Naphthalene, reactivity

Reactions involving monocyclic six-membered heteroaromatic rings have not been studied sufficiently extensively to allow a quantitative treatment of substituent effects. However, comparison with aza-naphthalene reactivities indicates that aza- and polyaza-benzene systems must also be highly selective. 

Schmitz, A. and C. Song. Shape-Selective Isopropylation of Naphthalene. Reactivity of 2,6-Diisopropylnaphthalene over Dealuminated Mordenite Catalysts. Catalysis Today, 1996a, 31 (1), 19-25. 

Under the same conditions the even more reactive compounds 1,6-dimethylnaphthalene, phenol, and wt-cresol were nitrated very rapidly by an autocatalytic process [nitrous acid being generated in the way already discussed ( 4.3.3)]. However, by adding urea to the solutions the autocatalytic reaction could be suppressed, and 1,6-dimethyl-naphthalene and phenol were found to be nitrated about 700 times faster than benzene. Again, the barrier of the encounter rate of reaction with nitronium ions was broken, and the occurrence of nitration by the special mechanism, via nitrosation, demonstrated. 

Dewar and his co-workers, as mentioned above, investigated the reactivities of a number of polycyclic aromatic compounds because such compounds could provide data especially suitable for comparison with theoretical predictions ( 7.2.3). This work was extended to include some compounds related to biphenyl. The results were obtained by successively compounding pairs of results from competitive nitrations to obtain a scale of reactivities relative to that of benzene. Because the compounds studied were very reactive, the concentrations of nitric acid used were relatively small, being o-i8 mol 1 in the comparison of benzene with naphthalene, 5 x io mol 1 when naphthalene and anthanthrene were compared, and 3 x io mol 1 in the experiments with diphenylamine and carbazole. The observed partial rate factors are collected in table 5.3. Use of the competitive method in these experiments makes them of little value as sources of information about the mechanisms of the substitutions which occurred this shortcoming is important because in the experiments fuming nitric acid was used, rather than nitric acid free of nitrous acid, and with the most reactive compounds this leads to a... 

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons undergo electrophilic aromatic substitution when treated with the same reagents that react with benzene In general polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are more reactive than benzene Most lack the symmetry of benzene how ever and mixtures of products may be formed even on monosubstitution Among poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons we will discuss only naphthalene and that only briefly Two sites are available for substitution m naphthalene C 1 and C 2 C 1 being normally the preferred site of electrophilic attack... 

A further consequence of association of acylating agents with basic compounds is an increase in the bulk of the reagent, and greater resistance to attack at the more stericaHy hindered positions of aromatic compounds. Thus acylation of chrysene and phenanthrene in nitrobenzene or in carbon disulfide occurs to a considerable extent in an outer ring, whereas acylation of naphthalene leads to extensive reaction at the less reactive but stericaky less hindered 2-position. 

Indole is a heterocycHc analogue of naphthalene. The basic reactivity patterns of indole can be understood as resulting from the fusion of an electron-rich pyrrole ring with a ben2ene ring. 

Ghloromethylation. The reactive intermediate, 1-chloromethylnaphthalene [86-52-2] has been produced by the reaction of naphthalene in glacial acetic acid and phosphoric acid with formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid. Heating of these ingredients at 80—85°C at 101.3 kPa (1 atm) with stirring for ca 6 h is required. The potential ha2ard of such chloromethylation reactions, which results from the possible production of small amounts of the powerhil carcinogen methyl chloromethyl ether [107-30-2J, has been reported (21). 

Copolymers of diallyl itaconate [2767-99-9] with AJ-vinylpyrrolidinone and styrene have been proposed as oxygen-permeable contact lenses (qv) (77). Reactivity ratios have been studied ia the copolymerization of diallyl tartrate (78). A lens of a high refractive iadex n- = 1.63) and a heat distortion above 280°C has been reported for diallyl 2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate [51223-57-5] (79). Diallyl chlorendate [3232-62-0] polymerized ia the presence of di-/-butyl peroxide gives a lens with a refractive iadex of n = 1.57 (80). Hardness as high as Rockwell 150 is obtained by polymerization of triaHyl trimeUitate [2694-54-4] initiated by benzoyl peroxide (81). 

In 1932 a class of complexes consisting of ethers, sodium, and polycycHc hydrocarbons was discovered (19). Sodium reacts with naphthalene in dimethyl ether as solvent to form a soluble, dark-green, reactive complex. The solution is electrically conductive. The reaction has been described as follows... 

Dyes, Dye Intermediates, and Naphthalene. Several thousand different synthetic dyes are known, having a total worldwide consumption of 298 million kg/yr (see Dyes AND dye intermediates). Many dyes contain some form of sulfonate as —SO H, —SO Na, or —SO2NH2. Acid dyes, solvent dyes, basic dyes, disperse dyes, fiber-reactive dyes, and vat dyes can have one or more sulfonic acid groups incorporated into their molecular stmcture. The raw materials used for the manufacture of dyes are mainly aromatic hydrocarbons (67—74) and include ben2ene, toluene, naphthalene, anthracene, pyrene, phenol (qv), pyridine, and carba2ole. Anthraquinone sulfonic acid is an important dye intermediate and is prepared by sulfonation of anthraquinone using sulfur trioxide and sulfuric acid. 

