Sulfones, alkylation from sulfonyl halides

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 ... 

Problem 13.16 How does sulfonate ester formation from sulfonyl chloride resemble nucleophilic displacements of alkyl halides ... 

Synthesis and Stability. Sulfonate esters are conveniently prepared from precursor sulfonyl halides and the appropriate alcohol or alkoxide [Eq. (3) ] this synthetic pathway is particularly suitable for the introduction of a C label into the alkylating moiety since radioactive primary alcohols can be readily synthesized. ... 

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... 

Simple sulfonyl carbanions which do not contain additional carbanion-stabilising groups, e.g. carbonyl groups or heteroatoms, can be readily alkylated in high yield by modern techniques with the use of alkyllithiums and lithium amide bases. A number of allylic halides have been successfully used. In allylic halides, the halogen directly attached to the double-bonded carbon is relatively inert towards nucleophilic attack (Scheme 41). In this way, sulfones (96) can be transformed via desulfonation into vinyl halides (97) or into ketones (98) by hydrolysis (Scheme 41). In contrast to ordinary alkyl sulfones, triflones (99) can be alkylated under mildly basic conditions (potassium carbonate in boiling acetonitrile) (Scheme 42). The ease of carbanion formation from triflones (99) arises from the additional electron-withdrawing (-1) effect of the trifluoromethyl moiety. 

Lithium derivatives of these sulfones can be alkylated with alkyl halides or epoxides,28 and acylated with esters to give the ketones 95 from which the sulfonyl group can be removed with aluminium amalgam Deprotection and cyclisation provides a synthesis of cyclopentenones 98 (cf. chapter 6).26... 

An advantage that sulfonates have over alkyl halides is that their preparation from alcohols does not involve any of the bonds to carbon. The alcohol oxygen becomes the oxygen that coimects the alkyl group to the sulfonyl group. Thus, the configuration of a... 

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