From dipivaloylketene to tetraoxaadamantanes
Dipivaloylketene (2) is obtained by flash vacuum pyrolysis of furan-2,3-dione 6 and dimerizes to 1,3-dioxin-4-one 3, which is a stable but reactive ketene. The transannular addition and rearrangement of enols formed by the addition of nucleophiles to the ketene function in 3 generates axially chiral 2,6,9-trioxabicyclo[3.3.1]nonadienes (bisdioxines) 4. When arylamines are used as the nucleophiles under neutral conditions, decarboxylation occurs during the formation of bisdioxines 8. However, when water or alcohols are added to 3 under acidic conditions, bisdioxine-carboxylic acids and esters 10 and 11 are obtained. Acid hydrolysis of the bisdioxines proceeds through the addition of water to a C=C double bond and results in a second transannular oxa-Michael-type reaction and generation of tetraoxaadamantanes 5. This reaction is decarboxylative when free carboxylic acid functions are present in the bisdioxines, thus forming 21 and 22, but carboxylic acid derivatives are preserved to yield compounds 20, 23, 25, 28, and 29. A hydrogenolysis of the dibenzyl ester 23 yields the free dicarboxylic acid 24. The tetraoxaadamantanes are formed in high yields (65–95%) in most cases, but the addition of water to the concave inside of the bisdioxines becomes severely hindered in cyclic derivatives, so that the 38-membered ring compound 32 requires microwave heating at 170 °C to form tetraoxaadamantane 33, and the catenated compound 36 and calix[6]arene derivative 37 did not form tetraoxaadamantanes. The reaction mechanisms of bisdioxine and tetraoxaadamantane formation are discussed.
How Acid-Catalyzed Decarboxylation of 2,4-Dimethoxybenzoic Acid Avoids Formation of Protonated CO2.
The decarboxylation of 2,4-dimethoxybenzoic acid (1) is accelerated in acidic solutions. The rate of reaction depends upon solution acidity in a manner that is consistent with the formation of the conjugate acid of 1 (RCO2H2(+)), with its higher energy ring-protonated tautomer allowing the requisite C-C bond cleavage. However, this would produce the conjugate acid of CO2, a species that would be too energetic to form. Considerations of mechanisms that fit the observed rate law were supplemented with DFT calculations. Those results indicate that the lowest energy pathway from the ring-protonated reactive intermediate involves early proton transfer from the carboxyl group to water along with C-C bond cleavage, producing 1,3-dimethoxybenzene and CO2 directly.
Identification of Dihydroxy Aromatic Compounds in a Low-Temperature Pyrolysis Coal Tar by Gas Chromatography−Mass Spectrometry (GC−MS) and Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FT-ICR MS)
Dihydroxy aromatics in coal tar undergo rapid coupling reactions with each other and with some coal-derived species during coal pyrolysis and liquefaction. However, only limited information on the structure of dihydroxy aromatics is known. In this study, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) and gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC−MS) were used to characterize the dihydroxy aromatics in a low-temperature pyrolyzed coal tar and its distillate and residue fractions. Negative-ion electrospray ionization (ESI) FT-ICR MS spectra of coal-tar-derived samples had low molecular masses and narrow mass ranges. Negative-ion ESI is extremely selective for the dihydroxy aromatics present in coal tar. The O2 class species had the highest ion intensity among the species in the negative-ion FT-ICR mass spectrum for each sample. Dihydroxy compounds with an aromatic core structure of benzene, indan, biphenyl (and/or acenaphthene), and naphthalene were identified in the distillate fract...