Conversion between Difluorocarbene and Difluoromethylene Phosphonium Ylide
FULL PAPER
À
(Ph3P+CF2CO2 , 1) a simple and convenient difluorocarbene
reagent.
that polar solvents favored the ylide formation, which is
consistent with the previous observation.[4b] Further optimi-
zation of the temperature, the amount of propylene epoxide
and the reaction time revealed that a moderate yield of the
desired product could be obtained after being heated at
1108C for 6 h in the presence of 2 equivalents of propylene
The successful conversion from difluoromethylene ylide
to difluorocarbene prompted us to investigate its reverse
process, from difluorocarbene to difluoromethylene ylide.
Although many difluorocarbene reagents have been devel-
oped, most are inefficient or difficult to obtain: difluorodia-
zirine, Me3SnCF3, and (CF3)2Hg, for instance, require sever-
al steps to prepare and involve expensive or toxic materi-
als.[16] The generation of difluorocarbene from hexafluoro-
propylene oxide (HFPO) must be carried out in an auto-
clave at high temperature.[17] Chlorodifluoromethane
(HCF2Cl) is a classical difluorocarbene reagent from which
difluorocarbene can be easily generated in the presence of
base, such as potassium tert-butoxide or hydroxide.[14a,18]
Speziale and Ratts once tried to capture the difluorocarbene
from HCF2Cl by PPh3 to form the difluoromethylene ylide
Ph3P+CF2À; however, their attempts failed.[7] It was suggest-
ed that difluorocarbene preferentially reacted with the
strong base rather than PPh3. We thought that reducing the
concentration of base might help the capture of difluorocar-
bene with PPh3. It was reported that the low concentration
of alkoxy anion produced from the ring-opening reaction of
ethylene epoxide could be used as the base for the genera-
tion of DCF2 from HCF2Cl.[19] Therefore, this procedure was
adopted for the trapping of difluorocarbene with PPh3.
In the presence of propylene oxide and tetra-n-butylam-
monium chloride, the reaction of 4-bromobenzaldehyde
with HCF2Cl and PPh3 gave the difluoro-olefination prod-
uct, indicating the formation of difluoromethylene ylide
oxide (Table 3, entry 8). Water was known to be detrimental
À [4b,14d]
to the reaction of DCF2 or Ph3P+CF2 .
Therefore, 4 ꢀ
MS were employed to remove trace amounts of water in the
reaction. It was found that the yield was significantly in-
creased with the addition of 4 ꢀ MS (Table 3, entry 9).
Under these conditions, we tried to reduce the amount of
nBu4NCl. The reaction proceeded smoothly, even when only
a catalytic amount of nBu4NCl was used (Table 3, entries 10
and 11). To our surprise, the difluoro-olefination reaction
took place even without the presence of nBu4NCl (Table 3,
entry 12), suggesting that 4 ꢀ MS acted both as a drying
agent and as a Lewis acid to promote the ring opening of
propylene epoxide. In the absence of propylene oxide, no
desired product was detected (Table 3, entry 13), which
means that the alkoxy anion from propylene epoxide initiat-
ed the reaction of HCF2Cl.
The difluoromethylene ylide derived from HCF2Cl could
be applied to the difluoro-olefination of a variety of aryl al-
dehydes, giving the corresponding gem-difluoroalkenes in
good to excellent yields (Table 4, entries 1–5). The relatively
lower yield of meta-trifluoromethyl benzaldehyde obtained
is due to the high volatility of the product; the yield deter-
mined by 19F NMR analysis was 81% (Table 4, entry 2).
Heteroaryl aldehydes are also suitable substrates for this re-
action (Table 4, entries 6 and 7). The reaction proceeded
quite well for the a,b-unsaturated aldehyde or enolizable al-
dehyde (Table 4, entries 8 and 9). However, even in the case
of an activated ketone, only a moderate yield of difluoro-
olefinated product could be obtained (Table 4, entry 10).
This reaction occurred through the following process
(Scheme 1). The ring-opening reaction of propylene oxide
Ph3P+CF2 in the reaction (Table 3, entry 1). Among the sol-
vents tested, DMF was shown to be the most suitable for
the difluoro-olefination (Table 3, entries 1–4). This indicated
À
Table 3. Optimization of reaction conditions for difluoro-olefination with
HCF2Cl.[a]
Entry
Solvent
nBu4NCl
[equiv]
T
[8C]
PO[b]
[equiv]
t
Yield[c]
[%]
G
N
[h]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
DMF
DG
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.2
0.1
–
80
80
80
80
90
110
110
110
110
110
110
110
110
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
–
4
4
4
4
4
4
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
15
<1
6
MB[d]
p-xylene
DMF
DMF
DMF
DMF
DMF
DMF
DMF
DMF
DMF
3
24
42
51
56
80
83
75
42
ND[f]
Scheme 1. Formation of difluorocarbene and difluoromethylene ylide
from HCF2Cl.
9[e]
10[e]
11[e]
12[e]
13[e]
by chloride afforded the alkoxy anion. This then abstracted
a proton from HCF2Cl to form the chlorodifluoromethyl
anion, which underwent decomposition to give difluorocar-
bene and a chloride anion. The chloride anion entered into
the next reaction cycle. Therefore, only a catalytic amount
of nBu4NCl was needed for the reaction. If water was pres-
ent in the reaction system, the alkoxy anion would be con-
–
[a] Performed on a 0.1 mmol scale based on 4a. [b] Propylene oxide.
[c] Determined by 19F NMR spectroscopy with the quantitative addition
of trifluoromethylbenzene as the internal standard. [d] Methylbenzoate.
[e] 50 mg 4 ꢀ MS was added. [f] Not detected by 19F NMR spectroscopy.
Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 00, 0 – 0
ꢁ 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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