Fluorescent pyridones

Water-Tracing Compounds. Another application of these fluorescent pyridones has been the development of a series of coaipounds useful as ground-water tracers. Smart and Laidlaw have outlined several qualities desirable in fluorescent water-tracing compounds (.18). 

Many hydrazones and azines are colored and useful as dyestuffs. Examples are 2-hydroxynaphthazine, a yellow fluorescent dye (Lumogen LT Bright Yellow), and the pyridon—azino—quinone class of red-violet dyes. Numerous hydrazine derivatives are antioxidants and stabilizers by virtue of their reducing and chelating powers. 

We inferred that these properties might be exploited in a series of unique derivatizing reagents designed specifically for trace analysis of organic compounds using HPLC separation and fluorescence detection. The use of these pyridones for the analytical purposes reported here is based on their acidic properties. Treatment of a lH-2-pyridone with a base converts the pyridone to its salt. 

Table I Fluorescence as a Function of Solvent Composition for Two 3-Substituted 2(IH)-Pyridone Compounds...

Direct use of pyridone sodium salts as fluorescent deriv atizing reagents. 

Pyridone Acid Chlorides as Fluorescent Derivatizing Reagents. A second derivatizing reagent, a fluorescent acid chloride, was synthesized from the sodium salt of 3-phenyl-2(lH)pyridone (IV). 

Many of the properties of the 3-phenyI- and 3-carbamoyI-2(lH)-pyridones indicate that they may be useful as water tracers. As already shown these compounds are intensely fluorescent. They show... 

A preliminary test for the biodegradability of the 3-phenyl- and 3-carbamoyl-2(lH)pyridones was conducted in a barnyard humus suspension. The analysis by HPLC showed some loss, and the fluorescent compounds seemed to be adsorbed onto the solid. The 3-carbamoyl-2(lH)pyridone (II) also hydrolyzed to 3-carboxylic acid-2(lH)pyridone both in the slurry test and in water solutions that had been left standing 1-2 weeks. In preliminary tests both the 3-phenyl- and the 3-carbamoyl-2(lH)pyridones apparently adsorbed to some extent on silica sand columns. In addition, the solubility of both 1-H compounds was somewhat low, 1.3 x 10 M for II, and 1.0 x 10 M for IV. 

Table II Relative Fluorescence and Spectroscopic Data for Pyridone Sulfonates...

Quantum Yields of Fluorescence. Table III lists the relative quantum yields of fluorescence of 24 3-substituted 2(lH)-pyridones. Pyridone I has the highest yield measured, which is set at 1.00. An attempt was made to measure the absolute quantum yield of I relative to rhodamine B using ferrloxalate actinometry. A Vpj value of 0.98 0.02 was obtained. However, the determination of absolute ... 

Wetai Ion Analysis. We have reported a sensitive trace-metal analysis based upon HPLC separation of p-aminophenyl EDTA chelates and fluorescence detection by postcolumn reaction with fluorescamine (23). An application of the pyridone chemistry already discussed leads to a fluorescent-labeled EDTA (VIII). 

Experimental assessments of the concentration of the minor hydroxy tautomer of 2-pyridone and substituted derivatives in cyclohexane and acetonitrile solution may be carried out by the use of fluorescence spectroscopy (85JCS(P2)1423). For the parent compound, the pyridinol component in cyclohexane is estimated to be 4% and in acetonitrile 1.2% this preference for the hydroxy form in the former over the latter solvent is maintained over a fair range of variously substituted pyridones. Ab initio calculations (85JA7569) on 4-hydroxypyridine, the minor tautomer in aqueous solution, include 92 water molecules in the estimations, and thus give a very detailed picture of the solvated molecule, while the experimental technique of microwave spectroscopy not only gives an accurate estimation of the 2-hydroxypyridine / 2-pyridone ratio of 3 1 in the gas phase but also reveals that the former isomer is predominantly in the (Z)-form (80) and that both isomers are planar (93JPC46). 

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