Novel Radical Alkylation of Carboxylic Imides

Abstract

Although alkylation is one of the most important and fundamental organic reactions, radical-mediated alkylations of carboxylic acid derivatives have not been well studied. The first successful radical alkylation of carboxylic imides is achieved by the addition of an alkyl radical to a ketene O,N-acetal and the subsequent cleavage of N-O bond. It is noteworthy that alkyl halides activated with an electron-withdrawing group undergo alkylations under tin-free conditions due to 1,2-phenyl transfer from silyl to oxygen.