Cyanide, cuprous reaction with aryl diazonium salts

Replacement of the Diazonium Group by Chloride, Bromide, and Cyanide The Sandmeyer Reaction Copper salts (cuprous salts) have a special affinity for diazonium salts. Cuprous chloride, cuprous bromide, and cuprous cyanide react with arenediazonium salts to give aryl chlorides, aryl bromides, and aryl cyanides. The use of cuprous salts to replace arenediazonium groups is called the Sandmeyer reaction. The Sandmeyer reaction (using cuprous cyanide) is also an excellent method for attaching another carbon substituent to an aromatic ring. 

Treatment of diazonium salts with cuprous, Cu(I), salts generates aryl halides. When 398 reacts with CuCl (cuprous chloride) or CuBr (cuprous bromide), the products are chlorobenzene or bromobenzene via what is probably a radical reaction.29l jhis conversion is known as the Sandmeyer reaction. 2 The use of copper powder rather than cuprous salts for this transformation is often called the Gattermann reaction. 93,292b,c Aryl iodides are also produced from diazonium salts by reaction with potassium iodide (KI) but the actual reactive species may be l3-.294,295 Treatment of aniline derivative 403 with sodium nitrite and HCl followed by treatment with KI, for example, gave a 89% yield of 404.Aryl nitriles are generated under Sandmeyer conditions using cuprous cyanide (CuCN), as in the conversion of 405 to benzonitrile derivative 407 via diazonium chloride, 406. 

Conversion of diazonium compounds to aryl chlorides, bromides, or cyanides is usually accomplished using cuprous salts, and is known as the Sandmeyer reaction. Since a CN group is easily converted to a CO2H group (eq. 10.13), this provides another route to aromatic carboxylic acids. The reaction with KI gives aryl iodides, usually not easily accessible by direct electrophilic iodination. Similarly, direct aromatic fluorination is difficult, but aromatic fluorides can be prepared from diazonium compounds and tetrafluoroboric acid, HBF4. 

Another common transformation of diazonium salts is their conversion to aryl halides by reaction with cuprous salts (CuX), in what is known as the Sandmeyer reaction, named after Traugott Sandmeyer (Switzerland 1854-1922). This means that the Ar-NH2 ArX conversion is possible, where Ar = an aryl group. When 132 is treated with cuprous bromide (CuBr), the product is bromobenzene (18). The reaction works with many other cuprous salts as well, including cuprous chloride (CuCl). A variation of this reaction treats the diazonirun salt with cuprous cyanide (CuCN) to give a nitrile. In this manner, 4-methylanihne (24) is treated with HCI and NaN02 and then with CuCN to give 4-methyl-l-cyanobenzene (134). 

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