Polycyclic arenes

Keywords Arenes, polycyclic, biaryls, preparation, review. 

Leyton, R, Sanchez-Cortes, S., Campos-Vallette, M., Domingo, C., Garcia-Ramos, J. V. and Saitz, C. 2005. Surface-enhanced Micro-Raman detection and characterization of calix[4]arene-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon Host-Guest complexes. Appl. Spectrosc. 59(8) 1009-1015. 

Members of a class of arenes called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons possess subslanlial resonance energies because each is a colleclion of benzene rings fused logelher... 

The synthetic procedure described is based on that reported earlier for the synthesis on a smaller scale of anthracene, benz[a]anthracene, chrysene, dibenz[a,c]anthracene, and phenanthrene in excellent yields from the corresponding quinones. Although reduction of quinones with HI and phosphorus was described in the older literature, relatively drastic conditions were employed and mixtures of polyhydrogenated derivatives were the principal products. The relatively milder experimental procedure employed herein appears generally applicable to the reduction of both ortho- and para-quinones directly to the fully aromatic polycyclic arenes. The method is apparently inapplicable to quinones having an olefinic bond, such as o-naphthoquinone, since an analogous reaction of the latter provides a product of undetermined structure (unpublished result). As shown previously, phenols and hydro-quinones, implicated as intermediates in the reduction of quinones by HI, can also be smoothly deoxygenated to fully aromatic polycyclic arenes under conditions similar to those described herein. 

Dihydro-9,10-epoxyphenanthrene and related arene oxides are of considerable interest as carcinogens formed by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in vivo.45 Phenanthrene oxide does not isomerize to the corresponding dibenzoxepin under thermal conditions. Photolysis of... 

Keumi et al. (1989) describe hydro-de-diazoniations of arenediazonium tetrafluo-roborates using chlorotrimethylsilane, (CH3)3SiCl), in tetrahydrofuran or tetra-hydrofuran/A A-dimethylformamide mixtures. Excellent yields were obtained with polycyclic arene derivatives such as 2-fluorene-, 2-fluorenone-, and 1-pyrenediazo-nium tetrafluoroborate and other similar diazonium salts. In a modification of this method 2-halogenofluorenones can be synthesized (see Sec. 10.6). 

In nonaqueous solutions, two other types of reactions have been observed with polycyclic arenes condensation via free-radical reactions and oxidative ring fission. 

Boyd DR, ND Sharma, R Boyle, RAS McMordie, J Chuna, H Dalton (1992) A h NMR method for the determination of enantiomeric excess and absolute configuration of ciT-dihydrodiol metabolites of polycyclic arenes and heteroarenes. Tetrahedron Lett 33 1241-1244. 

The additions of other (polycyclic) aromatic donors to solutions of dichlorine, dibromine or diiodine afford similar new bands, which show significant red shifts with increasing strength of the arene donor. For example, the absorption maximum of the dibromine complexes varies from 280 nm (with chlorobenzene) to 369 nm (with hexamethylbenzene) and similar variations of the new absorption maxima are observed with diiodine complexes (Fig. 2). 

Two other polycyclic hydrocarbons, 3-methylcholanthrene and 7,12-dimethylbenzanthracene are oxidized during arachidonate metabolism (21,26). Hydroxymethyl compounds that do not arise from arene oxides appear to be the products formed from 7,12-dimethylbenzanthracene. ... 

Tetracycline and several related antibiotics (aureomycin = chlorotetracycline, terramycin — oxytetracycline dihydrate) are also obtained from various species of Streptomyces, but are of very different structure, being based on the fused polycyclic arene naphthacene. The presence of five hydroxy substituents (six for terramycin) and an NMe2 group, and possibilities for various conformations and tautomers, complicate the study of their... 

It is sometimes assumed that every phenol metabolite indicates the formation of an arene oxide intermediate however, as discussed above, arene oxides are not obligate intermediates in the formation of phenols. This is an important distinction because arene oxides and other epoxides are reactive intermediates that can be toxic or even carcinogenic, e.g., epoxides of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The question of whether their formation is obligatory is significant for drug design and development and has implications for toxicity as discussed in Chapter 8. 

In contrast, the primary role of microsomal EH appears to be in detoxifying the metabolically produced epoxides of drugs, e.g., carbamazepine epoxide, the arene oxide of diphenylhydantoin, and the epoxides of environmental contaminants like the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, e.g., benzo[a]pyrene. 

Foureman GL, Hernandez O, Bhatia A, et al. The stereoselectivity of four hepatic glutathione S-transferases purified from a marine elasmobranch (Raja erinacea) with several K-region polycyclic arene oxide substrates. Biochim Biophys Acta 1987 914(2) 127-135. 

Polycyclic arenes having a high degree of bond fixation undergo epoxidation when exposed to tetra-alkylammonium hypochlorites over a pH range of ca. 8-9 [13] phenathridine is oxidized to phenanthridine. 

Another isomerization reaction of arene oxides is equilibrium with oxe-pins [5], Here, the fused six-membered carbocycle and three-membered oxirane merge to form a seven-membered heterocycle, as shown in Fig. 10.2. An extensive computational and experimental study involving 75 epoxides of monocyclic, bicyclic, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons has revealed much information on the structural factors that influence the reaction rate and position of equilibrium [11], Thus, some compounds were stable as oxepins (e.g., naphthalene 2,3-oxide), while others exhibited a balanced equilibrium... 

The microsomal epoxide hydrolases (microsomal EH, mEH), predominantly found in the endoplasmic reticulum, regio- and stereoselectively catalyze the hydration of both alkene and arene oxides, including oxides of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These enzymes have been purified to homogeneity from various species and tissues [22] [41 - 46], The human microsomal EH contains 455 amino acids (Mr 52.5 kDa) and is the product of the EPHX1 gene [47] (also known as HYL1 [48]). 

Together with glutathione conjugation, hydration is a major pathway in the inactivation and detoxification of arene oxides. Exceptions to this rule will be treated when discussing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Arene oxides are good substrates for microsomal EH, as evidenced in Table 10.1, where hydration of selected arene oxides, alkene oxides, and cy-cloalkene oxides by purified rat liver epoxide hydrolase is compared. The hy- ... 

The use of several rhodacyclopentadiene complexes in syntheses of polycyclic aromatic compounds has been described by Miiller. In general, alkynes displace the rhodium center to give substituted arenes. In this way, complex 279 [from l,2- PhC=CC(0) 2C6H4] reacts with PhC=CC=CR (R = Me, Ph) to give 280 (R = Me, Ph) (Scheme 61). ... 

The delocalised radical formed by protonation of the radical-anion is more easily reduced than the starting arene. For some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the redox potential for this radical species can be determined using a cyclic voltammetry technique [10]. Reduction in dimethylformamide is carried out to the potential for formation of the dianion. The dianion undergoes rapid monoprotonation and on the reverse sweep at a fast scan rate, oxidation of the monoanion to the radical can be observed. The radical intermediate from pyrene has E° = -1.15 V vs. see in dimethylformamide compared to E° = -2.13 V vs. see for pyrene,... 

Earlier progress in these studies has been summarized in reviews published in the last decade, emphasizing carbocations and oxidation dications, RCs, as well as reactive intermediates from the nitro- and nitroso-derivatives. The review article published in 1996 emphasized groundwork studies on protonation as well as oxidation (both RCs and stable dications) of polycyclic arenes and explored possible relationships between charge distribution and carcinogenicity, in concert with its... 

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