Of anthracenes

Dissolve 1 g. of anthracene in 10 ml. of glacial acetic acid and place in 50 ml. bolt head flask fitted with a reflux water-condenser. Dissolve 2 g. of chromium trioxide in 2 ml. of water and add 5 ml. of glacial acetic acid. Pour this solution down the condenser, shake the contents of the flask and boil gently for 10 minutes. Cool and pour the contents of the flask into about 20 ml. of cold water. Filter off the crude anthraquinone at the pump, wash with water, drain well and dry. Yield, 1 g. Purify by re crystallisation from glacial acetic acid or by sublimation using the semi-micro sublimation apparatus (Fig. 35, p. 62, or Fig. 50, p. 70). 

In the following preparation, this reaction is exemplified by the union of anthracene with maleic anhydride, to form 9,io-dihydroanthracene-9,io-e do-a -succinic anhydride note that as a result of this reaction both the outer rings of the anthracene system become truly aromatic in character. 

The nitration of anthracene is more difficult to perform and is not recommended as a test. 

Make a concentrated solution of anthracene in hot acetone. To about 2 ml. of this solution add a cold concentrated acetone solution of picric acid drop by drop, and note the formation of a red coloration which becomes deeper on further addition of the acid. If excess of picric acid is added, however, the solution becomes paler in colour, and this is to be avoided if possible. Boil to ensure that both components are in solution and then transfer to a small porcelain basin or watch-glass ruby-red crystals of anthracene picrate separate out on cooling. The product, however, is often contaminated with an excess of either anthracene or of picric acid, which appear as yellowish crystals. 

Purification of anthracene. Dissolve 0-3 g. of crude anthracene (usually yellowish in colour) in 160-200 ml. of hexane, and pass the solution through a column of activated alumina (1 5-2 X 8-10 cm.). Develop the chromatogram with 100 ml. of hexane. Examine the column in the hght of an ultra-violet lamp. A narrow, deep blue fluorescent zone (due to carbazole, m.p. 238°) will be seen near the top of the column. Immediately below this there is a yellow, non-fluorescent zone, due to naphthacene (m.p. 337°). The anthracene forms a broad, blue-violet fluorescent zone in the lower part of the column. Continue the development with hexane until fluorescent material commences to pass into the filtrate. Reject the first runnings which contain soluble impurities and yield a paraffin-hke substance upon evaporation. Now elute the column with hexane-benzene (1 1) until the yellow zone reaches the bottom region of the column. Upon concentration of the filtrate, pure anthracene, m.p. 215-216°, which is fluorescent in dayhght, is obtained. The experiment may be repeated several times in order to obtain a moderate quantity of material. 

It is probable that the nitration of anthracene with nitric acid in 7-5 % aqueous sulpholan proceeds through the rapid formation of a complex. ... 

Acridine is a heterocyclic aromatic compound obtained from coal tar that is used in the syn thesis of dyes The molecular formula of acndine is C13H9N and its ring system is analogous to that of anthracene except that one CH group has been replaced by N The two most stable reso nance structures of acridine are equivalent to each other and both contain a pyndine like struc tural unit Wnte a structural formula for acridine... 

The reaction of methoxy-substituted 1,4-dihydroatomatic systems is a general one. Other condensed systems react ia a similar manner, for example, 3,6-dimethoxy-1,4,S,8-tetrahydronaphtha1ene and derivatives of anthracene (35) and xanthene (36) (74). The proposed method enables synthesis of the tri-and tetracarbocyanines where the whole chromophore is iategrated iato a rigidizing skeleton. Asymmetrical polymethines can also be obtained similarly. 

In the eadier Hterature, the 1,4,5,8 positions were known as alpha (a) and the 2,3,6,7 as beta (P). The 9,10-positions are known as meso- or ms-. Other quinones of anthracene are known, but only the 9,10-quinone is of technical importance. 

In Europe, where an abundant supply of anthracene has usually been available, the preferred method for the manufacture of anthraquinone has been, and stiU is, the catalytic oxidation of anthracene. The main problem has been that of obtaining anthracene, C H q, practically free of such contaminants as carbazole and phenanthrene. Many processes have been developed for the purification of anthracene. Generally these foUow the scheme of taking the cmde anthracene oil, redistilling, and recrystaUizing it from a variety of solvents, such as pyridine (22). The purest anthracene may be obtained by azeotropic distillation with ethylene glycol (23). 

In the dyestuff industry, anthraquinone still ranks high as an intermediate for the production of dyes and pigments having properties unattainable by any other class of dyes or pigments. Its cost is relatively high and will remain so because of the equipment and operations involved in its manufacture. As of May 1991, anthraquinone sold for 4.4/kg in ton quantities. In the United States and abroad, anthraquinone is manufactured by a few large chemical companies (62). At present, only two processes for its production come into consideration manufacture by the Friedel-Crafts reaction utilizing benzene, phthahc anhydride, and anhydrous aluminum chloride, and by the vapor-phase catalytic oxidation of anthracene the latter method is preferred. 

Example 4 Application of Isotherms Thomas [Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 49, 161 (1948)] provides the following Langmuir isotherm for the adsorption of anthracene from cyclohexane onto alumina ... 

