Nitration of mixtures

During World War II a method of preparing mixtures of nitro compounds (e.g. TNT and TNX, or TNT and tetryl, see Vol. IV) was developed by the Germans. It consisted in the nitration of the corresponding lower nitrated compounds, namely a mixture of mononitrotoluenes plus mononitroxylenes was nitrated in two stages to form trinitro compounds. In this way a product containing 20% of TNX and 80% of TNT was obtained. 

A mixture consisting of 45 parts of TNX and 50 parts of tetryl was prepared by mixing mononitroxylenes and dinitromethylaniline in suitable proportions and nitrating them. To the nitration product TNT was added in such a quantity as to obtain a mixture composed of 45% of trinitroxylene, 50% of tetryl and 5% of TNT. The mixture melts at 80°C it does not need washing with a sodium bicarbonate solution, as is the case with TNT. A simple washing with hot water will suffice. The mixture has proved to be a fully adequate substitute for TNT. 

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Niiro derivatives of mesitvlene Nitro derivatives of ethylbenzene Nilrosolvem-naphthi Hexanitrostilbene Niiro derivatives of diphenyl Nitration of mixtures Nitre derivatives of polymers Literature... 

A mixture of the two mononitro-chlorobenzenes is prepared by nitration of chlorobenzene. Further nitration of the mixture or of either of the mononitro-compounds gives 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene, m.p. 5 C, b.p. 315"C. 

In the nitration of benzene, wj-dinilro- and sym-trinitrobenzenes are obtained under more vigorous conditions. With naphthalene, 1-nitronaphthalene is the first product and further nitration gives a mixture of 1,5- and 1,8-dinitronaphthalenes 2-nitronaphthalene is never obtained. 

Prepared by the direct nitration of naphthalene with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. Its chief use was for the preparation of l-naphthyiamine and its derivatives. 

It is prepared by the direct nitration of toluene as a 50-60% component of the mixture of isomers. Used for the preparation of o-toluidine. 

It is prepared by the direct nitration of toluene with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. TNT is a very stable, violent and powerful high explosive, but less sensitive to shock and friction than picric acid. It is widely used as a filling for shells, bombs, etc. often mixed with ammonium nitrate and other high explosives. The lower grades of TNT may contain isomers which under hot storage conditions may give rise to exudation. 

Although these nitrations proceed smoothly, attempted nitration of an unidentified substance should always be carried out with extreme care, e.g., by working in a fume-cupboard and pointing the boiling-tube away from the operator. Many organic substances e.g., alcohols and phenols) react with great violence with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. 

The simpler nitrop>arafIins (nitromethane, nitroethane, 1- and 2-nitroproj)ane) are now cheap commercial products. They are obtained by the vapour phase nitration of the hydrocarbons a gaseous mixture of two mols of hydrocarbon and 1 mol of nitric acid vapour is passed through a narrow reaction tube at 420-476°. Thus with methane at 476° a 13 per cent, conversion into nitro methane is obtained ethane at 420° gives a 9 1 mixture of nitroethane (b.p. 114°) and nitromethane (b.p. 102°) propane at 420° afifords a 21 per cent, yield of a complex mixture of 1- (b.p. 130-6°) and 2-nitropropane (b.p. 120°), nitroethane and nitromethane, which are separated by fractional distillation. 

A brief account of aromatic substitution may be usefully given here as it will assist the student in predicting the orientation of disubstituted benzene derivatives produced in the different substitution reactions. For the nitration of nitrobenzene the substance must be heated with a mixture of fuming nitric acid and concentrated sulphuric acid the product is largely ni-dinitrobenzene (about 90 per cent.), accompanied by a little o-dinitrobenzene (about 5 per cent.) which is eliminated in the recrystallisation process. On the other hand phenol can be easily nitrated with dilute nitric acid to yield a mixture of ortho and para nitrophenols. It may be said, therefore, that orientation is meta with the... 

