Nitrogen deficiency

An interesting intermediate 30 was proposed to result from the sequential addition of pyridine to tetrachlorocyclopropene (31). Compound 30 represents an alkyl nitrogen ylide with two 1-chloroalkyl pyridinium moieties in the same molecule. Pyridines with electron-withdrawing groups and heterocycles with an electron-deficient nitrogen, for example, pyridine-3-carbaldehyde or quinoline, react with 31 to yield the corresponding mono-substituted products 32a and 32b (83JOC2629) (Scheme 8). 

Another important reaction involving migration to electron-deficient nitrogen is the Beckmann rearrangement, in which oximes are converted to amides.282... 

The Wolff rearrangement has a close formal resemblance to the Hofmann and related reactions (p. 122), in which migration takes place to an electron-deficient nitrogen atom to form an isocyanate, RN=C=0, intermediate. 

The simplest intermediate of the nitrogen cation type is the nitronium ion, the active species in most aromatic nitration reactions. There is both cryoscopic and spectroscopic (Raman and infrared) evidence for its existence.802 On the other hand, it has a structure with quaternary rather than electron deficient nitrogen, a structure compatible with the centrosymmetric geometry demanded by the spectra. The Raman line at 1400 cm.-1 has been assigned to the totally symmetric vibration of the linear triatomic molecule. 

The Hofmann reaction of an amide with bromine and alkali apparently goes by way of the iV-bromoamide and unicovalent electron-deficient nitrogen. 

As sulfones are known to be readily displaced from electron deficient nitrogen-containing heterocycles, Bessard noted significant rate enhancements as well as improved yields in the displacement of the chloride on pyrimidine 49 by alcohols, through the use of sodium methylsulfinate as a catalyst <00T4739>. The production of trialkoxypyrimidines 51 as potential herbicides, presumably formed from the displacement of methysulfinate from intermediate 50 by the various alcohols, required a less than a stoichiometric amount of sodium methylsulfinate (typically 0.10-0.25 equivalents). 

C-2 or C-A will be unfavourable, in that one of the resonance forms features an unstable electron-deficient nitrogen cation. Attack at C-3 is the more likely, simply based on an inspection of resonance structures for the addition cation. However, electrophilic attack still tends to be unfavourable, because many electrophilic reagents, e.g. HNO3-H2SO4, are strongly acidic, and the first effect is protonation on nitrogen. Attack of E+ on to a positively... 

A simplified mechanism for the Beckmann rearrangements and important related reactions is shown hi Scheme 9. Summarizing the mechanism section, the key step of the reaction is the migration of an a-carbon group to the electronically deficient nitrogen atom of the oxime. A nitrilium ion in some cases or an imidate in others are key intermediates in the reaction. Their destiny determines the course of the transformation. Basically, three different pathways may be possible and can be synthetically exploited ... 

In contrast to the somewhat limited synthetic utility of nitrenes, there is an important group of reactions in which migration occurs to electron-deficient nitrogen. One of the most useful of these reactions is the Curtius rearrangement 16 This reaction has the same relationship to acylnitrene intermediates that the Wolff rearrangement does to acylcar-benes. The initial product is an isocyanate, which can be isolated or trapped by a nucleophilic solvent. 

Another important reaction involving migration to electron-deficient nitrogen is the... 

Halopyridines and other re-deficient nitrogen heterocycles are excellent reactants for nucleophilic aromatic substitution.112 Substitution reactions also occur readily for other heterocyclic systems, such as 2-haloquinolines and 1-haloisoquinolines, in which a potential leaving group is adjacent to a pyridine-type nitrogen. 4-Halopyridines and related heterocyclic compounds can also undergo substitution by nucleophilic addition-elimination but are somewhat less reactive. 

In the presence of alkali, hydrogen halide is eliminated producing presumably an electronically-deficient nitrogen fragment, which rearranges to the isocyanate (I) ... 

Our consideration of rearrangements to electron-deficient heteroatoms must be brief. In discussing migrations to electron-deficient nitrogen, we first discuss three rearrangements that occur in carbonyl derivatives, the Beckmann, Hofmann, and Schmidt rearrangements, and then consider rearrangements of nitrenium ions. 

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