Aromaticity of heterocyclic compounds

B. Aromaticity and Anti aromaticity of Heterocyclic Compounds That Are 7t-Isoelectronic with the Parent Hydrocarbon... 

Heterocyclic These are compounds having at least one hetero atom (any other atom but carbon, e.g. O, N and S) within the ring, and conforming to Hiickel s rule. The aromaticity of heterocyclic compounds, e.g. pyridine and pyrrole, can be explained as follows. 

Thakkar and his group have completed many careful studies of intracules, extracules, Coulomb holes, and related topics.145 These position-space results are complemented by Thakkar s many studies of momentum densities and related quantities. He also has a long-standing interest in electron and X-ray scattering.146 His current interests include the relationship147 between the aromaticity of heterocyclic compounds and their polarizabilities, and the prediction of push-pull molecules that have a large nonlinear optical response and are thus candidates for materials to be used in optical computers. 

Decolorisation by Animal Charcoal. It sometimes hap pens (particularly with aromatic and heterocyclic compounds) that a crude product may contain a coloured impurity, which on recrystallisation dissolves in the boiling solvent, but is then partly occluded by crystals as they form and grow in the cooling solution. Sometimes a very tenacious occlusion may thus occur, and repeated and very wasteful recrystallisation may be necessary to eliminate the impurity. Moreover, the amount of the impurity present may be so small that the melting-point and analytical values of the compound are not sensibly affected, yet the appearance of the sample is ruined. Such impurities can usually be readily removed by boiling the substance in solution with a small quantity of finely powdered animal charcoal for a short time, and then filtering the solution while hot. The animal charcoal adsorbs the coloured impurity, and the filtrate is usually almost free from extraneous colour and deposits therefore pure crystals. This decolorisation by animal charcoal occurs most readily in aqueous solution, but can be performed in almost any organic solvent. Care should be taken not to use an excessive quantity... 

Modern concepts have been extended to the chemistry of heterocyclic compounds more slowly than to the chemistry of aromatic and aliphatic systems, but efforts are now being made to classify and explain the properties and reactions of heterocyclic compounds in terms of these newer ideas (cf. reference 11). However, many of the most important heterocyclic compounds are potentially tautomeric, and elucidation of their tautomeric composition must precede a logical treatment of their properties. Further, many natural products such as the nucleic acids and alkaloids contain potentially tautomeric groups and information of this type is needed for a detailed explanation of th reactions which they undergo,... 

Goldschmidt and Beer have examined the products formed during the thermal decomposition of diacyl peroxides of the type [COgMe —(CHziw—CHz—COO] 2, where n = 1 and 3, in the presence of a series of organic compounds including pyridine and acridine. The products and yields of the reaction with some aromatic and heterocyclic compounds are shown in Table VI. As expected, acridine and... 

Binuclear aromatic hydrocarbons are found in heavier fractions than naphtha. Trinuclear and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, in combination with heterocyclic compounds, are major constituents of heavy crudes and crude residues. Asphaltenes are a complex mixture of aromatic and heterocyclic compounds. The nature and structure of some of these compounds have been investigated. The following are representative examples of some aromatic compounds found in crude oils ... 

In the same text, P. R. Wallnofer and G. Engelhardt have reviewed the application of biotransformation of aromatic and heterocyclic compounds, again describing a wide range of chemical transformation and organisms. 

Cormier and Dure (1963) found another type of luciferin and called it protein-free luciferin. Protein-free luciferin was found in the vapor condensate of freeze-drying whole animals, and also in the 3 5-56 % ammonium sulfate fraction of the crude extract noted above. The protein-free luciferin behaved like an aromatic or heterocyclic compound and it was strongly adsorbed onto Sephadex and other chromatography media, requiring a considerable amount of solvent to elute it. The luminescence reaction of protein-free luciferin in the presence of luciferase required a 500-times higher concentration of H2O2 compared with the standard luciferin preparation. Both types of the luciferin preparation had a strong odor of iodoform. 

The order of aromaticity of these compounds is benzene > thiophene > pyrrole > fiiran, as calculated by an aromaticity index based on bond-distance measurements. This index has been calculated for five- and six-membered monocyclic and bicyclic heterocycles Bird, C.W. Tetrahedron, 1985, 41, 1409 1986, 42, 89 1987, 43, 4725. 

Colby J, DI Stirling, H Dalton (1977) The soluble methane mono-oxygenase of Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath). Its ability to oxygenate -alkanes, -alkenes, ethers, and alicyclic, aromatic and heterocyclic compounds. Biochem J 165 395-401. 

As discussed in Chapter 6, nitro compounds are converted into amines, oximes, or carbonyl compounds. They serve as useful starting materials for the preparation of various heterocyclic compounds. Especially, five-membered nitrogen heterocycles, such as pyrroles, indoles, and pyrrolidines, are frequently prepared from nitro compounds. Syntheses of heterocyclic compounds using nitro compounds are described partially in Chapters 4, 6 and 9. This chapter focuses on synthesis of hetero-aromatics (mainly pyrroles and indoles) and saturated nitrogen heterocycles such as pyrrolidines and their derivatives. 

We know that aromatic compounds, polynuclear and heterocyclic compounds follow Huckel s rule in which they have a (4n + 2) system of n electrons and the protons attached to such systems are extremely deshielded due to the circulating sextet of n electrons. As a result, the signals of aromatic protons appear at a very low field than those observed even for benzene. The tau value of benzene is T = 2.63. From this the aromaticity of a compound can be verified. 

Actinomycetes can metabolize a wide variety of organic substrates, including organic compounds that are generally not metabolized, such as phenols and steroids. They are also important in the metabolism of heterocyclic compounds such as complex nitrogen compounds and pyrimidines [42,49]. The breakdown products of their metabolites are frequently aromatic, and these metabolites are important in the formation of humic substances and soil humus [42,49]. 

Redox shuttles based on aromatic species were also tested. Halpert et al. reported the use of tetracyano-ethylene and tetramethylphenylenediamine as shuttle additives to prevent overcharge in TiS2-based lithium cells and stated that the concept of these built-in overcharge prevention mechanisms was feasible. Richardson and Ross investigated a series of substituted aromatic or heterocyclic compounds as redox shuttle additives (Table 11) for polymer electrolytes that operated on a Li2Mn40g cathode at elevated temperatures (85 The redox potentials of these... 

Our study of heterocyclic compounds is directed primarily to an understanding of their reactivity and importance in biochemistry and medicine. The synthesis of aromatic heterocycles is not, therefore, a main theme, but it is useful to consider just a few examples to underline the application of reactions we have considered in earlier chapters. From the beginning, we should appreciate that the synthesis of substituted heterocycles is probably not best achieved by carrying out substitution reactions on the simple heterocycle. It is often much easier and more convenient to design the synthesis so that the heterocycle already carries the required substituents, or has easily modified functions. We can consider two main approaches for heterocycle synthesis, here using pyridine and pyrrole as targets. 

---