Ion, nitronium

Dinitrogeri pentoxide is the anhydride of nitric acid and is prepared by removing water from pure nitric acid by means of phosphorus (V) oxide. It is a crystalline solid having the ionic structure of (N02) (N03) , nitronium nitrate (the nitronium ion is mentioned later). It decomposes above 273 K, thus ... 

The second equilibrium is the more important, giving rise to the nitronium ion, NOj, already mentioned as a product of the dis sociation of dinitrogen tetroxide. Several nitronium salts have been identified, for example nitronium chlorate(VII), (N02) (C104) . If pure nitric acid is dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid, the freezing point of the latter is depressed to an extent suggesting the formation of four ions, thus ... 

It is the nitronium ion which is responsible for nitrating actions in organic chemistry which are carried out in a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. When nitric acid is dissolved in water, its behaviour is that of a strong acid, i.e. ... 

The function of the sulphuric acid is to furnish a strongly acid medium and to convert the nitric acid into the highly reactive nitronium ion NOj+, which is the real nitrating agent ... 

The finding that highly deactivated aromatics do not react with N02 salts is in accord with the finding that their greatly diminished TT-donor ability no longer snffices to polarize NOi. Similarly, (j-donor hydrocarbons such as methane (CH4) are not able to affect such polarization. Instead, the linear nitronium ion is activated by the superacid. Despite the fact that is a small, triatomic cation, the 11011-... 

We found a way to overcome charge-charge repulsion when activating the nitronium ion when Tewis acids were used instead of strong Bronsted acids. The Friedel-Crafts nitration of deactivated aromatics and some aliphatic hydrocarbons was efficiently carried out with the NO2CI/3AICI3 system. In this case, the nitronium ion is coordinated to AICI3. 

Nitration can be effected under a wide variety of conditions, as already indicated. The characteristics and kinetics exhibited by the reactions depend on the reagents used, but, as the mechanisms have been elucidated, the surprising fact has emerged that the nitronium ion is preeminently effective as the electrophilic species. The evidence for the operation of other electrophiles will be discussed, but it can be said that the supremacy of one electrophile is uncharacteristic of electrophilic substitutions, and bestows on nitration great utility as a model reaction. 

Euler first suggested that the nitronium ion was the active species, but proof of this did not come for many years. Investigations of the mechanisms have been chiefly concerned with the physical examination of the media used, and with the kinetics of the reactions. 

The Raman spectrum of nitric acid shows two weak bands at 1050 and 1400 cm. By comparison with the spectra of isolated nitronium salts ( 2.3.1), these bonds were attributed to the nitrate and nitronium ion respectively. Solutions of dinitrogen pentoxide in nitric acid show these bands , but not those characteristic of the covalent anhydride , indicating that the self-dehydration of nitric acid does not lead to molecular dinitrogen pentoxide. Later work on the Raman spectrum indicates that at —15 °C the concentrations of nitrate and nitronium ion are 0-37 mol 1 and 0 34 mol 1 , respectively. The infra-red spectrum of nitric acid shows absorption bands characteristic of the nitronium ion. The equivalence of the concentrations of nitronium and nitrate ions argues against the importance of the following equilibrium ... 

The state of aqueous solutions of nitric acid In strongly acidic solutions water is a weaker base than its behaviour in dilute solutions would predict, for it is almost unprotonated in concentrated nitric acid, and only partially protonated in concentrated sulphuric acid. The addition of water to nitric acid affects the equilibrium leading to the formation of the nitronium and nitrate ions ( 2.2.1). The intensity of the peak in the Raman spectrum associated with the nitronium ion decreases with the progressive addition of water, and the peak is absent from the spectrum of solutions containing more than about 5% of water a similar effect has been observed in the infra-red spectrum. ... 

The nitronium ions produced in this way tend to repress the selfdehydration of the nitric acid and therefore the net concentration of nitronium ions is not proportional to the concentration of the catalyst. When sufficient sulphuric acid has been added to make the self-ioniza-tion of nitric acid relatively unimportant, the nitronium ions will be produced predominantly from the above ionization, and the acceleration will follow a linear law. 

Therefore, in the cases of both additives, the kinetic law for the catalysis will assume a linear form when the concentration of the added species, or, in the case of sulphuric acid, the nitronium ion generated by its action, is comparable with the concentration of the species already present. This effect was observed to occur when the concentration of additive was about o-2 mol 1, a value in fair agreement with the estimated degree of dissociation of nitric acid ( 2.2.1). 

