Nitration with acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride

The observation of nitration at a rate independent of the concentration and the nature of the aromatic means only that the effective nitrating species is formed slowly in a step which does not involve the aromatic. The fact that the rates of zeroth-order nitration under comparable conditions in solutions of nitric acid in acetic acid, sulpholan and nitromethane differed by at most a factor of 50 indicated that the slow step in these three cases was the same, and that the solvents had no chemical involvement in this step. The dissimilarity in the rate between these three cases and nitration with acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride argues against a common mechanism, and indeed it is not required from evidence about zeroth-order rates alone that in the latter solutions the slow step should involve the formation of the nitronium ion. 

The mechanisms of nitration with acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride... 

Because of the chemical similarity between benzoyl nitrate and the acetyl nitrate which is formed in solutions of nitric acid in acetic anhydride, it is tempting to draw analogies between the mechanisms of nitration in such solutions and in solutions of benzoyl nitrate in carbon tetrachloride. Similarities do exist, such as the production by these reagents of higher proportions of o-substituted products from some substrates than are produced by nitronium ions, as already mentioned and further discussed below. Further, in solutions in carbon tetrachloride of acetyl nitrate or benzoyl nitrate, the addition of acetic anhydride and benzoic anhydride respectively reduces the rate of reaction, implying that dinitrogen pentoxide may also be involved in nitration in acetic anhydride. However, for solutions in which acetic anhydride is also the solvent, the analogy should be drawn with caution, for in many ways the conditions are not comparable. Thus, carbon tetrachloride is a non-polar solvent, in which, as has been shown above,... 

The authors of this work were concerned chiefly with additions to alkenes, and evidence about the mechanism of aromatic nitration arises by analogy. Certain aspects of their work have been repeated to investigate whether the nitration of aromatic compounds shows the same phenomena ( 5-3-6). It was shown that solutions of acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride were more powerful nitrating media for anisole and biphenyl than the corresponding solutions of nitric acid in which acetyl nitrate had not been formed furthermore, it appeared that the formation of acetyl nitrate was faster when 95-98% nitric acid was used than when 70 % nitric acid was used. 

First-order nitrations. The kinetics of nitrations in solutions of acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride were first investigated by Wibaut. He obtained evidence for a second-order rate law, but this was subsequently disproved. A more detailed study was made using benzene, toluene, chloro- and bromo-benzene. The rate of nitration of benzene was found to be of the first order in the concentration of aromatic and third order in the concentration of acetyl nitrate the latter conclusion disagrees with later work (see below). Nitration in solutions containing similar concentrations of acetyl nitrate in acetic acid was too slow to measure, but was accelerated slightly by the addition of more acetic anhydride. Similar solutions in carbon tetrachloride nitrated benzene too quickly, and the concentration of acetyl nitrate had to be reduced from 0-7 to o-i mol 1 to permit the observation of a rate similar to that which the more concentrated solution yields in acetic anhydride. 

The rates of nitration of benzene in solutions at 25 °C containing 0-4-2-0 mol 1 of acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride have been deter-mined.2 The rates accord with the following kinetic law ... 

Under these first-order conditions the rates of nitration of a number of compounds with acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride have been determined. The data show that the rates of nitration of compounds bearing activating substituents reach a limit by analogy with the similar phenomenon shown in nitration in aqueous sulphuric and perchloric acids ( 2.5) and in solutions of nitric acid in sulpholan and nitro-methane ( 3.3), this limit has been taken to be the rate of encounter of the nitrating entity with the aromatic molecule. 

Nitrations of the zeroth order are maintained with much greater difficulty in solutions of acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride than in solutions of nitric acid in inert organic solvents, as has already been mentioned. Thus, in the former solutions, the rates of nitration of mesi-tylene deviated towards a dependence on the first power of its concentration when this was < c. o-05-o-i mol 1 , whereas in nitration with nitric acid in sulpholan, zeroth-order kinetics could be observed in solutions containing as little as 10 mol 1 of mesitylene ( 3.2.1). 

Acetoxylation and nitration. It has already been mentioned that 0- and m-xylene are acetoxylated as well as nitrated by solutions of acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride. This occurs with some other homologues of benzene, and with methyl phenethyl ether,ii but not with anisole, mesitylene or naphthalene. Results are given in table 5.4. 

Later experiments do not allow a clear choice between these alternatives. The high proportion of o-isomer formed when nitration is effected with acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride is confirmed by the results of expts. 10-14 (table 5.5). The use of fuming, rather than pure nitric acid, in the preparation of the reagent, which may lead to nitration... 

