Aromaticity anions

Wool is dyed from aqueous solutions. The majority of dyes used on wool are sodium salts of aromatic anions. Water solubiUty is usually provided by sulfonic acid groups, but in a few cases carboxyl or hydrophilic, nonionic substituents are used. 

Unsubstituted pentazole (1) would be expected to be a strong acid with a highly aromatic anion (11) which could possibly form ferrocene analogs such as M (N5)2, where Misrepresents a divalent metal... 

Another interesting aromatic anion 208, which is well within the group of cyclopentadienyl and pentaphospholyl species, is a possible ligand (01AGE3173). 

Stabilization by an Aromatic Ring. Certain carbanions are stable because they are aromatic (see the cyclopentadienyl anion p. 52, and other aromatic anions in Chapter 2). 

Using, for example, cyclic voltammetry, the cathodic peak current (normalized to its value in the absence of RX) is a function of the competition parameter, pc = ke2/(ke2 + kin), as detailed in Section 2.2.6 under the heading Deactivation of the Mediator. The competition parameter can be varied using a series of more and more reducing redox catalysts so as eventually to reach the bimolecular diffusion limit. km is about constant in a series of aromatic anion radicals and lower than the bimolecular diffusion limit. Plotting the ratio pc = keij k,n + km) as a function of the standard potential of the catalysts yields a polarogram of the radical whose half-wave potential provides the potential where ke2 = kin, and therefore the value of... 

FIGURE 3.2. Variation of the rate constants of dissociative electron transfer from aromatic anion radicals to butyl and benzyl halides as a function of steric hindrance. Data points from reference 10. Solid lines, best-fit parabola dashed lines, prediction of the Morse curve model, logAf-1 s-1). Adapted from Figure 3 of reference 6b, with permission from the American Chemical Society. 

Coming back to aromatic anion radicals, a more accurate comparison between the experimental reaction kinetics and the predictions of the dissociative electron transfer theory revealed that the agreement is good when steric hindrance is maximal (tertiary carbon acceptors) and that the reaction is faster and faster than predicted as steric hindrance decreases, as discussed in detail in Section 3.2.2 (see, particularly, Figure 3.1). These results were interpreted as indicating an increase in the ET character of the reaction as steric hindrance increases. Similar conclusions were drawn from the temperature dependence of the kinetics, showing that the entropy of activation increases with steric hindrance, paralleling the increase in the ET character of the reaction. 

FIGURE 3.30. Reaction of iron(0) and iron(I) pophyrins with n-, s-, and r-butyl bromides. The chart shows the various porphyrins and their symbolic designations. iron porphyrins, aromatic anion radical, lines best-fitting parabolas through the aromatic anion radicals data. Dashed lines outer-sphere curves obtained by use of the Morse curve model (Section 3.2.2). Adapted from Figure 4 in reference 47b, with permission from the American Chemical Society. 

FIGURE 4.3. Redox and chemical homogeneous catalysis of trans-1,2 dibromocyclohexane. a cyclic voltammetry in DMF of the direct electrochemical reduction at a glassy carbon electrode (top), of redox catalysis by fhiorenone (middle), of chemical catalysis by an iron(I) porphyrin, b catalysis rate constant as a function of the standard potential of the catalyst couple aromatic anion radicals, Fe(I), a Fe(0), Co(I), Ni(I) porphyrins. Adapted from Figures 3 and 4 of reference lb, with permission from the American Chemical Society. 

Aromatic anion radicals may be used as outer-sphere electron donors, thus giving rise to redox catalysis. The ensuing variations of the electron transfer rate constant with the driving force are shown in Figure 3.2b for... 

