Tertiary halides, alkylation with

Primary and secondary allyl halides (R or R = H), all the allyl halides with R = alkyl, aryl and tertiary halides substituted with one or two cyano functions (Y and/or Z = CN) give rise to acetal (295, 296, 297) formation via ring-opening of the non-isolable cyclopropanes by further reaction with the alcohol (equation gg i78,179,181,184,185,188,191,192,206 However, reaction of 2-bromo-2-methyl-l-phenyl-... 

These reactions follow first-order kinetics and proceed with racemisalion if the reaction site is an optically active centre. For alkyl halides nucleophilic substitution proceeds easily primary halides favour Sn2 mechanisms and tertiary halides favour S 1 mechanisms. Aryl halides undergo nucleophilic substitution with difficulty and sometimes involve aryne intermediates. 

Section 8 13 When nucleophilic substitution is used for synthesis the competition between substitution and elimination must be favorable However the normal reaction of a secondary alkyl halide with a base as strong or stronger than hydroxide is elimination (E2) Substitution by the Sn2 mechanism predominates only when the base is weaker than hydroxide or the alkyl halide is primary Elimination predominates when tertiary alkyl halides react with any anion... 

Primary halides are more reactive than secondary compounds quaternary salt formation does not occur with tertiary halides, elimination always occurring to give the hydriodide and an olefln, Also, the larger the alkyl group the slower is the reaction this is shown by the very slow reaction of dodecyl bromide with quinoline, and even butyl iodide is much slower to react than methyl iodide. The longer chain primary halides commonly undergo elimination rather than cause quaternization for example, n-octyl and cetyl iodides give only the hydriodides when heated with 9-aminoacridine. ... 

The reaction works well with primary alkyl halides, especially with allylic and benzylic halides, as well as other alkyl derivatives with good leaving groups. Secondary alkyl halides give poor yields. Tertiary alkyl halides react under the usual reaction conditions by elimination of HX only. Nitriles from tertiary alkyl halides can however be obtained by reaction with trimethylsilyl cyanide 4 ... 

We ve already studied the two most general reactions of amines—alkylation and acylation. As we saw earlier in this chapter, primary, secondary, and tertiary amines can be alkylated by reaction with a primary alkyl halide. Alkylations of primary and secondary amines are difficult to control and often give mixtures of products, but tertiary amines are cleanly alkylated to give quaternary ammonium salts. Primary and secondary (but not tertiary) amines can also be acylated by nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction with an acid chloride or an acid anhydride to yield an amide (Sections 21.4 and 21.5). Note that overacylation of the nitrogen does not occur because the amide product is much less nucleophilic and less reactive than the starting amine. 

Thioethers (sulfides) can be prepared by treatment of alkyl halides with salts of thiols (thiolate ions). The R group may be alkyl or aryl and organolithium bases can be used to deprotonate the thiol. As in 10-37, RX cannot be a tertiary halide, and sulfuric and sulfonic esters can be used instead of halides. As in the Williamson... 

Sodium nitrite can be used to form nitro compounds with primary or secondary alkyl bromides or iodides, though the method is of limited scope. Silver nitrite gives nitro compounds only when RX is a primary bromide or iodide. Nitrite esters are an important side product in all these cases (10-33) and become the major product (by an SnI mechanism) when secondary or tertiary halides are treated with silver nitrite. 

Halide exchange, sometimes call the Finkelstein reaction, is an equilibrium process, but it is often possible to shift the equilibrium." The reaction is most often applied to the preparation of iodides and fluorides. Iodides can be prepared from chlorides or bromides by taking advantage of the fact that sodium iodide, but not the bromide or chloride, is soluble in acetone. When an alkyl chloride or bromide is treated with a solution of sodium iodide in acetone, the equilibrium is shifted by the precipitation of sodium chloride or bromide. Since the mechanism is Sn2, the reaction is much more successful for primary halides than for secondary or tertiary halides sodium iodide in acetone can be used as a test for primary bromides or chlorides. Tertiary chlorides can be converted to iodides by treatment with excess Nal in CS2, with ZnCl2 as catalyst. " Vinylic bromides give vinylic iodides with retention of configuration when treated with KI and a nickel bromide-zinc catalyst," or with KI and Cul in hot HMPA." ... 

The method is quite useful for particularly active alkyl halides such as allylic, benzylic, and propargylic halides, and for a-halo ethers and esters, but is not very serviceable for ordinary primary and secondary halides. Tertiary halides do not give the reaction at all since, with respect to the halide, this is nucleophilic substitution and elimination predominates. The reaction can also be applied to activated aryl halides (such as 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene see Chapter 13), to epoxides, " and to activated alkenes such as acrylonitrile. The latter is a Michael type reaction (p. 976) with respect to the alkene. 

