Nitrites, alkyl

Alkyl nitrites (RONO) absorb light strongly in the actinic region, dissociating to form RO + NO. Because of this rapid photolysis, other reactions such as that with OH cannot compete, and alkyl nitrites have not been generally observed in the troposphere at significant concentrations. 

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Alkyl nitrites. By the interaction at 0° of the alcohol with sodium nitrite in the presence of excess of concentrated sulphuric acid, for example ... 

Aliphatic nitro compounds. These are isomeric with the alkyl nitrites and may be prepared from the alkyl halide and silver nitrite, for example C,H,aBr + AgNOj — C Hj NO + AgBr... 

Care must be exercised in handling n-amyl and the other alkyl nitrites inhalation of the vapour may cause severe headache and heart excitation. The preparation must therefore be conducted in an efficient fume cupboard. 

In addition to CuCfi, some other compounds such as Cu(OAc)2, Cu(N03)2-FeCl.i, dichromate, HNO3, potassium peroxodisulfate, and Mn02 are used as oxidants of Pd(0). Also heteropoly acid salts comtaining P, Mo, V, Si, and Ge are used with PdS04 as the redox system[2]. Organic oxidants such as benzo-quinone (BQ), hydrogen peroxide and some organic peroxides are used for oxidation. Alkyl nitrites are unique oxidants which are used in some industrial... 

As an e.xtension of the oxidative carbonylation with alkyl nitrites, malonate can be prepared by the oxidative carbonylation of ketene (583)[524], Also, the acetonedicarboxylate 585 is prepared by the Pd-catalyzed, alkyl nitrite-mediated oxidative carbonylation of diketene (584)[525],... 

An alternative procedure involves use of alkyl nitrites and traps the desired product as an acetal[16],... 

Other processes described in the Hterature for the production of malonates but which have not gained industrial importance are the reaction of ketene [463-51-4] with carbon monoxide in the presence of alkyl nitrite and a palladium salt as a catalyst (35) and the reaction of dichioromethane [75-09-2] with carbon monoxide in the presence of an alcohol, dicobalt octacarbonyl, and an imida2ole (36). 

An important side reaction in all free-radical nitrations is reaction 10, in which unstable alkyl nitrites are formed (eq. 10). They decompose to form nitric oxide and alkoxy radicals (eq. 11) which form oxygenated compounds and low molecular weight alkyl radicals which can form low molecular weight nitroparaffins by reactions 7 or 9. The oxygenated hydrocarbons often react further to produce even lighter oxygenated products, carbon oxides, and water. 

Nitroparaffias (or nitroaLkanes) are derivatives of the alkanes ia which one hydrogen or more is replaced by the electronegative nitro group, which is attached to carbon through nitrogen. The nitroparaffins are isomeric with alkyl nitrites, RONO, which are esters of nitrous acid. The nitro group ia a nitroparaffin has been shown to be symmetrical about the R—N bond axis, and may be represented as a resonance hybrid ... 

UBE Industries, Ltd. has improved the basic method (32—48). In the UBE process, dialkyl oxalate is prepared by oxidative CO coupling in the presence of alkyl nitrite and a palladium catalyst. 

Thermal or photo-induced decompositions of dialkyl peroxides in the presence of suitable substrates yield various products. For example, with nitric oxides, alkyl nitrites or nitrates are formed and, with carbon monoxide, Z fZ-alkyl esters are obtained (44) ... 

Under alkaline conditions, alkyl nitrites nitrosate imidazoles which possess a free NH group in the 4-position (70AHC(12)103). Nitrosation of 3,5-dimethylpyrazole gives the 4-diazonium salt by further reaction of the nitroso compound with more NO". 5-Pyrazolinones are often nitrosated readily at the 4-position. 3-Alkyl-5-acetamidoisothiazoles undergo 4-nitrosation. 

