Arenediazonium ions, structure

Bagal (1974) studied the influence of substituents on the ground and first excited states of arenediazonium ions. With regard to compounds in which mesomeric structures such as 4.1b are important, these authors are skeptical about the validity of the PP method. Later, Bagal et al. (1982) used CNDO/2. The calculated 7r-electron densities at all the nitrogen and carbon atoms were similar to those in the earlier PP results. 

A new period in theoretical work on arenediazonium ions began with Vincent and Radom s paper in 1978. This was the first ab initio study of the methane- and benzenediazonium ions, and was carried out with a minimal (STO-3G) basis set, subject only to some (specified) symmetry constraints and a fixed CH bond length (108.3 pm). The optimized structure of the benzenediazonium ion is given in Figure 4-2. 

The experimental work of the groups of Swain and Zollinger on the dediazoniation mechanism of arenediazonium ions, which started in 1975, provided good evidence for the existence of aryl cations as steady state intermediates (see Sec. 8.3). These results also initiated theoretical work on aryl cations, in part combined with further calculations on the structure and reactivity of arenediazonium ions. Publications that contain data on arenediazonium ions and aryl cations will therefore be discussed in the chapter on dediazoniation reactions (Sec. 8.4). In the rest of this section we will concentrate on investigations that are concerned with the geometries and electron densities of diazonium ions but not, or only marginally, with energetics of the dediazoniation reaction. 

The fundamental understanding of the diazonio group in arenediazonium salts, and of its reactivity, electronic structure, and influence on the reactivity of other substituents attached to the arenediazonium system depends mainly on the application of quantitative structure-reactivity relationships to kinetic and equilibrium measurements. These were made with a series of 3- and 4-substituted benzenediazonium salts on the basis of the Hammett equation (Scheme 7-1). We need to discuss the mechanism of addition of a nucleophile to the P-nitrogen atom of an arenediazonium ion, and to answer the question, raised several times in Chapters 5 and 6, why the ratio of (Z)- to ( -additions is so different — from almost 100 1 to 1 100 — depending on the type of nucleophile involved and on the reaction conditions. However, before we do that in Section 7.4, it is necessary to give a short general review of the Hammett equation and to discuss the substituent constants of the diazonio group. 

X-ray structures 291 f., see also Arenediazonium ions, Dediazoniations, Diazonium salt structures... 

Another group of stable diazonium salts are the so-called diazonium metal double salts the zinc double chlorides are particularly important. The term is misleading, as they are not associations between two salts but, in the case of Zn, are formed from two arenediazonium ions with the complex anion ZnCL 2-. This fact became obvious from crystal structure studies38-41. The reason for their increased stability relative to ArN2+Cl- salts is that ZnCLt2- complex ions are less nucleophilic than free chloride ions. 

Diazonium Salts as Electrophiles Diazo Coupling Arenediazonium ions act as weak electrophiles in electrophilic aromatic substitutions. The products have the structure Ar—N=N—Ar, containing the —N=N— azo linkage. For this reason, the products are called azo compounds, and the reaction is called diazo coupling. Because they are weak electrophiles, diazonium salts react only with strongly activated rings (such as derivatives of aniline and phenol). 

Structure of Metal Complexes Containing Arenediazonium Ions as Ligands... 

On the basis of this introduction, we will now discuss the structures found for aryldiazenido complexes. For an organic chemist, the most surprising observation in metal complex formation of arenediazonium ions is the fact that the nitrogen atoms have the function of electron donors and not electrophiles as in additions to organic and (nonmetallic) inorganic compounds. We shall return to this phenomenon later in this section. 

As explained in the preceding section, we will discuss the structure of aromatic diazonium salts on the basis of evidence from X-ray investigations. We will supplement those results with data obtained by other physical methods, in particular NMR and IR spectroscopy. Earlier experience with the more stable arenediazonium salts enabled those scientists who first obtained alkanediazonium ions in solution to characterize them by NMR spectroscopy (see Zollinger, 1995, Sec. 2.1). 

---