In more dilute solutions the concentration of the nitronium ion falls below the level of spectroscopic detection, and the nature of the electrophilic species has been the subject of conjecture. 

The operation of the nitronium ion in these media was later proved conclusively. "- The rates of nitration of 2-phenylethanesulphonate anion ([Aromatic] < c. 0-5 mol l i), toluene-(U-sulphonate anion, p-nitrophenol, A(-methyl-2,4-dinitroaniline and A(-methyl-iV,2,4-trinitro-aniline in aqueous solutions of nitric acid depend on the first power of the concentration of the aromatic. The dependence on acidity of the rate of 0-exchange between nitric acid and water was measured, " and formal first-order rate constants for oxygen exchange were defined by dividing the rates of exchange by the concentration of water. Comparison of these constants with the corresponding results for the reactions of the aromatic compounds yielded the scale of relative reactivities sho-wn in table 2.1. 

Nitration at a rate independent of the concentration of the compound being nitrated had previously been observed in reactions in organic solvents ( 3.2.1). Such kinetics would be observed if the bulk reactivity of the aromatic towards the nitrating species exceeded that of water, and the measured rate would then be the rate of production of the nitrating species. The identification of the slow reaction with the formation of the nitronium ion followed from the fact that the initial rate under zeroth-order conditions was the same, to within experimental error, as the rate of 0-exchange in a similar solution. It was inferred that the exchange of oxygen occurred via heterolysis to the nitronium ion, and that it was the rate of this heterolysis which limited the rates of nitration of reactive aromatic compounds. 

In the process of O-exchange the nitronium ion mechanism requires that the rate of nitronium ion formation be the rate at which the label... 

Corrected for incompleteness of trapping of the nitronium ion by the sulphonates at the concentrations used. ... 

The state of nitric acid in g8-ioo% sulphuric acid In this section the pioneering work of Hantzsch will several times he mentioned. That later techniques made it necessary to modify his conclusions should not be allowed to obscure the great originality of his approach since investigations using these media provided the most compelling evidence for the existence of the nitronium ion. 

The two absorption bands, at 1050 and 1400 cm , which appear in the Raman spectra of solutions of nitric acid in concentrated sulphuric acid are not attributable to either of the acid molecules. In oleum the lower band appears at 1075-1095 cm. That these bands seemed to correspond to those in the spectra of anhydrous nitric acid and solid dinitrogen pentoxide caused some confusion in the assignment of the spectrum. The situation was resolved by examining the Raman spectra of solutions of nitric acid in perchloric or selenic acids , in which the strong absorption at 1400 cm is not accompanied by absorption at about 1050 cm . Thus, the band at 1400 cm arises from the nitronium ion, and the band at about 1050 cm can be attributed in the cases of nitric acid and solid dinitrogen pentoxide to the nitrate ion formed according to the following schemes ... 

Raman spectroscopy provides the easiest way of estimating the concentration of nitronium ions in different media ( 2.4.1). The concentration, determined by infra-red spectroscopy, of nitronium ions in nitric acid was increased markedly by the addition of sulphuric acid. ... 

Solutions of nitric acid in 100% sulphuric acid have a high electrical conductivity. If nitric acid is converted into a cation in these solutions, then the migration of nitric acid to the cathode should be observed in electrolysis. This has been demonstrated to occur in oleum and, less conclusively, in concentrated acid, observations consistent with the formation of the nitronium ion, or the mono- or di-protonated forms of nitric acid. Conductimetric measurements confirm the quantitative conversion of nitric acid into nitronium ion in sulphuric acid. ... 

Concentrated solutions are here considered to be those containing > c. 89 % by weight of sulphuric acid. In these solutions nitric acid is completely ionised to the nitronium ion. This fact, and the notion that the nitronium ion is the most powerful electrophilic nitrating species, makes operation of this species in these media seem probable. Evidence on this point comes from the effect on the rate of added water ( 2.4.2)... 

Although the proportion of nitric acid present as nitronium ions does not change between 90% and 100% sulphuric acid, the rate constants for nitration of most compounds decrease over this rai e. Fig. 2.1 illustrates the variation with acidity of the second-order rate constants of the nitration of a series of compounds of widely differing reactivities. Table 2.4 lists the results for nitration in 95% and 100% acid of a selection of less completely investigated compounds. 

