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Propylene carbonate has been shown to be a prominent green solvent in Suzuki cross-coupling reactions. Furthermore, the microwave reactor is demonstrated to afford enhanced reaction yields with decreasing reaction times. Using either a microwave reactor or conventional heating, propylene carbonate is sustainable for the cross-coupling reaction.
The Suzuki cross-coupling reaction is one of the most used transformations in drug research. Propylene carbonate is a sustainable green solvent in cross-coupling reactions with high yields. The solvent is safe and environmentally benign because its production involves the fixation of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Reducing the greenhouse effect by removing harmful carbon dioxide from the air contributes to the deceleration of global warming. Propylene carbonate is a less toxic, less flammable, and less explosive solvent than the traditionally used tetrahydrofuran, 1,4-dioxane or benzene. Because of its high boiling point, there are numerous possibilities to use propylene carbonate in reactions: conventional heating in round-bottom flasks, microwave reactors, flow reactors, etc. Nevertheless, propylene carbonate is not stable enough and undergoes partial ring opening in the presence of a base in the reaction mixture. This examination addresses not only the scope and limitation of propylene carbonate as a solvent, but also includes the comparison of microwave reactor conditions with conventional heating. Using microwave heating instead of conventional heating leads to better yields and shorter reactions. In a microwave reactor, there is also the possibility to increase the pressure. That is, microwaves facilitate reactions, which do not reach high conversions at atmospheric pressure, but may provide better results at higher pressure range.
The purposes of the investigation are remodeling, renewing, and optimizing the conditions of Suzuki cross-coupling reactions, with a major focus on green chemistry, including the comparison of microwave heating and traditionally used oil-bath heating.
The Suzuki reaction is a palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of organoboranes with organic halides, triflates or perfluorinated sulfonates1. Subsequently, the reagent scope of organoboranes expanded from aryls to alkyls, alkenyls, and alkynyls, too2,3. The reaction requires a base, which activates the boronic compound. Usually, the solvent is a polar aprotic liquid, but it is possible to run the reaction with high yields in ionic liquids or water as well4. It is not always necessary, but heating or increasing the pressure provides better conversions5. Suzuki cross-coupling reactions proceed with high stereo- and regioselectivity6.
Nowadays, the green chemistry concept that is the necessity of searching and finding new pathways, methods, and techniques is spreading. These allow enhancement of the safety and decrease of the hazards of chemical syntheses. At the same time, there is a need to use renewable feedstocks and catalysts, safer solvents and auxiliaries. From the green chemical point of view, new efforts in research and developments, among others, should focus on preventing pollution, achieving better atom economy, and reducing the number of derivatives7.
Several efforts have been made to carry out Suzuki and other cross-coupling reactions under green and sustainable conditions8,9,10,11,12,13. Propylene carbonate is a green, polar aprotic solvent, which is an excellent choice for Suzuki reactions14,15. The dioxolane ring is prepared from carbon dioxide and propylene oxide (Figure 1)16,17. There is a great opportunity to decrease the greenhouse effect and related global warming by fixing atmospheric carbon dioxide. That is why propylene carbonate is called a carbon dioxide neutral solvent. Unfortunately, the alternative ethylene carbonate is solid at room temperature but is still suitable for reactions, in order to obtain colloidal Pd nanoparticles in the reaction mixtures. Ethylene carbonate serves as a unique solvent for the Wacker oxidation of higher alkenes and aryl alkenes has been successfully developed using molecular oxygen as the sole oxidant, in which colloidal Pd nanoparticles stabilized in ethylene carbonate are considered to facilitate its reoxidation under cocatalyst-free conditions18. Ethylene carbonate proved their effectiveness in the investigation of carboxylation of terminal alkynes at ambient CO2 pressure too19. In contrast, propylene carbonate is liquid at room temperature with a very high boiling point of 242 °C14,16. For instance the propylene carbonate tolerates the presence of Pd catalyst as well the ethylene carbonate does20. The GlaxoSmithKline solvent sustainability guide mentions propylene carbonate as one of the greenest choices, because of its low carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, volatility, flammability, and explosiveness21. Propylene carbonate proved its effectiveness in Suzuki, Heck, and Sonogashira couplings as well as in hydrogenation, oxidation, acylation, and amination15,22,23,24. The use of propylene carbonate allows to increase the temperature of the Suzuki reaction (typical temperatures are around 100 °C or lower) and, in the meantime, decrease reaction time. The solvent is environmentally benign in heterogeneous catalytic microwave-assisted synthetic reactions as well25,26. Unfortunately if the reaction mixture contains nucleophiles, propylene carbonate undergoes ring opening and 2-hydroxypropylation occurs27. Nevertheless, this ring-opening reaction allowed the isolation of several novel compounds. Consequently, propylene carbonate is not only a solvent but also a prominent green 2-hydroxypropylation reagent (Figure 2).
