Electrophilic aromatic substitution toluene

Because of Us high polarity and low nucleophilicity, a trifluoroacetic acid medium is usually used for the investigation of such carbocationic processes as solvolysis, protonation of alkenes, skeletal rearrangements, and hydride shifts [22-24] It also has been used for several synthetically useful reachons, such as electrophilic aromatic substitution [25], reductions [26, 27], and oxidations [28] Trifluoroacetic acid is a good medium for the nitration of aromatic compounds Nitration of benzene or toluene with sodium nitrate in trifluoroacetic acid is almost quantitative after 4 h at room temperature [25] Under these conditions, toluene gives the usual mixture of mononitrotoluenes in an o m p ratio of 61 6 2 6 35 8 A trifluoroacetic acid medium can be used for the reduction of acids, ketones, and alcohols with sodium borohydnde [26] or triethylsilane [27] Diary Iketones are smoothly reduced by sodium borohydnde in trifluoroacetic acid to diarylmethanes (equation 13)... 

No electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions of toluene, ethylbenzene, and cumene occur with BBrj in the dark the electrophile is too weak for these reactions. The photochemical reactions followed by hydrolysis give the p-isomers of the corresponding boronic acids as the major products (delocalization band in Scheme 9) [44]. 

In general, if condensation polymers are prepared with methylated aryl repeat units, free radical halogenatlon can be used to introduce halomethyl active sites and the limitations of electrophilic aromatic substitution can be avoided. The halogenatlon technique recently described by Ford11, involving the use of a mixture of hypohalite and phase transfer catalyst to chlorinate poly(vinyl toluene) can be applied to suitably substituted condensation polymers. 

Finally, we ask, if the reactive triads in Schemes 1 and 19 are common to both electrophilic and charge-transfer nitration, why is the nucleophilic pathway (k 2) apparently not pertinent to the electrophilic activation of toluene and anisole One obvious answer is that the electrophilic nitration of these less reactive [class (ii)] arenes proceeds via a different mechanism, in which N02 is directly transferred from V-nitropyridinium ion in a single step, without the intermediacy of the reactive triad, since such an activation process relates to the more conventional view of electrophilic aromatic substitution. However, the concerted mechanism for toluene, anisole, mesitylene, t-butylbenzene, etc., does not readily accommodate the three unique facets that relate charge-transfer directly to electrophilic nitration, viz., the lutidine syndrome, the added N02 effect, and the TFA neutralization (of Py). Accordingly, let us return to Schemes 10 and 19, and inquire into the nature of thermal (adiabatic) electron transfer in (87) vis-a-vis the (vertical) charge-transfer in (62). 

It has been noted that the ortho para ratio for protodetritiation of p-[ H] toluene varies with acid medium, and although side reactions are present with both sulphuric acid and Lewis acids, they are usually absent in trifluoroacetic acid. See (a) Taylor, R. Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution. J. Wiley and Sons, New York, 1990, pp. 61-64 (b) Baker, R. Eabcm C. Taylor, R. J. Chem. Soc. 1961,4927. 

Electrophilic aromatic substitution of the arylamine 780a using the iron-complex salt 602 afforded the iron-complex 785. Oxidative cyclization of complex 785 in toluene at room temperature with very active manganese dioxide afforded carbazomycin A (260) in 25% yield, along with the tricarbonyliron-complexed 4b,8a-dihydro-3H-carbazol-3-one (786) (17% yield). The quinone imine 786 was also converted to carbazomycin A (260) by a sequence of demetalation and O-methylation (Scheme 5.86). The synthesis via the iron-mediated arylamine cyclization provides carbazomycin A (260) in two steps and 21% overall yield based on 602 (607-609) (Scheme 5.86). 

The wide scope of application of the electrophilicity index of Parr, Szentpaly, and Liu has been reviewed.1 Applications to electrophilic aromatic substitutions discussed are few. However, some alkylation and acylation reactions do correlate well with electrophilicity values. In the case of the nitration of toluene and chlorobenzene, correlation is not very good and it is suggested2 that electrophilicity is a kinetic quantity with inherent thermodynamic information. 

Reactivity toward electrophilic aromatic substitution increases with increasing number of electronreleasing substituents. Benzene, with no methyl substituents, is the least reactive, followed by toluene, with one methyl group. 1,3,5-Trimethylbenzene, with three methyl substituents, is the most reactive. 

In both this reaction and the nitration of toluene we used to make benzocaine, the reagent is a cation MeCO+ for the Friedel-Crafts and NC>2+ for the nitration. Our first choice on disconnecting a bond to a benzene ring is to look for a cationic reagent so that we can use electrophilic aromatic substitution. We know not only which bond to break but also in which sense electronically to break it. In principle we could have chosen either polarity from the same disconnection a (we actually chose) or b (we did not). 

Furosemide can also be synthesized starting with 2,4-dichlorobenzoic acid (formed by chlorination and oxidation of toluene). Reaction with chlorosulfonic acid is an electrophilic aromatic substitution via the species -S02C1 attacking ortho and para to the chlorines and meta to the carboxy-late. Ammonolysis to the sulfonamide is followed by nucleophilic aromatic substitution of the less hindered chlorine by furfurylamine (obtained from furfural—a product obtained by the hydrolysis of carbohydrates). 

Up to now, we have considered only benzene as the substrate for electrophilic aromatic substitution. To synthesize more complicated aromatic compounds, we need to consider the effects other substituents might have on further substitutions. For example, toluene (methylbenzene) reacts with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids much like benzene does, but with some interesting differences ... 

Toluene reacts about 25 times faster than benzene under the same conditions. We say that toluene is activated toward electrophilic aromatic substitution and that the methyl group is an activating group. 

Unlike most other electrophilic aromatic substitutions, sulfonation is often reversible (see Section 17-4). When one sample of toluene is sulfonated at 0 °C and another sample is sulfonated at 100 °C, the following ratios of substitution products result ... 

Like benzene, toluene undergoes electrophilic aromatic substitution sulfona-tion, for example. Although there are three possible monosulfonation products, this reaction actually yields appreciable amounts of only two of them the 0- and /7-isomers. 

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