Home > Community > Why don't we use an alkyl halide directly in Gabriel Phthalimide Synthesis?
Upvote

24

Downvote
+ Biochemistry
+ Synthesis
Posted by
Marianne Komek

Why don't we use an alkyl halide directly in Gabriel Phthalimide Synthesis?

Marwan Anouar  Follow

The goal is to make a primary alkylamine without causing polyalkylation. If you do not activate the pthalimide nitrogen with a base, you have a highly delocaled lone pair on the nitrogen. At best, you get an Sn1 reaction, however that will not give a primary amine as loss of the halide (if you can force it to go) will undergo Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement (hydride shift) to give a secondary or tertiary amine. This is the point of the Gabriel phthalimide synthesis.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote
David Hawley  Follow

It is used to make the conjugate base of the imide which is far more nucleophilic than the imide itself, but not too much to attack another molecule of the alkyl halide.

More

Upvote

VOTE

Downvote