PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF CYCLOPROPANE COMPOUNDS

Abstract: A process for the preparation of a high trans compound (as herein defined) of the general formula or an alkali metal salt thereof, in which each Hal indepen­ dently represents a chlorine or bromine atom, which com­ prises reacting a compound of the general formula or an alkali metal salt thereof, in which each Hal indepen­ dently represents a chlorine or bromine atom, with an alkali metal hydroxide, the reaction taking place in solution or suspension in an organic liquid phase having a dielectric constant of less than 10. The resulting compound is a useful intermediate in the synthesis of certain pyrethroid insecti­ cides.

Description: PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF CYCLOPROPANE COMPOUNDS This invention relates to a process for the preparation of cyclopropane compounds. Synthetic pyrethroid insecticides are esters which consist of an acid portion and an alcohol portion. In one group of pyrethroids, the acid portion is derived from a 2,2-dihalovinylcyclopropane carboxylic acid, and a great deal of research has been directed towards the preparation of these acids. Many research programmes have been directed towards a method of formation of the cyclopropane ring by base-catalysed cyclization of suitably substituted compounds related to hexanoic acid. In the most general of terms, such reactions can be represented as follows: EMI1.1 <tb> CH <SEP> xMCHal3 <SEP> 3 <SEP> Xal3 <SEP> / <SEP> CEal2 <tb> <SEP> jas <tb> CH3 <SEP> X <SEP> ¯ <SEP> 3 <SEP> ; <SEP> \ <SEP> ¯ <SEP> 3 <tb> <SEP> CHal <tb> <SEP> 2 <tb> <SEP> COSH <tb> Here Hal is halogen and either X is halogen and Y is hydrogen or X and Y together form an olefinic double bond. In the prior art, A and B can represent a variety of possible groups such that the desired acid (or an ester thereof) can be prepared. Examples of documents in which such reactions are disclosed are German Offenlegungsschrift 2606635 and UK Specifications 1561502, 1512419, 1520023 and 1580203. In general these reactions proceed smoothly and in good yield. However, as will be appreciated, the desired end-product (I) can exist as two geometric isomers, in which the -CH=CHal2 and -C02H groups are cis or trans to each other. (Each of these geometric isomers, of course, exists as two optical isomers). Synthetic pyrethroids in which the acid portion is in the cis form are in general more active as insecticides than the corresponding trans compound. One of the problems associated with the above type of reaction is that it tends in general to produce a mixture of the two possible products. Often the ratio of the two products is strongly dependent on the reaction conditions. Again, much research has been directed towards the development of a process which will produce the desired cis acid in iarge excess over the trans acid. European Patent Application No. 3683 describes one such process, in which the compound cyclised is an ester, and cyclisation occurs in such a way that the halogen-containing group and the ester group are cis to each other. The Applicants have now found that when using a specific type of hexanoic acid derivative as starting material, a specific type of base and a specific type ssf reaction medium, cyclisation can occur to give a compound containing a carboxyl group and a halogen-containing group trans to each other. This intermediate compound can be readily converted into the desired cis acid or ester. The invention therefore provides a process for the preparation of a high trans compound (as hereinafter defined) of the general formula EMI3.1 or an alkali metal salt thereof, in which each Hal indepen dently represents a chlorine or bromine atom, which comprises reacting a compound of the general formula EMI3.2 or an alkali metal salt thereof, in which each 1 independently represents a chlorine -btomine atom, with an alkali metal hydroxi-e, the reaction taking place in solution or suspension in an organic liquid phase having a dielectric constant of less than 10. Preferably each Hal in the formula IV represents the same type of halogen atom, especially a chlorine atom. The term trans applied to the compounds of formula II and III means the isomer in which the -CH2-CHal3 or -OH-ORal2 group and the -C02H group are trans to each other, thus: EMI4.1 (tri) trans (III) trans (2 possible optical isomers) (2 possible optical isomers) and the term cis should be construed accordingly. The term high trans" applied to the compounds II and III should be understood to meanthat the trans isomer is present in an amount of at least 60% of total compound i.e. that the trans ratio is at least 60:40. In practice, it is possible by using the process according to the invention under optimum conditions to obtain trans:cis ratios much higher than 60:40. The organic liquid phase having a dielectric constant of less than 10, may comprise a single organic compound or a mixture of two or more organic compounds. The dielectric constants of liquids show a small tenperature dependence and the