Substituted diphenylamines

J. Cho, A. Kimoto, M. Higuchi, and K. Yamamoto, Synthesis of diphenylamine-substituted phenylazomethine dendrimers and the performance of organic light-emitting diodes, Macro Chem. Phys., 206 635-641 (2005). 

A halogen atom directly attached to a benzene ring is usually unreactive, unless it is activated by the nature and position of certain other substituent groups. It has been show n by Ullmann, however, that halogen atoms normally of low reactivity will condense with aromatic amines in the presence of an alkali carbonate (to absorb the hydrogen halide formed) and a trace of copper powder or oxide to act as a catalyst. This reaction, known as the Ullmant Condensation, is frequently used to prepare substituted diphenylamines it is exemplified... 

Dewar and his co-workers, as mentioned above, investigated the reactivities of a number of polycyclic aromatic compounds because such compounds could provide data especially suitable for comparison with theoretical predictions ( 7.2.3). This work was extended to include some compounds related to biphenyl. The results were obtained by successively compounding pairs of results from competitive nitrations to obtain a scale of reactivities relative to that of benzene. Because the compounds studied were very reactive, the concentrations of nitric acid used were relatively small, being o-i8 mol 1 in the comparison of benzene with naphthalene, 5 x io mol 1 when naphthalene and anthanthrene were compared, and 3 x io mol 1 in the experiments with diphenylamine and carbazole. The observed partial rate factors are collected in table 5.3. Use of the competitive method in these experiments makes them of little value as sources of information about the mechanisms of the substitutions which occurred this shortcoming is important because in the experiments fuming nitric acid was used, rather than nitric acid free of nitrous acid, and with the most reactive compounds this leads to a... 

Nitroxyl radicals of diarylamines can also be obtained on oxidation with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of vanadium ions. Resonance helps stabili2e these radicals. Eor example, the nitroxide from 4,4 -dimethoxydiphenylainine [63619-50-1] is stable for years, whereas the radical from the unsubstituted diphenylamine caimot be isolated. Substitution in the ortho and para positions also increases the stabiUties of these nitroxides by inhibiting coupling reactions at these sites. However, they are not as stable as the stericaHy hindered tetramethylpiperidyl radical. 

Primary and secondary aliphatic and aromatic amines react readily with thiiranes to give 2-mercaptoethylamine derivatives (Scheme 76) (76RCR25, 66CRV297). The reaction fails or gives poor yields with amines which are sterically hindered e.g. N,iV-dicyclohexylamine) or whose nitrogen atom is weakly basic e.g. N,A/ -diphenylamine). Aromatic amines are less reactive and higher reaction temperatures are usually required for them. The reaction mechanism is Sn2 and substituted thiiranes are attacked preferentially at the least hindered... 

Of the several syntheses available for the phenothiazine ring system, perhaps the simplest is the sulfuration reaction. This consists of treating the corresponding diphenylamine with a mixture of sulfur and iodine to afford directly the desired heterocycle. Since the proton on the nitrogen of the resultant molecule is but weakly acidic, strong bases are required to form the corresponding anion in order to carry out subsequent alkylation reactions. In practice such diverse bases as ethylmagnesium bromide, sodium amide, and sodium hydride have all been used. Alkylation with (chloroethyl)diethylamine affords diethazine (1), a compound that exhibits both antihista-minic and antiParkinsonian activity. Substitution of w-(2-chloroethyl)pyrrolidine in this sequence leads to pyrathiazine (2), an antihistamine of moderate potency. 

An acridine with a radically different substitution pattern, interestingly, still exhibits antimalarial activity. Condensation of acetone with diphenylamine in the presence of strong acid affords the partly reduced acridine, 20. Alkylation with 3-chloro-dimethylaminopropane (via the sodium salt of 20) affords dimethacrine (21). ... 

Various Cu-exchanged zeolites have been examined in the nucleophilic substitution of bromo- and chlorobenzene towards aminated and oxygenated compounds (ref. 30). In amination a consecutive reaction to diphenylamine and reduction to benzene are the side-reactions (Fig. 10). 

It is interesting to note that some 1,5-benzodiazepines such as 29 also possess CNS depressant activity. Treatment of substituted diphenylamine 26 with methyl malonyl chloride and reduction with Raney nickel led to orthophenylenediamine analogue 27. Sodium alkoxide treatment led to lactam formation (28), and alkylation in the usual way with NaH and methyl iodide produced clobazam (29). °... 

