Diazonium ions aromatic substitution

Other Substituted Diazonium Ions. A series of aminodiazonium ions have been prepared under superacidic conditions [Eq. (4.141)]. Schmidt495 described the preparation and IR spectra of protonated hydrazoic acid 212 and methylazide as their hexachloroantimonate salts. Olah and co-workers496 have carried out a comprehensive study on aminodiazonium ions (protonated azides) by H, 13C, and 15N NMR spectroscopy. Even the electrophilic aminating ability of aromatics of 212 has been explored.496 The tetrachloroaluminate salt of 212 has also been prepared496... 

Aryl diazonium ions prepared by nitrous acid diazotization of primary arylamines are substantially more stable than alkyl diazonium ions and are of enormous synthetic value Their use m the synthesis of substituted aromatic compounds is described m the following two sections... 

Because of the limited range of aromatic compounds that react with diazonium ions, selectivity data comparable to those discussed for other electrophilic substitutions are not available. Because diazotization involves a weak electrophile, it would be expected to reveal high substrate and position selectivity. 

Diazonium coupling reactions are typical electrophilic aromatic substitutions in which the positively charged diazonium ion is the electrophile that reacts with the electron-rich, ring of a phenol or arylamine. Reaction usually occurs at the para position, although ortho reaction can take place if the para position is blocked. 

In the literature discussing these results, the coincidence of the NN bond lengths in diazonium ions with that in dinitrogen seems always to be regarded with complete satisfaction. In the opinion of the present author this close coincidence is somewhat surprising, firstly because of the fact that in diazonium ions one of the nitrogen atoms is bonded to another atom in addition to the N(2) atom, and secondly because work on dual substituent parameter evaluations of dediazoniation rates of substituted benzenediazonium ions clearly demonstrates that the nx orbitals of the N(l) nitrogen atom overlap with the aromatic 7t-electron system (see Sec. 8.4). 

The replacement of an electrofugic atom or group at a nucleophilic carbon atom by a diazonium ion is called an azo coupling reaction. By far the most important type of such reactions is that with aromatic coupling components, which was discovered by Griess in 1861 (see Sec. 1.1). It is a typical electrophilic aromatic substitution, called an arylazo-de-hydrogenation in the systematic IUPAC nomenclature (IUPAC 1989c, see Sec. 1.2). 

In studies aimed at understanding the influence of structure on the reactivity of diazonium ions, Diener and Zollinger (1986) found that the NMR chemical shifts of the aromatic or heteroaromatic parent compounds provided a novel probe. This method can be applied both to substituted benzenediazonium ions and to various heteroaromatic diazonium ions, and it also provides semiquantitative information on the relative reactivities of the l,3,4-triazole-2-diazonium ion (12.5) and its deprotonated zwitterion (12.6). 

Diarylamines couple with considerably more difficulty than alkylarylamines. In contrast to primary aromatic amines and alkylarylamines, dialkylarylamines are substituted by diazonium ions only in the 4-, not in the 2-position. This is due to the considerable sensitivity of azo coupling reactions to steric hindrance. 

A second group of aromatic substitution reactions involves aryl diazonium ions. As for electrophilic aromatic substitution, many of the reactions of aromatic diazonium ions date to the nineteenth century. There have continued to be methodological developments for substitution reactions of diazonium intermediates. These reactions provide routes to aryl halides, cyanides, and azides, phenols, and in some cases to alkenyl derivatives. 

Synthetically important substitutions of aromatic compounds can also be done by nucleophilic reagents. There are several general mechanism for substitution by nucleophiles. Unlike nucleophilic substitution at saturated carbon, aromatic nucleophilic substitution does not occur by a single-step mechanism. The broad mechanistic classes that can be recognized include addition-elimination, elimination-addition, and metal-catalyzed processes. (See Section 9.5 of Part A to review these mechanisms.) We first discuss diazonium ions, which can react by several mechanisms. Depending on the substitution pattern, aryl halides can react by either addition-elimination or elimination-addition. Aryl halides and sulfonates also react with nucleophiles by metal-catalyzed mechanisms and these are discussed in Section 11.3. 

The first widely used intermediates for nucleophilic aromatic substitution were the aryl diazonium salts. Aryl diazonium ions are usually prepared by reaction of an aniline with nitrous acid, which is generated in situ from a nitrite salt.81 Unlike aliphatic diazonium ions, which decompose very rapidly to molecular nitrogen and a carbocation (see Part A, Section 4.1.5), aryl diazonium ions are stable enough to exist in solution at room temperature and below. They can also be isolated as salts with nonnucleophilic anions, such as tetrafluoroborate or trifluoroacetate.82 Salts prepared with 0-benzenedisulfonimidate also appear to have potential for synthetic application.83... 

Chapter 11 focuses on aromatic substitution, including electrophilic aromatic substitution, reactions of diazonium ions, and palladium-catalyzed nucleophilic aromatic substitution. Chapter 12 discusses oxidation reactions and is organized on the basis of functional group transformations. Oxidants are subdivided as transition metals, oxygen and peroxides, and other oxidants. 

This chapter is concerned with reactions that introduce or replace substituent groups on aromatic rings. The most important group of reactions is electrophilic aromatic substitution. The mechanism of electrophile aromatic substitution has been studied in great detail, and much information is available about structure-reactivity relationships. There are also important reactions which occur by nucleophilic substitution, including reactions of diazonium ion intermediates and metal-catalyzed substitution. The mechanistic aspects of these reactions were discussed in Chapter 10 of Part A. In this chapter, the synthetic aspects of aromatic substitution will be emphasized. 

In the electrophilic substitution reactions of coordinated aromatic ligands for which rate data are presently available, there is every indication that the mechanism of the reaction is unchanged in its essentials. Following the lead of the physical organic chemists the course of the reaction of the complex and the diazonium ion can be depicted as ... 

Not all reactions of diazonium ions involve cleavage of the C-N bond. An important group of reactions of arenediazonium ions involves aromatic substitution by the diazonium ion acting as an electrophilic agent to yield azo compounds, Ar—N=N—Ar ... 

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