NITRATION IN AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS OF MINERAL ACIDS 2.4.1 The state of nitric acid in aqueous sulphuric acid Nitric acid is completely converted into nitronium ions in concentrated sulphuric acid ( 2.3.1) ... 

Raman spectroscopy I c.i.so showed that the addition of up to io% of water does not affect the concentration of nitronium ions further dilution reduces the concentration of this species, which is not detectable in solutions containing < 85 % sulphuric acid. The introduction of... 

Addition of water to solutions of nitric acid in 90% sulphuric acid reduces rates of nitration. Between 90% and 85% sulphuric acid the decrease in rate parallels the accompanying fall in the concentration of nitronium ions. This is good evidence for the operation of the nitronium ion as the nitrating agent, both in solutions more acidic than 90% and in weakly diluted solutions in which nitronium ion is still spectroscopically detectable. 

As the medium is still further diluted, until nitronium ion is not detectable, the second-order rate coefficient decreases by a factor of about 10 for each decrease of 10% in the concentration of the sulphuric acid (figs. 2.1, 2.3, 2.4). The active electrophile under these conditions is not molecular nitric acid because the variation in the rate is not similar to the correspondii chaise in the concentration of this species, determined by ultraviolet spectroscopy or measurements of the vapour pressure. " ... 

The continued effectiveness of the nitronium ion in relatively dilute solutions has been indicated by comparing the dependence of the rates on the concentration of sulphuric acid, with the acidity-dependence of the ionisation of model compounds. The (formerly or Cq) acidity... 

If it be assumed that the ionising characteristics of nitric acid are similar to those of the organic indicators used to define the scales of acidity, then a correspondence between the acidity-dependence of nitration and would suggest the involvement of the nitronium ion, whereas a correspondence with Hq would support the h)rpothesis that the nitric acidium ion were active. The analogies with and Hg are expressed in the first and last pairs of the followii equations respectively. The symbol AQ represents anthraquinone, the indicator originally used in this way for comparison with the acidity dependence of the rate of nitration of nitrobenzene ... 

There is increasing evidence that the ionisation of the organic indicators of the same type, and previously thought to behave similarly, depends to some degree on their specific structures, thereby diminishing the generality of the derived scales of acidity. In the present case, the assumption that nitric acid behaves like organic indicators must be open to doubt. However, the and /fp scales are so different, and the correspondence of the acidity-dependence of nitration with so much better than with Hg, that the effectiveness of the nitronium ion is firmly established. The relationship between rates of nitration and was subsequently shown to hold up to about 82 % sulphuric acid for nitrobenzene, />-chloronitrobenzene, phenyltrimethylammonium ion, and p-tolyltrimethylammonium ion, and for various other compounds. ... 

That the rate profiles are close to parallel shows that the variations in rates reflect the changing concentration of nitronium ions, rather than idiosyncrasies in the behaviour of the activity coefficients of the aromatic compounds. The acidity-dependences of the activity coefficients of / -nitrotoluene, o- and -chloronitrobenzene (fig. 2.2, 2.3.2), are fairly shallow in concentrations up to about 75 %, and seem to be parallel. In more concentrated solutions the coefficients change more rapidly and it... 

Second-order rate coefficients for nitration in sulphuric acid at 25 °C fall by a factor of about 10 for every 10 % decrease in the concentration of the sulphuric acid ( 2.4.2). Since in sulphuric acid of about 90% concentration nitric acid is completely ionised to nitronium ions, in 68 % sulphuric acid [NO2+] io [HNO3]. The rate equation can be written in two ways, as follows ... 

In both media a limit was reached beyond which the introduction of further activating substituents did not increase the rate of nitration this limit was identified as the rate of encounter of the nitronium ions and the aromatic molecules. 

The results in table 2.6 show that the rates of reaction of compounds such as phenol and i-napthol are equal to the encounter rate. This observation is noteworthy because it shows that despite their potentially very high reactivity these compounds do not draw into reaction other electrophiles, and the nitronium ion remains solely effective. These particular instances illustrate an important general principle if by increasing the reactivity of the aromatic reactant in a substitution reaction, a plateau in rate constant for the reaction is achieved which can be identified as the rate constant for encounter of the reacting species, and if further structural modifications of the aromatic in the direction of further increasing its potential reactivity ultimately raise the rate constant above this plateau, then the incursion of a new electrophile must be admitted. 

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