Aromaticity of pyridine

Nitrogen. Pyridine is one of the most important heterocycles. The aromaticity of pyridine was intensively connected to structural considerations and chemical behavior. The relative difference between the aromaticity of benzene and pyridine is controversial generally calculations give similar orders of magnitude and differences depend on the criterion of aromaticity considered and the mode of calculation used. A comprehensive review on the theoretical aspects in connection with the aromaticity of pyridine was published.191 Pyridine is about as aromatic as benzene according to theoretical calculations and to experimental data, while quinoline is about as aromatic as naphthalene and more aromatic than isoquinoline.192193 The degrees of aromaticity of pyridine derivatives strongly depend on their substituents. 

The aromaticity of pyridine and antiaromaticity of azete may be compared on the basis of the enthalpies of reactions (53) and (54). Both in structure (107) that corresponds to a minimum on the PES (unpublished results) and is an analog of the experimentally known X5-phosphorine (82ACR58) and in structure (108) a tetracoordinate nitrogen atom disturbs cyclic 7r-delocalization. In contrast to pyridine—Eq. (53)—the corresponding reaction for azete—Eq. (54)—is according to our AMI calculations exothermic. 

Problem 20.18 (a) Account for the aromaticity of pyridine, a planar structure with 120° bond angles. (f>) Is pyridine basic Explain, (c) Explain why piperidine (azacyclohexane) is more basic than pyridine, (d) Write the equation for the reaction of pyridine with HCl. 

The experimental technique is similar to that given under Aromatic Amines, Section IV,100,2. The following alternative method may also be used. Mix together 0 -5-0 - 8 ml. of the polyhydroxy compound, 5 ml. of pyridine and 2 -5 ml. of redistilled benzoyl chloride in a 50 ml. flask. 

For cyclohexane the excess enthalpy (H ) is positive and large, whereas for solvent with aromatic character it is low and even negative in the case of pyridine. 

The higher reactivity of 2-halogenothiazoles with respect to halogenopyridines can be related to the different aromaticity of the two systems, less for thiazole than for pyridine, for example, the relatively stronger fixation of the tt bond in the thiazole than in the case of pyridine. As the data reported in Table V-1 (footnote a) indicates, the free thiophenol is more reactive than the thiolate anion toward the 2-halogenothiazoles. This fact should be considered when one prepares the thiazolyl sulfides. 

Tobacco Alkaloids. The relatively small number of alkaloids derived from nicotinic acid (27) (the tobacco alkaloids) are obtained from plants of significant commercial value and have been extensively studied. They are distinguished from the bases derived from ornithine (23) and, in particular, lysine (24), since the six-membered aromatic substituted pyridine nucleus common to these bases apparendy is not derived from (24). 

Ethers of benzenepentol have been obtained by Dakin oxidation of the appropriately substituted acetophenone. Thus, the oxidation of 2-hydroxy-3,4,6-ttimethoxyacetophenone and 2-hydroxy-3,4,5-ttimethoxyacetophenone with hydrogen peroxide ia the presence of alkali gives l,2-dihydroxy-3,4,6-ttimethoxybenzene and l,2-dihydroxy-3,4,5-ttimethoxybenzene, respectively further methylation of these ethers yields the pentamethyl ether of benzenepentol (mp 58—59 degC) (253). The one-step aromatization of myoinositol to produce esters of pentahydroxybenzene is achieved by treatment with carboxylic acid anhydrides ia DMSO and ia the presence of pyridine (254) (see Vitamins). 6-Alkyl- or... 

Pyrrole has a planar, pentagonal (C2 ) stmcture and is aromatic in that it has a sextet of electrons. It is isoelectronic with the cyclopentadienyl anion. The TT-electrons are delocalized throughout the ring system, thus pyrrole is best characterized as a resonance hybrid, with contributing stmctures (1 5). These stmctures explain its lack of basicity (which is less than that of pyridine), its unexpectedly high acidity, and its pronounced aromatic character. The resonance energy which has been estimated at about 100 kj/mol (23.9 kcal/mol) is intermediate between that of furan and thiophene, or about two-thirds that of benzene (5). 

Sulfonamides (R2NSO2R ) are prepared from an amine and sulfonyl chloride in the presence of pyridine or aqueous base. The sulfonamide is one of the most stable nitrogen protective groups. Arylsulfonamides are stable to alkaline hydrolysis, and to catalytic reduction they are cleaved by Na/NH3, Na/butanol, sodium naphthalenide, or sodium anthracenide, and by refluxing in acid (48% HBr/cat. phenol). Sulfonamides of less basic amines such as pyrroles and indoles are much easier to cleave than are those of the more basic alkyl amines. In fact, sulfonamides of the less basic amines (pyrroles, indoles, and imidazoles) can be cleaved by basic hydrolysis, which is almost impossible for the alkyl amines. Because of the inherent differences between the aromatic — NH group and simple aliphatic amines, the protection of these compounds (pyrroles, indoles, and imidazoles) will be described in a separate section. One appealing proj>erty of sulfonamides is that the derivatives are more crystalline than amides or carbamates. 

