Furoxan ring

The 1-oxide 3-oxide tautomerism [Eq. (3), p. 4] has been discussed earlier (Sections II and III,C) in connection with the problem of the structure of benzofuroxan. A second type of rearrangement involves the furoxan ring and an adjacent substituent group, and arose out of a suggestion of Bailey and Case that 4-nitro-benzofuroxan might be a resonance hybrid of type (57)-(-> (58), rather than 57. NMR ruled out this possibility the three protons present in... 

Nitrile groups attached to the furazan and furoxan rings are susceptible to nucleophilic reagents. The nitrile group was easily reacted with azides (68USP3386968,... 

Diaroylfuroxans react with an excess of diazomethane in diethyl ether at 20°C to form oxiranes 131 (Scheme 76). These compounds were reduced with LiAllTj (diethyl ether, reflux) to 1 -amino-2-arylpropan-2-ols in moderate yields (67JOC4050). Treatment of diacylfuroxans with LiAlH4 under similar conditions resulted in degradative reduction of the furoxan ring to arylethanolamines (67JOC1255). 

The type of the thermolysis process depends on the nature of the acyl group. Thus, other types of thermolysis processes involve reversible fragmentation of the furoxan ring to give two molecules of the corresponding nitrile oxide followed... 

Other examples of nucleophilic attack on a furoxan ring leading to ring opening/recyclization are the formation of 1,2,3-triazole 1-oxides 198 from 4-alkylamino-3-nitrofuroxans 197 and alkylamines (Scheme 129). 3-Amino-4-nitrofurazan was observed as by-product (95MC194, 96CHE580, 96KGS675). 

Few reactions of sulfonylfuroxans with olefins have been reported. Depending on the substituents at the furoxan ring, nature of dipolarophile, and temperature, different types of products may be obtained. It is relatively simple to cyclore-vert disulfonylfuroxans to a-sulfonyl nitrile oxides on thermolysis (81TL3371, 85T727). These nitrile oxides were trapped by dipolarophiles to yield sulfonyl-substituted isoxazole derivatives. For example, 3,4-bis(phenylsulfonyl)furoxan reacts with an excess of styrene in xylene under reflux to afford the corresponding isoxazoline 290 (Scheme 189). 

Keywords Benzofuroxan Furoxan Ring-chain tautomerism... 

The reaction of 3,4-bis(benzenesulfonyl)furoxan with alcohols and thiols in basic media affords a variety of alkoxy-and alkylthio-substituted (benzenesulfonyl)furoxans. For these derivatives a paramount problem is to determine the position (3- or 4-) of the substitution in the furoxan ring. The structures of these derivatives were assigned on the basis of both chemical and NMR evidence. In particular, 13C NMR substituent constants were obtained by NMR study of suitable furoxan models. By assuming a complete additivity of the substituent effects at the furoxan ring, these values were used for structural determination <1997FES405>. 

The reactions of 4-nitrobenzodifuroxan 242 with a series of common dienes, such as cyclopentadiene, cyclohexa-diene, isoprene, 2,3-dimethylbutadiene, and 1-acetoxybutadiene, with ethoxymethyleneacetylacetone were found to proceed very readily to afford stable cycloadducts, which are the result of highly stereoselective normal electron-demand (NED) Diels-Alder reactions. Due to the additional activation provided by the two adjacent furoxan rings, the nitroalkene double bond of compound 242 is also prone to undergo NED reactions with less reactive dienic structures, such as the enol form of ethoxymethyleneacetylacetone and the in situ generated 2-ethoxy-4-(2-furfur-yl)buta-l,3-diene <2004TL1037, 2005T8167>. 

Stable furoxans are convenient starting compounds for generating short-lived nitrile oxides XCNO (X = ONC, NC, Cl, Br, and Me) by thermolysis (10, 11, 80, 81). The thermolysis of benzotrifuroxan (200°, in excess PhCN) proceeds (Scheme 1.6) with the cleavage of the C-C and 0-N(0) bonds in only one furoxan ring to give bifuroxan bis(nitrile oxide). The latter undergoes further reactions such as cycloaddition with PhCN or conversion to bisisocyanate (82). 

