Aromatic anodic oxidation

A further difficulty arises during preparative electrolyses in aprotic solvents because of the bulk pH change which commonly occurs. Thus cathodic reductions often require proton abstraction from the solvent in order to yield stable products, while many anodic oxidations, mcluding those of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, give rise to a quantitative yield of proton and the consequent changes in the pH. of the electrolysis media would be expected to lead to a variation in the products with the duration of the electrolysis. Unfortunately, the pH can be a very difficult parameter to control in aprotic solvents and most work reported in the literature has been carried out in unbuffered conditions. In the case of oxidations, organic bases, e.g. pyridine, have... 

The anodic oxidation of organic substances is a complex multistep process. The question as to the depth of oxidation required (and sufficient) lias to be answered in each case. Where intermediate oxidation products pose no ecological risk, one can stop at incomplete oxidation. However, in the anodic oxidation of many aromatic substances, the corresponding quinones are formed in the first step, and these are more harmful than the original substances. Upon more profound oxidation, the benzene rings are broken and aliphatic substances are formed that are almost as harmless as carbon dioxide. 

Et or Bu) and the phosphonation of iodoaromatics with dialkyl phosphonates, although in this case with poorer yields (better results of the dialkyl arylphosphonates are obtained by photostimulation). Chemical oxidation (using AgNO -peroxodi-sulphate) and anodic oxidation of aromatics in the presence of trialkyl phosphites produces dialkyl arylphosphonates in good yields. The Cul-catalysed arylation of dialkyl (cyanomethyl)-phosphonates affords dialkyl (a-cyanobenzyl)phosphonates. ... 

Yoshida has studied anodic oxidations in methanol containing cyanide to elucidate the electrode processes themselves.288 He finds that, under controlled potential ( 1.2 V), 2,5-dimethylfuran gives a methoxynitrile as well as a dimethoxy compound (Scheme 57). Cyanide competes for the primary cation radical but not for the secondary cations so that the product always contains at least one methoxy group. On a platinum electrode the cis-trans ratio in the methoxynitrile fraction is affected by the substrate concentration and by the addition of aromatic substances suggesting that adsorption on the electrode helps determine the stereochemistry. On a vitreous carbon electrode, which does not strongly adsorb aromatic species, the ratio always approaches the equilibrium value. 

The oxidation of aromatic aldoximes with ceric ammonium nitrate produces nitrile oxides which undergo subsequent cycloaddition to nitriles to produce 1,2,4-oxadiazoles (Equation 47) <1997PJC1093>. The anodic oxidation of aromatic aldoximes in the presence of acetonitrile has been reported to give low yields of either 3-aryl-5-methyl-1,2,4-oxadiazoles (2-25%) or 3,5-bis-aryl-l,2,4-oxadiazoles (6-28%), although the synthetic utility of this route is limited by competitive deoximation to the carbonyl being the major reaction pathway <1997MI3509>. 

On the other hand, the anodic oxidation of 1,3,5-cycloheptatrienes is one of the most powerful key tools for the preparation of a variety of non-benzenoid aromatic compounds such as tropylium salts, tropones, tropolones, 2H -cyclohcpta h furan-2-oncs and azulenes14. 

For /8-substituted 7t-systems, silyl substitution causes the destabilization of the 7r-orbital (HOMO) [3,4]. The increase of the HOMO level is attributed to the interaction between the C-Si a orbital and the n orbital of olefins or aromatic systems (a-n interaction) as shown in Fig. 3 [7]. The C-Si a orbital is higher in energy than the C-C and C-H a orbitals and the energy match of the C-Si orbital with the neighboring n orbital is better than that of the C-C or C-H bond. Therefore, considerable interaction between the C-Si orbital and the n orbital is attained to cause the increase of the HOMO level. Since the electrochemical oxidation proceeds by the initial electron-transfer from the HOMO of the molecule, the increase in the HOMO level facilitates the electron transfer. Thus, the introduction of a silyl substituents at the -position results in the decrease of the oxidation potentials of the 7r-system. On the basis of this j -efleet, anodic oxidation reactions of allylsilanes, benzylsilanes, and related compounds have been developed (Sect. 3.3). 

A special problem can be the passivation of the electrode surface by insulating layers, for example, formation of oxides on metals at a too high anodic potential or precipitation of polymers in aprotic solvents from olefinic or aromatic compounds by anodic oxidation. As a result, the effective surface and the activity of the... 

This chapter deals with anodic oxidation of saturated hydrocarbons, olefins, and aromatic compounds. Substituted hydrocarbons are included, when the substituents strongly influence the reactivity. Anodic functional group interconversions (FGI) of the substituents are covered in Chapters 6, 8-10 and 15. 