Dinitrobenzoic acid. This acid may be prepared by the nitration of benzoic acid with a mixture of concentrated sulphuric acid and fuming nitric acid under special conditions (see also Section VII,22) ... 

The nitration of phthalic anhydride with a mixture of concentrated sulphuric and nitric acids yields a mixture of 3-nitro- and 4 nitro phthalic acids these are readily separated by taking advantage of the greater solubility of the 4 nitro acid in water. Treatment of 3 nitrophtlialic acid with acetic anhydride gives 3 nitrophthahe anhydride. 

During my Cleveland years, I also continued and extended my studies in nitration, which I started in the early 1950s in Hungary. Conventional nitration of aromatic compounds uses mixed acid (mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid). The water formed in the reaetion dilutes the acid, and spent aeid disposal is beeoming a serious environ-... 

Sulphuric acid catalysed nitration in concentrated nitric acid, but the effect was much weaker than that observed in nitration in organic solvents ( 3.2.3). The concentration of sulphuric acid required to double the rate of nitration of i-nitroanthraquinone was about 0-23 mol 1, whereas typically, a concentration of io mol 1 will effect the same change in nitration in mixtures of nitric acid and organic solvents. The acceleration in the rate was not linear in the concentration of catalyst, for the sensitivity to catalysis was small with low concentrations of sulphuric acid, but increased with the progressive addition of more catalyst and eventually approached a linear acceleration. 

The rates of nitration of mesitylene-a-sulphonate anion (iii) and iso-durene-a -sulphonate anion (iv) in mixtures of aqueous nitric and perchloric acid followed a zeroth-order rate law. Although the rate of exchange of oxygen could not be measured because of the presence of perchloric acid, these results again show that, under conditions most amenable to its existence and involvement, the nitric acidium ion is ineffective in nitration. 

Vandoni and Viala examined the vapour pressures of mixtures of nitric acid in acetic anhydride, and concluded that from o to mole-fraction of nitric acid the solution consisted of acetyl nitrate, acetic acid and excess anhydride in equimolar proportions the solution consisted of acetyl nitrate and acetic acid, and on increasing the fraction of nitric acid, dinitrogen pentoxide is formed, with a concentration which increases with the concomitant decrease in the concentration of acetyl nitrate. 

The mixture was prepared and allowed to achieve equilibrium to it was added an excess of urea which caused the immediate precipitation as urea nitrate of the free nitric acid present. As a result of the sudden removal of the nitric acid from the mixture, the system underwent change to re-establish the equilibrium however, the use of an excess of urea removed the nitric acid as it was produced from acetyl nitrate and acetic acid, and the consumption of acetyl nitrate proceeded to completion. Thus, by following the production of urea nitrate with the time from the addition of urea, the rate of the back reaction could be determined, and by extrapolating the results to zero time the equilibrium... 

An observation which is relevant to the nitration of very reactive compounds in these media ( 5.3.3) is that mixtures of nitric acid and acetic anhydride develop nitrous acid on standing. In a solution ([HNO3] = 0-7 mol 1 ) at 25 °C the concentration of nitrous acid is... 

The kinetics of the nitration of benzene, toluene and mesitylene in mixtures prepared from nitric acid and acetic anhydride have been studied by Hartshorn and Thompson. Under zeroth order conditions, the dependence of the rate of nitration of mesitylene on the stoichiometric concentrations of nitric acid, acetic acid and lithium nitrate were found to be as described in section 5.3.5. When the conditions were such that the rate depended upon the first power of the concentration of the aromatic substrate, the first order rate constant was found to vary with the stoichiometric concentration of nitric acid as shown on the graph below. An approximately third order dependence on this quantity was found with mesitylene and toluene, but with benzene, increasing the stoichiometric concentration of nitric acid caused a change to an approximately second order dependence. Relative reactivities, however, were found to be insensitive... 

