Catechol developer

Dilute catechol developers will provide a speed increase with most films. 

Hydroquinone and catechol are important industrial intermediates, and there has been significant research and development of processes for manufacturing their derivatives. 

Catechol Derivatives. An elegant synthesis of trimethoxybenzaldehyde [86-81-7] (4) starting from quaiacol [90-05-1] (5) and formaldehyde (75) has been developed. The reaction sequence is as follows ... 

Hydroquinone [123-31 -9] represents a class of commercially important black-and-white chemical reducing agents (see Hydroquinone,RESORCINOL, AND catechol). The following scheme for silver haUde development with hydroquinone shows the quantitative importance of hydrogen ion and haUde ion concentrations on the two half-ceU reactions that describe the silver—hydroquinone redox system ... 

The close electrochemical relationship of the simple quinones, (2) and (3), with hydroquinone (1,4-benzenediol) (4) and catechol (1,2-benzenediol) (5), respectively, has proven useful in ways extending beyond their offering an attractive synthetic route. Photographic developers and dye syntheses often involve (4) or its derivatives (10). Biochemists have found much interest in the interaction of mercaptans and amino acids with various compounds related to (3). The reversible redox couple formed in many such examples and the frequendy observed quinonoid chemistry make it difficult to avoid a discussion of the aromatic reduction products of quinones (see Hydroquinone, resorcinol, and catechol). 

Second generation COMT inhibitors were developed by three laboratories in the late 1980s. Apart from CGP 28014, nitrocatechol is the key structure of the majority of these molecules (Fig. 3). The current COMT inhibitors can be classified as follows (i) mainly peripherally acting nitrocatechol-type compounds (entacapone, nitecapone, BIA 3-202), (ii) broad-spectrum nitrocatechols having activity both in peripheral tissues and the brain (tolcapone, Ro 41-0960, dinitrocatechol, vinylphenylk-etone), and (iii) atypical compounds, pyridine derivatives (CGP 28014,3-hydroxy-4-pyridone and its derivatives), some of which are not COMT inhibitors in vitro but inhibit catechol O-methylation by some other mechanism. The common features of the most new compounds are excellent potency, low toxicity and activity through oral administration. Their biochemical properties have been fairly well characterized. Most of these compounds have an excellent selectivity in that they do not affect any other enzymes studied [2,3]. 

There is also some evidence for subtypes of COMT but this has not yet been exploited pharmacologically. Certainly, the majority of COMT is found as soluble enzyme in the cell cytosol but a small proportion of neuronal enzyme appears to be membrane bound. The functional distinction between these different sources of COMT is unknown. COMT inhibitors also exist (e.g. pyrogallol), mostly as catechol derivatives, but so far, most have proved to be highly toxic. Only recently have drugs been developed which are selective for COMT one of these agents, tolcapone, is used currently in treatment of Parkinson s disease (see Chapter 15). 

New materials are also finding application in the area of catalysis reiated to the Chemicals industry. For example, microporous [10] materials which have titanium incorporated into the framework structure (e.g. so-calied TS-1) show selective oxidation behaviour with aqueous hydrogen peroxide as oxidizing agent (Figure 5). Two processes based on these new catalytic materials have now been developed and commercialized by ENl. These include the selective oxidation of phenol to catechol and hydroquinone and the ammoxidation of cyclohexanone to e-caproiactam. 

Selective methylation of catechol catalyst development and characterisation... 

The TS-1 catalysed hydroxylation of phenol to a 1 1 mixture of catechol and hydroquinone (Fig. 2.16) was commercialized by Enichem (Romano et ai, 1990). This process offers definite advantages, such as higher selectivities at higher phenol conversions, compared to other catalytic systems. It also illustrates another interesting development the use of solid, recyclable catalysts for liquid phase (oxidation) processes to minimize waste production even further. 

The development of catalysts for the efficient oxidation of catechol and its derivatives in water is topic of ongoing work in this laboratory. Towards this end, polyethylene glycol side-chains were incorporated in a pentadentate salen ligand to enhance the water solubility of the complexes derived thereof. A dinuclear copper(II) complex is found to catalyze the oxidation of 3,5-di-tert.-butylcatechol into 3,5-di-tert-butyl-o-benzoquinone more than twice as fast in aqueous organic solution as in purely organic solvents (ly,at/knon= 140,000). Preliminary data are discussed. 

Based on this technology, an industrial process for producing hydroquinone and catechol was developed by EniChem Synthesis starting at 10,000 tons per year (Fig. 6.3).36... 

When additional relief is needed, the addition of levodopa (L-dopa) should be considered. With the development of motor fluctuations, addition of a catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor should be considered to extend L-dopa duration of activity. 

A brief overview on why most of the autoxidation reactions develop complicated kinetic patterns is given in Section II. A preliminary survey of the literature revealed that the majority of autoxidation studies were published on a small number of substrates such as L-ascor-bic acid, catechols, cysteine and sulfite ions. The results for each of these substrates will be discussed in a separate section. Results on other metal ion mediated autoxidation reactions are collected in Section VII. In recent years, non-linear kinetic features were discovered in some systems containing dioxygen. These reactions form the basis of a new exciting domain of autoxidation chemistry and will be covered in Section VIII. 

Silver catalysis of the reduction of silver ions appears to be a necessary condition for normal development. The reaction of developing agents including several types of chemical compounds, e.g., hydroquinone, p-aminophenol, hydroxylamine, catechol, and p-phenylenediamine, are known to exhibit this catalysis to a high degree. 

The reduction of silver ions by catechol (a good developer) is silver-catalyzed. This reaction has been studied to only a limited extent (James, 7, 35) but the mechanism appears to be quite similar to that of the hydroquinone reaction. The rate is directly proportional to the catechol concentration at a pH of 7.58. 

---