Tertiary amines react with alkyl halides to form quaternary ammonium salts... 

Here too, a second alkylation can be made to take place yielding RC=CR or R C=CR. It should, however, be remembered that the above carbanions—particularly the acetylide anion (57)—are the anions of very weak acids, and are thus themselves strong bases, as well as powerful nucleophiles. They can thus induce elimination (p. 260) as well as displacement, and reaction with tertiary halides is often found to result in alkene formation to the exclusion of alkylation. 

The reaction of alkyl halides with metal nitrites is one of the most important methods for the preparation of nitroalkanes. As a metal nitrite, silver nitrite (Victor-Meyer reaction), potassium nitrite, or sodium nitrite (Kornblum reaction) have been frequently used. The products are usually a mixture of nitroalkanes and alkyl nitrites, which are readily separated by distillation (Eq. 2.47). The synthesis of nitro compounds by this process is well documented in the reviews, and some typical cases are listed in Table 2.3.92a Primary and secondary alkyl iodides and bromides as well as sulfonate esters give the corresponding nitro compounds in 50-70% yields on treatment with NaN02 in DMF or DMSO. Some of them are described precisely in vol 4 of Organic Synthesis. For example, 1,4-dinitrobutane is prepared in 41 -46% yield by the reaction of 1,4-diiodobutane with silver nitrite in diethyl ether.92b 1-Nitrooctane is prepared by the reaction with silver nitrite in 75-80% yield. The reaction of silver nitrite with secondary halides gives yields of nitroalkanes of about 15%, whereas with tertiary halides the yields are 0-5%.92c Ethyl a-nitrobutyrate is prepared by the reaction of ethyl a-bromobutyrate in 68-75% yield with sodium nitrite in DMF.92d Sodium nitrite is considerably more soluble in DMSO than in DMF as a consequence, with DMSO, much more concentrated solutions can be employed and this makes shorter reaction times possible.926... 

Alkyl mercury halides participate in a photo-stimulated radical chain reaction of the anion of nitroalkanes (see Eq. 5.38) in which a 275-W sun lamp is used.56 c Primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl radicals generated from alkyl mercury halides react with the anion of nitroalkanes to form new C-C bonds. 

Figure 8.17 Reaction of an alkyl halide with hydroxide ion. (a) A primary halide reacts by an SN2 mechanism, causing Walden inversion about the central, chiral carbon, (b) A tertiary halide reacts by an SN1 mechanism (the rate-determining step of which is unimolecular dissociation, minimizing the extent of Walden inversion and maximizing the extent of racemization). Secondary alcohols often react with both Sn 1 and SN2 mechanistic pathways proceeding concurrently...

Several examples have been reported of rearrangements of arsine oxides (51) to esters, initiated by alkyl halides.42 43 Reactions of tertiary arsine oxides with thiols (52) cause deoxygenation.44... 

The boron trifluoride alkyl fluoride (chloride) complexes gave no evidence of alkylcarbonium ion formation. It must, however, be emphasized that (a) the physical investigation of the binary system was carried out at such low temperatures (generally below —100°) that ionization of the halides could hardly be expected (with exception of highly reactive tertiary halides) (b) the methods used could not he relied on to detect a small ionization equilibrium even if it existed. 

RCH200 + RCH2Hal -> RCH2-OO-CH2R + HaE. Reactions of KO2 with optically active alkyl halides proceed with the configurational inversion. Moreover, the reactivity changes in the same order as that of the usual Sj. 2 reactions (primary > secondary > tertiary J > Br > Cl) (Sawyer and Gibian 1979). 

This method is of quite general applicability and the carbonyl compound may be an aldehyde, a ketone, or an ester. Similarly, the halide may be chloride, bromide, or iodide although yields are generally lower with iodides. Alkyl and aryl halides react with equal facility and the alkyl halide may be primary, secondary, or tertiary. A few examples of the yields obtained with a variety of reagents are given in Table I (the yields quoted are obtained by g.l.c. analysis of the reaction mixture using an internal standard ). 

The intermolecular alkylation of metallo nitronates with various alkyl halides is limited. The addition of methyl iodide to the silver salt of an aryl nitro-methane provides the corresponding methyl nitronate in moderate yield (Eq. 2.13) (150), which has also been extended to the silver salt of trinitromethane (Scheme 2.16) (151-153). However, in the case of primary halides, both O- and C-alkylation are observed. For secondary and tertiary halides, only O-alkylation is observed, but in low yields. Unfortunately, under the reaction conditions, the starting alkyl halide can undergo dehydrohalogenation to provide the corresponding alkene, which then undergoes [3+2] cycloaddition with the alkyl nitronate. 

The method is not satisfactory for methyl-and ethyl-acetylenes or with secondary and tertiary alkyl halides or with primary alkyl halides above hexyl. 

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