Fluorene derivatives, nitration

In the Spiro systems 30, the aromatic orbitals unsymmetrize the carbonyl orbital. Simultaneously, the carbonyl group can perturb the orthogonal aromatic ring. Nitration of the fluorene derivatives (30) bearing a spiro substituent was studied (Fig. 17) [96, 97]. 

McCoy, E. C., E. J. Rosenkranz, H. S. Rosenkranz, and R. Mermel-stein, Nitrated Fluorene Derivatives Are Potent Frameshift Mutagens, Mutat. Res., 90, 11-20(1981). 

A set of fluorophores derived from naphthalene, phenanthrene, pyrene, phenazine and fluorene have been conjugated to the 5 -ends of DNA and RNA to compare their physico-chemical properties. Decreasing the Ji-electron density led to an enhancement in thermal stability, attributable to more favourable Jt-Ji interactions. Stability is further enhanced by using nitrated fluorophores. Fluorescent labelling of ODNs using oxyamino modified fluorescein has been reported by the incorporation into DNA of aldehyde functions. The aldehyde function was attached either at the 5 -end via a phosphate linker or internally via 8-mercaptobutanal. Reduction of the resulting oxime was not necessary. 

The synthesis of 2-monosubstituted or 2,2 -disubstituted precursor compounds can be achieved by two different routes direct electrophilic aromatic substitution or the use of substituted derivatives of 9-fluorenone. hi many cases, the first route is complicated due to the fact that the two fluorene moieties in spirobifluorene react chemically independently of each other. The formation of products monosubstituted in the 2-position is therefore often accompanied by the formation of byproducts (Fig. 6). A good example is the nitration of spirobifluorene, which was investigated by Weisburger and coworkers [23]. They discovered that a careful control of reaction times and conditions allowed for the formation of 2-nitro-9,9 -spirobifluorene or 2,2 -dinitro-9,9 -spirobifluorene as the main product. Especially in the case of 2-nitro-9,9 -spirobifluorene, however, the conversions are low because the reaction must be quenched before a suitable amoimt of the dinitro compound is formed. 

The nitration of (462) yields 10% of the 6-nitro-derivative and 30% of a mixture of the 2-nitro- and 2,6-dinitro-derivatives. Two alternative routes to (463) starting from (464) have been described. A very interesting synthetic route to the fluorene analogue series was found in the reaction of... 

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