Nitrosation of aromatic amines

The C-nitrosation of aromatic compounds is characterized by similar reaction conditions and mechanisms to those discussed earlier in this section. The reaction is normally carried out in a strongly acidic solution, and in most cases it is the nitrosyl ion which attacks the aromatic ring in the manner of an electrophilic aromatic substitution, i. e., via a a-complex as steady-state intermediate (see review by Williams, 1988, p. 58). We mention C-nitrosation here because it may interfere with diazotization of strongly basic aromatic amines if the reaction is carried out in concentrated sulfuric acid. Little information on such unwanted C-nitrosations of aromatic amines has been published (Blangey, 1938 see Sec. 2.2). 

A similar rate expression has also been established for N-methyl hydroxylamines, and is known in the nitrosation of aromatic amines. With O-alkyl hydroxylamines the expression has the more usual form... 

Dyes. Sodium nitrite is a convenient source of nitrous acid in the nitrosation and diatozation of aromatic amines. When primary aromatic amines react with nitrous acid, the intermediate diamine salts are produced which, on coupling to amines, phenols, naphthols, and other compounds, form the important azo dyes (qv). The color center of the dye or pigment is the -N=N- group and attached groups modify the color. Many dyes and pigments (qv) have been manufactured with shades of the entire color spectmm. 

The treatment of aromatic amines with a nitrosation mixture has been known for nearly a century and has been summarized as follows. 

Although Eqs. (7)- 10) may be valid for a wide range of aromatic amines treated in the usual manner in a mineral acid medium with sodium nitrite, direct nuclear nitrosation of certain primary and secondary aromatic amines was found possible when nitrosylsulfuric acid in concentrated sulfuric acid was used as the nitrosation agent [22]. 

Tertiary aromatic amines may be nitrosated directly with nitrous acid, whereas primary aromatic amines normally are diazotized under these conditions. Some phenols may also be nitrosated under conditions similar to those used for the nitrosation of tertiary amines. 

The phenolic group is activating and ortho-para directing. The electrophilic substitution reactions in the nucleus in (a) nitrosation and nitration (b) halogenation and (c) acylation and alkylation, are therefore particularly facile, and various experimental procedures need to be adopted to control the extent of substitution (cf. substitution reactions of aromatic amines and their acylated derivatives, Sections 6.6.1 and 6.6.2, pp. 906 and 916 respectively). 

The fonnation of aromatic diazonium salts from aromatic primary amines is one of the oldest synthetic procedures in organic chemistry. Methods based on nitrosation of die amine with nitrous acid in aqueous solution are the best known, but there are variants which are of particular use with weakly basic amines and for the isolation of diazonium salts from nonaqueous media. General reviews include a book by Saunders and Allen and a survey of preparative methods by Schank. There are also reviews on the diazotization of heteroaromatic primary amines and on the diazotization of weakly basic amines in strongly acidic media. The diazotization process (Scheme 11) goes by way of a primary nitrosamine. 

The reaction of aromatic amines with nitrous acid is of considerable importance and the formation of diazonium salts from the primary amines is discussed in detail in Section 8.6. Reaction of nitrous acid with secondary amines does not give diazonium salts, but results instead in A -nitrosation. Tertiary amines such as A, A -dimethylaniline do not N-nitrosate, but undergo electrophilic substitution by the nitrosonium cation (NO ) to give A, A -dimethyl-4-nitrosoaniline (Scheme 8.8). 

As the proton release is often too slow under the acidic conditions used for the diazotization of aromatic amines, syntheses of aliphatic diazo compounds by this method are carried out without an excess of mineral acid. Usually, equimolar amounts of amine, HCl and NaN02, or amine and NOCl, are used. A better alternative is nitrosation with pentyl nitrite in the presence of up to 30% acetic acid, as found by Takamura et al. (1975). Yields higher than 60% were obtained with a-amino-substituted esters of some aliphatic carboxylic acids. 

