Coupling Reactions of Arenediazonium Salts

Arenediazonium ions are weak electrophiles they react with highly reactive aromatic compounds—with phenols and tertiary arylamines—to yield azo compounds. This electrophilic aromatic substitution is often called a diazo coupling reaction. 

Couplings between arenediazonium cations and phenols take place most rapidly in slightly alkaline solution. Under these conditions an appreciable amount of the phenol is present as a phenoxide ion, ArO , and phenoxide ions are even more reactive toward electrophilic substitution than are phenols themselves. (Why ) If the solution is too alkaline (pH 10), however, the arenediazonium salt itself reacts with hydroxide ion to form a relatively unreactive diazohydroxide or diazotate ion  

Couplings between arenediazonium cations and amines take place most rapidly in slightly acidic solutions (pH 5-7). Under these conditions the concentration of the arenediazonium cation is at a maximum at the same time an excessive amount of the amine has not been converted to an unreactive aminium salt  

If the pH of the solution is lower than 5, the rate of amine coupling is low. 

With phenols and aniline derivatives, coupling takes place almost exclusively at the para position if it is open. If it is not, coupling takes place at the ortho position. 

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In a very recent work, the Pd-catalysed cross-coupling reactions with arenediazonium salts under aerobic conditions in the presence of a chiral monothiourea ligand were reported (Scheme 25) [106]. Even if this Hgand bears four chiral centres, no test in asymmetric Heck-type reaction has been described so far. 

Although these two reactions are similar to the corresponding reactions of arenediazonium salts, aryl radicals are not involved in the reaction of the lead reagents and these reactions are better explained by a ligand coupling mechanism. 

The reactions of arenediazonium ions with 7V-alkyl- or 7V-arylhydroxylamines were investigated by Bamberger (1920b, and earlier papers). Mitsuhashi et al. (1965) showed that the l,3-diaryl-3-hydroxytriazenes are tautomeric with 1,3-diaryltriazene-3-oxides (Scheme 6-16). Oxidation of 1,3-diaryltriazenes with peroxybenzoic acid in ether yields the same product as that from diazonium salts and TV-arylhydroxyl-amine. The infrared spectrum of the product obtained by coupling diazotized relabeled aniline with A/-phenylhydroxylamine indicates that the diaryltriazene-oxide is the preponderant tautomer. 

The P-coupling of 1,2- and 1,4-quinonediazides with phosphines (mainly tri-phenylphosphine) was studied intensively in the 1960s by the groups of Ried and Horner (see summary by Ershov et al., 1981, p. 147). The azo derivatives formed in these reactions are more stable than those of arenediazonium salts because of the stabilization by mesomeric delocalization (6.35 a ++ 6,35 b). 

In the first paper on arenediazonium salt/crown ether complexes, Gokel and Cram (1973) mention that they were not able to synthesize the rotaxane 11.14 by an azo coupling reaction of the complexed diazonium ion with Af,Af-dimethylaniline. 

Barbituric acid can be considered as a cyclized malonic acid diamide (malonyl-urea). It is therefore a cyclic diketone that may be classified, in the sense of the compounds discussed in Section 12.6, as a coupling component with a methylene group activated by two carbonyl groups in the a- and a -positions. The reaction with arenediazonium salts was studied by Nesynov and Besprozvannaya (1971). These authors obtained coupling products (in good yield) that they considered to be arylhydrazones. Coupling with 4-(phenylazo)benzenediazonium chloride was studied by Chandra and Thosh (1991). The lH NMR spectra of these compounds are consistent with the arylhydrazone structure 12.68. 

Apart from imidazol-2-ylidene carbenes, other electron-rich carbenes such as (L27)—generated by deprotonation of a 4,5-dihydroimidazole—have been tested for cross-coupling reactions, but gave much poorer results. The only reported exception is in the cross-coupling of arenediazonium salts with arylboronic acids, in which (L27) (used as hydrochloride) proved to be efficient.369... 

Palladium catalysts have been found which are effective in the Suzuki coupling reaction of arylboronic acids with aryl chlorides carrying electron-withdrawing groups.73 Biaryls may also be synthesized by cross-coupling of arylboronic acids with arenediazonium salts.74,75 There has been a report of the polymer-bound palladium-catalysed Suzuki coupling of aryl triflates with organoboron compounds.76 Arylbor-onates may themselves be synthesized by the palladium-catalysed reactions of... 

Gomberg-Bachmann biphenyl synthesis. Reaction of stable arenediazonium tet-rafluoroborates or hexafluorophosphates in an aromatic solvent with potassium acetate (2 equiv.) and a phase-transfer catalyst results in biar Is in high yield. Crown ethers, Aliquat 336, and tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulfate arc all effective catalysts. The reaction is useful for synthesis of unsymmetrical biaryls. The ortho-isomer predominates in reactions with a monosubstituted benzene. The most selective method is to couple a substituted arenediazonium salt with a symmetrical arene. 

Some of the examples where a diazo or a diazonium compound reacts with activated double bonds, specifically with enamines and with 1,2-dimethoxy-ethene have been mentioned in sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.4, respectively (12, 29). A similar reaction is the azo coupling of arenediazonium salts with tropolones (34) The diazonio group reacts at the C-5 atom, so the reaction is used as a diagnostic tool for the presence of substituents at C-5, as well as for the synthesis of 5-amino tropolones by reduction of the azo compound. 

Suzuki couplings. In analogy to the Heck reaction, the use of arenediazonium salts in the Suzuki coupling is successful. The preparation of 1,2-dicyclopropylethenes by such a method gives quite satisfactory results. ... 

The chemistry of pyridylphosphines has been reviewed. Further studies have appeared of the reactions of phosphines bearing 2-pyridyl or 2-benzothiazolyl substituents with butyl-lithium, which result in the formation of biaryl coupling products via an initial nucleophilic attack at phosphorus. A study of the de-diazoniation of arenediazonium salts using triphenylphosphine (and trialkylphosphites) indicates that the reactions proceed via a radical-chain mechanism, initiated by single electron transfer from the phosphine to the diazonium salt, to give... 

Azodiazocyclopentadienes 23, the open-chain tautomers of 27/-cyclopenta[/]-l,2,3,4-tetrazines 10, were generated through coupling of arenediazonium salts with diazocyclopentadienes, or via reaction of diazocyclopentadienes... 

Give examples of the use of arenediazonium salts in diazo coupling reactions and in the synthesis of aryl chlorides, bromides, iodides, fluorides, and nitriles. 

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