Nitro groups, substituted benzenes

Nitrobenzene is a pale yellow liquid, b.p. 208.0°, which is poisonous and has an almondlike odor closely resembling that of benzaldehyde (which is not poisonous). It is used as a component of certain Sprengel explosives and as a raw material for the preparation of aniline and of intermediates for the manufacture of dyestuffs and medicinals. Its preparation, familiar to every student of organic chemistry, is described here in order that the conditions for the substitution of one nitro group in benzene may serve us more conveniently as a standard for judging the relative ease and difficulty of the nitration of other substances. 

A number of authors have studied substitution with the nitro group in benzene derivatives containing ortho-para directing substituents, when nitric acid with acetic anhydride was used. The experiments led to the conclusion that replacement of water in the nitrating mixtures by acetic anhydride produces an increase of the ratio of ortho- to para- isomers. 

The fact that the arylation occurs on the deactivated nitro group-bearing benzene rings in 119 and 121 indicates that the reaction is not a simple electrophilic substitution [34],... 

Mechanisms involving radicals have been proposed for the nitro group substitution of />-dinitro-benzene by 2,6-disubstituted phenoxide to give diphenyl ethers [226] and for the reactions of dini-trobenzenes with polyfluoro-alkoxides and -thioalkoxides [227]. 

FrielA,nderSynthesis. The methods cited thus far all suffer from the mixtures which usually result with meta-substituted anilines. The use of an ortho-disubstituted benzene for the subsequent constmction of the quinoline avoids the problem. In the FrieWider synthesis (52) a starting material like 2-aminoben2aldehyde reacts with an CX-methyleneketone ia the presence of base. The difficulty of preparing the required anilines is a limitation ia this approach, but 2-nitrocarbonyl compounds and the subsequent reduction of the nitro group present a usehil modification (53). 

QH6(/) + HN03(/) H2S°4> CsHsNO2(1) + H2O(0 In this case the nitro group, N02, substitutes for a hydrogen atom in the benzene ring. 

Arylisoxazol-5(4//)-oncs 21 react with benzene-1,2-diamines to yield 4-aryl-l,5-benzodiaze-pinones 22 by elimination of hydroxylamine from the intermediate oximes. Unsymmetrically substituted benzene-1,2-diamines are attacked at the more nucleophilic amino group. Thus, 4-methylbenzene-1,2-diamine gives 7-methylbenzodiazepinones 22f-h, whereas 4-nitrobenzene-1,2-diamine gives 8-nitro compounds 22k-n. The benzodiazepinones are accompanied by minor amounts of 2-methylbenzimidazoles 23. Selected examples are given.275... 

Secondly, the rates and modes of reaction of the intermediates are dependent on their detailed structure. For example, the stability of the cation radical formed by the oxidation of tertiary aromatic amines is markedly dependent on the type and degree of substitution in the p-position (Adams, 1969b Nelson and Adams, 1968 Seo et al., 1966), and the rate of loss of halogen from the anion radical formed during the reduction of haloalkyl-nitrobenzenes is dependent on the size and position of alkyl substituent and the increase in the rate of this reaction may be correlated with the degree to which the nitro group is twisted out of the plane of the benzene ring (Danen et al., 1969). 

The sterically unbiased dienes, 5,5-diarylcyclopentadienes 90, wherein one of the aryl groups is substituted with NO, Cl and NCCHj), were designed and synthesized by Halterman et al. [163] Diels-Alder cycloaddition with dimethyl acetylenedicarbo-xylate at reflux (81 °C) was studied syn addition (with respect to the substituted benzene) was favored in the case of the nitro group (90a, X = NO ) (syrr.anti = 68 32), whereas anti addition (with respect to the substituted benzene) is favored in the case of dimethylamino group (90b, X = N(CH3)2) (syn anti = 38 62). The facial preference is consistent with those observed in the hydride reduction of the relevant 2,2-diaryl-cyclopentanones 8 with sodium borohydride, and in dihydroxylation of 3,3-diarylcy-clopentenes 43 with osmium trioxide. In the present system, the interaction of the diene n orbital with the o bonds at the (3 positions (at the 5 position) is symmetry-forbidden. Thus, the major product results from approach of the dienophile from the face opposite the better n electron donor at the (3 positions, in a similar manner to spiro conjugation. Unsymmetrization of the diene % orbitals is inherent in 90, and this is consistent with the observed facial selectivities (91 for 90a 92 for 90b). 

Replacement of a hydrogen of benzene by chlorine is termed chlorination. When one or more hydrogens are replaced by an -NO2 (nitro group), it is called nitration. Reaction of benzene with sulfuric acid, a reaction known as sulfonation, leads to a sulfonic acid. Note that in each substitution reaction, a small hydrogen-containing compound is formed. 

Competitive consecutive reactions are combinations of parallel and series reactions that include processes such as multiple halogenation and nitration reactions. For example, when a nitrating mixture of HN03 and H2S04 acts on an aromatic compound like benzene, N02 groups substitute for hydrogen atoms in the ring to form mono-, di-, and tri-substituted nitro compounds. 

When two nitro-groups are introduced into the benzene ring the chief product is m-dinitrobenzene, which conforms to the following general laws of substitution. For aromatic compounds there are three important typical reactions 1, halogenation 2, nitration, and 3, sulpho-... 

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