The anodic chlorination in some cases allows one to achieve better regioselec-tivities than chemical alternatives (p/o ratio of chlorotoluene in chlorination of toluene anodic 2.2, chemical alternative 0.5-1.0) [215]. Anodic oxidation of iodine in trimethyl orthoformate afforded a positive iodine species, which led to a more selective aromatic iodination than known methods ]216]. Aryliodination is achieved in good yield, when an aryhodide is oxidized in HOAc, 25% AC2O, 5% H2SO4 in the presence of an arene ]217, 218]. Alkyl nitroaromatic compounds, nitroaromatic ketones, and nitroanihnes are prepared in good yields and regioselectivity by addition of the corresponding nucleophile to a nitroarene and subsequent anodic oxidation of the a-complex (Table 13, number 11) ]219, 220]. 

Cyclizations involving aromatic rings can also be obtained in good yield (54-80%) after anodic oxidations of... 

The formation of a double bond during anodic oxidations can result from eliminations of protons, carbon dioxide or acylium cations. The electrooxi dative aromatization of dihydropyridine derivatives and heterocycles containing nitrogen atom (di-hydroquinoxalines, tetrahydrocinnolines) involves an ECE mechanism as previously... 

Finally, the intramolecular coupling reaction between an olefin and a pyrrole ring has been examined (Scheme 40). In this example, a 66% isolated yield of the six-membered ring product was obtained. A vinyl sulfide moiety was used as the olefin participant and the nitrogen protected as the pivaloyl amide in order to minimize the competition between substrate and product oxidation. Unlike the furan cyclizations, the anodic oxidation of the pyrrole-based substrate led mainly to the desired aromatic product without the need for subsequent treatment with acid. 

Anodic oxidation of o-amino substituted aromatic Schilf bases (38 and 40) to imidazole derivatives 39 and 41 were carried out in CH3CN-O.I mol/1 Et4C104 solution with addition of pyridine as a base, using controlled potential electrolysis and a divided cell [72] (Scheme 22). 

Anodic oxidation in inert solvents is the most widespread method of cation-radical preparation, with the aim of investigating their stability and electron structure. However, saturated hydrocarbons cannot be oxidized in an accessible potential region. There is one exception for molecules with the weakened C—H bond, but this does not pertain to the cation-radical problem. Anodic oxidation of unsaturated hydrocarbons proceeds more easily. As usual, this oxidation is assumed to be a process including one-electron detachment from the n system with the cation-radical formation. This is the very first step of this oxidation. Certainly, the cation-radical formed is not inevitably stable. Under anodic reaction conditions, it can expel the second electron and give rise to a dication or lose a proton and form a neutral (free) radical. The latter can be either stable or complete its life at the expense of dimerization, fragmentation, etc. Nevertheless, electrochemical oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbons leads to cation-radicals, the nature of which is reliably established (Mann and Barnes 1970 Chapter 3). 

Conversion of toluenes to the benzoic acid is also accomplished by anodic oxidation in acetic acid containing some nitric acid. It is not clear if this reaction involves the aromatic radical-cation or if the oxidising agents are nitrogen oxide radicals generated by electron transfer from nitrate ions [66, 67]. Oxidation of 4-fluorotoluene at a lead dioxide anode in dilute sulphuric acid gives 4-fluorobenzoic acid in a reaction which involves loss of a proton from the aromatic radical-cation and them in further oxidation of the benzyl radical formed [68]. 

Reactions between aromatic hydrocarbon radicabcations and cyanide ions, with few exceptions, give low yields of nuclear substitution products [76], In some cases, better results have been obtained by anodic oxidation of the aromatic compound in an emulsion of aqueous sodium cyanide and dichloromethane with tetra-butylammonium hydrogen sulphate as a phase transfer agent [77, 78]. Methoxy-benzenes give exceptionally good yields from reactions in acetonitrile containing tetraethylammonium cyanide, sometimes with displacement of methoxide [79, 80]... 

Irreversible electrochemical oxidation of dimeric 4//-pyrans 163 to monomeric pyrylium ions at about +0.6 V was observed.225,227,228 The anodic oxidation of the dimers in the presence of aromatic hydrocarbons caused electroluminiscence of the latter.228,472 The polarographic oxidation of carbo-ranyl 4//-pyran 174a (R = Ph) at a platinum microelectrode was found to... 

Anodic oxidation of l,3-diaryl-5-methyl-A2-pyrazoline-5-carboxylic acids in CH3CN-Et4NBF4 proceeded with decarboxylation to the aromatized pyrazoles in high yield.414 Similarly, electrochemical oxidation of N-acetyl-2,3-substituted A4-pyrroline-2-carboxylic acids in water-tetrahydrofuran (3 1) containing KOH forms the corresponding pyrroles (80-98%).415... 

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