Carbon pyrrole

While pyridinic nitrogen atoms rally contribute one electron to the Ji-electron system of the carbon, pyrrolic and graphitic nitrogen atoms increase the Jt-electron... 

The nitrogen atom of pyrrole is sp hybridized. Thus, it has three sjp" orbitals and a p orbital. It uses its three sp orbitals to bond to two carbons and one hydrogen. The lone-pair electrons are in thep orbital that overlaps the p orbitals of adjacent carbons. Pyrrole, therefore, has three pairs of -it electrons and is aromatic. 

This reaction sequence is much less prone to difficulties with isomerizations since the pyridine-like carbons of dipyrromethenes do not add protons. Yields are often low, however, since the intermediates do not survive the high temperatures. The more reactive, faster but less reliable system is certainly provided by the dipyrromethanes, in which the reactivity of the pyrrole units is comparable to activated benzene derivatives such as phenol or aniline. The situation is comparable with that found in peptide synthesis where the slow azide method gives cleaner products than the fast DCC-promoted condensations (see p. 234). 

Cyclic compounds that contain at least one atom other than carbon within their ring are called heterocyclic compounds, and those that possess aromatic stability are called het erocyclic aromatic compounds Some representative heterocyclic aromatic compounds are pyridine pyrrole furan and thiophene The structures and the lUPAC numbering system used m naming their derivatives are shown In their stability and chemical behav lor all these compounds resemble benzene more than they resemble alkenes... 

A large group of heterocyclic aromatic compounds are related to pyrrole by replacement of one of the ring carbons p to nitrogen by a second heteroatom Com pounds of this type are called azoles... 

Figure 8.15 The carbon Is X-ray photoelectron spectra of furan, pyrrole and thiophene. The sulphur Ip spectrum of thiophene is also shown. (Reproduced with permission from Gelius, U., Allan, C. J., Johansson, G., Siegbahn, H., Allison, D. A. and Siegbahn, K., Physica Scripta, 3, 237, 1971)...

Iron Porphyrins. Porphyrias (15—17) are aromatic cycHc compouads that coasist of four pyrrole units linked at the a-positions by methine carbons. The extended TT-systems of these compounds give rise to intense absorption bands in the uv/vis region of the spectmm. The most intense absorption, which is called the Soret band, falls neat 400 nm and has 10. The TT-system is also responsible for the notable ring current effect observed in H-nmr spectra, the preference for planar conformations, the prevalence of electrophilic substitution reactions, and the redox chemistry of these compounds. Porphyrins obtained from natural sources have a variety of peripheral substituents and substitution patterns. Two important types of synthetic porphyrins are the meso-tetraaryl porphyrins, such as 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphine [917-23-7] (H2(TPP)) (7) and P-octaalkylporphyrins, such as 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethylporphine [2683-82-1] (H2(OEP)) (8). Both types can be prepared by condensation of pyrroles and aldehydes (qv). 

Ring openings of pyrrole commonly occur at the carbon—nitrogen bond. Treatment of pyrrole or 2,5-dimethylpyrrole [625-84-3] (23, R = CH3) with hydroxjlamine leads to ring opening and formation of dioximes (31) (39). 

Hydroxypyrroles. Pyrroles with nitrogen-substituted side chains containing hydroxyl groups are best prepared by the Paal-Knorr cyclization. Pyrroles with hydroxyl groups on carbon side chains can be made by reduction of the appropriate carbonyl compound with hydrides, by Grignard synthesis, or by iasertion of ethylene oxide or formaldehyde. For example, pyrrole plus formaldehyde gives 2-hydroxymethylpyrrole [27472-36-2] (24). The hydroxymethylpyrroles do not act as normal primary alcohols because of resonance stabilization of carbonium ions formed by loss of water. 

Condensed Pyrroles. Pyrroles can be condensed to compounds containing two, three, or four pyrrole nuclei. These are important ia synthetic routes to the tetrapyrroHc porphyrins, corroles, and bile pigments and to the tripyrroHc prodigiosias. The pyrrole nuclei are joiaed by either a one-carbon fragment or direct pyrrole—pyrrole bond. 

Polypyrroles. Highly stable, flexible films of polypyrrole ate obtained by electrolytic oxidation of the appropriate pyrrole monomers (46). The films are not affected by air and can be heated to 250°C with Htde effect. It is beheved that the pyrrole units remain intact and that linking is by the a-carbons. Copolymerization of pyrrole with /V-methy1pyrro1e yields compositions of varying electrical conductivity, depending on the monomer ratio. Conductivities as high as 10 /(n-m) have been reported (47) (see Electrically conductive polymers). 

Table 1 Hsts the polyether antibiotics arranged by the number of carbons in the skeleton. Many of these compounds were isolated independendy in separate laboratories and thus have more than one designation. The groups are subdivided depending on the number of spiroketals. Two classes fall outside this scheme the pyrrole ether type containing a heterocycHc ring, and the acyltetronic acid type, that has an acyHdene tetronic acid instead of a carboxyHc acid. These compounds are ionophores and because of their common features are included as polyethers.

There are some recent examples of this type of synthesis of pyridazines, but this approach is more valuable for cinnolines. Alkyl and aryl ketazines can be transformed with lithium diisopropylamide into their dianions, which rearrange to tetrahydropyridazines, pyrroles or pyrazoles, depending on the nature of the ketazlne. It is postulated that the reaction course is mainly dependent on the electron density on the carbon termini bearing anionic charges (Scheme 65) (78JOC3370). 

The NMR spectral properties of the parent heterocycles are summarized in Table 12. The signal for the pyrrole a-carbon is broadened as a result of coupling with the adjacent nitrogen-14 atom (c/. Section 3.01.4.3). While the frequencies observed for the /3-carbon atoms show a fairly systematic upheld shift with increasing electronegativity of the heteroatom, the shifts for the a-carbon atoms vary irregularly. The shifts are comparable with that for benzene, S 128.7. 

These compounds typically react with electrophiles on carbon and in this respect they resemble enamines, enol ethers and enol thioethers. For example, both pyrrole and 1-pyrrolidinocyclohexene can be C-acetylated (Scheme 4). 

The high reactivity of pyrroles to electrophiles is similar to that of arylamines and is a reflection of the mesomeric release of electrons from nitrogen to ring carbons. Reactions with electrophilic reagents may result in addition rather than substitution. Thus furan reacts with acetyl nitrate to give a 2,5-adduct (33) and in a similar fashion an adduct (34) is obtained from the reaction of ethyl vinyl ether with hydrogen bromide. 

It is also of significance that in the dilute gas phase, where the intrinsic orientating properties of pyrrole can be examined without the complication of variable phenomena such as solvation, ion-pairing and catalyst attendant on electrophilic substitution reactions in solution, preferential /3-attack on pyrrole occurs. In gas phase t-butylation, the relative order of reactivity at /3-carbon, a-carbon and nitrogen is 10.3 3.0 1.0 (81CC1177). 

The low basicity of pyrrole is a consequence of the loss of aromaticity which accompanies protonation on the ring nitrogen or on carbon 2 or carbon 3 of the ring. The thermodynamically most stable cation is the 2H-pyrrolium ion, and the p/sTa for protonation at C-2 has been recorded as -3.8 the corresponding pK values for protonation at C-3 and at nitrogen are -5.9 and ca. -10 (Scheme 7). 

---