This suggests that the attack of the thiolate anion, at least with this product, occurs principally on the 3-position of the furoxan ring. An alternative mechanism to that discussed above was proposed to explain NO-donation by this product. It implies the preliminary cleavage of the 1-2 bond of the furoxan ring, rather than of the 2-3 bond as suggested by Feelisch, to give a tertiary nitroso intermediate. Reasonable mechanisms may be put forward to explain the production of different NO-redox forms from this intermediate [20] (Scheme 6.9). Interestingly, some furoxans, such as 31 and related compounds, produce NO, detected as nitrite, spontaneously without the assistance of thiols [21]. 

The furoxan ring is a highly energetic heterocycle whose introduction into organic compounds is a known strategy for increasing crystal density and improving explosive performance. 

The tetraazapentalene ring system forms the core of the thermally insensitive explosive TACOT (Section 7.10) and so its fusion with the furoxan ring would be expected to enhance thermal stability and lead to energetic compounds with a high density, y-DBBD (95) is prepared from the nitration of tetraazapentalene (91), nucleophilic displacement of the o-nitro groups with azide anion, further nitration to (94), followed by furoxan formation on heating in o-dichlorobenzene at reflux. The isomeric explosive z-DBBD (96) has been prepared via a similar route. ... 

The furoxan ring is notably resistant to electrophilic attack and reaction normally takes place at the substituents. Thus aryl groups attached to monocyclic furoxans and the homocyclic ring of benzofuroxans are nitrated and halogenated without disruption of the heterocycle. Reaction with acid is also slow protonation is predicted to occur at N-5 <89KGS1261> and benzofuroxans have pKj, values of ca. 8, similar to those of benzofurazans. Monosubstituted furoxans are, as expected, less stable and can be hydrolyzed to the corresponding carboxylic acid. Treatment of the parent furoxan (3) with concentrated sulfuric acid results in rearrangement to (hydroxyimino)acetonitrile oxide (HON=CHC=N —O ) and subsequent dimerization to bis(hydroxyiminomethyl)furoxan... 

The furoxan ring is more susceptible to nucleophilic attack and reduction than it is to reaction with electrophiles or oxidation. Grignard reagents react with disubstituted furoxans primarily at C-3 and, in most cases, the resulting adduct fragments to a nitrile and a nitronate salt which affords a ketone on workup. 

The high activating power of the furoxan ring in nucleophilic addition has also been observed by Bailey et al.2 9 in 7-nitro-l,2,5-oxadiazolo[3,4-c]-pyridine 3-oxide, a nitropyrido[3,4-c]furoxan that easily undergoes covalent addition of water by nucleophilic attack at the position para to the nitro group. The structure of the covalent hydrate is supported by elemental analysis, osmometric molecular weight determination, and H-NMR spectra in DMSO-[Pg.429]

The resistance of the furoxan ring to chemical attack allows derivatives to be prepared via the reactions of the substituents (Section 4.22.3.4). Carboxylic acids are available by permanganate oxidation of methyl derivatives or by hydrolysis of the corresponding esters reaction with ammonia affords carboxamides. Acylfuroxans provide a source of hydroxyalkyl compounds by reduction, and oximes, for example, via nucleophilic addition. Acylation and oxidation of aminofuroxans allows the amide and nitro derivatives to be prepared. Nucleophilic displacements of nitro substituents can take place, but can be somewhat hazardous on account of the explosive nature of these compounds. Alkoxy derivatives are formed with sodium alkoxide, while reaction with thiolate anions yields sulfides, from which sulfones can be synthesized by peracid oxidation. Nitrofuroxans have also been reduced to... 

Furoxanoazines exhibit tautomeric rearrangements in the furoxane ring, and Dimroth rearrangements in the azine ring are to be expected. 

In the [d]-fused pyrimidines the tautomerism of the furoxane ring favours the 1-oxide structures (557) to the virtual exclusion of the 3-oxides (76JCS(P1)1327). 

A possible replacement for lead styphnate is potassium-7-hydroxy-6-dinitrobenzo-furoxane (KDNP) (Fig. 1.17). KDNP is a furoxane ring containing explosive and can best be prepared from commercially available bromo anisol according to the following equation. The KN3 substitutes the Br atom in the final reaction step and also removes the methyl group ... 

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