The material, made by a two-step diazotization of each naphthalenic sulfonic acid derivative, is typically used in the form of the neutralized sodium salt. A similar sulfonic acid-based azo dye (4) which falls into the class of reactive dyes is also shown (76). This compound, made similarly to (3), is used as a blue dyestuff for cotton and wool. 

Reactions other than those of the nucleophilic reactivity of alkyl sulfates iavolve reactions with hydrocarbons, thermal degradation, sulfonation, halogenation of the alkyl groups, and reduction of the sulfate groups. Aromatic hydrocarbons, eg, benzene and naphthalene, react with alkyl sulfates when cataly2ed by aluminum chloride to give Fhedel-Crafts-type alkylation product mixtures (59). Isobutane is readily alkylated by a dipropyl sulfate mixture from the reaction of propylene ia propane with sulfuric acid (60). 

Diphenylmethane Base Method. In this method, the central carbon atom is derived from formaldehyde, which condenses with two moles of an arylamine to give a substituted diphenylmethane derivative. The methane base is oxidized with lead dioxide or manganese dioxide to the benzhydrol derivative. The reactive hydrols condense fairly easily with arylamines, sulfonated arylamines, and sulfonated naphthalenes. The resulting leuco base is oxidized in the presence of acid (Fig. 4). 

Substituents on benzene or benzenoid rings in fused pyridazines, i.e. in cinnolines and phthalazines, usually exhibit reactivity which is similar to that found in the correspondingly substituted fused aromatic compounds, such as naphthalene, and is therefore not discussed here. 

Benzene rings can also be fused in angular fashion, as in phenanthrene, chrysene, and picene. These compounds, while reactive toward additions in the center ring, retain most of the resonance energy per electron (REPE) stabilization of benzene and naphthalene. ... 

The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as naphthalene, anthracene, and phenan-threne undergo electrophilic aromatic substitution and are generally more reactive than benzene. One reason is that the activation energy for formation of the c-complex is lower than for benzene because more of the initial resonance stabilization is retained in intermediates that have a fused benzene ring. 

In the presence of certain ethers such as Me20, Me0CH2CH20Me or tetrahydrofuran, Na forms deep-green highly reactive paramagnetic adducts with polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons such as naphthalene, phenanthrene, anthracene, etc. ... 

Extensions to other reactions and to other aza-naphthalene systems is obvious. The chemical equivalence between formally identical positions in all possible situations must be established experimentally. In this connection, caution should be used because for some of the above positions steric hindrance may become an important factor in determining the overall reactivity. 

To derive the maximum amount of information about intranuclear and intemuclear activation for nucleophilic substitution of bicyclo-aromatics, the kinetic studies on quinolines and isoquinolines are related herein to those on halo-1- and -2-nitro-naphthalenes, and data on polyazanaphthalenes are compared with those on poly-nitronaphthalenes. The reactivity rules thereby deduced are based on such limited data, however, that they should be regarded as tentative and subject to confirmation or modification on the basis of further experimental study. In many cases, only a single reaction has been investigated. From the data in Tables IX to XVI, one can derive certain conclusions about the effects of the nucleophile, leaving group, other substituents, solvent, and comparison temperature, all of which are summarized at the end of this section. 

The reactivities of 4- and 2-halo-l-nitronaphthalenes can usefully be compared with the behavior of azine analogs to aid in delineating any specific effects of the naphthalene 7r-electron system on nucleophilic substitution. With hydroxide ion (75°) as nucleophile (Table XII, lines 1 and 8), the 4-chloro compound reacts four times as fast as the 2-isomer, which has the higher and, with ethoxide ion (65°) (Table XII, lines 2 and 11), it reacts about 10 times as fast. With piperidine (Table XII, lines 5 and 17) the reactivity relation at 80° is reversed, the 2-bromo derivative reacts about 10 times as rapidly as the 4-isomer, presumably due to hydrogen bonding or to electrostatic attraction in the transition state, as postulated for benzene derivatives. 4-Chloro-l-nitronaphthalene reacts 6 times as fast with methanolic methoxide (60°) as does 4-chloroquinoline due to a considerably higher entropy of activation and in spite of a higher Ea (by 2 kcal). ... 

The rate of amination and of alkoxylation increases 1.5-3-fold for a 10° rise in the temperature of reaction for naphthalenes (Table X, lines 1, 2, 7 and 8), quinolines, isoquinolines, l-halo-2-nitro-naphthalenes, and diazanaphthalenes. The relation of reactivity can vary or be reversed, depending on the temperature at which rates are mathematically or experimentally compared (cf. naphthalene discussion above and Section III,A, 1). For example, the rate ratio of piperidination of 4-chloroquinazoline to that of 1-chloroisoquino-line varies 100-fold over a relatively small temperature range 10 at 20°, and 10 at 100°. The ratio of rates of ethoxylation of 2-chloro-pyridine and 3-chloroisoquinoline is 9 at 140° and 180 at 20°. Comparison of 2-chloro-with 4-chloro-quinoline gives a ratio of 2.1 at 90° and 0.97 at 20° the ratio for 4-chloro-quinoline and -cinnoline is 3200 at 60° and 7300 at 20° and piperidination of 2-chloroquinoline vs. 1-chloroisoquinoline has a rate ratio of 1.0 at 110° and 1.7 at 20°. The change in the rate ratio with temperature will depend on the difference in the heats of activation of the two reactions (Section III,A,1). 

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