Naphthacene activity

Purification of anthracene. Dissolve 0-3 g. of crude anthracene (usually yellowish in colour) in 160-200 ml. of hexane, and pass the solution through a column of activated alumina (1 5-2 X 8-10 cm.). Develop the chromatogram with 100 ml. of hexane. Examine the column in the hght of an ultra-violet lamp. A narrow, deep blue fluorescent zone (due to carbazole, m.p. 238°) will be seen near the top of the column. Immediately below this there is a yellow, non-fluorescent zone, due to naphthacene (m.p. 337°). The anthracene forms a broad, blue-violet fluorescent zone in the lower part of the column. Continue the development with hexane until fluorescent material commences to pass into the filtrate. Reject the first runnings which contain soluble impurities and yield a paraffin-hke substance upon evaporation. Now elute the column with hexane-benzene (1 1) until the yellow zone reaches the bottom region of the column. Upon concentration of the filtrate, pure anthracene, m.p. 215-216°, which is fluorescent in dayhght, is obtained. The experiment may be repeated several times in order to obtain a moderate quantity of material. 

Peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence is the most efficient nonenzymatic chemiluminescent reaction known. Quantum efficiencies as high as 22—27% have been reported for oxalate esters prepared from 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, 2,4-dinitrophenol, and 3-trif1uoromethy1-4-nitropheno1 (6,76,77) with the duorescers mbrene [517-51-1] (78,79) or 5,12-bis(phenylethynyl)naphthacene [18826-29-4] (79). For most reactions, however, a quantum efficiency of 4% or less is more common with many in the range of lO " to 10 ein/mol (80). The inefficiency in the chemiexcitation process undoubtedly arises from the transfer of energy of the activated peroxyoxalate to the duorescer. The inefficiency in the CIEEL sequence derives from multiple side reactions available to the reactive intermediates in competition with the excited state producing back-electron transfer process. 

This trend is revealed, for example, by the rates of Diels-Alder addition reactions of anthracene, naphthacene, and pentacene, in which three, four, and five rings, respectively are linearly fused. The rate data are shown in Table 9.3. The same trend can be seen in the activation energy and the resonance energy gained when cycloreversion of the adducts 9-12 yields the aromatic compoimd, as shown in Scheme 9.3. 

Partial reduction of polyarenes has been reported. Use of boron trifluoride hydrate (BF3 OH2) as the acid in conjunction with triethylsilane causes the reduction of certain activated aromatic systems 217,262 Thus, treatment of anthracene with a 4-6 molar excess of BE3 OH2 and a 30% molar excess of triethylsilane gives 9,10-dihydroanthracene in 89% yield after 1 hour at room temperature (Eq. 120). Naphthacene gives the analogously reduced product in 88% yield under the same conditions. These conditions also result in the formation of tetralin from 1-hydroxynaphthalene (52%, 4 hours), 2-hydroxy naphthalene (37%, 7 hours), 1-methoxynaphthalene (37%, 10 hours), 2-methoxynaphthalene (26%, 10 hours), and 1-naphthalenethiol (13%, 6 hours). Naphthalene, phenanthrene, 1-methylnaphthalene, 2-naphthalenethiol, phenol, anisole, toluene, and benzene all resist reduction under these conditions.217 Use of deuterated triethylsilane to reduce 1-methoxynaphthalene gives tetralin-l,l,3-yielding information on the mechanism of these reductions.262 2-Mercaptonaphthalenes are reduced to 2,3,4,5-tetrahydronaphthalenes in poor to modest yields.217 263... 

Kusuhara and Hardwick271 examined the quenching efficiency of NO for triplet anthracene and naphthacene dissolved in hexane at temperatures between —30 and 20°C. At 20°C, the respective quenching constants are 1.5 x 108 and 2.1 x 108 A/-1 sec-1, with activation energies of 5.6 and 2.4 kcal/mole. Their quenching constant for anthracene is considerably lower than the room-temperature value of 4 x 10s A/-1 sec-1, which was reported earlier by Porter and Windsor351 from their flash-photolysis studies. 

Aromatic fluorine, activated by two carbonyl groups, can be replaced very easily. Thus, treatment of 2-fluoronaphthacene-5,12-dione with 2-sulfanylethanol/potassium carbonate in di-methylformamide at 25 "C for three minutes only, gives 2-(2-hydroxyethyl)naphthacene-5,12-dione in 83% yield (mp 195-196 C).30... 

Acrylate and styrene polymers as well as polysiloxanes with 11-phenoxy-naphthacene-5,12-quinone side groups (IIIB) were synthesized using the reaction of the active ester copolymers with 6-[(tyrosinebutylester)o-yl]-5,12-naphthacenequi-none.53... 

It is well-known that some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzo(a)pyrene, are strong carcinogens, while some other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with quite similar molecular structure, such as benzo(a)naphthacene, having no carcinogenic activity. In order to find the regularities of the carcinogenic activity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, quantum chemical parameters and molecular descriptors have been used for SVM computation. 

Moreover, they are versatile building blocks for the synthesis of functionalized naphthalenes, anthracenes, and naphthacene natural products [8]. Recently, Rh-catalyzed C-H activation followed by nucleophilic addition to aldehydes emerged as a powerful alternative to access phthalides. In 2012, Li and coworkers developed a novel Rh(III)-catalyzed synthesis of three substituted phthalides from benzoic acids and aldehydes through carboxylate-directed ortho-C-H functionalization and subsequent intramolecular cyclization (Scheme 6.2a) [9]. In 2013, GooCen and coworkers described the straightforward synthesis of S-alkylidenephthalides from benzoic acids and aliphatic acids or anhydrides in the presence of [Rh(cod)Cl]2 and CsF (Scheme 6.2b) [10]. 

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