Decarbonylative Methylation of Aromatic Esters by a Nickel Catalyst

Treating arylamines with nitrous acid gives aryldiazonium salts that are effective substrates in nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions. The diazonio group in these salts can be easily displaced by different nucleophiles, yielding a wide variety of substituted benzenes. The leaving group departs as nitrogen gas, and this easy elimination is the driving force for the substitution reaction.
In the Sandmeyer reaction, for example, the diazonio group is replaced by a chloro, bromo,...

In general, the term ‘aromatic’ indicates a pleasant smell or fragrance from fresh flowers, freshly prepared coffee, etc. In the early history of organic chemistry, many benzene derivatives were isolated from the pleasant odor oils of the plants. For example, vanillin was isolated from the oil of vanilla, methyl salicylate from the oil of wintergreen, and cinnamaldehyde from the oil of cinnamon. They all had a pleasant odor; hence the name aromatic was given.
In 1825, Faraday isolated...

The basicity of aromatic amines is much weaker than that of aliphatic amines due to the involvement of the lone pair of electrons over the N atom in resonance with the aryl rings. Generally, the electron-donating ability of any substituents on the aryl ring of aromatic amines increases the basicity of the amine by increasing electron density, and hence the availability of lone pair on the nitrogen. On the other hand, electron-withdrawing functional groups on the aryl ring of amines decrease the...

Alcoholysis is a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction in which an alcohol functions as a nucleophile. Acid halides react with alcohol to produce esters. The mechanism proceeds in three steps:

Esters are reduced to primary alcohols when treated with a strong reducing agent like lithium aluminum hydride. The reaction requires two equivalents of the reducing agent and proceeds via an aldehyde intermediate.
Lithium aluminum hydride is a source of hydride ions and functions as a nucleophile. The mechanism proceeds in three steps. Firstly, the nucleophilic hydride ion attacks the carbonyl carbon of the ester to form a tetrahedral intermediate. Subsequently, the carbonyl group re-forms,...

The reaction of an ester with a Grignard reagent, followed by hydrolysis of the magnesium alkoxide salt in aqueous acid, yields a tertiary alcohol. In the case of formate esters, secondary alcohols are formed.
The reaction requires two equivalents of the Grignard reagent and introduces two identical alkyl groups, derived from the Grignard reagent, bonded to the hydroxyl-bearing carbon of the alcohol.
The reaction follows the typical nucleophilic acyl substitution mechanism. The Grignard...