liquid should be understood to have a dielectric constant of less than 10 measured at 20 C or, if the melting point is higher than 20 C, at just above the melting point. Dielectric constants of most common organic solvents can be found for example in Techniques of Chemis try vol. II, "Organic Solvents" by J.A. Riddick and W.B. Bunger, or in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" published by the Chemical Rubber Publishing Co. Ltd. Suitable organic liquids may for example be selected from the following general groups of compounds: or each specific compound the figure in brackets is the dielectric constant: hydrocarbons and chlorinated hydrocarbons, for example benzene (2.3), toulene (2.4), chlorobenzene, hexane, cyclohexane, di chloromethane and carbon tetrachloride; ethers such as diethyl ether and dioxane; esters such as ethyl acetate; and alcohols such as menthol and t-amyl alcohol. The only essential feature of the liquid is that it should have the required dielectric constant. In general, the trans:cis ratio of the products II and/or III tends to increase with decreasing dielectric constant. Thus the dielectric constant is preferably less than 5, especially less than 4. The starting material IV (or its alkali metal salt) may be fully soluble in the organic liquid phase having a dielectric constant of less than 10 but this is not essential. The reaction will also proceed to give a high trans product with solid starting material IV in suspension in the organic phase: in such a case, it is possible that the reaction takes place at the interface between the solid and the organic liquid, or that the reaction occurs via small amounts of starting material in solution. In some cases, it has been found desirable to include in the organic phase, a liquid with a very low dielectric constant, such as carbon tetrachloride, in which the starting material is very poorly soluble, together with a liquid with a higher dielectric constant in order to increase the solubility of the starting material. This may increase the rate of the reaction and/or the handling properties of the reaction mixture. The overall dielectric constant of this mixture should not of course exceed 10. While it is not essential that the starting material be soluble in the organic liquid phase having a dielectric constant of less than 10, steps should be taken to ensure that the starting material does not dissolve to any great extent in any other liquid phase present which does not have a dielectric constant of less than 10. Thus for example if it is desired to dose the hydroxide to the reaction mixture in the form of an aqueous solution, this is possible provided that steps are taken to ensure that the starting material does not dissolve to any significant extent in the aqueous phase. This may be done by ensuring that the aqueous phase contains a sufficiently high concentration of base that the starting material cannot dissolve in significant amounts therein . If however dilute solutions of hydroxide are dosed to the reaction mixture, the starting material will dissolve in the water, and reaction will take place in that phase reducing the trans:cis ratio. Sodium, potassium and lithium hydroxides are all suitable for use in the process according to the invention, with lithium hydroxide usually givng marginally higher trans:cis ratios in the compounds II and/or III. The base may be added to the reaction mixture in solid form. If it is desired to use the base in the form of an aqueous solution, this is possible subject to the constraints of solubility of the starting material discussed above. In general, in order to prevent the dissolution of large quantities of the starting material in the aqueous phase, any aqueous hydroxide added preferably contains at least 20% by weight of hydroxide. Such a high concentration is not possible with lithium hydroxide, which is not very soluble in water, so lithium hydroxide is most conveniently dosed as solid Li0H or LiOH.H20. The stoichiometry of the ring closure reaction to an alkali metal salt of compound II requires the use of two moles of hydroxide per mole of starting material when starting from the free acid IV, and one mole per mole when starting from an alkali metal salt of the acid. In general, the use of rather higher quantities of hydroxide is preferred; for example an excess of at least 0.25 moles hydroxide per mole of starting material, preferably an excess of from 0.25 to 5 moles per mole, may be used. Reaction times may of course vary enormously depending on the precise reaction conditions, but times of less than 8 hours, often around 4 hours, give generally acceptable results. The immediate product of the reaction is normally an alkali metal salt of the compound II and/or III, which can of course be converted to the free acid if desired. The process according to the invention is preferably conducted at a temperature in the range of from 0 to 1000C, especially 10 to 500C. As discussed below, relatively high temperatures, for example greater than 600C, tend to promote the formation of greater