Aromatic compound nitric acid

Keywords aromatic compound nitric acid, acetic anhydride, zeolite, nitration, aromatic nitro compound... 

Because the benzene derivative and nitric acid are immiscible, the impact of mixing/ distribution on slug formation was investigated. Uniform slugs of the aromatic compound/nitric acid were formed in a Y-piece [22]. The capillary attached has a stabilizing effect on the slug flow. The deviation of slug size distribution is very small (about 5%). Hence, interfacial area is nearly constant for this type of capillary flow. 

There is a synthesis, which is supposed to be safe and consists in using very small quantities of reagents and closely monitoring the temperature. However, the thermai control of the aromatic hydrocarbons/nitric acid reaction usually proves to be very difficult. Indeed, the temperature is either too high and the reaction is out of controi and can lead to detonation, or too low and the nitration or oxidation takes place too slowly causing the compounds to accumulate and the reaction to be delayed. The consequences are the same as before. 

Hydrogen peroxide Organic compounds (reference 2) Nitric acid Aromatic amines Nitrosyl perchlorate Organic materials Ozone Aromatic compounds Perchloric acid Aniline, etc. 

The presence of a benzene ring in these acids makes it possible to prepare from them many derivatives which are characteristic of aromatic compounds. Benzoic acid is converted into nitrobenzoic acid by nitric acid and into sulphobenzoic acid by sulphuric acid. 

It is formed as the result of the action of concentrated nitric acid on a large number of substances, such as certain proteins, resins, and many aromatic compounds. Picric acid is prepared by adding concentrated nitric acid to a solution of phenol in concentrated sulphuric acid, and finally heating the mixture at 100°. It can be prepared by the action of nitric acid on benzene in the presence of mercury nitrate, which acts as a catalytic agent the benzene is oxidized and nitrated during the course of the reaction which takes place. 

It should be noted that aliphatic compounds (except the paraffins) are usually oxidised by concentrated nitric acid, whereas aromatic compounds (including the hydrocarbons) are usually nitrated by the concentrated acid (in the presence of sulphuric acid) and oxidised by the dilute acid. As an example of the latter, benzaldehyde, CjHsCHO, when treated with concentrated nitric acid gives ffi-nitrobenzaldehyde, N02CgH4CH0, but with dilute nitric acid gives benzoic acid, CgHgCOOH. 

During my Cleveland years, I also continued and extended my studies in nitration, which I started in the early 1950s in Hungary. Conventional nitration of aromatic compounds uses mixed acid (mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid). The water formed in the reaetion dilutes the acid, and spent aeid disposal is beeoming a serious environ-... 

The operation of the nitronium ion in these media was later proved conclusively. "- The rates of nitration of 2-phenylethanesulphonate anion ([Aromatic] < c. 0-5 mol l i), toluene-(U-sulphonate anion, p-nitrophenol, A(-methyl-2,4-dinitroaniline and A(-methyl-iV,2,4-trinitro-aniline in aqueous solutions of nitric acid depend on the first power of the concentration of the aromatic. The dependence on acidity of the rate of 0-exchange between nitric acid and water was measured, " and formal first-order rate constants for oxygen exchange were defined by dividing the rates of exchange by the concentration of water. Comparison of these constants with the corresponding results for the reactions of the aromatic compounds yielded the scale of relative reactivities sho-wn in table 2.1. 

A simple kinetic order for the nitration of aromatic compounds was first established by Martinsen for nitration in sulphuric acid (Martin-sen also first observed the occurrence of a maximum in the rate of nitration, occurrii for nitration in sulphuric acid of 89-90 % concentration). The rate of nitration of nitrobenzene was found to obey a second-order rate law, first order in the concentration of the aromatic and of nitric acid. The same law certainly holds (and in many cases was explicitly demonstrated) for the compounds listed in table 2.3. 

The observation already discussed ( 2.2, 2.3, 2.4) of nitrations, in concentrated and aqueous mineral acids and in pure nitric acid, which depend on the first power of the concentration of the aromatic compound, does not help much in elucidating the mechanisms of nitrations under these conditions. In contrast, the observation of zeroth-order... 

When large concentrations of water are added to the solutions, nitration according to a zeroth-order law is no longer observed. Under these circumstances, water competes successfully with the aromatic for the nitronium ions, and the necessary condition for zeroth-order reaction, namely that all the nitronium ions should react with the aromatic as quickly as they are formed, no longer holds. In these strongly aqueous solutions the rates depend on the concentrations and reactivities of the aromatic compound. This situation is reminiscent of nitration in aqueous nitric acid in which partial zeroth-order kinetics could be observed only in the reactions of some extremely reactive compounds, capable of being introduced into the solution in high concentrations ( 2.2.4). 

