Diazonium ions radicals from

An arenediazonium ion 1 in aqueous alkaline solution is in equilibrium with the corresponding diazohydroxide 4 The latter can upon deprotonation react with diazonium ion 1, to give the so-called anhydride 5. An intermediate product 5 can decompose to a phenyl radical 6 and the phenyldiazoxy radical 7, and molecular nitrogen. Evidence for an intermediate diazoanhydride 5 came from crossover experiments " ... 

The radical and the anion, R-N2 and R-N2, derived (formally) from a diazonium ion by addition of one and two electrons respectively, are named as diazenyl ( radical at the end is not necessary ) and diazenide (IUPAC, 1993). The radical derived formally from a diazoalkane by addition of a hydrogen atom (R=N-NH) is named diazanyl . In order to be consistent with the nomenclature of diazonium ions, the name of the parent compound should precede the words mentioned, e. g., benzenediazenyl for C6H5 - NJ (the term phenyldiazenyl radical is, however, used by Chemical Abstracts). 

In contrast to the acid, sodium nitrite should not in general be added in excess. Firstly, as far as the ratio of amine to nitrite is concerned, diazotization is practically a quantitative reaction. In consequence, it provides the most important method for determining aromatic amines by titration. Secondly, an excess of nitrous acid exerts a very unfavorable influence on the stability of diazo solutions, as was shown by Gies and Pfeil (1952). Mechanistically the reactions between aromatic diazonium and nitrite ions were investigated more recently by Opgenorth and Rtichardt (1974). They showed that the primary and major reaction is the formation of aryl radicals from the intermediate arenediazonitrite (Ar —N2 —NO2). Details will be discussed in the context of homolytic dediazoniations (Secs. 8.6 and 10.6). 

This statement does not mean, however, that the mechanism of diazotization was completely elucidated with that breakthrough. More recently it was possible to test the hypothesis that, in the reaction between the nitrosyl ion and an aromatic amine, a radical cation and the nitric oxide radical (NO ) are first formed by a one-electron transfer from the amine to NO+. Stability considerations imply that such a primary step is feasible, because NO is a stable radical and an aromatic amine will form a radical cation relatively easily, especially if electron-donating substituents are present. As discussed briefly in Section 2.6, Morkovnik et al. (1988) found that the radical cations of 4-dimethylamino- and 4-7V-morpholinoaniline form the corresponding diazonium ions with the nitric oxide radical (Scheme 2-39). 

Simple mechanistic considerations easily explain why heterolytic dissociation of the C — N bond in a diazonium ion is likely to occur, as a nitrogen molecule is already preformed in a diazonium ion. On the other hand, homolytic dissociation of the C —N bond is very unlikely from an energetic point of view. In heterolysis N2, a very stable product, is formed in addition to the aryl cation (8.1), which is a metastable intermediate, whereas in homolysis two metastable primary products, the aryl radical (8.2) and the dinitrogen radical cation (8.3) would be formed. This event is unlikely indeed, and as discussed in Section 8.6, homolytic dediazoniation does not proceed by simple homolysis of a diazonium ion. 

Packer and Richardson (1975) and Packer et al. (1980) made use of the fact that electrons can be generated in water by y-radiation from a 60Co source (Scheme 8-29) to induce a free radical chain reaction between diazonium ions and alcohols, aldehydes, or formate ion. It has to be emphasized that the radiolytically formed solvated electron in Scheme 8-29 is only a part of the initiation steps (Scheme 8-30) by which an aryl radical is formed. The aryl radical initiates the propagation steps shown in Scheme 8-31. Here the alcohol, aldehyde, or formate ion (RH2) is the reducing agent (i.e., the electron donor) for the main reaction. The process is a hydro-de-diazoniation. 

A comparison of the products from the four benzenediazonium salts makes it clear that an increase in the electrophilicity of the diazonium ion favors homolytic dediazoniation in borderline solvents. As discussed in Section 8.6, increased electrophilicity is accompanied by an increase in the reduction potential (Ei/2), which is a measure of the tendency to add an electron and form an arenediazenyl radical (Ar-N ). 

In conclusion, it is very likely that the influence of solvents on the change from the heterolytic mechanism of dissociation of the C —N bond in aromatic diazonium ions to homolytic dissociation can be accounted for by a mechanism in which a solvent molecule acts as a nucleophile or an electron donor to the P-nitrogen atom. This process is followed by a one- or a two-step homolytic dissociation to an aryl radical, a solvent radical, and a nitrogen molecule. In this way the unfavorable formation of a dinitrogen radical cation 8.3 as mentioned in Section 8.2, is eliminated. 

