A nitrosobenzene

Chiral non-racemic 0-(2-ketoalkyl) A-phenylhydroxylamines such as 115 (equation 84) can be prepared through catalytic enantioselective a-aminoxylation of carbonyl compounds catalyzed by proline. This reaction proceeds with a variety of ketones and aldehydes although it has been tried only with a nitrosobenzene component ... 

In direct nitroso aldol reactions of a-branched aldehydes, an L-prolinamide (50) catalyses to give a-hydroxyamino carbonyl compounds which are otherwise dis- favoured ees up to 64% were found.149 Another prolinamide derivative gives similar results in a nitrosobenzene reaction.150 For proline-catalysed cases involving highly substituted cyclohexanones, DFT calculations have highlighted the roles of electro- static and dipole-dipole interactions in the level of de achieved.151 (g)... 

Thebaine was also the starting material for the preparation of 14-(aryl-hydroxyamino)codeinones<288) (185) by 1,4-addition of a nitrosobenzene and acid treatment of the adduct (184). Catalytic hydrogenation gave the 14/3-arylaminodihydrocodeinones (186). Sodium methoxide treatment of 185 caused cyclization to the oxazoline derivative (187). None of these compounds, including 179 (R = NHOH), had interesting opioid activity. 

Addition of cycloheptatriene and a nitrosobenzene affords the isoxazolidines (50).164-167 The effect of the substituent X of nitrosobenzene upon the rate of reaction is N02 > Cl > H >Me > NMe2 in line with the Hammett equation.167... 

The initial product, nitrosobenzene, is so easily reduced to p-phenylhydroxyl-amine that it has never been isolated in the free state, but its presence has been established by reaction in solution with hydroxylamine to 3deld a phenyldi-azonium salt, which couples readily with a a-naphthylamine to form the dyestuff phenyl-azo-a-naphthylamine (compare Section IV,77) ... 

Add 4 4 g. of recrystaUised -phenylhydroxylamine to a mixture of 20 ml. of concentrated sulphuric acid and 60 g. of ice contained in a 1 litre beaker cooled in a freezing mixture. Dilute the solution with 400 ml. of water, and boil until a sample, tested with dichromate solution, gives the smell of quinone and not of nitrosobenzene or nitrobenzene (ca. 10-15 minutes). Neutralise the cold reaction mixture with sodium bicarbonate, saturate with salt, extract twice with ether, and dry the ethereal extract with anhydrous magnesium or sodium sulphate. Distil off the ether p-aminophenol, m.p. 186°, remains. The yield is 4-3 g. 

The reduction of the nitro group to yield aniline is the most commercially important reaction of nitrobenzene. Usually the reaction is carried out by the catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene, either in the gas phase or in solution, or by using iron borings and dilute hydrochloric acid (the Bechamp process). Depending on the conditions, the reduction of nitrobenzene can lead to a variety of products. The series of reduction products is shown in Figure 1 (see Amines byreduction). Nitrosobenzene, /V-pbenylbydroxylamine, and aniline are primary reduction products. Azoxybenzene is formed by the condensation of nitrosobenzene and /V-pbenylbydroxylamine in alkaline solutions, and azoxybenzene can be reduced to form azobenzene and hydrazobenzene. The reduction products of nitrobenzene under various conditions ate given in Table 2. 

Oxidation. Aromatic amines can undergo a variety of oxidation reactions, depending on the oxidizing agent and the reaction conditions. For example, oxidation of aniline can lead to formation of phenyUiydroxylamine, nitrosobenzene, nitrobenzene, azobenzene, azoxybenzene or -benzoquinone. Oxidation was of great importance in the early stages of the development of aniline and the manufacture of synthetic dyes, such as aniline black and Perkin s mauve. 

Phenazine mono-N-oxides have also been prepared from nitrobenzene derivatives. Condensation of nitrobenzene with aniline using dry NaOH at 120-130 °C results in modest yields of phenazine 5-oxide, although the precise mechanism of this reaction is not well understood (57HC(ll)l) with unsymmetrical substrates it is not possible to predict which of the isomeric fV-oxides will be produced. Nitrosobenzene derivatives also function as a source of phenazine mono-fV-oxides thus, if 4-chloronitrosobenzene is treated with sulfuric acid in acetic acid at 20 °C the fV-oxide is formed (Scheme 21). 

The replacement of rhodium from a wide range of rhodacycles to form condensed furans, thiophenes, selenophenes, tellurophenes and pyrroles has been widely explored and a range of examples is shown in Scheme 97. The rhodacycles are readily generated from the appropriate dialkyne and tris(triphenylphosphine)rhodium chloride. Replacement of the rhodium by sulfur, selenium or tellurium is effected by direct treatment with the element, replacement by oxygen using m-chloroperbenzoic acid and by nitrogen using nitrosobenzene. 