It has already been noted that, as well as alkylbenzenes, a wide range of other aromatic compounds has been nitrated with nitronium salts. In particular the case of nitrobenzene has been examined kinetically. Results are collected in table 4.4. The reaction was kinetically of the first order in the concentration of the aromatic and of the nitronium salt. There is agreement between the results for those cases in which the solvent induces the ionization of nitric acid to nitronium ion, and the corresponding results for solutions of preformed nitronium salts in the same solvent. 

It has long been known that, amongst organic solvents, acetic anhydride is particularly potent in nitration, and that reaction can be brought about under relatively mild conditions. For these reasons, and because aromatic compounds are easily soluble in mixtures of nitric acid and the solvent, these media have achieved considerable importance in quantitative studies of nitration. 

Characteristics of the system as nitrating reagents Wibaut, who introduced the competitive method for determining reactivities (his experiments with toluene, benzene and chlorobenzene were performed under heterogeneous conditions and were not successful), pointed out that solutions of nitric acid in acetic anhydride are useful in making comparisons of reactivities because aromatic compounds are soluble in them. ... 

Dewar and his co-workers, as mentioned above, investigated the reactivities of a number of polycyclic aromatic compounds because such compounds could provide data especially suitable for comparison with theoretical predictions ( 7.2.3). This work was extended to include some compounds related to biphenyl. The results were obtained by successively compounding pairs of results from competitive nitrations to obtain a scale of reactivities relative to that of benzene. Because the compounds studied were very reactive, the concentrations of nitric acid used were relatively small, being o-i8 mol 1 in the comparison of benzene with naphthalene, 5 x io mol 1 when naphthalene and anthanthrene were compared, and 3 x io mol 1 in the experiments with diphenylamine and carbazole. The observed partial rate factors are collected in table 5.3. Use of the competitive method in these experiments makes them of little value as sources of information about the mechanisms of the substitutions which occurred this shortcoming is important because in the experiments fuming nitric acid was used, rather than nitric acid free of nitrous acid, and with the most reactive compounds this leads to a... 

Certain features of the addition of acetyl nitrate to olefins in acetic anhydride may be relevant to the mechanism of aromatic nitration by this reagent. The rapid reaction results in predominantly cw-addition to yield a mixture of the y -nitro-acetate and y5-nitro-nitrate. The reaction was facilitated by the addition of sulphuric acid, in which case the 3rield of / -nitro-nitrate was reduced, whereas the addition of sodium nitrate favoured the formation of this compound over that of the acetate. As already mentioned ( 5.3. i), a solution of nitric acid (c. i 6 mol 1 ) in acetic anhydride prepared at — 10 °C would yield 95-97 % of the nitric acid by precipitation with urea, whereas from a similar solution prepared at 20-25 °C and cooled rapidly to —10 °C only 30% of the acid could be recovered. The difference between these values was attributed to the formation of acetyl nitrate. A solution prepared at room... 

The authors of this work were concerned chiefly with additions to alkenes, and evidence about the mechanism of aromatic nitration arises by analogy. Certain aspects of their work have been repeated to investigate whether the nitration of aromatic compounds shows the same phenomena ( 5-3-6). It was shown that solutions of acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride were more powerful nitrating media for anisole and biphenyl than the corresponding solutions of nitric acid in which acetyl nitrate had not been formed furthermore, it appeared that the formation of acetyl nitrate was faster when 95-98% nitric acid was used than when 70 % nitric acid was used. 

Recent experiments have shown that the concentration of aromatic compound needed to maintain zeroth-order kinetics (see below) was much greater than for nitrations with solutions of nitric acid in some inert organic solvents reactions which were first order in the concentration of the aromatic were obtained when [ArH] < c. 2 x io mol 1 . ... 

Under these first-order conditions the rates of nitration of a number of compounds with acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride have been determined. The data show that the rates of nitration of compounds bearing activating substituents reach a limit by analogy with the similar phenomenon shown in nitration in aqueous sulphuric and perchloric acids ( 2.5) and in solutions of nitric acid in sulpholan and nitro-methane ( 3.3), this limit has been taken to be the rate of encounter of the nitrating entity with the aromatic molecule. 

