Titanium tetrabromide, reaction

The catalytic activity of certain of the Friedel-Crafts catalysts was shown to decrease over a very wide range in the series boron fluoride, aluminum bromide, titanium tetrachloride, titanium tetrabromide, boron chloride, boron bromide and stannic chloride (Fairbrother and Seymour, mentioned in Plesch al., 83). When boron fluoride is added to isobutylene at dry ice temperatures, the olefin is converted to a solid polymer within a very few seconds. The time required for complete polymerization with aluminum bromide hardly extends to a few minutes while reaction times of hours are required with titanium chloride and periods of days with stannic chloride. 

Aldehydes undergo a Mukaiyama-aldol reaction followed by a Prins cyclization with the highly reactive allylsilane 329 to afford jy -2,6-tetrahydropyrans 330 that feature an oeo-methylene group at C-4 (Equation 140, Table 12). This Mukaiyama-aldol-Prins (MAP) cascade cyclization has been used to form a key bis-tetrahydropyran intermediate during the total synthesis of leucascandrolide A <2001JA8420>. Similarly, titanium tetrabromide mediated MAP reactions afford 4-bromo tetrahydropyrans <20030L3163>. 

Titanium Dibromide. Titanium dibromide [13873-04-5] a black crystalline soHd, density 4310 kg/m, mp 1025°C, has a cadmium iodide-type stmcture and is readily oxidized to trivalent titanium by water. Spontaneously flammable in air (142), it can be prepared by direct synthesis from the elements, by reaction of the tetrabromide with titanium, or by thermal decomposition of titanium tribromide. This last reaction must be carried out either at or below 400°C, because at higher temperatures the dibromide itself disproportionates. 

Emission from electronically excited TiO molecules has been observed by Palmer and co-workers from the reaction of titanium tetrachloride or tetrabromide with potassium vapour in the presence of oxygen [277] and of nitrous oxide [278]. The potassium atoms presumably strip the halogen atoms from the titanium tetrahalide, and the titanium atoms then react with the oxygen or nitrous oxide producing electronically excited TiO molecules. 

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