As a part of an in vestigat ion of the synthesis of highly branched a li phatic hydrocarbons tha t is being co nduc ted at t he National Bureau of Stand a rds for the National Adv iso ry Committee for Aeronau t ics, the l\'avy Bureau of Ae ronautics, and t he Army Air Forces, se ve ra l compo unds have been prepared by in teraction of alky l h a lides a nd variou s carbo nyl compo unds in the prese nce of sod ium. This reaction makes possib le t he sy n t hesis of ce rtain highly branched compou nd s not easily obtain able by other m eans.
L IntroductionThe usc of the GrignaI'd r eaction for synthesis of highly branched compounds is limited by un-I d esirable side reactions, which become progres-. s ively more pronounced as the degree of branching of the r eactan ts is increased. These side r eactions involve the l'eclu ction and enolization of the adduct rather than th e desired addition of the alkyl group . The recent work: of Bartlett and Schn eider [1) 1 and previous work by Morton and Stevens (13) indicate that th e reaction between an alkyl halide and an ester or ketone undel' th e influen ce of sodium may be used to prepare certain compounds more easily than by th e GrignaI'd reaction, or m ay be used in some cases in which the Grignard reaction fails completely as a synthetic tool. In this paper, are described the )'Csults of a few reactions that were designed to give information concerning the scope of the reaction and th e effect of variou s solvents an d temperatures of reaction . The work of Bartlett and Schn eider has been extended to include a few additional reactants.
II. ExperimentalThe apparatus u sed in making small-scale runs was th e conventional three-n eck flask of appropriate size, fitted with a stirrer, reflux condenser, and th ermometer. A separatory funnel was placed at the top of th e condenser. H eating and Aliphatic Condensations by Sodium cooling of th e r eaction mixture was effected by application of ho t or cold oil baths. In some cases, particularly with lo w-boiling solvents, both small necks of th e flask were fitted with reflux condensers with th e elimination of the thermometer.Sodium sand was prepared batch-wise by h eating a weighed amount of sodium in a purified ligh t mineral oil until melted, and then sh aking the liquid sod ium vigorously in a closed E rlenm eyer flask until th e des ired state of subdivision was obtained. After the particles of sodium h ad cooled sufficiently, they were wash ed by decan tation with three or four portions of the solvent to be used, transferred to the reaction vessel, and immediately covered with solvent.A few of the first reactions tried in this series were conducted in ?i-pentane (boiling range 34° to 38° C), but later ones were condu cted in isooctane 2 (boiling point, 99° C). It wa found tha t t he vigorous reactions were more easily con trolled when th e high er-boiling solvent was used. Also th e usc of isooctane as a solven t facilitated the use of higher temperatures for th e reactions.Bartlett and Schneider carried out th eir...