In solutions of acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride, prepared from purified nitric acid, the 0 -ratio increases slightly with increasing concentrations of acetyl nitrate (table 5.7, expts. 11,13,16). The use of fuming nitric acid in the preparation of the acetyl nitrate considerably accelerates the rates of reaction and also increases the proportion of o-substitution (table 5.7, expts. 12, 15, 18). These effects resemble, but are much stronger than the corresponding effects in nitrations with solutions of nitric acid in acetic acid contaimng dinitrogen tetroxide. 

By analogy with the mechanisms of nitration in other media, and from a knowledge of the composition of solutions of acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride, the following may be considered possible nitrating species in these solutions ... 

Other substituents which belong with this group have already been discussed. These include phenol, anisole and compounds related to it ( 5.3.4 the only kinetic data for anisole are for nitration at the encounter rate in sulphuric acid, and with acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride see 2.5 and 5.3.3, respectively), and acetanilide ( 5.3.4). The cations PhSMe2+, PhSeMe2+, and PhaO+ have also been discussed ( 9.1.2). Amino groups are prevented from showing their character ( — 7 +717) in nitration because conditions enforce reaction through the protonated forms ( 9.1.2). 

The methyl substituent of 2-methyl-4,8-dihydrobenzo[l,2- 5,4-. ]dithiophene-4,8-dione 118 undergoes a number of synthetic transformations (Scheme 8), and is therefore a key intermediate for the preparation of a range of anthraquinone derivatives <1999BMC1025>. Thus, oxidation of 118 with chromium trioxide in acetic anhydride at low temperatures affords the diacetate intermediate 119 which is hydrolyzed with dilute sulfuric acid to yield the aldehyde 120. Direct oxidation of 118 to the carboxylic acid 121 proceeded in very low yield however, it can be produced efficiently by oxidation of aldehyde 120 using silver nitrate in dioxane. Reduction of aldehyde 120 with sodium borohydride in methanol gives a 90% yield of 2-hydroxymethyl derivative 122 which reacts with acetyl chloride or thionyl chloride to produce the 2-acetoxymethyl- and 2-chloromethyl-4,8-dihydrobenzo[l,2-A5,4-3 ]-dithiophene-4,8-diones 123 and 124, respectively. 

That it is not necessary to employ substituted aryl compounds in order to obtain a substituted product was demonstrated by Gerecs and Windholz,41 who nitrated tetra-0-acetyl-/3-D-glucopyranosyl-benzene with cuprous nitrate in acetic anhydride to give a mixture ( 4 1) of the corresponding o- and p-nitro derivatives. 

The partial rate factors for the substitution reactions of biphenyl, with the exception of a few observations, are on a firm experimental basis. The chlorination of biphenyl was examined on several occasions (de la Mare et al., 1958a Beaven et al., 1961 Mason, 1959 Dewar and Mole, 1957). There are significant differences in the reported values for the rate relative to benzene. A recent careful examination of the products (Beaven et al., 1961) indicated the formation of 2- and 4-chloro-biphenyl in 76.5% yield with 17.5% of the residual chlorine consumed via addition processes. The partial rate factors presented in the table are corrected on this basis. Two early studies of the nitration of biphenyl with acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride yield rate data in poor agreement (Dewar et al., 1956 Simamura and Mizuno, 1957). A recent re-examination of the problem (Billings and Norman, 1961) yielded partial rate factors (ofh = 36.4 = 32.6) confirming the results... 

Many of these iodanes are formed by oxidation of ortho-iodobenzoic acids or certain orf/zo-iodophenylated alcohols with Cl2, AcOOH, f-BuOCl, CF3OF or magnesium monoperoxyphthalate. Among A3-iodanes more important are those derived from o-iodosobenzoic acid which is obtained from the mild oxidation of o-iodobenzoic acid. An improved yield for o-iodosobenzoic acid was obtained by hydrolysis of its acetyl derivative which in turn was prepared from o-iodobenzoic acid and acetyl nitrate in acetic anhydride, at room temperature (Scheme 14) [52]. 

The nitration of pyrrole has been investigated under a variety of experimental conditions.313 The reaction with nitric acid in acetic anhydride proceeds smoothly and both spectroscopic and kinetic results indicate that the acetyl nitrate is the effective electrophilic agent. The a. J3 ratio is about 4 for nitration in acetic anhydride over a wide temperature range. By using competitive procedures, the partial rate factors for a- and -positions of the pyrrole ring in the nitration were estimated by these authors to be 1.3 x 105 and 3 X 104, respectively. 

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