Nitrenes pyridine

Figure 14. The transient absorption spectrum of the pentafluorophenyl nitrene pyridine ylide observed in neat pyridine, 400 ns after the laser pulse.

Fignre 15. The yield of pentafluorophenyl nitrene pyridine ylide, measured at 390 nm, as a function of pyridine concentration. 

This has been mentioned at various points in this paper and may involve either a direct acid-base reaction of nitrene and nucleophile or, in some instances, reaction of the nitrene precursor with the nucleophile (or 1,3-dipolarophile) followed by loss of nitrogen. For example, the reaction of benzenesulphonyl azide with pyridine to give 31 (Ar=Ph) 69> could either involve a free nitrene or a concerted process in which the lone pair on the pyridine nitrogen atom assists the elimination of molecular nitrogen. That some free nitrene can be involved in these reactions is clear from the isolation of some 3-benzenesulphonamido-2,6-lutidine... 

Simoni et al. described <2000TL2699> that some fused tetrazoles readily participate in thermolytic ring contraction reactions which result in the formation of cyanopyrroles (Scheme 5). Thus, heating of tetrazolo[l,5- ]pyridine derivatives 14 at 150-170 °C yields the corresponding 2-cyanopyrrole 16. The process is believed to proceed via a nitrene intermediate 15. 

Extension of these studies to benzologues of tetrazolo[l,5- ]pyridine, that is, for tetrazolo[l,5- ]quinoline 21 and tetrazolo[5,l- ]isoquinoline 22, led to interesting results <2003JOC1470> as shown in Scheme 7. Both of these fused tetrazoles resulted in formation of a nitrene 23 and 24, respectively, which could be interconverted via formation of the fused cyclic carbodiimide derivative 25. Isoquinolylnitrene 24, furthermore, was found to undergo subsequent reactions ring opening afforded the vinylnitrene 26, which was transformed to o-cyanophe-nylacetonitrile 27 by a 1,2-H shift and to 4-cyanoindole 28 by an intramolecular cyclization in 40% and 25% yields, respectively. 

This also may be looked upon as a substituent reaction (see Chapter 2.06) but a few examples are given here. A suitably substituted pyridine will undergo Pschorr cyclization to give 2- and 4-azafluorene and two other products (equation 181) (65CJC940). With a 2-substituted pyridine (287), cyclization on to the pyridine nitrogen is heavily favoured (equation 182) (54JCS4263). Decomposition of 3-(o-azidophenyl)pyridine results in a nitrene... 

JV-Alkoxycarbonyl- and iV-arenesulfonyl-imines can be prepared by the reaction between pyridines and nitrenes, the latter being generated from the corresponding azides (72JOC2022, 64TL1733). Thermolysis of pyridinium iV-acylimines gives isocyanates and the parent heterocycle <79JCS(P1)446). 

A very reactive nitrogen atom is required to convert benzenes or naphthalenes into pyridines, and there are a number of such reactions which involve nitrenes or nitrenoid species. A number of substituted benzenes have been treated with sulfonyl diazide or carbonyl diazide and moderate yields of pyridines recorded (27CB1717). Thus p-xylene gives 2,5-dimethylpyridine there is no indication of the fate of the carbon atom which is lost. More controlled reaction is possible in intramolecular insertions. The examples in which o-nitrotoluene is converted into a derivative (759) of 2-acetylpyridine, and where 2,3-diazidonaphthalenes give 3-cyanoisoquinolines (760) are quoted in a review (81 AHC(28)231>. 

One of the most interesting products obtained from the capture of singlet nitrene 16e is ylide 22e produced by photolysis of 15e in pyridine (Scheme 4). Ylide 22e has a very intense absorption band with maximum absorption at 390 nm. The pyridine-ylide method was successfully used by our group to probe the dynamics of the fluoro-substituted singlet arylnitrenes - " -" ... 

Attack generally occurs at a pyridine nitrogen atom for both carbenes and nitrenes. 

Sulfonyl azides react with pyridine to give pyridine 1-sulfonylimides (e.g. 367). However, the analogous reaction with 2,4,6-trimethylpyridine gives some 3-(phenylsulfonylamino) derivative together with the 1-sulfonylimide. Nitrenes derived from photolysis of acyl azides also add to the nitrogen atom to form the corresponding pyridine A-imines (74AHC(17)220). 

After successful application of the silver catalyst shown in olefin aziridination (Section 6.1.1), He and coworkers showed that intramolecular amidation was possible with both hydrocarbon-tethered carbamates and sulfamate esters.24 They found that only the Bu3tpy silver complex could catalyze efficient intramolecular amidation, while other pyridine ligands gave either dramatically lower yields or complicated product mixtures. In an interesting control study, both copper and gold were also tested in this reaction. Both the copper and gold Bu tpy complexes can mediate olefin aziridination, but only silver can catalyze intramolecular C-H amidation, indicating that the silver catalyst forms a more reactive metal nitrene intermediate. 

Nitrenes can be trapped by compounds having lone electron pairs such as dimethylsulfoxide, sulfides, or pyridine. 

Photochemical irradiation of 4-hydrazinoisoxazolo[5,4- ]pyridines affords pyrazolo[4,3-c]py-ridines via cleavage of the N—O bond to give nitrene intermediates which then evolve into the final products by an intramolecular attack of the hydrazine group <88H(27)1899>. For example, irradiation of 6-chloro-4-hydrazino-3-methylisoxazolo[5,4- ]pyridine (592) with a water-cooled low-pressure mercury immersion lamp (6W) gave l-amino-6-chloro-3-methylpyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridin-4-one (593) (60%) (Scheme 76). 

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