quantities of compounds of formula III relative to compounds of formula II. Whether a compound of formula II or of formula III (or an alkali metal salt thereof) is obtained in the process according to the invention when using excess hydroxide, depends on the precise reaction conditions. In general, the base-induced cyclisation to the compound of formula II takes place at a lower temperature than that required to dehydrohalogenate a'-CH2-CHal3 group to a -CH=CHal2 group. Thus by maintaining a relatively low reaction temperature, it is possible to obtain a product containing compound II together with very little or no compound III. Under most circumstances, this is the more desirable way to conduct the reaction, since it has been found that at the higher temperatures required to produce high yields of compound III directly in the process of the invention, an undesired side reaction occurs: further dehydrohalogenation to produce a haloacetylene group, -C-CHal, occurs. Furthermore, this reaction appears to proceed more readily with the trans isomer than with the cis isomer, thus reducing not only the chemical yield but also the trans:cis ratio of the product. It has further been found that the dehydrohalogenation to the acetylene occurs more readily in solvents of lower dielectric constant than in solvents of higher dielectric constant. Thus a preferred mode of operation is to conduct the reaction according to the invention under conditions favouring formation of the compound of the general formula II, and then subsequently to increase the dielectric constant of the reaction medium, either by completely replacing the solvent or by adding a high dielectric constant solvent, such as methanol, and to raise the temperature to produce the compound of the general formula III. The dehydrohalogenation reaction, of course, consumes one additional molar equivalent of a base, which may be an alkali metal hydroxide or a different base, as desired. The accompanying drawing shows schematically a series of reactions for the preparation of the desired dihalovinyl acid I from a compound of the general formula IV. For clarity, all compounds have been shown as free acids rather than their alkali metal salts, and only the reactions of the desired isomers have been shown. Thus a resulting compound II may be dehydrohalogenated and decarboxylated, in one or two steps, and a resulting compound III may be decarboxylated? to give the cyano compound V. This compound may be hydrolysed by known methods'to give the desired acid I. Alternatively the cyano compound V may be alcoholized by known methods to give an ester of the acid I. The starting material IV may be prepared by any suitable method, for example by reaction of the compound: EMI8.1 with a carbon tetrahalide, CHal4, in the presence of a catalyst, for example an iron salt plus benzoin. If this reaction is carried out in the presence of a suitable solvent system for example in excess CHal4 optionally together with a suitable co-solvent, the resulting reaction mixture containing the compound IV may if desired be reacted directly in the process according to the present invention without intermediate work-up. The following Examples illustrate the invention. Throughout the Examples, 2,2-dimethyl-3-(2,2,2-trichloro- ethyl)-l-cyanocyclopropane carboxylic acid is referred to as A, and 2,2-dimethyl-3-(2,2-dichloroethenyl)-1-cyanocyclo- propane carboxylic acid is referred to as B. Analyses were carried out using NMR and/or gas-liquid chromatography. Example 1 Potassium hydroxide (0.5 g, 8.93 mmol) was added in solid form to a vigorously stirred suspension of 4,6,6,6tetrachloro-3,3-dimethyl-2-cyanohexanoic acid (0.5 g, 1.63 mmol) in 5 ml of toluene. The reaction mixture was stirred for 4 hours at room temperature. The reaction mixture was taken up in water, acidified with HCl and thoroughly extracted with diethylether. The combined ethereal extracts were dried over anhydrous magnesium sulphate. Evaporation of the solvent in vacuo gave a solid product. Analysis of the product by NMR showed the following distribution: cis/trans-2, 2-dimethyl-3-(2, 2, 2-trichloroethyl)-1-cyanocyclo- propane carboxylic acid (A) cis/trans-2, 2-dimethyl-3-(2, 2-dichloroethenyl)-1-cyanocyclo- propane carboxylic acid (B) A:B ¯ 93:7, cis:trans ratio 14:86 Example 2 The product from Example 1 was dissolved in 5 ml of methanol containing potassium hydroxide (0.5 g, 8.93 mmol) and stirred for 4 hours at reflux temperature. The reaction mixture was allowed to cool to room temperature, taken up in water, acidified with HC1 and thoroughly extracted with diethylether. The combined ethereal extracts were dried over anhydrous magnesium sulphate. Evaporation of the solvent gave a solid product. Analysis of the product by NMR showed the following distribution: cis-2, 2-dimethyl-3-( 2, 2-dichloroethenyl)-1-cyanocyclopro- pane carboxylic acid (cis-B) trans-2, 2-dimethyl-3-(2, 2-dichloroethenyl)-1-cyanocyclo- propane carboxylic acid (trans B) cis:trans ratio - 14:86 Example 3 Potassium hydroxide (0.5 g, 8.93 mmol) was added in solid form