Grob Fragmentation - History

History

An early instance of fragmentation is the dehydration of di(tert-butyl)methanol yielding 2-methyl-2-butene and isobutene, a reaction described in 1933 by Frank C. Whitmore. This reaction proceeds by formation of a secondary carbocation followed by a rearrangement reaction to a more stable teriary carbocation and elimination of a t-butyl cation.

Fragmentation reaction Whitmore 1933

Albert Eschenmoser in 1952 investigated the base catalysed fragmentation of certain beta hydroxy ketones

Fragmentation reaction Eschenmoser 1952

The original work published by Grob (1955) concerns the formation of 1,5-hexadiene from cis or trans 1,4-dibromocyclohexane by sodium metal. According to reviewers Prantz and Mulzer in 2010 the name Grob fragmentation was chosen in more or less glaring disregard of the earlier contributions.

Grob fragmentation 1955

Read more about this topic:  Grob Fragmentation

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    When the history of guilt is written, parents who refuse their children money will be right up there in the Top Ten.
    Erma Brombeck (20th century)

    It is my conviction that women are the natural orators of the race.
    Eliza Archard Connor, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 9, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)

    Considered in its entirety, psychoanalysis won’t do. It’s an end product, moreover, like a dinosaur or a zeppelin; no better theory can ever be erected on its ruins, which will remain for ever one of the saddest and strangest of all landmarks in the history of twentieth-century thought.
    Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)