Different reactivity of a-oxyalkyl and boryloxyalkyl fragments was revealed in reactions with amines of weak basicity. For example, in the reaction with diphenylamine or o-aminobenzoic acid with a reagent ratio of 1 1, substitution of the oxymethyl group by the aminomethyl one takes place [Eq. (117)]. The P,B-containing heterocycle is retained (89IZV1340). 

Although diselenonium-, ditelluronium- and mixed sulfonium-selenonium dications can exhibit either oxidative or electrophilic properties in reactions with nucleophiles, substitution at the onium chalcogen atom is more typical.96 Owing to the increased stability of heavier dichalcogenium-dications, they react only with highly activated substrates such as aniline and tV,A-dimethylaniline, while no reaction is observed with phenol and diphenylamine.113 Reactions of ditelluronium dications with activated aromatics are also not known (Scheme 44).114... 

Acetanilide (13.5 g), (substituted) aromatic bromide (25 g), potassium carbonate (13.2 g), and copper iodide (1.9 g) were heated (190°C) and stirred overnight. After cooling to room temperature toluene was added and the precipitate filtered. The solution was concentrated and the excess of bromide removed by distillation under reduced pressure. The residue was dissolved in ethanol (200 mL), potassium hydroxide (10.3 g) was added, and the mixture refluxed overnight. Ethanol was evaporated, the residue dissolved in dichloromethane, and washed with brine. The organic layer was dried over MgS04 and concentrated to obtain the crude diphenylamine. 

Steric effects on the nucleophile, aniline, were clearly evident. Rate constants for bimolecular attack of 2,6-dimethyl- 70a, 2,6-diethyl- 70b, and 3,5-dimethylaniline 70c at 308 K indicate that the ort/zo-substituted anilines react more than an order of magnitude slower at the same temperature (Table 7). Structure 70c must be able approach the reactive nitrogen more closely.42,43 A comparison of the rate constants for reaction of aniline 72c, /V-methyl- 71a and /V-phenylaniline 71b provides further evidence of steric effects although the very small rate constant for the diphenylamine could also be accounted for by reduced nucleophilicity on account of lone pair resonance into the additional phenyl ring. 

The reactions between 2,4-dinitrohalogenobenzenes and X-substituted anilines in benzene produce the usual diphenylamines 109 by nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction 28. The inspection of reaction mixtures by UV/VIS spectroscopy at zero reaction... 

Another point worth mentioning is the selectivity of the electrogenerated electrophilic sulfur species toward aromatic substrates in the reaction with diphenylether and diphenylamine. In the first case, an internal ortho-cyclization yields in phenoxathiin, in the second, a para-substitution occurs [252] giving a linear product (8cheme 59). 

Most syntheses of naturally occurring phenazines, though, are based on a two-step elaboration of the central heterocycle of the phenazine [78]. The first key step involves the generation of orf/zo-monosubstituted 88 or orf/zo, ortho -disubstituted diphenylamines 89-91 via nucleophilic aromatic substitution. Ring formation is then achieved by means of reductive or oxidative cyclization, for which a number of efficient methods are available. The main flaw of this approach is the synthesis of the substituted diphenylamines via nucleophilic aromatic substitution, as this reaction often can only be performed under strongly basic reaction conditions and at high temperatures. In addition, the diphenylamines required may only be achieved with certain substitution patterns with high yields. 

The access to substituted diphenylamines has been significantly improved through the development of the Pd-catalyzed iV-arylation of anilines by Buch-wald and Hartwig. The cyclization of the substituted diphenylamines to give the corresponding phenazines may then be conducted according to standard methods [78]. 

Needless to say, the Buchwald-Hartwig reaction can also be usefully employed in ways other than the efficient preparation of diphenylamines. Given the respective substitution, it should be possible to bring about the phenazine skeleton by Pd-catalyzed ring formation as well. There are two ways to proceed either the substituent pattern required by the intramolecular Buchwald-Hartwig reaction is elaborated after the formation of the diphenylamine (121 124), or the starting material already contains the substituents necessary for the two JV-arylations. A reasonable starting point is the intermolecular JV-arylation of an o-haloaniline... 

Tanaka et al. (1981a) studied the photolysis of monuron in dilute aqueous solutions in order to fully characterize a substituted diphenylamine that was observed in an earlier investigation (Tanaka et al., 1977). They identified this compound as an isomeric mixture containing 92% 2-chloro-4, 5-bis(TV, TV -dimethylureido)biphenyl and 8% 5-chloro-2,4 -bis(TV, TV -dimethylureido)-biphenyl. 

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