to a vigorously stirred suspension of 4,6,6,6-tetrachloro-3,3-dimethyl-2-cyanohexanoic acid (0.5 g, 1.63 mmol) in 10 ml of toluene. The reaction mixture was stirred for 4 hours at room temperature. After addition of 5 ml of methanol the mixture was heated to reflux temperature and stirred for an additional 4 hours. The reaction mixture was allowed to cool to room temperature, taken up in water, acidified with HCl and thoroughly extracted with dimethyl ether. The combined ethereal extracts were dried over anhydrous magnesium sulphate. Evaporation of the solvent gave solid B. Analysis of this product by NMR showed that it had a cis:trans ratio of 15:85. Examples 4 to 8 The procedure of Example 1 was followed except that the toluene was replaced by the stated organic liquids. In Example 8, the reaction was conducted at 800C, menthol being a solid at room temperature. In all cases, the main product obtained was A, with only small quantities of B present. The results are given in Table 1. Table 1 Example No. Solvent cis:trans ratio of product 3 toluene:dioxane 14:86 1:1 by volume 4 diethylether 18:82 5 dichloromethane 23:77 6 ethyl acetate 22:78 7 dioxane 14:86 8 menthol 25:75 Examples 9 to 13 A series of experiments were carried out as follows. 1 g finely powdered 4,6,6,6-tetrachloro-3,3-dimethyl-2-cya- nohexanoic acid was added to a mixture of 8 g carbon tetrachloride and 2 g methyl isobutyl ketone. The appropriate base was then added, and the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for the stated reaction time. In all cases, the main product was A, with only small quantities of B present. The results are given in Table 2. Table 2 Example Hydroxide molar ratio reaction cis:trans no. added base:starting time ratios of material (hours) products 9 KOH pellets 2.4:1 4 15:85 10 NaOH pellets 2.4:1 4 12:88 11 Na0H 30Z w. 2.6:1 1 16:84 aqueous solution 12 NaOH 55X w. 3.0:1 1 12:88 aqueous solution 13 LiOH powder 2.4:1 6 9:91 Example 14 Example 13 was repeated exactly except that the solvent was replaced by 5 g carbon tetrachloride and 0.33 g methyl isobutyl ketone. The cis:trans ratio of the product was 7:93. Example 15 Example 12 was repeated exactly, except that the following additional components were added, expressed as moles per mole of 4,6,6,6-tetracholoro-3,3-dimethyl-2- cyanohexanoic acid: benzil (0.25), FeCl3 (0.10) and LiCl (0.10) .(This system models a reaction mixture in which the starting material has been generated in situ by iron-catalysed addition of carbon tetrachloride to 2-cyano-3,3-dimethyl-4-pentenoic acid.) The cis:trans ratio of the product was 16:84. When this experiment was repeated at a temperature of 500C instead of room temperature, the cis:trans ratio obtained was 14:86. Examples 16 to 18 (comparison) The procedure of Example 1 was followed except that the toluene was replaced by various solvents having a dielectric constant of greater then 10. The results are shown in Table 3 below. Table 3 Example No. Solvent Molar ratio cis:trans ratio A:B produced of product 16 methanol Not determined 42:58 17 acetoni- 77:23 45:55 trile 18 water only trace B 56:44

Claims: Claims 1. A process for the preparation of a high trans compound (as hereinbefore defined) of the general formula EMI14.1 or an alkali metal salt thereof, in which each Hal independently represents a chlorine or bromine atom, which comprises reacting a compound of the general formula EMI14.2 or an alkali meeal salt thereof, in which each Hal independently represents a chlorine or bromine atom, with an alkali metal hydroxide, the reaction taking place in solution or suspension in an organic liquid phase having a dielectric constant of less than 10. 2. A process as claimed in claim 1, in which each Hal in the general formula IV represents a chlorine atom. 3. A process as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, in which said organic liquid phase has a dielectric constant of less than 5. 4. A process as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, in which said organic liquid phase comprises one or more liquids selected from the following classes of compounds: hydrocarbons; chlorinated hydrocarbons; ethers; esters; and alcohols. 5. A process as claimed in any one of-claims 1 to 4, carried out at a temperature in the range of from 0 to 100 cm. 6. A process as claimed in claim 5, carried out at a temperature in the range of from 10 to 50"C. 7. A high-trans compound of the general formula II or III as defined in claim 1, or an alkali metal salt thereof, whenever prepared by a process as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6. 8. The use of a compound as claimed in claim 7 in a process for the preparation of an acid of the general formula EMI15.1 or a salt or an ester thereof, in which each Hal independently represents a chlorine or bromine atom.

Inventors: DE NIE-SARINK, MARGARETHA JOHANNA, SCHMITZ, FELIX, VAN HELDEN, ROBERT
Applicants: SHELL INTERNATIONALE RESEARCH MAATSCHAPPIJ B.V.
Application year: 1982
Main classification: C07C121
IPC codes: C07C255, C07C51, C07C61, C07C253, C07C67, A01N53