Reaction of 4-Bromo-1,2-dimethylbenzene with Various Nucleophiles via Aryne Reaction

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/jo00376a020

4-Bromo-1,2-dimethylbenzene (4a) reacts with a variety of amines, mercaptans, and nitriles under aryne-forming conditions to yield predominantly 4-substituted 1,2-dimethylbenzenes and minor quantities of 3-substituted 1,2-dimethylbenzenes.The product distributions from these reactions are heavily in favor of the 4-substituted isomer since it is formed exclusively from the symmetric 4,5-dimethylbenzyne intermediate (6) and partly from the unsymmetric 3,4-dimethylbenzyne intermediate (5).