Elegant evidence that free electrons can be transferred from an organic donor to a diazonium ion was found by Becker et al. (1975, 1977a see also Becker, 1978). These authors observed that diazonium salts quench the fluorescence of pyrene (and other arenes) at a rate k = 2.5 x 1010 m-1 s-1. The pyrene radical cation and the aryldiazenyl radical would appear to be the likely products of electron transfer. However, pyrene is a weak nucleophile the concentration of its covalent product with the diazonium ion is estimated to lie below 0.019o at equilibrium. If electron transfer were to proceed via this proposed intermediate present in such a low concentration, then the measured rate constant could not be so large. Nevertheless, dynamic fluorescence quenching in the excited state of the electron donor-acceptor complex preferred at equilibrium would fit the facts. Evidence supporting a diffusion-controlled electron transfer (k = 1.8 x 1010 to 2.5 X 1010 s-1) was provided by pulse radiolysis. 

Coming back to the chain reaction sequence (Scheme 8-50) the inclusion of the final step shown here demonstrates clearly that the initial formation of the aryl radical from the diazo ether (Scheme 8-49) may be only an initiation step. The arguments of Broxton concerning whether the homolytic dediazoniation starts with the diazo ether or with the diazonium ion therefore become irrelevant. 

Stronger reducing agents than Cu1 can be used for reactions that are related to the classical Meerwein reaction. Tim salts not only catalyze the formation of aryl radicals from diazonium ions but, as shown by Citterio and Vismara (1980) and Cit-terio et al. (1982 a), in stoichiometric proportions they also reduce the primary aryl-ethane radical to the arylethyl anion, which is finally protonated by the solvent SH (Scheme 10-61). This method is the subject of a contribution to Organic Syntheses (Citterio, 1990), in which 4-(4 -chlorophenyl)buten-2-one is obtained in 65-75% yield from 4-chlorobenzenediazonium chloride and but-3-en-2-one. 

A large number of other sensitizers has been investigated for use in photolytic de-diazoniation. The excited states of these compounds (S ) react either by direct electron transfer (Scheme 10-97), as for pyrene, or by reaction with an electron donor with formation of a sensitizer anion radical which then attacks the diazonium ion (Scheme 10-98). An example of the second mechanism is the sensitization of arenedi-azonium ions by semiquinone, formed photolytically from 1,4-benzoquinone (Jir-kovsky et al., 1981). 

The authors formulate the mechanism in two steps, first an electron transfer from phenoxide ion to diazonium ion forming a radical pair, followed by attack of the diazenyl radical at the 4-position of the phenoxy radical and a concerted proton release, i. e., without involving the o-complex. Admittedly, there is no experimental evidence against such a concerted process, but also none for it It seems that those authors wanted only to demonstrate the occurrence of radical intermediates, but did not consider the question of the mechanism of the proton release. 

In each case the mechanism involves generation of an aryl radical from a covalent azo compound. In acid solution diazonium salts are ionic and their reactions are polar. When they cleave, the product is an aryl cation (see p. 852). However, in neutral or basic solution, diazonium ions are converted to covalent compounds, and these cleave to give free radicals ... 

The first step involves a reduction of the diazonium ion by the cuprous ion, which results in the formation of an aryl radical. In the second step, the aryl radical abstracts halogen from cupric chloride, reducing it. The CuX compound is regenerated and is thus a true catalyst. 

Aryl diazonium ions are converted to iodides in high yield by reaction with iodide salts. This reaction is initiated by reduction of the diazonium ion by iodide. The aryl radical then abstracts iodine from either I2 or I3. A chain mechanism then proceeds... 

As shown in other sections of this chapter, overall attention has shifted from diazonium salts as aryl radical sources to bromo- or iodobenzenes. One of the few recent attempts to improve the classical Pschorr cyclization using diazonium ions as starting materials led to the discovery of new catalysts [119]. Results from a first samarium-mediated Pschorr type show the variety of products that can be expected from intramolecular biaryl syntheses under reductive conditions (Scheme 22). Depending on the substitution pattern of the target aromatic core and the reaction conditions, either the spirocycle 60, the biphenyl 61, or the dearomatized biphenyl 62 were formed as major product from 63 [120]. 

Radical arylations of phenols differ in some respects from those of phenolates (Scheme 37). First, the decreased nucleophilicity of the phenol, such as 100, allows the use of unmasked aryl diazonium chlorides 101 as radical sources. Given that an efficient reductant is present in the reaction mixture and that the diazonium salt is added slowly, biphenyl alcohols 102 can be prepared in moderate to good yields [153,154]. In this way, the concentration of the salt 101 is kept low at any time and homocoupling reactions (addition of the aryl radical to diazonium ions) as well as azo coupling to the phenol 100 can be successfully overcome. 

To do this we must draw the salt as a covalent compound or transfer one electron fr> chloride ion to the diazonium ion. The other product would be a chlorine radical. Addition alkene gives the more stable radical, which abstracts chlorine from the diazocompound and. the chain going. 

---