Alkylation of 2-bromoaniline with benzyl bromide under ostensibly basic N-alkylation conditions resulted in migration of bromine from the 2- to the 4-aryl position. Herein we report our studies to elucidate the mechanism of this rearrangement with the objective of suppressing this unexpected outcome. We find that careful choice of reagents is critical, and that this behavior may be extrapolated to alkylation reactions of electron-rich bromo- and iodoanilines in general.
Keywords: alkylation; bromine; bromoaniline; rearrangement.