The use of the highly efficient and power-saving microwave reactor leads to shorter reaction times and better yields (Figure 3)28,29,30. The benefit is self-evident: heating 1 L of water from room temperature to its boiling point by using only 190 Wh electric power takes 4.7 min in a microwave reactor in comparison to 22 min using traditional oil-bath heating31. Selecting polar solvents to react under microwave irradiation is advantageous, because the polar medium transmits microwaves more efficiently, resulting in more effective heat convection, according to Leadbeater et al.32. The yields of Suzuki reactions in water as solvent, in the presence of phase transfer catalysts (e.g., tetrabutylammonium bromide), are between 14% to 96%33,34,35,36. Moreover, there is a possibility to enhance reaction yields in such greener solvents, for instance polyethylene glycol37 or water38 for microwave supported reactions.
This work focused on the comparison of two different heating ways (oil bath and microwave irradiation) in Suzuki cross-coupling reactions in the presence of propylene carbonate. The examination covered three iodoaryl compounds (2-iodopyridine, 4-iodopyridine and 6-iodopyridazin-3(2H)-one) and four organoboronic acids (2-naphthylboronic, phenylboronic, 4-biphenylboronic, and 4-fluorophenylboronic acid) (Figure 4). For the sake of comparison, the catalyst, in all cases, was tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0), and disodium carbonate was used as the base. Substrate 6-iodopyridazin-3(2H)-one is not commercially available and, consequently, it was synthesized in two steps from 3,6-dichloropyridazine, which is a commercial product. The chlorine atoms were substituted with iodine in the presence of aqueous hydrogen iodide39,40, followed by alkaline hydrolysis of the formed 3,6-diiodopyridazine41,42 in order to obtain 6-iodopyridazin-3(2H)-one (Figure 5). In the presence of disodium carbonate as base, the hydrogen, attached to the nitrogen of 6-iodopyridazin-3(2H)-one, acidic enough to create a nucleophile and open the propylene carbonate ring. This results in the formation of 2-(2-hydroxypropyl)-6-iodopyridazin-3(2H)-one intermediate (Figure 6), which is still a suitable material for Suzuki cross-coupling reactions43.
1. Producing 3,6-diiodopyridazine
2. Producing 6-iodopyridazin-3(2H)-one
3. Producing biaryls in round-bottom flask
4. Producing biaryls in the microwave reactor
5. NMR spectroscopy
6. High-performance liquid chromatography
The synthesis of 3,6-diiodopyridazine from 3,6-dichloropyridazine gave a product yield of 70%. The following step, the production of 6-iodopyridazin-3(2H)-one from 3,6-diiodopyridazine afforded 78% yield. The examination has not focused on optimizing these reactions, but we modified the original method and had better yields than those in the literature. However, there are possibilities to enhance the efficiency of the synthesis by varying reaction times, temperatures, and the solvents used. Changing these condit...
The preparation of 6-iodopyridazin-3(2H)-one from 3,6-dichloropyridazine, through the 3,6-diiodopyridazine intermediate is a user-friendly reaction, but the expected product is not formed with good yields without heating for 5 h. The protocol contains a step about washing the crude product with aqueous sodium thiosulfate. In this step, the monoiodo by-products are removed. There is a possibility to combine the two synthesis steps, because product 3,6-diiodopyridazine is not needed. This study did not focus on op...
The authors have nothing to disclose.
The work was supported by the Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
2-iodopyridine | TCI | I0533 | |
2-naphthylboronic acid | Lancaster | 480134 | |
3,6-dichloropyridazine | Alfa Aesar | A14795 | |
4-biphenylboronic acid | Alfa Aesar | B23703 | |
4-fluorophenylboronic acid | Lancaster | 417556 | |
4-iodopyridine | TCI | I0673 | |
acetic acid | LabChem | LC102902 | 50% aqueous |
acetonitrile | Sigma Aldrich | 34998 | for HPLC |
argon | Sigma Aldrich | 295000 | |
chloroform | Sigma Aldrich | 319988 | |
column chromatography | Merck | 109385 | Kieselgel 60F (0.040–0.063 nm mesh) |
copper sulfate | Sigma Aldrich | 209198 | |
disodium carbonate | Sigma Aldrich | 223530 | |
ethyl acetate | Sigma Aldrich | 319902 | |
formic acid | Sigma Aldrich | 33015 | |
hot plate | IKA | 3810000 | |
HPLC column | Agilent | 959963-302 | Zorbax Eclipse Plus C18, 3 mm×150 mm, 3.5 µm |
HPLC device | Agilent | LC MSD 1100 High Performance Liquid Chromatograph | |
hydrogen iodide | Alfa Aesar | L10410 | 57% aqueous |
lyophilization device | LabConco | 7558000 | LYPH-Lock 1L lyophilizer |
microwave reactor | CEM | Discover SP | |
NMR spectroscopy device | Varian | Mercury Plus | |
phenylboronic acid | Alfa Aesar | A14257 | |
propylene carbonate | Sigma Aldrich | 8.07051 | |
sodium hydroxide | Sigma Aldrich | 221465 | |
sodium thiosulfate | Sigma Aldrich | 217247 | |
sulfuric acid | Sigma Aldrich | 258105 | 95-98% |
tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) | FluoroChem | 34279 | |
thin layer chromatography | Merck | 105735 | Kieselgel 60F254 |
trifluoracetic acid | Sigma Aldrich | 302031 | for HPLC |
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