Benzaldehyde → 4-Allyl-benzonitrile

Participants

Reaction Steps

Highly substituted chloro and methoxy aryl bromides can readily be converted into the desired Grignard reagents 3i, j. After the reaction with ClPPh2 and oxidative work-up, the phosphine oxides 2ia, ja are obtained in good yields (entry 15, 16). This type of compound is of interest in relation with P-ligands for asymmetric catalysis.[5] Also functions like a cyano group are tolerated. Thus, the reaction of 4-bromobenzonitrile in THF at −7° C. leads to the desired arylmagnesium reagent (3d) in only 50% conversion using i-PrMgCl whereas over 90% is observed with i-PrMgCl.LiCl (Scheme 3). The addition of benzaldehyde provides the alcohol 2da in 81% yield whereas allylation of arylmagnesium reagent (3d) with allyl bromide leads to the corresponding 4-allylbenzonitrile in 92% yield (entry 5,6 of Table 1). See FIG. 3 for additional information.

Provenance & Evidence