Carbazole electrophilic substitution

The iron-mediated construction of the carbazole framework proceeds via consecutive C-C and C-N bond formation as key steps [70,71]. The C-C bond formation is achieved by electrophilic substitution of the arylamine with a tricarbonyliron-coordinated cyclohexadienyl cation. The parent iron complex salt for electrophilic substitutions, tricarbonyl[/j -cyclohexadienylium] iron tetrafluoroborate 6a, is readily available by azadiene-catalyzed complexation and subsequent hydride abstraction (Scheme 9). 

The reaction of the complex salt 6a with the arylamine 12 affords by regio-selective electrophilic substitution the iron complex 13 [88] (Scheme 11). The oxidative cyclization of complex 13 with very active manganese dioxide provides directly mukonine 14, which by ester cleavage was converted to mukoeic acid 15 [89]. Further applications of the iron-mediated construction of the carbazole framework to the synthesis of 1-oxygenated carbazole alkaloids include murrayanine, koenoline, and murrayafoline A [89]. 

The iron-mediated synthesis of 2-oxygenated carbazole alkaloids is limited and provides only a moderate yield (11%) for the oxidative cyclization to 2-methoxy-3-methylcarbazole using iodine in pyridine as the reagent [90]. Ferricenium hexafluorophosphate is the superior reagent for the iron-mediated arylamine cyclization leading to 3-oxygenated carbazoles (Scheme 12). Electrophilic substitution of the arylamines 16 with the complex salt 6a leads to the iron complexes 17. Oxidative cyclization of the complexes 17 with an excess of ferricenium hexafluorophosphate in the presence of sodium carbonate affords... 

The carbazole-1,4-quinol alkaloids are also accessible by the iron-mediated arylamine cyclization (Scheme 14). Electrophilic substitution reaction of the arylamine 24 with the complex salts 6a and 6b affords the iron complexes 25. Protection to the acetates 26 and oxidative cyclization with very active manganese dioxide leads to the carbazoles 27, which are oxidized to the carbazole-... 

The total synthesis of the furo[3,2-a]carbazole alkaloid furostifoline is achieved in a highly convergent manner by successive formation of the car-bazole nucleus and annulation of the furan ring (Scheme 15). Electrophilic substitution of the arylamine 30 using the complex salt 6a provides complex 31. In this case, iodine in pyridine was the superior reagent for the oxidative cyclization to the carbazole 32. Finally, annulation of the furan ring by an Amberlyst 15-catalyzed cyclization affords furostifoline 33 [97]. 

The double iron-mediated arylamine cyclization provides a highly convergent route to indolo[2,3-fc]carbazole (Scheme 16). Double electrophilic substitution of m-phenylenediamine 34 by reaction with the complex salt 6a affords the diiron complex 35, which on oxidative cyclization using iodine in pyridine leads to indolo[2,3-b]carbazole 36 [98].Thus,ithasbeen demonstrated that the bidirectional annulation of two indole rings can be applied to the synthesis of indolocarbazoles. 

The retrosynthetic analysis of the 2-oxygenated carbazole alkaloids, 2-methoxy-3-methylcarbazole (37), O-methylmukonal (glycosinine) (38), 2-hydroxy-3-methylcar-bazole (52), and mukonal (53) based on the molybdenum-mediated approach led to the molybdenum-complexed cation (663) and 3-methoxy-4-methylaniline (655) as precursors (Scheme 5.51). The cationic molybdenum complex, dicarbonyl (ri -cyclohexadiene)(r -cyclopentadienyl)molybdenum hexafluorophosphate (663), required for the electrophilic substitution, was easily prepared quantitatively through known literature procedures (586,587). 

From a eonsideration of the further substitution of C-substituted car-bazoles, a straightforward picture emerges, in so far as results are available (see Section II,D for examples and references). An alkyl or aryl group on carbazole nitrogen does not alter the strong tendency for 3-electrophilic substitution, but reactions are slower. 

The 7r-electron excessive character of pyrrole and indole renders both systems extremely susceptible to electrophilic attack and the fused benzene rings of carbazole also undergo electrophilic substitution more readily than does an unsubstituted benzene ring. In contrast, the 2/7-isoindole system only survives intact during electrophilic substitution reactions under the mildest of conditions and the system is more susceptible to [ 4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions than is pyrrole. 1,1-Disubstituted IH-isoindoles generally undergo nucleophilic addition-elimination reactions across the 2,3-bond or yield products derived from an initial electrophilic attack at the 2-position. 

Using cationic tricarbonyl(q5-cyclohexadienyl)iron complexes as starting materials, different synthetic routes to a large number of carbazole alkaloids have been developed [51, 58, 67]. The first step is an electrophilic substitution of a substituted arylamine using the cyclohexadienyliron complex and provides the corresponding 5-aryl-substituted cyclohexadiene-iron complexes (Scheme 1.29). 