The evidence outlined strongly suggests that nitration via nitrosation accompanies the general mechanism of nitration in these media in the reactions of very reactive compounds.i Proof that phenol, even in solutions prepared from pure nitric acid, underwent nitration by a special mechanism came from examining rates of reaction of phenol and mesi-tylene under zeroth-order conditions. The variation in the initial rates with the concentration of aromatic (fig. 5.2) shows that mesitylene (o-2-0 4 mol 1 ) reacts at the zeroth-order rate, whereas phenol is nitrated considerably faster by a process which is first order in the concentration of aromatic. It is noteworthy that in these solutions the concentration of nitrous acid was below the level of detection (< c. 5 X mol... 

This qualification must be applied to the results of Dewar and his co-workers relating to the reaction of a series of polynuclear aromatic compounds with solutions of nitric acid in acetic anhydride at o °C... 

Expt. ig. The aromatic compound was added to a freshly prepared solution of nitric acid in acetic anhydride. The reaction was very fast ( < i min.) About 2 % of an acetoxy-lated product was formed (table 5.4). 

Remembering that the observed second-order rate constant is merely the rate divided by the product of the stoichiometric concentrations of aromatic compound and nitric acid, the following relationship can be... 

More information has appeared concerning the nature of the side reactions, such as acetoxylation, which occur when certain methylated aromatic hydrocarbons are treated with mixtures prepared from nitric acid and acetic anhydride. Blackstock, Fischer, Richards, Vaughan and Wright have provided excellent evidence in support of a suggested ( 5.3.5) addition-elimination route towards 3,4-dimethylphenyl acetate in the reaction of o-xylene. Two intermediates were isolated, both of which gave rise to 3,4-dimethylphenyl acetate in aqueous acidic media and when subjected to vapour phase chromatography. One was positively identified, by ultraviolet, infra-red, n.m.r., and mass spectrometric studies, as the compound (l). The other was less stable and less well identified, but could be (ll). 

Nitrations can be performed in homogeneous media, using tetramethylene sulfone or nitromethane (nitroethane) as solvent. A large variety of aromatic compounds have been nitrated with nitronium salts in excellent yields in nonaqueous media. Sensitive compounds, otherwise easily hydroly2ed or oxidized by nitric acid, can be nitrated without secondary effects. Nitration of aromatic compounds is considered an irreversible reaction. However, the reversibihty of the reaction has been demonstrated in some cases, eg, 9-nitroanthracene, as well as pentamethylnitrobenzene transnitrate benzene, toluene, and mesitylene in the presence of superacids (158) (see Nitration). 

The aHphatic iodine derivatives are usually prepared by reaction of an alcohol with hydroiodic acid or phosphoms trHodide by reaction of iodine, an alcohol, and red phosphoms addition of iodine monochloride, monobromide, or iodine to an olefin replacement reaction by heating the chlorine or bromine compound with an alkaH iodide ia a suitable solvent and the reaction of triphenyl phosphite with methyl iodide and an alcohol. The aromatic iodine derivatives are prepared by reacting iodine and the aromatic system with oxidising agents such as nitric acid, filming sulfuric acid, or mercuric oxide. 

Mechanism. The NO2 mechanism has been accepted since about 1950 for the nitration of most aromatic hydrocarbons, glycerol, glycols, and numerous other hydrocarbons in which mixed acids or highly concentrated nitric acid are used. The mechanism has been discussed in detail and critically analy2ed (1). NO2 attacks an aromatic compound (ArH) as follows ... 

In addition to the conventional mixed acids commonly used to produce DNT, a mixture of NO2 and H2SO4 (8), a mixture of NO2 and oxygen (9), and just HNO (10) can also be used. TerephthaUc acid and certain substituted aromatics are more amenable to nitrations using HNO, as compared to those using mixed acids. For compounds that are easily nitratable, acetic acid and acetic anhydride are sometimes added to nitric acid (qv). Acetyl nitrate, which is a nitrating agent, is produced as an intermediate as follows ... 

Organic Reactions. Nitric acid is used extensively ia iadustry to nitrate aHphatic and aromatic compounds (21). In many iastances nitration requires the use of sulfuric acid as a dehydrating agent or catalyst the extent of nitration achieved depends on the concentration of nitric and sulfuric acids used. This is of iadustrial importance ia the manufacture of nitrobenzene and dinitrotoluene, which are iatermediates ia the manufacture of polyurethanes. Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is an explosive. Various isomers of mononitrotoluene are used to make optical brighteners, herbicides (qv), and iasecticides. Such nitrations are generally attributed to the presence of the nitronium ion, NO2, the concentration of which iacreases with acid strength (see Nitration). 

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