The Beckmann Rearrangements

The ready availability and low cost of A -20-keto steroids from the degradation of sapogenins has led to intensive study of methods for the preparation of androstanes via these intermediates. The simplest, most practical and most widely used method on a production scale is the Beckmann rearrangement of -20-oximinopregnenes  

Preparation of the oxime presents no problem, since there is little tendency for hydroxylamine to add to the double bond of the unsaturated system. A variety of acid catalysts has been used e.g., POCI3, BF3, p-ACNHC6H4SO2CI) to effect the rearrangement, and phosphorous oxychloride is the usual choice. 

The overall transformation can be carried out without isolation of intermediates, or alternatively, each compound can be purified before being carried on. Although the 17-acetyl-eneamine is isolable, it is quite sensitive to hydrolysis by either acid or base.  

Boron trifluoride etherate in benzene converts A -20-acetoximinosteroids to the 17-ketones in somewhat lower yield, but the reaction of A -20-oximino steroids with this catalyst in the presence of acetic anhydride does not give the expected product two different compounds have been isolated and identified.  

A mechanism for formation of the first product by Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement has been proposed.  

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When treated with certain reagents, the ketoximes in particular undergo the Beckmann rearrangement to isomeric acid amides (p. 227). 

By treatment of this oxime with phosphorus pentachloride or thionyl fhloride in ether solution, smooth conversion into benzanilide, m.p. 163°, results. The change of any oxime into a substituted amide under the conditions mentioned is usually termed the Beckmann rearrangement. The above example may be represented ... 

The oximes of ketones undergo the Beckmann rearrangement on treatment with phosphorus pentachloride (118). 

Ingredients. Nylon-6 is produced commercially from caprolactam [105-60-2] which is the most important lactam industrially. AH industrial production processes for caprolactam are multistep and produce ammonium sulfate [7783-20-2] or other by-products. Approximately 95% of the world s caprolactam is produced from cyclohexanone oxime [100-64-1] via the Beckmann rearrangement (144). The starting material for cyclohexanone can be... 

The conversion of cyclohexanone to cyclohexanone oxime is brought about by the use of hydroxylamine sulphate. The sulphuric acid is neutralised with ammonia to ammonium sulphate and this is separated from the oxime. In the presence of oleum the oxime undergoes the process known as the Beckmann rearrangement to yield the crude caprolactam. After further neutralisation with ammonia the caprolactam and further ammonium sulphate are separated by solvent extraction (Figure 18.7). 

Of the other routes the photonitrosation process involving nitrosyl chloride is in use in Japan. This avoids, at the expense of complicated purification processes, the high yields of ammonium sulphate unavoidably produced in the route involving the Beckmann rearrangement. 

Ketopregnanes saturated at C-16, and with no substitution at C-17 will also undergo the Beckmann rearrangement to give high yields of the 17j5-... 

Although the Schmidt reaction is formally analogous to the Beckmann rearrangement, it is less versatile in the 20-keto steroid series since only 1,4-addition to the double bond has been observed with the important A -derivatives. 

Most aminothiophenes are prepared by the reduction of nitrothio-phenes. Aminothiophenes or their derivatives have also been obtained through the Hofmann rearrangement of the acid amides, which, however, fails with 2-thenamide, in contrast to the 3-isomer. The Beckmann rearrangement of the oxime of 2-acetylthiophene has been applied successfully to the preparation of 2-acetamidothiophene. The free aminothiophenes are very unstable compounds and it has not been possible to distil 3-aminothiophene. They are best stored as the stannic-chloride double salts and give stable acetyl derivatives. 

The Beckmann rearrangement of oximes of the thiophene series has been applied (besides the preparation of 2-acetamidothiophene ) to thiophenocycloalkenones (192) which gave the cyclic amide (193) hydrolyzable to the amine (194). The Beckmann rearrangement was... 

Isoxazole derivatives are stable toward peracids but can be ozonolyzed. This, as is well known, enabled the 0-benzoyloximes of a-diketones with a well established configuration to be obtained, which were used to investigate the Beckmann rearrangement mech-anism. ... 

The rearrangement of oximes 1 under the influence of acidic reagents to yield A -substituted carboxylic amides 2, is called the Beckmann rearrangement. The reaction is usually applied to ketoximes aldoximes often are less reactive. 

The stereochemical course of the Beckmann rearrangement often allows for the prediction of the reaction product to be obtained in general the substituent R anti to either the hydroxy or the leaving group will migrate ... 

With aldoximes (R = H) a migration of hydrogen is seldom found. The Beckmann rearrangement therefore does not give access to iV-unsubstituted amides. 

Substituents R, R at the starting oxime 1 can be H, alkyl, or aryl. The reaction conditions for the Beckmann rearrangement often are quite drastic (e.g. concentrated sulfuric acid at 120 °C), which generally limits the scope to less sensitive substrates. The required oxime can be easily prepared from the respective aldehyde or ketone and hydroxylamine. 

Unlike the Beckmann rearrangement, the outcome of the Neber rearrangement does not depend on the configuration of the starting oxime derivative E- as well as Z-oxime yield the same product. If the starting oxime derivative contains two different a-methylene groups, the reaction pathway is not determined by the configuration of the oxime, but rather by the relative acidity of the a-methylene protons the more acidic proton is abstracted preferentially. ... 

The reaction that normally occurs on treatment of a ketoxime with a Lewis or proton acid is the Beckmann rearrangement (18-17) fragmentations are considered side reactions, often called abnormal or second-order Beckmann rearrangements. Obviously, the substrates mentioned are much more susceptible to fragmentation than are ordinary ketoximes, since in each case an unshared pair is available to assist in removal of the group cleaving from the carbon. However, fragmentation is a side reaction even with ordinary ketoximes and, in cases where a particularly stable carbocation can be cleaved, may be the main reaction. ... 

The intermediates (7) have been independently generated in aqueous solution. Note the similarity of this mechanism to those of insertion of CH2 (18-9) and of O (18-19). The three reactions are essentially analogous, both in products and in mechanism. Also note the similarity of the latter part of this mechanism to that of the Beckmann rearrangement (18-17). 

Not only do oximes undergo the Beckmann rearrangement, but so also do esters of oximes with many acids, organic and inorganic. A side reaction with many substrates is the formation of nitriles (the abnormal Beckmann rearrangement, 17-31). Cyclic ketones can be converted directly to lactams in one laboratory step by... 

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