Sulfones trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride

Diaryl sulfones can be formed by treatment of aromatic compounds with aryl sulfonyl chlorides and a Friedel-Crafts catalyst. This reaction is analogous to Friedel-Crafts acylation with carboxylic acid halides (11-14). In a better procedure, the aromatic compound is treated with an aryl sulfonic acid and P2O5 in polypho-sphoric acid. Still another method uses an arylsulfonic trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride (ArS020S02CF3) (generated in situ from ArS02Br and CF3S03Ag) without a catalyst. ... 

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. 

The third procedure illustrated by this preparation involves the reaotion of ketones with trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride in a solvent such as pentane, methylene chloride, or carbon tetrachloride and in the presence of a base such as pyridine, lutidine, or anhydrous sodium carbonate.7-11,15 This procedure, which presumably involves either acid-catalyzed or base-catalyzed enolization of the ketone followed by acylation of the enol with the acid anhydride, has also been used to prepare other vinyl sulfonate esters such as tosylates12 or methanesulfonates.13... 

A. Trifluoromethanesulfonic Anhydride. To a dry, 100-ml., round-bottomed flask are added 36.3 g. (0.242 mole) of trifluoromethane-sulfonic acid (Note 1) and 27.3 g. (0.192 mole) of phosphorus pentoxide (Note 2). The flask is stoppered and allowed to stand at room temperature for at least 3 hours. During this period the reaction changes from a slurry to a solid mass. The flask is fitted with a short-path distilling head and then heated first with a stream of hot air from a heat gun and then with the flame from a small burner. The flask is heated until no more trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride distills, b.p. 82-115°. The yield of the anhydride, a colorless liquid, is 28.4-31.2 g. (83-91%). Although this product is sufficiently pure for use in the next step of this preparation, the remaining acid may be removed from the anhydride by the following procedure. A slurry of 3.2 g. of phosphorous pentoxide in 31.2 g. of the crude anhydride is stirred at room temperature in a stoppered flask for 18 hours. After the reaction" flask has been fitted with a short-path distilling head, it is heated with an oil bath to distill iD.7 g. of forerun, b.p. 74—81°, followed by 27.9 g. of the pure trifluoromethanesulfonic acid anhydride, b.p. 81-84° (Note 3). 

ALKYL ARYL SULFONES Trifluoromethanesulfonic-alkenesulfonic anhydrides. 

Apart from aryl halides, other very easily available substrates for nickel-catalysed biaryl (II) synthesis are aryl sulfonates (XII). Method D is very efficient in the homocoupling reactions of substituted aryl sulfonates in good to excellent yields [15], Table 6. Substituted aryl sulfonates are readily obtained from phenols and trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride, benzenesulfonyl-, tosyl- or methanesulfonyl chloride in pyridine, or in a suitable inert solvent such as dichloromethane in the presence of triethylamine or Hiinig s base. Among other nickel complexes, Ni(dppe)Cl2 and Ni(dppf)Cl2 have been used (10 mo1%) as slightly less versatile catalysts for the homo-couplings of naphthyl sulfonates in refluxing THF, DMF or their mixtures [42]. 

The desired sulfonate ester is usually prepared by reaction of the alcohol in pyridine with the appropriate sulfonyl chloride, that is, methanesulfonyl chloride (mesyl chloride) for a mesylate, y)-toluenesulfonyl chloride (tosyl chloride) for a tosylate, or trifluoromethane-sulfonyl chloride [or trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride (triflic anhydride)] for a triflate. Pyridine (C5H5N, pyr) serves as the solvent and to neutralize the HCI formed. Ethanol, for example, reacts with methanesulfonyl chloride to form ethyl methanesulfonate and with yj-toluenesulfonyl chloride to form ethyl /-toluenesulfonate ... 

Esters of very strong protonic acids (trifluoromethanesulfonic, fluoro-sulfonic, perchloric), however, are sufficiently strong alkylating agents to initiate the polymerization of even weakly nucleophilic monomers (cyclic acetals, ethers) [2-6], Also their anhydrides (e.g., triflic anhydride) are efficient initiators. This last compound is especially interesting, because in the polymerization of cyclic ethers it leads to macromolecules with two identical growing chain ends (difunctional initiator) [30] ... 

Conversion of alcohols to sulfonate esters is a way of labilising them to nucleophilic substitution and elimination. The common leaving groups are arenesulfonates, particularly p-toluenesulfonate (tosylate), methanesulfonates (mesylate) and trifluromethanesulfonate (triflate) they are introduced by reaction of the acid chlorides (or, in the case of the trifluoromethanesulfonates, acid anhydrides) in a basic solvent such as pyridine. Traditionally, the reactions are carried out in pyridine as solvent, but both this solvent and the liberated... 

Diaryl sulfones. Aryl sulfonyl bromides (but not sulfonyl chlorides) react with silver trifluoromethanesulfonate in nitromethane at 0° to form unstable mixed sulfonic anhydrides (c/ 4, 533-534). These react with arenes (threefold excess) at the same temperature to give diaryl sulfones usually in yields of 80-100%. 

Bismuth(III) trifluoromethanesulfonate D3i(OTf)3] has been established as an efficient catalyst (0.05 molar equiv.) for the sulfonylation of a range of substituted benzenes by sulfonyl chlorides and sulfonic anhydrides. With the former, ligand exchange is believed to lead to the formation of a mixed sulfonic anhydride (RS020Tf) which is the reactive sulfonylating species. 

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