Cyclopropenones react with nitrosobenzene by an O-initiated attack at C-1 to produce isoxazolin-5-ones (75TL3283, 78USP4053481), and an isoxazolin-5-one was produced as a by-product in the photolysis of nitroethylene (78AJCU3). Substituted oxazolin-5-ones have... 

Azetidine N-oxides produce isoxazolidines by a thermal ring expansion (77AHC(21)207, 75GEP2365391), and nitrosobenzenes react with alkenes to provide isoxazolidines (77AHC(21)207, 79IZV1059). 

Nitrosobenzene [586-96-9] M 107.1, m 67.5-68 , b 57-59 /18mm. Steam distd, then cryst from a small volume of EtOH with cooling below 0°, dried over CaCl2 in a dessicator at atm pressure, and stored under N2 at 0°. Alternatively it can be distd onto a cold finger cooled with brine at —10 in a vac at 17mm (water pump), while heating in a water bath at 65-70° [Robertson and Vaughan J Chem Educ 27 605 1950]. 

Whereas the production of arylnitrenes by the deoxygenation of nitrosobenzenes or nitro-benzenes by trivalent phosphorus reagents and their subsequent intramolecular ring expansion to 3//-azepines are well-known processes, the corresponding intermolecular reactions to form 1//-azepines have been exploited only on rare occasions and appear to be of little preparative value. For example, the highly electrophilic pentafluorophenylnitrene, obtained by deoxygenation of pentafluoronitrosobenzene with triethyl phosphite in benzene solution, produced a low yield (2-10%) of l-(pentafluorophenyl)-l//-azepine, which was isolated as its [4 + 2] cycloadduct with ethenetetracarbonitrile.169 With anisole as the substrate l-(pentafluorophenyl)-l//-azepin-2(3//)-one (16% bp 128 —130 C/0.4 Torr) was obtained. 

Nitrosobenzene undergoes deoxygenation with triphenyl- or tributylphosphane in refluxing diethyl ether in the presence of an alkylamine to yield /V,A -dialkyl-3//-azepin-2-amines... 

An X-ray structural analysis has confirmed that ethyl 1//-azepine-1-carboxylate (1) and nitrosobenzene yield the [6 + 2] adduct 1 1 183-254 255 Subsequently, however, a careful analysis of the reaction mixture by HNMR spectroscopy indicated that a [4 1 2] adduct is also formed, albeit in low yield, to which structure 12 was assigned.256... 

Structure 12 may need to be revised, however, since a recent X-ray crystallographic analysis on the corresponding [4 + 2] cycloadduct 13 from ethyl 1//-azepine-1-carboxylate (1) with ethyl 4-nitrosobenzoate reveals the opposite regiochemistry to that proposed for the adduct with nitrosobenzene.297 The [6 + 2] adduct is also formed, in this case in 41 % yield (mp 106-107 C). 

Treatment of a mixture of ethyl 2,5-dimethyl- and ethyl 3,6-dimethyl-l//-azepine-l-carboxylate in benzene solution with nitrosobenzene yields only the [6 + 2] adduct (26% mp 99-100.5 CC) of the 3,6-dimethyl isomer.80 Other isomeric dimethyl-l//-azepine-l-carboxylates, and mono-methyl-1//-azepines, fail to react. 

The same diazepine acts as a 4 -component in the cycloaddition with nitrosobenzene to give the bridged compound 22.101... 

Baltrop and Bunce (Ref 20) employed a variety of radiation wavelengths, nitrocompds and solvents. For wavelengths less than 2900A, aniline was the main product, while above 2900A, bimolecular species such as azobenzene predominated. Since oxygen had little effect on aniline production, expts were performed in the presence of oxygen. For nitrobenzene in isopropyl alcohol, no azoxybenzene was produced as with Hurley and Testa (See above Ref 17). They concluded that the excited state abstracts H-atoms, and suggest that the nitrobenzene triplet is in tt, ti, and that nitrosobenzene is an unobserved intermediate... 

Rate law and activation energy. The oxidation of nitrosobenzene by terf-butyl hydroperoxide is catalyzed by di-terf-butyl peroxyoxalate (TBO) and by a cobalt(II) chelate complex. 

Note Trimethylammonio or pyridinio groups can be displaced from quinoxaline by cyanide ion to afford quinoxalinecarbonitriles or, with nitrosobenzene, to give a nitrone. 

Pyridiniomethyl-2(17/)-quinoxalinone bromide (167) with nitrosobenzene gave the nitrone, 3-[(A -oxidophenylimino)methyl]-2(17/)-quinoxalinone (167a)... 

These radical anions have been detected by ESR. This mechanism is consistent with the following result when nitrosobenzene and phenylhydroxylamine are coupled, and N labeling show that the two nitrogens and the two oxygens become equivalent. Unsymmetrical azoxy compounds can be prepared by combination of a nitroso compound with an N,N-dibromoamine. Symmetrical and unsymmetrical azo and azoxy compounds are produced when aromatic nitro compounds react with aryliminodimagnesium reagents, ArN(MgBr>2. ... 

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