There are two other mechanistic possibilities, halogen atom abstraction (HAA) and halonium ion abstraction (EL), represented in Schemes 4.4 and 4.5, respectively, so as to display the stereochemistry of the reaction. Both reactions are expected to be faster than outer-sphere electron transfer, owing to stabilizing interactions in the transition state. They are also anticipated to both exhibit antiperiplanar preference, owing to partial delocalization over the C—C—Br framework of the unpaired electron in the HAA case or the electron pair in the EL case. Both mechanisms are compatible with the fact that the activation entropies are about the same as with outer-sphere electron donors (here, aromatic anion radicals). The bromine atom indeed bears three electron pairs located in two orthogonal 4p orbitals, perpendicular to the C—Br bond and in one s orbital. Bonded interactions in the transition... 

The direct electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide requires very negative potentials, more negative than —2V vs. SCE. Redox catalysis, which implies the intermediacy of C02 (E° = —2.2 V vs. SCE), is accordingly rather inefficient.3 With aromatic anion radicals, catalysis is hampered in most cases by a two-electron carboxylation of the aromatic ring. Spectacular chemical catalysis is obtained with electrochemically generated iron(0) porphyrins, but the help of a synergistic effect of Bronsted and Lewis acids is required.4... 

Deprotonation of 5-membered ring gives aromatic anion deprotonation of 7-membered ring gives anti-aromatic anion. 

The addition of alkyl halides to aromatic anion radicals, generated by alkalimetal reduction in ethereal solvents, was already known in the 1950s [201] and was reviewed by Garst in 1971 [202]. The first electrochemical analogue was observed by Lund etal. [203]. These authors cathodically reduced hydrocarbons such as naphthalene, anthracene, stilbene [145, 146], and pery-lene [147-150] in the presence of alkyl halides and isolated hydrogenated and alkylated products. Similar reactions are observed when the halides are replaced by ammonium or sulfonium [204]. 

Lund and coworkers [131] pioneered the use of aromatic anion radicals as mediators in a study of the catalytic reduction of bromobenzene by the electrogenerated anion radical of chrysene. Other early investigations involved the catalytic reduction of 1-bromo- and 1-chlorobutane by the anion radicals of trans-stilhene and anthracene [132], of 1-chlorohexane and 6-chloro-l-hexene by the naphthalene anion radical [133], and of 1-chlorooctane by the phenanthrene anion radical [134]. Simonet and coworkers [135] pointed out that a catalytically formed alkyl radical can react with an aromatic anion radical to form an alkylated aromatic hydrocarbon. Additional, comparatively recent work has centered on electron transfer between aromatic anion radicals and l,2-dichloro-l,2-diphenylethane [136], on reductive coupling of tert-butyl bromide with azobenzene, quinoxaline, and anthracene [137], and on the reactions of aromatic anion radicals with substituted benzyl chlorides [138], with... 

Fig. 11 Forward electron transfer (90) rate constant, k, versus the standard potential, F /q, of a series of aromatic anion radicals for rapidly cleaved aryl halide anion radicals (DMF, 20°C). kjy is the bimolecular diffusion limit. (Adapted from Andrieux et al., 1979.)...

In the numerous cases where k jk = 0, the overall reaction amounts to a substitution of the halogen in the halide by the aromatic anion radical followed by the electron-transfer reduction of the ensuing radical by another aromatic anion radical, i.e. the sum of steps (92) and (94) might rather occur as in Scheme 6. 

The experimental kinetic data obtained with the butyl halides in DMF are shown in Fig. 13 in the form of a plot of the activation free energy, AG, against the standard potential of the aromatic anion radicals, Ep/Q. The electrochemical data are displayed in the same diagrams in the form of values of the free energies of activation at the cyclic voltammetry peak potential, E, for a 0.1 V s scan rate. Additional data have been recently obtained by pulse radiolysis for n-butyl iodide in the same solvent (Grim-shaw et al., 1988) that complete nicely the data obtained by indirect electrochemistry. In the latter case, indeed, the upper limit of obtainable rate constants was 10 m s", beyond which the overlap between the mediator wave and the direct reduction wave of n-BuI is too strong for a meaningful measurement to be carried out. This is about the lower limit of measurable... 

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