonvolatile material (determined by residue on evaporation), can be used as a measure of the completeness of the sulfona-tion reaction. 

The amount of residual sulfonate ester remaining after hydrolysis can be determined by a procedure proposed by Martinsson and Nilsson [129], similar to that used to determine total residual saponifiables in neutral oils. Neutrals, including alkanes, alkenes, secondary alcohols, and sultones, as well as the sulfonate esters in the AOS, are isolated by extraction from an aqueous alcoholic solution with petroleum ether. The sulfonate esters are separated from the sultones by chromatography on a silica gel column. Each eluent fraction is subjected to saponification and measured as active matter by MBAS determination measuring the extinction of the trichloromethane solution at 642 nra. (a) Sultones. Connor et al. [130] first reported, in 1975, a very small amount of skin sensitizer, l-unsaturated-l,3-sultone, and 2-chloroalkane-l,3-sultone in the anionic surfactant produced by the sulfation of ethoxylated fatty alcohol. These compounds can also be found in some AOS products consequently, methods of detection are essential. 

Although halides are common leaving groups in nucleophilic substitution for synthetic purposes, it is often more convenient to use alcohols. Since OH does not leave from ordinary alcohols, it must be converted to a group that does leave. One way is protonation, mentioned above. Another is conversion to a reactive ester, most commonly a sulfonic ester. The sulfonic ester groups tosylate, brosylate, nosylate, and mesylate are better leaving groups than... 

Sulfonic esters are most frequently prepared by treatment of the corresponding halides with alcohols in the presence of a base. The method is much used for the conversion of alcohols to tosylates, brosylates, and similar sulfonic esters. Both R and R may be alkyl or aryl. The base is often pyridine, which functions as a nucleophilic catalyst, as in the similar alcoholysis of carboxylic acyl halides (10-21). Primary alcohols react the most rapidly, and it is often possible to sulfonate selectively a primary OH group in a molecule that also contains secondary or tertiary OH groups. The reaction with sulfonamides has been much less frequently used and is limited to N,N-disubstituted sulfonamides that is, R" may not be hydrogen. However, within these limits it is a useful reaction. The nucleophile in this case is actually R 0 . However, R" may be hydrogen (as well as alkyl) if the nucleophile is a phenol, so that the product is RS020Ar. Acidic catalysts are used in this case. Sulfonic acids have been converted directly to sulfonates by treatment with triethyl or trimethyl orthoformate HC(OR)3, without catalyst or solvent and with a trialkyl phosphite P(OR)3. ... 

Trifluoromethanesulfonates of alkyl and allylic alcohols can be prepared by reaction with trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride in halogenated solvents in the presence of pyridine.3 Since the preparation of sulfonate esters does not disturb the C—O bond, problems of rearrangement or racemization do not arise in the ester formation step. However, sensitive sulfonate esters, such as allylic systems, may be subject to reversible ionization reactions, so appropriate precautions must be taken to ensure structural and stereochemical integrity. Tertiary alkyl sulfonates are neither as easily prepared nor as stable as those from primary and secondary alcohols. Under the standard preparative conditions, tertiary alcohols are likely to be converted to the corresponding alkene. 

As noted in the preceding section, one of the most general methods of synthesis of esters is by reaction of alcohols with an acyl chloride or other activated carboxylic acid derivative. Section 3.2.5 dealt with two other important methods, namely, reactions with diazoalkanes and reactions of carboxylate salts with alkyl halides or sulfonate esters. There is also the acid-catalyzed reaction of carboxylic acids with alcohols, which is called the Fischer esterification. 

Application of this reaction to the sulfonic ester of a polyfunctional alcohol is demonstrated by the following example 191... 

In a way analogous to sulfonic esters, sulfinic esters are available quite readily and in very good yield. As usually the first step is the activation of sulfinic acid by CDI to the corresponding imidazolide which then reacts with alcohols [12H14]... 

The first evidence that an elimination-addition mechanism could be important in nucleophilic substitution reactions of alkanesulfonyl derivatives was provided by the observation (Truce et al., 1964 Truce and Campbell, 1966 King and Durst, 1964, 1965) that when alkanesulfonyl chlorides RCH2S02C1 were treated in the presence of an alcohol R OD with a tertiary amine (usually Et3N) the product was a sulfonate ester RCHDS020R with exactly one atom of deuterium on the carbon alpha to the sulfonyl group. Had the ester been formed by a base-catalysed direct substitution reaction of R OD with the sulfonyl chloride there would have been no deuterium at the er-position. Had the deuterium been incorporated by a separate exchange reaction, either of the sulfonyl chloride before its reaction to form the ester, or of the ester subsequent to its formation, then the amount of deuterium incorporated would not have been uniformly one atom of D per molecule. The observed results are only consistent with the elimination-addition mechanism involving a sulfene intermediate shown in (201). Subsequent kinetic studies... 

Li et al. (1997) have discussed the use of catalytic antibodies to control the reactivity of carbocations. At an entry level, the acyclic olefinic sulfonate ester [72] is converted into the cyclic alcohol [73] (98%) using antibody 4C6 raised to hapten [73] with only 2% of cyclohexene produced (Appendix entry 15.1) (Li et al, 1994). 

A wide range of anionic surfactants (Fig. 23) has been classified into groups, including alkyl benzene sulfonates (ABS), linear alkyl benzene sulfonates (LAS), alcohol sulfates (AS), alcohol ether sulfates (AES), alkyl phenol ether sulfates (APES), fatty acid amide ether sulfates (FAES), alpha-olefin sulfates (AOS), paraffin sulfonates, alpha sulfonated fatty acids and esters, sulfonated fatty acids and esters, mono- and di-ester sulfosuccinates, sulfosuccinamates, petroleum sulfonates, phosphate esters, and ligno-sulfonates. Of the anionic surfactants, ABS and LAS continue to be the major products of anionic surfactants [314, 324]. Anionic surfactants have been extensively monitored and characterized in various environmental matrices [34,35,45,325-329]. 

Section 7.8). Other classes of derivatives are thus most conveniently prepared from the sulfonyl chloride. Reaction with an alcohol leads to formation of a sulfonate ester. Two common sulfonyl chloride reagents employed to make sulfonate esters from alcohols arep-toluenesulfonyl chloride, known as tosyl chloride, and methanesulfonyl chloride, known as mesyl chloride (see Section 6.1.4). Note the nomenclature tosyl and mesyl for these groups, which may be abbreviated to Ts and Ms respectively. 

Sulfonate esters can be prepared from optically active alcohols without inversion of configuration of the chiral carbinol C. The reason is that reaction involves cleavage of the H—O bond of the alcohol. 

The cyclopropanation of alkenes using zinc carbenoids displays excellent chemoselec-tivities. A large number of functional groups are compatible with these reagents, such as alkynes, silanes, stannanes, germanes, alcohols, ethers, sulfonate esters, aldehydes. 

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