Arenediazonium salt reaction with phenols

Reaction with arenediazonium salts Adding a phenol to a solution of a diazonium salt formed from a primary aromatic amine leads to formation of an azo compound. The reaction is carried out at a pH such that a significant portion of the phenol is present as its phenoxide ion. The diazonium ion acts as an electrophile toward the strongly activated ring of the phenoxide ion. 

This diazotization reaction is compatible with the presence of a wide variety of substituents on the benzene ring. Arenediazonium salts are extremely important in synthetic chemistry, because the diazonio group (N=N) can be replaced by a nucleophile in a radical substitution reaction, e.g. preparation of phenol, chlorobenzene and bromobenzene. Under proper conditions, arenediazonium salts react with certain aromatic compounds to yield products of the general formula Ar-N=N-Ar, called azo compounds. In this coupling reaction, the nitrogen of the diazonium group is retained in the product. 

Reaction with arenediazonium salts Adding a phenol to a solution of a diazonium salt fornned fronn a primary aromatic amine leads to formation of an azo compound. 

The diazonio group can also be replaced by —OH to yield a phenol and by —H to yield an arene. A phenol is prepared by reaction of the arenediazonium salt with copper(I) oxide in an aqueous solution of copper(ll) nitrate, a reaction that is especially useful because few other general methods exist for introducing an -OH group onto an aromatic ring. 

Arenediazonium salts undergo a coupling reaction with activated aromatic rings such as phenols and arylamines to yield brightly colored azo compounds, Ar—N=N—Ar. ... 

Arylamines are converted by diazotization with nitrous acid into arenediazonium salts, ArN2+ X-. The diazonio group can then be replaced by many other substituents in the Sandmeyer reaction to give a wide variety of substituted aromatic compounds. Aryl chlorides, bromides, iodides, and nitriles can be prepared from arenediazonium salts, as can arenes and phenols. In addition to their reactivity toward substitution reactions, diazonium salts undergo coupling with phenols and arylamines to give brightly colored azo dyes. 

Various aromatic amines, phenols, and compounds containing active methylene groups can be titrated with arenediazonium salts, from which 4-bromo-l-naphthale-nediazonium chloride seems to be the most widely applicable titrant. Compounds that react slowly with arenediazonium salts can be determined by back-titration when the excess of arenediazonium salt is back-titrated with either sodium tetraphenylborate or 2,4-diaminotoluene. Indirect determination is useful for secondary amines, which react with arenediazonium ions to form triazenes. The determination of diazonium salts of ampholytic character is based on the reaction of these salts with l-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone, the excess of which is titrated with 4-bromo-l-naphthalenediazonium chloride solution. 

Note that the aryl cation is so unstable that it can be formed only with N2 as the leaving group. This reaction of arenediazonium salts represents the main laboratory preparation of phenols. 

Formation of a phenol by reaction of an arenediazonium salt with water (19.24). 

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). 

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