Secondary aliphatic amines form stable N-nitrosoamines, however, and therefore, their investigation will be discussed briefly in this section, although N-nitroso derivatives of secondary aliphatic amines do not fall within the scope of this book. We will see that kinetics and mechanisms of nitrosation of secondary amines display many similarities with the diazotization of primary aromatic amines. 

Another convenient source of aryl radicals involves reaction of aromatic amines with an alkyl nitrite in organic solvent. The nitrosated aniline is the precursor of the radical. The radicals generated in this way have been used to synthesize biphenyls. 

An outline general mechanism for the diazotisation of an aromatic amine is given in Scheme 3.4. The first stage in the reaction is N-nitrosation of the amine, the nitrosating species being represented in the scheme as Y-N=0. It has been shown that various species may be responsible for nitrosation, depending on the nature of the aromatic amine in question and on the conditions employed for the reaction. The nitrosating species may be the nitroso-acidium ion (H20 -NO),... 

Substituent effect, in nitration 253 in nitrosation 314 on basicity 176-179, 181-187 on inductive effect 209 on reactivity of C=N linkage 352 Sulfonation, of aromatic amines 255, 256... 

To avoid the direct manipulation with hazardous azides, methods using Cu(I)situ generation of azides were developed as one-pot procedures, for example, with substitution reaction of alkyl hahdes by NaN3 [493] or with nitrosation of aromatic primary amines by tBuONO followed by trimethylsilyl azide [494]. Vice versa, the alkyne component has been generated in situ, for example, by sequential Seyferth-Gilbert reaction (homologation of aldehydes with diazophosphonates) and reaction with azides in a Cu(l)-catalyzed cycloaddition [495]. 

Tertiary alkylamines illustrate no useful chemistry on nitrosation Tertiary aryl-amines undergo nitrosation of the ring by electrophilic aromatic substitution... 

Nitrosation (Section 22 15) The reaction of a substance usu ally an amine with nitrous acid Pnmary amines yield dia zonium 10ns secondary amines yield N nitroso amines Tertiary aromatic amines undergo nitrosation of their aro matic ring... 

Synthesis. Almost without exception, azo dyes ate made by diazotization of a primary aromatic amine followed by coupling of the resultant diazonium salt with an electron-rich nucleophile. The diazotization reaction is carried out by treating the primary aromatic amine with nitrous acid, normally generated in situ with hydrochloric acid and sodium nitrite. The nitrous acid nitrosates the amine to generate the N-nitroso compound, which tautomerizes to the diazo hydroxide. 

The nitrosation of primary aromatic amines 1 with nitrous acid 2 and a subsequent dehydration step lead to the formation of diazonium ions 3. The unstable nitrous acid can for example be prepared by reaction of sodium nitrite with aqueous hydrochloric acid. 

Griess (1860) coined the prefix diazo for the nitrosation product of an aromatic amine, because he assumed that two nitrogen atoms replaced two hydrogen atoms of the parent aromatic compound. On the other hand, azobenzene received its name on the basis of the C H N ratio 6 5 1, indicating the replacement of one hydrogen by one nitrogen atom. 

If relatively basic and nucleophilic aromatic amines are diazotized in nitrosylsul-furic acid, C- instead of TV-nitrosation takes place as shown by Blangey (1938) for 1-naphthylamine, which gave in this system 4-nitroso-l-naphthylamine. A possible mechanistic explanation of Blangey s observation is given in Section 3.2. 

Doyle and Bryker (1979) reported high yields of arenediazonium tetrafluoroborates when aromatic amines were reacted with tert-butyl nitrite and trifluoroboro etherate in CH2C12. It is likely that nitrosyl fluoride is formed as nitrosating reagent by fluoride-alkoxy exchange. 

The rate-determining step in the diazotization of aniline in aqueous perchloric acid below concentrations of 0.05 m (pH >0.7) is the formation of N203. The following A-nitrosation step is faster (rate equation of Scheme 3-12). However, with aromatic amines that are weaker nucleophiles than aniline, e.g. 4-nitroaniline, nitrosation is slower than the formation of N203, and the rate is second-order with respect to nitrous acid and first-order in amine (Scheme 3-13, Larkworthy, 1959). 

---