Diazonium ions, aromatic iodides

One of the best methods for the introduction of iodine into aromatic rings is the reaction of diazonium salts with iodide ions. Analogous reactions with chloride, bromide, and fluoride ions give poorer results, and 14-25 and 13-20 are preferred for the preparation of aryl chlorides, bromides, and fluorides. However, when other diazonium reactions are carried out in the presence of these ions, halides are usually side products. Aniline has also been converted to fluorobenzene by treatment with t-BuONO and Sip4 followed by heating. A related reaction between PhN=N—N C4Hg and iodine gave iodobenzene. ... 

Copper(I) iodide is unsatisfactory for use in the Sandmeyer reaction because of its insolubility. The iodo group is introduced by warming the diazonium salt solution in aqueous potassium iodide solution (Scheme 8.17). This method is one of the best means of introducing iodine into an aromatic ring. A one-electron reduction by the iodide ion is thought to initiate a radical reaction in a similar way to the Cu(I) ion. 

When Pschorr reported more than a century ago on the first intramolecular homolytic aromatic substitution [25], he showed that biaryls could be readily prepared by intramolecular homolytic aromatic substitution using reactive aryl radicals and arenes as radical acceptors. The aryl radicals were generated by treatment of arene-diazonium salts with copper(l) ions. Today, this reaction and related processes are referred to as Pschorr reactions. It was later found that radical biaryl synthesis could be conducted without copper salts by photochemical or thermal generation of the aryl radical from the corresponding diazonium salt [26], Moreover, the reduction of aryl diazonium salts offers another route to generate reactive aryl radicals. Hence, electrochemistry [27], titanium(lll) ions [28], Fe(II)-salts [29], tet-rathiafulvalene [30] and iodide [31] have each been used successfully for the reduction of diazonium salts to generate the corresponding aryl radicals [32]. As an example, the iodide-induced cycUzation of diazonium salt 6 to phenanthrene derivative 7 is presented in Scheme 13.3 [31]. For further information on the... 

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