Fries rearrangement

The Fries rearrangement, named for the German chemist Karl Theophil Fries, is a rearrangement reaction of a phenolic ester to a hydroxy aryl ketone by catalysis of Lewis acids.Despite many efforts, a definitive reaction mechanism for the Fries rearrangement has not been determined. Evidence for inter- and intramolecular mechanisms have been obtained by crossover experiments with mixed reactants. The Reaction progress is not dependent on solvent or substrate. A widely accepted mechanism involves a carbocation intermediate. Phenols react to form esters instead of hydroxyarylketones when reacted with acyl halides under Friedel-Crafts acylation conditions. Therefore, this reaction is of industrial importance for the synthesis of hydroxyarylketones, which are important intermediates for several pharmaceuticals. As an alternative to aluminium chloride, other Lewis acids such as boron trifluoride and bismuth triflate or strong protic acids such as hydrogen fluoride and methanesulfonic acid can also be used. In order to avoid the use of these corrosive and environmentally unfriendly catalysts altogether research into alternative heterogeneous catalysts is actively pursued.In all instances only esters can be used with stable acyl components that can withstand the harsh conditions of the Fries rearrangement. If the aromatic or the acyl component is heavily substituted then the chemical yield will drop due to steric constraints. Deactivating meta-directing groups on the benzene group will also have an adverse effect as can be expected for a Friedel–Crafts acylation.In addition to the ordinary thermal phenyl ester reaction a photochemical variant is possible. The photo-Fries rearrangement can likewise give and products. that involves a radical reaction mechanism. This reaction is also possible with deactivating substituents on the aromatic group. Because the yields are low this procedure is not used in commercial production. However, photo-Fries rearrangement may occur naturally, for example when a plastic bottle made of polycarbonate (PC) is exposed to the sun, particularly to UV light at a wavelength of about 310 nm, if the plastic has been heated to 40° Celsius or above (as might occur in a car with windows closed on a hot summer day). In this case, photolysis of the ester groups would lead to leaching of phthalate from the plastic.In the anionic Fries rearrangement ortho-metalation of aryl esters, carbamates and carbonates with a strong base results in a rearrangement to give ortho-carbonyl species.