Di-substituted azulenes

As appropriate model compounds for these reactions240 the bridgehead substituted di hydro-4-methyleneazulenes 474 were employed. Allyl-, crotyl- and propargyl-substituted dihydroazulenes 474 and 476 can be easily rearranged to the 4-substituted azulenes 475 and 477 (equations 179 and 180) whereas all attempts to obtain 4-benzylazulene 479 by rearrangement of precursor 478 gave only polymeric products (equation 181). Undoubtedly, this failure can be explained by the fact that the Cope rearrangement becomes very... 

Azulenes are halocienated by jy-bromosuccinimide or iV-chlorosuccinimide [42,47], or by copper(II) bromide or chloride [94], to give mixtures of 1- and 1,3-substituted azulenes. Pyridinium perbromide produces the dibromo derivative [95]. Mono- and di-iodo derivatives have been obtained by reaction with iodine monochloride [95], T -iodosuccinimide [42] or iodine in the presence of copper(II) acetate [94]. Iodine in the presence of sodium iodide reacts with azulene at room temperature to give a good yield of 1-iodoazulene the kinetics of this reaction are comparable to those of a reactive benzene derivative such as aniline [96]. 

We have reported the synthesis of a series of azulene-substituted methyl cations, i.e., tri(l-azulenyl)methyl, di(l-azulenyl)phenylmethyl, and (1-azul-enyl)diphenylmethyl cations (2a+, 3a+, and 4a+) (Figure 6) (6). In order to examine substituent effects on the azulene rings and to enhance their stabilities, a series of the cations (2b-d+, 3b-d, and 4b-d+) bearing tert-buty groups on each azulene ring were also synthesized (7). 

Di(l-azulenyl)(6-azulenyl)methyl cation (24+) represented in Figure 17 exemplifies the cyanine-cyanine hybrid (20). Di(l-azulenyl)methylium unit in 24+ acts as a cyanine terminal group. The tropylium substructure stabilizes the cationic state (24+). Reduction of 24+ should afford the neutral radical 24, which is stabilized by capto-dative substitution effect, because 24 is substituted with azulenes in the donor and acceptor positions. The anionic state (24") is also stabilized by contribution of the cyclopentadienide substructure, which should exhibit the third color change in this system. 

The Ullmann reaction was used in the coupling of a wide variety of aryl halides, Ar-X, where the Ar includes mono-, di-, poly-substituted phenyl [4,5,14], naphthalene [4,5,15,16], azulene [17], pyridine [18], pyrimidine [19], thiophene [4,5,20], carbazole [21], and even ferrocene [22], while X = I, Br, Cl. The reaction was successfully used in the intramolecular cyclization reactions affording four- [23], five- [24], six-membered [25], and some other larger rings [6]. Selected examples where halides 10-13 were converted to biaryls 14-17 are given in the Scheme 2 [14,16,17,19]. 

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