Diazonium salts aryl cyanides

Preparation of aryl nitriles Cop-per(l) cyanide converts aryl diazonium salts to aryl nitriles. 

Cuprous-catalyzed replacement reactions are called Sandmeyer reactions aryl chlorides, bromides, cyanides, and nitro compounds are prepared in this way formation of aryl iodides requires no catalyst, fluorides are obtained by heating diazonium fluoroborates (i.e., Schiemann reaction) benzenols are obtained by warming aqueous diazonium salt solutions. 

The most satisfactory method of preparation of a copper(i) cyanide solution is to dissolve the copper(i) cyanide (90 g, 1 mol) in a solution of sodium cyanide (125 g, 2.5 mol) (CAUTION) in 600 ml of water. If it is desired to avoid the preparation of solid copper(i) cyanide, the following procedure may be adopted. Copper(i) chloride, prepared from 35 g of copper(n) sulphate pentahydrate as described under 22 above, is suspended in 60 ml of water contained in a 500-ml round-bottomed flask, which is fitted with a mechanical stirrer. A solution of 18.5 g of sodium cyanide (96-98%) in 30 ml of water is added and the mixture is stirred. The copper(i) chloride passes into solution with considerable evolution of heat. As the copper(i) cyanide is usually employed in reactions with solutions of aryl diazonium salts it is usual to cool the resulting copper(i) cyanide solution in ice. 

Replacement of the Diazonium Group by Chloride, Bromide, and Cyanide The Sandmeyer Reaction Copper salts (cuprous salts) have a special affinity for diazonium salts. Cuprous chloride, cuprous bromide, and cuprous cyanide react with arenediazonium salts to give aryl chlorides, aryl bromides, and aryl cyanides. The use of cuprous salts to replace arenediazonium groups is called the Sandmeyer reaction. The Sandmeyer reaction (using cuprous cyanide) is also an excellent method for attaching another carbon substituent to an aromatic ring. 

Arenediazo cyanides, 127 Arenediazonium tetrafluoroborates, 127 Arenesulfonylhydrazones, 243-244 Aristolene, 440 Aromatization, 389 Ar-turmerone, 313, 521 Arylacetylenes, 309 Aryl cyanation, 423 /3-Arylcyclopcntanones, 124 Aryl diazonium salts, 465... 

Many aryl nitriles are obtained from diazonium salts by treatment with copper(l) cyanide. Hydroxy and amino nitriles are obtained from addition reactions to carbonyl compounds. 

As it is well known, nucleophilic substitution of a C-X bond, one of the key synthetic reactions with aliphatic compounds is severely limited with aromatic derivatives, where it occurs thermally only with electron-withdrawing substituted compounds and/or under severe conditions. Alternatives include time honored reactions involving the phenyl radical generated by decomposition of diazonium salts after a reductive step, such as the Meerwein and the Gomberg-Bachmann reactions, as well as the (often photoinitiated) SrnI reaction, where a (usually weak, e.g. carbon-iodine) bond is cleaved after monoelectronic reduction to give an aryl radical as the active inter-mediate that adds to an enolate, cyanide or other nucleophiles (and thus again with an aryl radical as the key intermediate. Scheme S). ... 

Primary amines are not usually made by reduction of amides (15) but by other reductive processes which are minor variations on this scheme. For unbranched amines (16) we can reduce cyanides. This method is especially suitable for benzylic amines since aryl cyanides (17) can be made from diazonium salts (see Chapter 2), and for the homologous amines (18) since cyanide ion reacts easily with benzyl halides. 

Treatment of diazonium salts with cuprous, Cu(I), salts generates aryl halides. When 398 reacts with CuCl (cuprous chloride) or CuBr (cuprous bromide), the products are chlorobenzene or bromobenzene via what is probably a radical reaction.29l jhis conversion is known as the Sandmeyer reaction. 2 The use of copper powder rather than cuprous salts for this transformation is often called the Gattermann reaction. 93,292b,c Aryl iodides are also produced from diazonium salts by reaction with potassium iodide (KI) but the actual reactive species may be l3-.294,295 Treatment of aniline derivative 403 with sodium nitrite and HCl followed by treatment with KI, for example, gave a 89% yield of 404.Aryl nitriles are generated under Sandmeyer conditions using cuprous cyanide (CuCN), as in the conversion of 405 to benzonitrile derivative 407 via diazonium chloride, 406. 

Another common transformation of diazonium salts is their conversion to aryl halides by reaction with cuprous salts (CuX), in what is known as the Sandmeyer reaction, named after Traugott Sandmeyer (Switzerland 1854-1922). This means that the Ar-NH2 ArX conversion is possible, where Ar = an aryl group. When 132 is treated with cuprous bromide (CuBr), the product is bromobenzene (18). The reaction works with many other cuprous salts as well, including cuprous chloride (CuCl). A variation of this reaction treats the diazonirun salt with cuprous cyanide (CuCN) to give a nitrile. In this manner, 4-methylanihne (24) is treated with HCI and NaN02 and then with CuCN to give 4-methyl-l-cyanobenzene (134). 

The formation of aryl chlorides from arenediazonium ions on reaction with copperfi) chloride is known as the Sandmeyer reaction and also involves the intermediacy of aryl radicals [192]. Copper salts are similarly involved in the reactions of diazonium ions with cyanide, nitrite, and sulfur dioxide. The uses of arenediazonium salts in synthetic reactions forming carbon-carbon, carbon-sulfur, and carbon-boron bonds have been summarized recently [193]. 

Aromatic and heteroaromatic halides fail to react with alkali metal cyanides under the conditions normally used for aliphatic nucleophilic displacement reactions. Traditionally, the preparation of aryl [ CJnitriles has been accomplished either by the Sandmeyer reaction or the Rosenmund-von Braun reaction. In the former, cyano-dediazoniation of aryl diazonium salts is accomplished with Cu CN or a mixture of and CuCN (or CuCl)... 

Aryldiazonium salts, usually obtained from arylamines, undergo replacement of the diazonium group with a variety of nucleophiles to provide advantageous methods for producing aryl halides, cyanides, phenols and arenes by reductive removal of the diazo group. Coupling reaction of aryldiazonium salts with phenols or arylamines give rise to the formation of azo dyes. 

Conversion of diazonium compounds to aryl chlorides, bromides, or cyanides is usually accomplished using cuprous salts, and is known as the Sandmeyer reaction. Since a CN group is easily converted to a CO2H group (eq. 10.13), this provides another route to aromatic carboxylic acids. The reaction with KI gives aryl iodides, usually not easily accessible by direct electrophilic iodination. Similarly, direct aromatic fluorination is difficult, but aromatic fluorides can be prepared from diazonium compounds and tetrafluoroboric acid, HBF4. 

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