Toluene regioselective

How do the charges on the ring carbons of toluene and (tri fluoromethyl)benzene relate to the regioselectivity of nitration" ... 

The regio- and stereoselectivities of cycloadditions of trifluoroacetonitrile oxide, which is generated m situ by treatment of the tnfluoroacetohydroxamyl bromide etherate with tnethylamine in toluene (equation 31), have been determined in a senes of studies by Tanaka [55, 36, 37, 5 ]. The highly reactive nitnle oxide reacts regioselectively with a variety of activated terminal alkenes and alkynes (equations 32 and 33)... 

Problems arise in the preparation of substituted l//-azepines with (alkoxycarbonyl)nitrenes as nitrene attack on a mono- or disubstituted benzene ring is not generally regioselective, and with toluene, 04 34-136139 144 o- and p-xy ienes,134-139 p-cresoi,134 chlorobenzene104-134 136 and biphenyl,104 136 mixtures of 1//-azepine-1-carboxylates of undetermined composition are produced. 

In Brown s classification a diazonium ion is a reagent of very low reactivity and correspondingly high substrate selectivity and regioselectivity. This follows from the fact that benzenediazonium salts do not normally react with weakly nucleophilic benzene derivatives such as toluene. More reactive heteroaromatic diazonium ions such as substituted imidazole-2-diazonium ions will even react with benzene (see Sec. 12.5). 

The regioselectivity under supercritical conditions at different pressures varied little from that found in toluene solution in particular, no reversal in regioselectivity was found in SC-CO2 near the critical pressure [88]. 

Our own earlier work on the chlorination of toluene had been subject to similar constraints. In this case, chlorination with ferf-butyl hypochlorite had proved to be advantageous. In the presence of silica gel as catalyst the yield of chlorotoluenes was quantitative but the regioselectivity was more or less statistical (ref. 8). However, the use of proton-exchanged zeolite X allowed the production of chlorotoluenes with a para-selectivity of more than 90 % (Fig. 4) (ref. 9). No HCl is generated in this process since the by-product is tert-butanol, and there is no inhibition of the catalyst. Indeed, the catalyst can be reused if necessary. 

Biphasic systems were found to have a unique effect on the selectivity of the addition of arylboronic acids to alkynes. It was found that the use of [Rh(COD)OH]2 associated with the water-soluble ligand, m-TPPTC, was highly effective for such a reaction in the biphasic water/toluene system (Eq. 4.51).91 The reaction was completely stereo-and regioselective. In addition, the catalyst did not lose any activity... 

An intramolecular version of the Diels-Alder reaction with a diene-carboxylate was used by Williams et al. in the synthetic study of the antibiotic ilicicolin H.91 The interesting aspect of this work is that they found that under aqueous conditions, there is an observed reversal of regioselectivity (Eq. 12.31). In toluene, there is a 75 25 ratio of a/b while in degassed water the ratio of a/b is 40 60. 

Table 5 Regioselectivities of rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of 1-octene using toluene and MeOH as solventsa...

Selective transformations Selective styrene ring opening [103] One-pot domino process for regioselective synthesis of a-carbonyl furans [104] Tandem process for synthesis of quinoxalines [105] Atmospheric oxidation of toluene [106] Cyclohexane oxidation [107] Synthesis of imines from alcohols [108] Synthesis of 2-aminodiphenylamine [109] 9H-Fluorene oxidation [110] Dehydrogenation of ethane in the presence of C02 [111] Decomposition of methane [112] Carbon monoxide oxidation [113]... 

Smith and coworkers have screened the solid catalysts for aromatic nitration, and found that zeolite (3 gives the best result. Simple aromatic compounds such as benzene, alkylbenzenes, halogenobenzenes, and certain disubstituted benzenes are nitrated in excellent yields with high regioselectivity under mild conditions using zeolite (3 as a catalyst and a stoichiometric quantity of nitric acid and acetic anhydride.11 For example, nitration of toluene gives a quantitative yield of mononitrotoluenes, of which 79% is 4-nitrotoluene. Nitration of fluorobenzene under the same conditions gives p-fluoronitrobenzene exclusively (Eqs. 2.1 and 2.2)... 

When ene-nitrile oxidoisoquinolium betaine 131 was heated as a dilute solution in toluene to 120 °C (Scheme 1.15), near quantitative conversion to the cycloadduct 133, resulting from the undesired regioselectivity, was observed. While the near complete conversion to cycloadduct 133 of oxidoisoquinolinium betaine 131 indeed demonstrated complete avoidance of the conjugate addition pathway in favor of cycloaddition, initial production of undesired isomeric cycloadduct 133 (instead of 136) was disappointing. Notably, cycloadduct 133 is expected to be less kinetically favored based on frontier molecular orbital (FMO) analysis (assuming dipole HOMO-controlled cycloaddition) of the putative transition state. This result stands in contrast to the cycloaddition of nitroalkene oxidoisoquinolinium betaine... 

Among the wide variety of organic reactions in which zeolites have been employed as catalysts, may be emphasized the transformations of aromatic hydrocarbons of importance in petrochemistry, and in the synthesis of intermediates for pharmaceutical or fragrance products.5 In particular, Friede 1-Crafts acylation and alkylation over zeolites have been widely used for the synthesis of fine chemicals.6 Insights into the mechanism of aromatic acylation over zeolites have been disclosed.7 The production of ethylbenzene from benzene and ethylene, catalyzed by HZSM-5 zeolite and developed by the Mobil-Badger Company, was the first commercialized industrial process for aromatic alkylation over zeolites.8 Other typical examples of zeolite-mediated Friedel-Crafts reactions are the regioselective formation of p-xylene by alkylation of toluene with methanol over HZSM-5,9 or the regioselective p-acylation of toluene with acetic anhydride over HBEA zeolites.10 In both transformations, the p-isomers are obtained in nearly quantitative yield. 

While Josiphos 41 also possessed an element of atom-centered chirality in the side chain, Reetz reported a new class of ferrocene-derived diphosphines which had planar chirality only ligands 42 and 43, which have C2- and C -symmetry, respectively.87 Rhodium(i)-complexes of ligands (—)-42 and (—)-43 were used in situ as catalysts (0.75 mol%) for the hydroboration of styrene with catecholborane 1 for 12 h in toluene at — 50 °C. The rhodium/ i-symmetric (—)-43 catalyst system was the more enantioselective of the two - ( -l-phenylethanol was afforded with 52% and 77% ee with diphosphines (—)-42 and (—)-43, respectively. In both cases, the regioselectivity was excellent (>99 1). With the same reaction time but using DME as solvent at lower temperature (—60 °C), the rhodium complex of 43 afforded the alcohol product with an optimum 84% ee. 

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