Acidic media

Thus the reactivity of 2-aminothiazole derivatives toward reactants bearing a sp C hybridized electrophilic center follows the general pattern  

If the thiazole under consideration reacts in its neutral form, the ring nitrogen is expected to be reactive center. Exceptions could be expected for 2-araino-4-R thiazoies with bulky R groups and for electrophilic reactants able to generate a carbocation. 

If the medium is sufficiently basic to generate the arabident anion 31. mixtures of products resulting from N-nng and N-exocyclic reactivity are observed. Here again steric effects can preferentially orient the whole reaction toward one of the two nitrogens. A general study clearly delineating the rules of behavior for 31 accordine to the nature of R. the 

In acidic medium all reported examples are similar to the cases discussed in Sections III.2.C and IV.l.E. 

Reactions with Reagents Bearing an sp C Electrophilic Center 

---

Horanyi G and Rizmayer E M 1984 Radiotracer study of anion adsorption at silver electrodes in acidic medium J. Electroanal. Chem. 176 339-48... 

The activity of an enzyme varies considerably with acidity and there is generally a marked optimum pH for each enzyme. Thus pepsin of the stomach has an optimum pH of 1 4, i.e., it works best in a decidedly acid medium. It is inactive in neutral or alkaline solutions and the latter rapidly destroy it. 

The function of the sulphuric acid is to furnish a strongly acid medium and to convert the nitric acid into the highly reactive nitronium ion NOj+, which is the real nitrating agent ... 

In his cephalosporin synthesis methyl levulinate was condensed with cysteine in acidic medium to give a bicyclic thiazolidine. One may rationalize the regioselective formation of this bicycle with the assumption that in the acidic reaction mixture the tMoI group is the only nucleophile present, which can add to the ketone. Intramolecular amide formation from the methyl ester and acid-catalyzed dehydration would then lead to the thiazolidine and y-lactam rings. The stereochemistry at the carboxylic acid a-... 

The possible protonated forms in acidic medium are shown in Scheme... 

The reactivity of the amino radical has not yet been investigated. Alkaline hypochlorite oxidation, known in the pyridine series to yield azo derivatives (155,156). and photolysis of N,N-dichloro derivatives, which may be obtained by action of sodium hypochlorite on amino derivatives in acidic medium (157). should provide interesting insight on this reactivitv. 

All the examples of reactivity in acidic medium (Scheme 40) involve a reagent with a sp C hybridized electrophilic center, but the actual reactive species generated bears a sp C electrophilic center. In this case, exocyclic N-alkylation is not surprising (see Section III.2). 

In acidic medium and at higher temperatures, condensation of 2-amino-4-phenylthiazole takes place when it reacts with benzaidehyde... 

Esters react with 2-aminothiazole and derivatives in the presence of catalysts the reaction between 3-ketoesters and 2-aminothiazole is. for example, realized in acidic medium (278. 279) and yields 2-aceto-acetamidothiazole (114) (Scheme 771. No secondary products are... 

Here again the question of reactive species in the acidic medium remains open. It must be noted that bromination of 2-amino-5-methyl-pyridine (pK = 7) and 2-amino-5-nitropyridine (pJC = 2.8) in N sulfuric acid takes place on the free base (443). 

The general pattern of alkylation of 2-acylaininothiazoles parallels that of 2-aminothia2ole itself (see Section III.l). In neutral medium attack occurs on the ring nitrogen, and in alkaline medium a mixture of N-ring and N-amino alkylation takes place (40, 43, 161. 163). In acidic medium unusual behavior has been reported (477) 2-acetamido-4-substituted thiazoles react with acetic anhydride in the presence of sulfuric acid to yield 2-acetylimino-3-acetyl-4-phenyl-4-thiazolines (255) when R = Ph. but when R4 = Me or H no acetylation occurs (Scheme 151). The explanation rests perhaps in an acid-catalyzed heterocyclization with an acetylation on the open-chain compound (253), this compound being stabilized... 

Attack on the electrophilic C-2 may occur as in the 2-aminothiazoles series, which probably explains the rearrangements observed in acidic medium (121, 711, 712, 723, 724), in aqueous medium with NaOAc (725), or with aqueous NaHCOj (725) (Scheme 232). That the initial attack probably involves the C-2 atom is substantiated by the fact that this rearrangement occurs under extremely mild conditions for 2-iinino-3-substituted-5-nitro-4-thiazolines (725). As the whole mechanism proposed (see p. 92) is reversible, when imino derivatives are submitted to such rearrangement conditions the rearrangement is expected to occur faster if steric interaction between 3- and 4-substituents exists in the 2-imino isomer. Another reaction may occur in acidic medium phenylimino-2-bipheny]-3,4-4-thiazoline hydrolyzed with hydrochloric acid gives the corresponding 4-thiazoline-2-one and aniline (717). 

