Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Synthesis

Method Aids Arene Meta Substitution

Regioselective technique eases challenging meta substitutions in functionalized arenes

by Stu Borman
November 17, 2014 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 92, Issue 46

Reaction scheme shows cycle to produce gamma-lactam.
A new synthetic approach adds substituents to arenes at ortho and meta positions (shown) or the two meta positions relative to the directing group.

Substituents are often added to arenes by directed metalation, in which an existing substituent helps direct a metalating reagent to abstract hydrogen from a carbon on the ring. An electrophile can then be added to form a substituted product, typically ortho to the directing group. Meta substitutions, on the other hand, are difficult and rare. Chemists have been trying to get beyond this “ortho curse,” and researchers in Scotland have now made an advance that could help break the spell (Science 2014, DOI: 10.1126/science.1259662). Robert E. Mulvey, Charles T. O’Hara, and coworkers at the University of Strathclyde identified directing groups that allow a disodium-magnesium alkylamide reagent to metalate two arene sites, at either ortho and meta positions or at both meta positions relative to the directing group. The approach differs from conventional directed ortho metalation in that the reagent instead of the directing group exerts primary control over which ring positions are modified. “C–H bonds in positions previously inaccessible to metalation, and hence to functionalization, should now be accessible,” O’Hara says.

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.