The nitration of the 2-anilino-4-phenylselenazole (103) is much more complicated. Even careful nitration using the nitrate-sulfuric acid method leads to the formation of a mixture of variously nitrated compounds in an almost violent reaction. By the use of column chromatography as well as thin-layer chromatography a separation could be made, and the compounds could be partly identified by an independent synthesis. Scheme 33 shows a general view of the substances prepared. Ring fission was not obser ed under mild conditions. 

The overall reactivity of the 4- and 5-positions compared to benzene has been determined by competitive methods, and the results agreed with kinetic constants established by nitration of the same thiazoles in sulfuric acid at very low concentrations (242). In fact, nitration of alkylthiazoles in a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acid at 100°C for 4 hr gives nitro compounds in preparative yield, though some alkylthiazoles are oxidized. Results of competitive nitrations are summarized in Table III-43 (241, 243). For 2-alkylthiazoles, reactivities were too low to be measured accurately. 

Three products are possible from nitration of toluene o mtrotoluene m nitro toluene and p mtrotoluene All are formed but not m equal amounts Together the ortho and para substituted isomers make up 97% of the product mixture the meta only 3%... 

Nitration of (trifluoromethyl)benzene on the other hand yields almost exclusively m nitro(trifluoromethyl)benzene (91%) The ortho and para substituted isomers are minor components of the reaction mixture... 

Manufacture and Processing. Mononitrotoluenes are produced by the nitration of toluene in a manner similar to that described for nitrobenzene. The presence of the methyl group on the aromatic ring faciUtates the nitration of toluene, as compared to that of benzene, and increases the ease of oxidation which results in undesirable by-products. Thus the nitration of toluene generally is carried out at lower temperatures than the nitration of benzene to minimize oxidative side reactions. Because toluene nitrates at a faster rate than benzene, the milder conditions also reduce the formation of dinitrotoluenes. Toluene is less soluble than benzene in the acid phase, thus vigorous agitation of the reaction mixture is necessary to maximize the interfacial area of the two phases and the mass transfer of the reactants. The rate of a typical industrial nitration can be modeled in terms of a fast reaction taking place in a zone in the aqueous phase adjacent to the interface where the reaction is diffusion controlled. 

Use of mercuric catalysts has created a serious pollution problem thereby limiting the manufacture of such acids. Other catalysts such as palladium or mthenium have been proposed (17). Nitration of anthraquinone has been studied intensively in an effort to obtain 1-nitroanthraquinone [82-34-8] suitable for the manufacture of 1-aminoanthraquinone [82-45-1]. However, the nitration proceeds so rapidly that a mixture of mono- and dinitroanthraquinone is produced. It has not been possible, economically, to separate from this mixture 1-nitroanthraquinone in a yield and purity suitable for the manufacture of 1-aminoanthraquinone. Chlorination of anthraquinone cannot be used to manufacture 1-chloroanthraquinone [82-44-0] since polychlorinated products are formed readily. Consequentiy, 1-chloroanthraquinone is manufactured by reaction of anthraquinone-l-sulfonic acid [82-49-5] with sodium chlorate and hydrochloric acid (18). 

Nitration of pyrroles by the usual methods leads to extensive degradation. However, nitration can be achieved with an equimolar nitric acid—acetic anhydride mixture at low temperatures. In the case of pyrrole, the reaction leads predominandy to substitution at the -position (34), ie, in the following 51% 3-nitropyrrole [5930-94-9] (21) and 13% 2-nitropyrrole [5919-26-6] (22). 

Nitration of > -hydroxyben2oic acid with filming nitric acid in the presence of sulfuric acid and acetic anhydride gives a mixture of the 2-nitro [602-00-6] and 4-nitro [619-14-7] substitution products. Bromination and iodination yield the 4-halogenated derivatives (4-bromo [14348-38-0] and 4-iodo [58123-77-6]). When > -hydroxyben2oic acid is treated with formalin in the presence of hydrochloric acid, 4-hydroxyphthahde [13161 -32-5] is obtained as shown in equation (10). 

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