Nitrating agent nitric acid/trifluoroacetic anhydride

Direct nitration of pyrazoles, imidazoles, isoxazoles, and thiazoles has been carried out by Katritzky et al. with a new nitrating agent - nitric acid/trifluoroacetic anhydride [364, 365], This method allows obtaining mononitro derivatives of azoles in good yield (Table 5). 

The energetic nitramide (60) has been prepared from the nitration of the tris-acetamide (59) with nitric acid and acetic anhydride or trifluoroacetic anhydride. Nitric acid-trifluoroacetic anhydride mixtures are powerful nitrating agents and well suited for amide and urea A-nitration. 

Abstract Synthesis methods of various C- and /V-nitroderivativcs of five-membered azoles - pyrazoles, imidazoles, 1,2,3-triazoles, 1,2,4-triazoles, oxazoles, oxadiazoles, isoxazoles, thiazoles, thiadiazoles, isothiazoles, selenazoles and tetrazoles - are summarized and critically discussed. The special attention focuses on the nitration reaction of azoles with nitric acid or sulfuric-nitric acid mixture, one of the main synthetic routes to nitroazoles. The nitration reactions with such nitrating agents as acetylnitrate, nitric acid/trifluoroacetic anhydride, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen tetrox-ide, nitronium tetrafluoroborate, V-nitropicolinium tetrafluoroborate are reported. General information on the theory of electrophilic nitration of aromatic compounds is included in the chapter covering synthetic methods. The kinetics and mechanisms of nitration of five-membered azoles are considered. The nitroazole preparation from different cyclic systems or from aminoazoles or based on heterocyclization is the subject of wide speculation. The particular section is devoted to the chemistry of extraordinary class of nitroazoles - polynitroazoles. Vicarious nucleophilic substitution (VNS) reaction in nitroazoles is reviewed in detail. 

Several electrophiles, such as acetic anhydride, nitric acid or alternative nitrating agents, such as ammonium nitrate in trifluoroacetic anhydride (41), or sodium hypochlorite, react at N-1, which is followed by reaction at N-3 under suitable conditions. In the case of acetic anhydride, the reaction can take place exclusively at N-3 if N-1 is hindered this fact has served as a criterion for studying the stereochemistry of 5-spirohydantoin derivatives (42,43). 

For lab prepns, and occasionally in industrial use, more expensive nitrating agents may be employed, as for example solns of nitric acid in inert organic solvents (chlf, carbon tetrachloride, eth, nitromethane, etc), or a soln of nitric acid in phosphoric or acetic acids or in acetic anhydride, trifluoroacetic anhydride or trifluoro-me thane sulfonic acid (Ref 94)... 

Keto-RDX (27) has been synthesized from the nitrolysis-nitration of 2-oxa-5-tert-butyltriazone (26) with dinitrogen pentoxide in nitric acid. Pagoria and co-workers" also reported the use of a very powerful nitrolysis agent for this purpose, composed of dinitrogen pentoxide-trifluoroacetic anhydride-nitric acid. 

Trifluoroacetyl nitrate is more reactive than acetyl nitrate, and it has been successfully used for the nitration of deactivated aromatics such as nitrobenzene and bromobenzene[31] using fuming nitric acid and trifluoroacetic anhydride in equimolar proportion at 45-55°C. The reaction between trifluoroacetic anhydride and nitric acid gives the nitrating agent trifluoroacetyl nitrate according to Scheme 5.3. 

Direct N-nitration of secondary amines by nitric acid is possible only for weakly basic amines. The more basic amines can be nitrated under neutral conditions widi reagents such as dinitrogen pentoxide and nitronium tetrafluoroborate, but nitrosamines are significant by-products. The nitrate ester CF3CMe20N02 has been recommended as a nonacidic nitrating agent for secondary amines which avoids the problem of contamination of the products by A(-nitrosamines piperidine and pyrrolidine were nitrated in yields of 75% and 72%, respectively. Amides and imides are efficiendy N-nitrated using ammonium nitrate in trifluoroacetic anhydride. ... 

Most aromatic compounds, whether of high or low reactivity, can be nitrated, because a wide variety of nitrating agents is available. For benzene, the simple alkylbenzenes, and less reactive compounds, the most common reagent is a mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids,but for active substrates, the reaction can be carried out with nitric acid alone, or in water, acetic acid, acetic anhydride, or chloroform.Nitric acid in acetic anhydride/trifluoroacetic anhydride on zeolite H-(3 was used to convert toluene to 2,4-dinitrotoluene, and AcONOi on clay converted ethylbenzene to ortho-para nitro ethylbenzene. " In fact, these milder conditions are necessary for active compounds, such as amines, phenols, and pyrroles, since reaction with mixed nitric and sulfuric acids would oxidize these substrates. With active substrates, such as amines and phenols, nitration can be accomplished by nitrosation under oxidizing conditions with a mixture of dilute nitrous and nitric acids.A mixture of N02/02/Fe(acac)3 can be used for active compounds, as can NaN02 with trichloroisocyanuric acid on wet silica gel, or N2O4 and silica acetate. Trimethoxybenzenes were nitrated easily with ceric ammonium nitrate on silica gel, and mesitylene was nitrated in an... 

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