Derivatizing aromatic amine reagents

Whenever only primary amines need to be derivatized, fluorescamine often constitutes the reagent of choice. Fluorescamine, although nonfluorescent itself, can react with primary amines forming highly fluorescent pyrrolinones (139-144). Aliphatic primary amines favor derivatization reaction at pH 8-9, whereas primary aromatic amines exhibit optimal reactivity at pH 3-4. Secondary amines are also fully reactive with fluorescamine but their products do not fluoresce. However, secondary amines can be detected with fluorescamine if they are converted to primary amines by oxidation with N-chlorosuccinimide prior to their fluorescamine derivatization (145, 146). Alcohols can also interact with fluorescamine but this reaction is reversible as a result, alcohols just slow down the reaction rate of fluorescamine with primary amines. On the other hand, tertiary amines and guanidines are not reactive at all with fluorescamine. 

A simultaneous way of determining ammonia including aliphatic amines, aromatic amines, and phenols in environmental samples by GC-MS method using a single derivatization reagent has been reported recently by Mishra et al. The method consisted in precolumn formation of benzoate esters and benzamides under the conditions of the Schotten-Baumann procedure with benzoyl chloride and SPE of the derivatives. The limit of detection of ammonia was 20 /rg/l when 80 ml of sample was preconcentrated, after derivatization, on a styrene divinyl benzene copolymer sorbent. 

The number of reagents that has been used for the identification of primary amines is possibly larger than for any other class of compounds [5], But most of these classical derivatives lie beyond the scope of this chapter. They are covered in other parts of the book acylation in Chapter 3, silylation in Chapter 4 and alkylation in Chapter 5. The different nitrophenyl derivatives are discussed in Chapter 8, and Chapter 9 presents the options for preparing fluorescent derivatives. The only derivatization fitting into the framework of this chapter is the condensation with carbonyls resulting in the formation of Schiff bases or, in the case of aromatic amines, anils. 

Isocyanates and isothiocyanates react with primary and secondary amino compounds, and a variety of derivatization reagents have been reported. Both aliphatic and aromatic amines react with isocyanates to form N,N -disubstituted ureas (Figure 6.2). As an example, aliphatic amines derivatized with phenyl isothiocyanate (PITC) were nicely... 

Likewise, the luminescence properties of many analytes can be altered in the presenoe of surfactant aggregates (4,7.,8.). Consequently, addition of micelle-forming surfactants (present either in the LC mobile phase or added post-column) can improve the sensitivity of fluorimetric LC detectors (49,482). Micellar spray reagents have been utilized to enhance the fluorescence densitometric detection of dansylamino acids or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (483). The effect was observed for TLC performed on cellulose or polyamide stationary phases with the micellar spray reagent being either CTAC, SB-12, or NaC (483). More recently, use of nonionic Triton X-100 has been found to improve the HPLC detection of morphine by fluorescence determination after post-column derivatization (486) as well as improve the N-chlorination procedure for the detection of amines, amides, and related compounds on thin-layer chromatograms (488). 

Dunning, J. W. and Stewart, J. T., Some new acridinium trifluoromethanesulfonates as spectro-photometric derivatization reagents for aromatic and aliphatic primary amines, Talanta, 38,631 -635,... 

The saturated and unsaturated primary amines from this process are converted through a series of derivatization steps into tertiary amines utilizing reagents such as EO, PO, a,b-unsatu-rated esters, formaldehyde, or acrylolnitrile followed by reduction to the respective alkyldimethyl-and alkylaminopropylamines, all suitable for quatemization with aliphatic and aromatic alkylating agents. Alternatively, the tertiary amines may be neutralized with acids to form the respective tri-alkylammonium salts, which have many of the attributes of the quaternary ammonium salts when maintained at acidic pH. 

The procedure for the chlorosulfonation of azobenzene was first reported by PearP and was successfully repeated by Cremlyn. The comparatively drastic conditions required for the reaction 414— 415 (Equation 128) are probably due to initial protonation of the azido group in the strongly acidic medium. Attempts were made to extend the procedure to the chlorosulfonation of other azobenzenes. With 4-acetamidoazobenzene, extensive decomposition occurred at 125 °C, which may arise from acid-catalysed migration of the acetyl group into the aromatic nucleus, followed by decomposition of the resultant free amine intermediate. However, when the reaction temperature was reduced to 80 C, a low yield of the 4 -sulfonyl chloride was isolated. On the other hand, similar efforts to chlorosul-fonate p-(A iV-dimethylamino)azobenzene failed to yield a pure product,but more recently debsyl chloride 416 has been synthesized and is used as a derivatization reagent in HPLC for the separation of amines and amino acids. ... 

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