The interaction of an alcohol with a halogen compound under basic conditions

2 THE INTERACTION OF AN ALCOHOL WITH A HALOGEN COMPOUND UNDER BASIC CONDITIONS 

This involves the direct nucleophilic displacement of halogen in an alkyl halide by an alkoxide ion (the Williamson synthesis) (Expt 5.72), and the method is particularly useful for the preparation of mixed ethers. For an unsymmetrical ether [e.g. t-butyl ethyl ether (7)], the disconnection approach suggests two feasible routes. 

The selection of reagents is governed by availability, cost, and, more importantly, the possible intrusion of side reactions. Thus in the above example, the action of the strongly basic ethoxide ion on t-butyl bromide would give rise to extensive alkene formation on the other hand little or no elimination would occur by the alternative reaction route. In general therefore, secondary or tertiary alkyl groups can only be incorporated into ethers by the Williamson synthesis by way of the corresponding alkoxide ions in reaction with a primary halide. 

The preparation of alkyl methyl ethers may be readily effected under PTC conditions from the alcohol, dimethyl sulphate and 50 per cent w/w aqueous sodium hydroxide, employing tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulphate as catalyst.95 The usefulness of this procedure has been extended, and optimum conditions have been described for the alkylation of a range of aliphatic alcohols using, for example, 1-chlorobutane or benzyl chloride.96 The PTC preparative examples described in Expt 5.73 are for the methylation, allylation, but-2-enylation and benzylation of, for example, 2-hydroxymethyl-1,4-dioxaspiro[4.5]decane (Expt 5.63), and have been developed in the editors laboratories. These methods have also been applied to the alkylation of protected monosaccharide derivatives (p. 652). 

(1) The t.l.c. analysis may be performed on Silica gel G plates using toluene methanol, 9 1 the starting material has RF0.26, the product has RF0.70. 

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The interaction of an alcohol with a halogen compound under basic conditions (Expts 5.72 and 5.73). 

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