Because of the cost of pyridine the phosgenation process may be carried out with a mixture of pyridine and a non-hydrohalide-accepting solvent for the polymer and the growing complexes. Suitable solvents include methylene dichloride, tetrachlorethane and chloroform. Although unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbons may dissolve the solvent they are not effective solvents for the acid chloride-pyridine complexes. 

There is another important factor in the low reactivity of pyridine derivatives toward electrophilic substitution. The —N=CH— unit is basic because the electron pair on nitrogen is not part of the aromatic n system. The nitrogen is protonated or complexed with a Lewis acid under many of the conditions typical of electrophilic substitution reactions. The formal positive charge present at nitrogen in such species further reduces the reactivity toward electrophiles. 

First heterocyclic aromatic analogue of pyridine (Ph3C5H2P) prepared by G. MUrkl, followed by the parent compound C3H3P in 1971 (A. J. Ashe). 

Pyridine is a polar, stable, relatively unreactive liquid (bp 115°C) with a characteristic strong penetrating odor that is unpleasant to most people. It is miscible with both water and organic solvents. Pyridine was first isolated, like pyrrole, from bone pyrolysates. Its name is derived from the Greek for fire (pyr) and the suffix idine used to designate aromatic bases. Pyridine is used as a solvent, in addition to many other uses including products such as pharmaceuticals, vitamins, food flavorings, paints, dyes, rubber products, adhesives, insecticides, and herbicides. Pyridine can also be formed from the breakdown of many natural materials in the environment. 

A unique method to generate the pyridine ring employed a transition metal-mediated 6-endo-dig cyclization of A-propargylamine derivative 120. The reaction proceeds in 5-12 h with yields of 22-74%. Gold (HI) salts are required to catalyze the reaction, but copper salts are sufficient with reactive ketones. A proposed reaction mechanism involves activation of the alkyne by transition metal complexation. This lowers the activation energy for the enamine addition to the alkyne that generates 121. The transition metal also behaves as a Lewis acid and facilitates formation of 120 from 118 and 119. Subsequent aromatization of 121 affords pyridine 122. 

Reaction of lithiated allene with methoxymethyl isothiocyanate afforded 107, after trapping with methyl iodide. The newly formed 107 isomerizes under mild conditions to triene 108. This compound is ideally setup to experience an electrocyclization to dihydropyridine 109. Heating in the presence of acid facilitates aromatization of 109 to pyridines 110. 

In 1904, Zincke reported that treatment of Al-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)pyridinium chloride (1) with aniline provided a deep red salt that subsequently transformed into A-phenyl pyridinium chloride 5 (Scheme 8.4.2). Because the starting salt 1 was readily available from the nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction of pyridine with 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene, the Zincke reaction provided access to a pyridinium salt (5) that would otherwise require the unlikely substitution reaction between pyridine and... 

Compound 40 has not yet been synthesized. However, there is a large body of synthetic data for nucleophilic substitution reactions with derivatives of 41 [synthesized from aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes, pyridine, and trimethylsilyl triflate (92S577)]. All of these experimental results reveal that the exclusive preference of pathway b is the most important feature of 41 (and also presumably of 40). 

The reactivity of pyridine relative to that of benzene has been measured using the competitive technique developed by Ingold and his schoool for corresponding studies of electrophilic aromatic substitution. The validity of the method applied to free-radical reactions has been discussed. Three sources of the phenyl radical have been used the results obtained are set out in Table II. 

It is notable that pyridine is activated relative to benzene and quinoline is activated relative to naphthalene, but that the reactivities of anthracene, acridine, and phenazine decrease in that order. A small activation of pyridine and quinoline is reasonable on the basis of quantum-mechanical predictions of atom localization encrgies, " whereas the unexpected decrease in reactivity from anthracene to phenazine can be best interpreted on the basis of a model for the transition state of methylation suggested by Szwarc and Binks." The coulombic repulsion between the ir-electrons of the aromatic nucleus and the p-electron of the radical should be smaller if the radical approaches the aromatic system along the nodal plane rather than perpendicular to it. This approach to a nitrogen center would be very unfavorable, however, since the lone pair of electrons of the nitrogen lies in the nodal plane and since the methyl radical is... 

It is difficult to treat the effect of a heteroatom on the localization energies of aromatic systems, but Brown has derived molecular orbital parameters from which he has shown that the rates of attack of the phenyl radical at the three positions of pyridine relatively to benzene agree within 10% with the experimental results. He and his co-workers have shown that the formation of 1-bromoisoquinoline on free-radical bromination of isoquinoline is in agreement with predictions from localization energies for physically reasonable values of the Coulomb parameters, but the observed orientation of the phcnylation of quinoline cannot be correlated with localization ener-... 

Other kinds of substances besides benzene-like compounds can also be aromatic. For example, the cyclopentadienyl anion and the cycloheptatrienyl cation are aromatic ions. Pyridine, a six-membered, nitrogen-containing heterocycle, is aromatic and resembles benzene electronically. Pyrrole, a hve-membered heterocycle, resembles the cyclopentadienyl anion. 

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