Nucleophilic reactivity of the sulfur atom has received most attention. When neutral or very acidic medium is used, the nucleophilic reactivity occurs through the exocyclic sulfur atom. Kinetic studies (110) measure this nucleophilicity- towards methyl iodide for various 3-methyl-A-4-thiazoline-2-thiones. Rate constants are 200 times greater for these compounds than for the isomeric 2-(methylthio)thiazole. Thus 3-(2-pyridyl)-A-4-thiazoline-2-thione reacts at sulfur with methyl iodide (111). Methyl substitution on the ring doubles the rate constant. This high reactivity at sulfur means that, even when an amino (112, 113) or imino group (114) occupies the 5-position of the ring, alkylation takes place on sulfiu. For the same reason, 2-acetonyi derivatives are sometimes observed as by-products in the heterocyclization reaction of dithiocarba-mates with a-haloketones (115, 116). 

The nucleophUic reactivity in neutral medium has been used extensively to prepare various thioethers of thiazole (122). In acidic medium, alkylation may be performed with alcohols (123, 124). An unexpected reaction encountered was the decarboxylation of 2-mercapto-4-methyl-5-thiazolecarboxyhc acid (60) when treated with butyl alcohol under acidic conditions (Scheme 27) (123). Reaction between A-4-thiazoline-2-thione... 

Nucleophilic reactivity of exocyclic sulfur appears in acidic medium. 2-AryI thiazolyl sulfones are obtained from the corresponding sulfides by oxidation with HjO- in HOAc at 100°C (272). The same oxidation takes place with alkyl sulfides (203. 214, 273-275) and dithiazolylsulfides (129). However, the same reaction with 2-benzylthio derivatives gives benzylal-cohol and the related A-4-thiazoline-2-thione (169). 

Aryl-A-2-thiazoline-4-one absorbs at approximately 368 to 381 nm in methanol. The spectrum is unaffected by acidic medium, while in basic medium a large shift toward longer wavelength is observed (386). Other ultraviolet data are given in Refs. 390 and 419. 

Moreover, the specific role of anhydrobase in this condensation is not confirmed, since separated anhydrobases are not reactive toward aldehydes and the condensation can be made in an acid medium. 

The diesters may react with hydrazine in acidic medium to give 4.7-dioxo-4.5,6.7-tetrahydro[4.5,d]azolopyridazine (Scheme 28) (107). The... 

Despite its V excessive character (340), thiazole, just as pyridine, is resistant to electrophilic substitution. In both cases the ring nitrogen deactivates the heterocyclic nucleus toward electrophilic attack. Moreover, most electrophilic substitutions, which are performed in acidic medium, involve the protonated form of thiazole or some quaternary thiazolium derivatives, whose reactivity toward electrophiles is still lower than that of the free base. 

Aromatic thioamides can be prepared as described in the literature by different ways, either by S -> O exchange between the corresponding benzamides and phosphorus pentasulfide in pyridine solution in the presence of triethylamine (65, 646) as strong base, or by action of H2S on the appropriate nitrile with pyridine and triethylamine solvents using the method of Fairfull et al. (34, 374, 503). In this reaction, thioacetamide in acidic medium can also be used as a H2S generator with dimethylform-amide as the solvent (485). 

Another possible route to 2-unsubstituted thiazoles is replacement of a mercapto group by a hydrogen. Various methods have been used hydrogen peroxide in acid medium (17-19) dilute nitric acid (17), and metallic catalysts (20-22). 

In Table III-33 results for the methylation of thiazoles in acetic acid are given (lead tetraacetate is used as radical source), but in this case some discrepancies appear, the acidic medium being too weak, and the heterocyclic base not fully protonated. Thiazole has also been methylated by the DMSO-H2O2 method (201), and the results are in agreement with those described previously. 

TABLE m-33. FREE-RADICAL METHYLATION IN ACIDIC MEDIUM OF AL-KYLTHIAZOLE (197)... 

The NMR determination in strongly acidic medium (trifluoroacetic acid) of the chemical shifts of the protons in the 4- or 5-position can be used to establish a reactivity scale. If the proton appears at low field, this indicates that this substitution site wiE be poorly or not at all nitrated (111). 

The Stephen s method allows the reduction of nitriles by stannous chloride in acid medium. If the amine chlorhydrate initially formed is hydrolyzed, the corresponding aldehyde is obtained (37, 91). Harington and Moggridge (37) have reduced 4-methyl-5-cyanothiazole by this method (Scheme 23). However, Robba and Le Guen (91) did not obtain the expected products with 4.5-dicyanothiazole and 2-methyl-4,5-dicyanothiazole. These compounds have been reduced with diisobutyl-aluminium hydride with very low yields (3 to 6%) (Scheme 24). In other conditions the reaction gives a thiazole nitrile aldehyde with the same yield as that of the dialdehyde. 

Unlike the addition of concentrated sulfuric acid to form alkyl hydrogen sulfates this reaction is carried out m a dilute acid medium A 50% water/sulfuric acid solution is often used yielding the alcohol directly without the necessity of a separate hydrolysis step Markovmkov s rule is followed... 

Rayon. Viscose rayon is obtained by reacting the hydroxy groups of cellulose with carbon disulfide in the presence of alkali to give xanthates. When this solution is poured (spun) into an acid medium, the reaction is reversed and the cellulose is regenerated (coagulated). 

Tertiary amine exchangers possess —R3NH2 groups which have exchanging properties only in an acidic medium when a proton is bound to the nitrogen atom. 

---