The synthetic procedure described is based on that reported earlier for the synthesis on a smaller scale of anthracene, benz[a]anthracene, chrysene, dibenz[a,c]anthracene, and phenanthrene in excellent yields from the corresponding quinones. Although reduction of quinones with HI and phosphorus was described in the older literature, relatively drastic conditions were employed and mixtures of polyhydrogenated derivatives were the principal products. The relatively milder experimental procedure employed herein appears generally applicable to the reduction of both ortho- and para-quinones directly to the fully aromatic polycyclic arenes. The method is apparently inapplicable to quinones having an olefinic bond, such as o-naphthoquinone, since an analogous reaction of the latter provides a product of undetermined structure (unpublished result). As shown previously, phenols and hydro-quinones, implicated as intermediates in the reduction of quinones by HI, can also be smoothly deoxygenated to fully aromatic polycyclic arenes under conditions similar to those described herein. 

This trend is revealed, for example, by the rates of Diels-Alder addition reactions of anthracene, naphthacene, and pentacene, in which three, four, and five rings, respectively are linearly fused. The rate data are shown in Table 9.3. The same trend can be seen in the activation energy and the resonance energy gained when cycloreversion of the adducts 9-12 yields the aromatic compoimd, as shown in Scheme 9.3. 

Both phenanthrene and anthracene have a tendency to undergo addition reactions under the eonditions involved in eertain eleetrophilic substitutions. For example, in the nitration of anthracene in the presence of hydrochloric acid, an intermediate addition product can be isolated. This is a result of the relatively close balance in resonance stabilization to be regained by elimination (giving an anthracene ring) or addition (resulting in two benzenoid rings). 

To demonstrate the effect in more detail a series of experiments was carried out similar to that of volume overload, but in this case, the sample mass was increased in small increments. The retention distance of the front and the back of each peak was measured at the nominal points of inflection (0.6065 of the peak height) and the curves relating the retention data produced to the mass of sample added are shown in Figure 7. In Figure 7 the change in retention time with sample load is more obvious the maximum effect was to reduce the retention time of anthracene and the minimum effect was to the overloaded solute itself, benzene. Despite the reduction in retention time, the band width of anthracene is still little effected by the overloaded benzene. There is, however, a significant increase in the width of the naphthalene peak which... 

In 1967 spraying with a solution of paraffin wax allowed the recording of the fluorescence spectrum of anthracene directly on the TLC plate without any difficulties [228]. Hellmann too was able to stabilize emissions by the addition of 2% paraffin to the solvent [229]. Low concentrations evidently serve primarily to stabilize the fluorescence — this stabilization concentration extends up to ca... 

It is notable that pyridine is activated relative to benzene and quinoline is activated relative to naphthalene, but that the reactivities of anthracene, acridine, and phenazine decrease in that order. A small activation of pyridine and quinoline is reasonable on the basis of quantum-mechanical predictions of atom localization encrgies, " whereas the unexpected decrease in reactivity from anthracene to phenazine can be best interpreted on the basis of a model for the transition state of methylation suggested by Szwarc and Binks." The coulombic repulsion between the ir-electrons of the aromatic nucleus and the p-electron of the radical should be smaller if the radical approaches the aromatic system along the nodal plane rather than perpendicular to it. This approach to a nitrogen center would be very unfavorable, however, since the lone pair of electrons of the nitrogen lies in the nodal plane and since the methyl radical is... 

The synthesis of bisantrene begins with Diels-Alder reaction of anthracene (52) and ethylene... 

Equimolar amounts of anthracene,/ -benzoquinone, and aluminum chloride give the faintly yellow adduct in 15 minutes. The product is unstable to heat turning yellow at 207°, turning red at 210°, and slowly charring. When 2 molar equivalents of anthracene are used, the bis adduct is obtained, mp 230°, unobtainable in the absence of the catalyst. 

For the acylation of naphthalene, the ionic liquid gives the highest reported selectivity for the 1-position [95]. The acetylation of anthracene at 0 °C was found to be a reversible reaction. The initial product of the reaction between acetyl chloride (1.1 equivalents) and anthracene is 9-acetylanthracene, formed in 70 % yield in less than 5 minutes. The 9-acetylanthracene was then found to undergo diacetylation reactions, giving the 1,5- and 1,8-diacetylanthracenes and anthracene after 24 hours (Scheme 5.1-64). 

Scheme 5.1-64 The acetylation of anthracene in [EMIM]CI/AICl3 (X(AICl3) = 0.67).

This was confirmed by taking a sample of 9-acetylanthracene and allowing it to isomerize in the ionic liquid. This gave a mixture of anthracene, 1,5-diacetylan-thracene and 1,8-diacetylanthracene. It should be noted that a proton source was needed for this reaction to occur, implying an acid-catalyzed mechanism (Scheme 5.1-65) [95]. 

Rather similar was the paper [PolG36a] which also derives asymptotic formulae for the number of several kinds of chemical compounds, for example the alcohols and benzene and naphthalene derivatives. Unlike the paper previously mentioned, this one gives proofs of the recursion formulae from which the asymptotic results are derived. A third paper on this topic [PolG36] covers the same sort of ground but ranges more broadly over the chemical compounds. Derivatives of anthracene, pyrene, phenanthrene, and thiophene are considered as well as primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols, esters, and ketones. In this paper Polya addresses the question of enumerating stereoisomers -- a topic to which we shall return later. 

Nitroanthrone has been prepared by the nitration of anthracene in isobutyl alcohol,1 and by the nitration of anthrone.2... 

The fluorescence spectrum of dibenz[7>,/]oxepin shows that this molecule adopts a planar structure in the excited state whereas the ground state has bent geometry as expected.19 The emission spectrum is similar to that of anthracene. 

---