Carbazole 332, dibenzofuran 333 (Z=0), and dibenzothiophene 333 (Z=S) behave as diphenylamine, diphenyl ether, and diphenyl sulfide, respectively, in their substitution reactions and thus electrophilic substitution occurs at the positions para to the heterocyclic atom, as exemplified for ... 

Electrophilic substitution of the appropriately functionalized arylamine and subsequent iron-mediated oxidative cyclization with aromatization generates the carbazole skeleton. Annulation of the furan ring by treatment with catalytic amounts of amberlyst 15 affords furostifoline directly. Comparison of the six total syntheses reported so far for furostifoline demonstrates the superiority of the iron-mediated synthesis (Table 1 in ref. [43a]). Starting from the 2-methoxy-substituted tricarbonyliron-coordinated cyclohexadienylium salt this sequence has been applied to the synthesis of furoclausine-A (Scheme 15.12) [45]. 

The NH-acidity of carbazole = 17.06 corresponds approximately to that of indoles and pyrroles. For this reason, carbazole is convertible into A -metallated compounds which can be subjected to electrophilic substitution on nitrogen. 

Carbazole is isoelectronic with fluorene, but the nitrogen bridge significantly alters the chemical behaviour. Whereas electrophilic substitution of fluorene occurs preferentially at the 2- and 7-positions, the strong electronic effect of the nitrogen directs substitution to the 3- and 6-positions of carbazole. As a result 3,6-carbazole polymers are much more synthetically accessible than 2,7-carbazole polymers. The chemistry and applications of carbazole-based polymers have been the subject of two major recent reviews to which the reader is referred [287,288]. 

Besides the difference in orbital energies the presence of the nitrogen also makes the chemistry of carbazole vary significantly from that of fluorene. The nitrogen acts as an ortho-, para-directing activating unit, so that whereas fluorene undergoes electrophilic substitution at the 2,7-positions, carbazole reacts at the 3- and 6-positions first, and if those are blocked then at the 1- and... 

Use of excess oxidant leads to decomplexation and aromatization of the product. In the case of electron-rich aromatic products, oxidation can go further to quinone-like compounds. This has been used in the synthesis of carbazole natural products (Scheme 10.33)." " The substituted aniline 10.130 underwent electrophilic substitution by the iron complex 10.95. Regioselective oxidation to give a new i/-complex 10J12 allowed a second nucleophilic attack to generate the carbazole skeleton 10.133 in situ. Further oxidation resulted in decomplexation, aromatization of the ring to give carbazole 10.134 and some formation of iminoquinone 10.135. 

Carbazoles behave like o,o -disubstituted diphenylamines. However, the basicity of carbazole, pKa = —4.94, is much lower than that of diphenylamine (pfCo = 0.78), and also lower than that of indole and pyrrole. As a consequence, carbazole is insoluble in dilute acids but only soluble in concentrated H2SO4 with protonation of the N-atom. On pouring the solution into water, carbazole precipitates without polymerization. The N-H-acidity of carbazole (pfCA = 17.06) corresponds approximately to that of indoles and pyrroles. For this reason, carbazole is convertible into N-metalated compounds which can be subjected to electrophilic substitution on nitrogen. 

Presumably, the oxidative cyclization of 3 commences with direct palladation at the a position, forming o-arylpalladium(II) complex 5 in a fashion analogous to a typical electrophilic aromatic substitution (this statement will be useful in predicting the regiochemistry of oxidative additions). Subsequently, in a manner akin to an intramolecular Heck reaction, intermediate 5 undergoes an intramolecular insertion onto the other benzene ring, furnishing 6. (i-Hydride elimination of 6 then results in carbazole 4. 

Despite many applications of the iron-mediated carbazole synthesis, the access to 2-oxygenated tricyclic carbazole alkaloids using this method is limited due to the moderate yields for the oxidative cyclization [88,90]. In this respect, the molybdenum-mediated oxidative coupling of an arylamine and cyclohexene 2a represents a complementary method. The construction of the carbazole framework is achieved by consecutive molybdenum-mediated C-C and C-N bond formation. The cationic molybdenum complex, required for the electrophilic aromatic substitution, is easily prepared (Scheme 23). 

Tricarbonyliron-coordinated cyclohexadienylium ions 569 were shown to be useful electrophiles for the electrophilic aromatic substitution of functionally diverse electron-rich arylamines 570. This reaction combined with the oxidative cyclization of the arylamine-substituted tricarbonyl(ri -cyclohexadiene)iron complexes 571, leads to a convergent total synthesis of a broad range of carbazole alkaloids. The overall transformation involves consecutive iron-mediated C-C and C-N bond formation followed by aromatization (8,10) (Schemes 5.24 and 5.25). 

Using this method, the electrophilic aromatic substitution of the electron-rich arylamine 578 by the molybdenum-complexed cation 577 affords regio- and stereoselectively the molybdenum complexes 579. Cyclization with concomitant aromatization and demetalation using activated manganese dioxide leads to the carbazole derivatives 568 (8,10,560) (Scheme 5.26). 

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