The behaviour of pyrazoles towards nitrosation is similar to their behaviour described above towards diazo coupling, i.e. aminopyrazoles and pyrazolones readily react with nitrosation agents, like alkyl nitrites (81FES1019), to afford stable nitroso derivatives. Some simple nitrosopyrazoles have been isolated, for example the blue-green 3,5-dimethyl-4-nitrosopyrazole, and many others have been proposed as reactive intermediates in the direct conversion of pyrazoles into diazonium or diazo derivatives (Scheme 25) (B-76MI40402). 

Acyl or alkyl nitrites Acyl or alkyl nitrates... 

In an alternative route described in U.S. Patent 3,028,429 propiophenone may be reacted with an alkyl nitrite to give isonitrosopropiophenone which is then hydrogenated and finally converted to the hydrochloride. 

Its principal military use is as a nitrating agent, either in the vapor phase or when dissolved in an inert solvent such as CCI4, for such substances as alkyl nitrites, cellulose and Nitrobenzene (Refs 2a, 8 13)... 

In most cases diazonium salts are not isolated, but are converted into products by reactions that can be carried out in situ. Moreover, it is actually recommended not to isolate these salts, not even for purification purposes, as many of them have a tendency to explode. In addition, the high solubility of most diazonium salts in water makes precipitation from this medium difficult. Therefore, to obtain solid diazonium salts the recommended method for many decades was to carry out diazotizations in ethanol followed by precipitation with ether. As inorganic salts of nitrous acid are scarely soluble in ethanol, Knoevenagel recommended alkyl nitrites (ethyl or isopentyl nitrite) as diazotization reagents as long ago as 1890. Various other solvents have subsequently been used for diazotizations with alkyl nitrites (see Saunders and Allen, 1985, p. 23 ff.), but as a method for obtaining solid diazonium salts this has been superseded by the isolation of diazonium tetrafluoroborates and, to a lesser degree, of hexafluorophosphates. 

Doyle et al. (1977 c) and Oae et al. (1980) reported modified Meerwein arylations with significant improvements in the yield by the use of aryl amines and alkyl nitrites in place of arenediazonium salts. However, good yields are only achieved if alkenes activated by electron-withdrawing groups are present. 

The conversion of a primary amino substituent into a halogeno substituent is usually done by diazotization in the presence of an excess of the appropriate halogenide ion, by treatment in a nonaqueous solvent with alkyl nitrite and copper (II) halogenide, or by treatment with a freshly made solution of bromopyridinium perbromide [(CH)5N+ Br. Br2 ] or the like. These routes are illustrated in the following examples. 

For a discussion of the mechanism of hydrolysis of alkyl nitrites, see Williams, D.L.H. Nitrosation Cambridge University Press Cambridge, 1988, p. 162. 

Carbons adjacent to a Z group (as defined on p. 548) can be nitrosated with nitrous acid or alkyl nitrites. The initial product is the C-nitroso compound, but these are stable only when there is no tautomerizable hydrogen. When there is, the product is the more stable oxime. The situation is analogous to that with azo compounds and hydrazones (12-7). The mechanism is similar to that in 12-7 R—H —> R + N=0 — R—N=0. The attacking species is either NO or a carrier of it. When the substrate is a simple ketone, the mechanism goes through the enol (as in halogenation 12-4) ... 

Other compounds with nitrogen-nitrogen bonds have been used instead of diazonium salts. Among these are N-nitroso amides [ArN(NO)COR], triazenes, and azo compounds. Still another method involves treatment of an aromatic primary amine directly with an alkyl nitrite in an aromatic substrate as solvent. ... 

There is evidence that the reaction with alkyl nitrites also involves attack by aryl radicals. 

Primary, secondary, and tertiary aliphatic amines have been cleaved to give aldehydes, ketones, or carboxylic acids with aqueous bromine and with neutral permanganate. The other product of this reaction is the amine with one less alkyl group. In a different type of procedure, primary alkyl primary amines can be converted to ge/n-dihalides, RCH2NH2 —> RCHX2 (X =Br or Cl), by treatment with an alkyl nitrite and the anhydrous copper(I) halide. 

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