Meisenheimer complexes substitution

The product of this reaction as its sodium salt is called a Meisenheimer complex after the Ger man chemist Jacob Meisenheimer who reported on their formation and reactions in 1902 A Meisenheimer complex corresponds to the product of the nucleophilic addition stage in the addition-elimination mechanism for nucleophilic aromatic substitution... 

Meisenheimer complex (Section 16.7) An intermediate formed by addition of a nucleophile to a halo-substituted aromatic ring. 

The reaction course has not been elucidated (cf. also sodium hydroxide reagent). Hydrolyzation reactions and aromatizations are probably primarily responsible for the formation of colored and fluorescent derivatives. Substituted nitrophenols - e.g. the thiophosphate insecticides — can probably be hydrolyzed to yellow-colored nitro-phenolate anions by sodium hydroxide or possibly react to yield yellow Meisenheimer complexes. Naphthol derivatives with a tendency to form radicals, e.g. 2-naphthyl benzoate, react with hydrolysis to yield violet-colored mesomerically stabilized 1,2-naph-thalenediol radicals. 

The situation is different for aromatic nucleophilic substitution (14) where the transition state will be like a Meisenheimer complex with its negative... 

Two of three nitrofluorobenzene isomers react with methoxide, but the third is unreactive. Obtain energies of methoxide anion (at left), ortho, meta and para-nitrofluorobenzene, and the corresponding ortho, meta and para-methoxide anion adducts (so-called Meisenheimer complexes). Calculate the energy of methoxide addition to each of the three substrates. Which substrate is probably unreactive What is the apparent directing effect of a nitro group Does a nitro group have the same effect on nucleophilic aromatic substitution that it has on electrophilic aromatic substitution (see Chapter 13, Problem 4) Examine the structures and electrostatic potential maps of the Meisenheimer complexes. Use resonance arguments to rationalize what you observe. 

Nucleophilic substitution most readily occurs at the 2- and 4-position of the more electron-deficient heterocyclic ring of quinolines. However, SNAr reactions at the carbocyclic ring can occur, mainly at positions 5 and 7. 5,7-Dibromo-8-hydroxyquinoline, 5-bromo-8-hydroxyquinoline, and 7-bromo-8-hydroxy-5-methylquinoline undergo conversion to the corresponding chloroquinolines on treatment with neat pyridine hydrochloride at 220 °C in a process that is postulated to proceed via the formation of stabilized Meisenheimer complexes <1996TL6695> (Equations 20 and 21). 

With a less comprehensive substitution by EWGs than in Figure 5.48 and/or with a better leaving group at the sp3-C, the lifetimes of Meisenheimer complexes are considerably shorter. They then appear only as the short-lived intermediates of the Ar-SN reactions of Figure 5.47. 

A wide variety of reactions other than substitutions and hydrolyses have been performed in microemulsions. Examples include alkylations [29], Knoevenagel condensations [13], oxidations [30,31], reductions [32], formation and decomposition of Meisenheimer complexes [33], aromatic substitution reactions such as nitration and bromination [34-36], nitrosation [37] and lactone formation, i.e. esterification [38-40]. Microemulsions have also been used for photochemical and electrochemical reactions [41-45]. 

Because of the presence of nitrogen in the aromatic ring, electrons in pyridine are distributed in such a way that their density is higher in positions 3 and 5 (the P-positions). In these positions, electrophilic substitutions such as halogenation, nitration, and sulfonation take place. On the contrary, positions 2, 4, and 6 (a- and y-positions, respectively) have lower electron density and are therefore centers for nucleophilic displacements such as hydrolysis or Chichibabin reaction. In the case of 3,5-dichlorotrifluoropyridine, hydroxide anion of potassium hydroxide attacks the a- and y-positions because, in addition to the effect of the pyridine nitrogen, fluorine atoms in these position facilitate nucleophilic reaction by decreasing the electron density at the carbon atoms to which they are bonded. In a rate-determining step, hydroxyl becomes attached to the carbon atoms linked to fluorine and converts the aromatic compound into a nonaromatic Meisenheimer complex (see Surprise 67). To restore the aromaticity, fluoride ion is ejected in a fast step, and hydroxy pyridines I and J are obtained as the products [58],... 

Pseudobase formation by nucleophilic addition to heteroaromatic cations is closely related to the long-known Meisenheimer complex formation by nucleophilic addition to an electron-deficient neutral aromatic molecule.20-25 In both cases nucleophilic attack on an electron-deficient aromatic ring produces a c-complex—an anionic Meisenheimer complex or a neutral pseudobase molecule. Despite the intense interest over the past few years in Meisenheimer complexes as models for er-complex intermediates in nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions, there has been little overt recognition of the relationship between Meisenheimer complexes and pseudobases derived from heteroaromatic cations. In this regard, it is interesting that the pseudobase 165, which can be regarded as the complex intermediate that would be expected for an SNAr reaction between the l-methyl-4-iodoquinolinium cation and hydroxide ion, has been spectroscopically characterized.89... 

The reaction is a nucleophilic aromatic substitution. The intermediate Meisenheimer complex is stabilized by the -NO2 group. 

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