Of aryl azides

The reactions of enamines as 1,3-dipolarophiles provide the most extensive examples of applications to heterocyclic syntheses. Thus the addition of aryl azides to a large number of cyclic (596-598) and acyclic (599-602) enamines has led to aminotriazolines which could be converted to triazoles with acid. Particular attention has been given to the direction of azide addition (601,603). While the observed products suggest a transition state in which the development of charges gives greater directional control than steric factors, kinetic data and solvent effects (604-606) speak against zwitterionic intermediates and support the usual 1,3-dipolar addition mechanism. 

Interest in the mechanism and product distribution of thermal and photochemical transformations of aryl azides led to the isolation of some nitrogen-containing derivatives of heptafulvalene. Based on elemental analysis and spectroscopic data it has been suggested tentatively that the compound isolated following vapor-phase pyrolysis of azidopentafluoro-... 

The Siindberg indole synthesis using aromadc azides as precursors of nitrenes has been used in synthesis of various indoles. Somekmds of aryl azides are readily prepared by S Ar reacdon of aromadc nitro compounds v/ilh an azide ion. For example, 2,4,6-trinitrotoliiene (TNT can be converted into 2-aryl-4,6-dinitroindole, as shovmin Eq. 10.60. ... 

Poly-1,2-1//-azepines, produced by gas-phase photopolymerization of aryl azides yield, after oxidation, electrically conducting films.103 By photolyzing 4-(pcntyloxy)phenyl azide in the gas phase, a flexible polyazepine is produced which can be deposited directly as a thin polymer film onto a suitable surface. 

The thermal, and more importantly, the photolytic decomposition of aryl azides in the presence of nucleophiles, generally amines or alcohols, is the commonest method for preparing 3H-azepines. In fact, jV-phenyl-3//-azepin-2-amine (32, R = Ph), the first example of a 3//-azepine, was prepared by thermal decomposition of phenyl azide in aniline.32... 

The thermolysis of aryl azides in alcoholic solution has been used to prepare 2-alkoxy-37f-azepines. Thermolysis of 3-azidophenyl methyl ketone in methanol in a sealed ampule furnishes a mixture of the 6-acetyl- (36a) and 4-acetyl-2-methoxy-3//-azepine (37a) in superior yields to those obtained in the corresponding photolytic reaction.78 Other 3-substituted azides behave similarly, with a preference for the 6-substituted isomers 36, as is observed for azide photolyses in amine solutions. 

The synthesis of 3//-azepines by the photolysis of aryl azides in nucleophilic media is a much more efficient and versatile route than the thermolytic process. Initial studies involved photolysis of the aryl azides in an excess of a secondary aliphatic amine, and moderate yields of A, V-dialkyl-3//-azepin-2-amines 38 were obtained.35-1 72... 

Photolysis of aryl azides in amine solution, with a tertiary amine as cosolvent to promote stabilization of the singlet nitrene, has met with some success. For example, the yield of 2-piperidino-3 W-azepme. obtained by the photolysis of phenyl azide in piperidine, is increased from 35 to 58% in the presence of A A /V. /V -tetramethylethylenediamine (TMLDA).180 Also, an improved yield (36 to 60 %) of A,(V-diethyl-3W-azepin-2-amine (38, R = Et) can be obtained by irradiating phenyl azide in triethylamine, rather than in dicthylaminc, solution.181 Photolysis (or thermolysis) of phenyl azide in TMEDA produces, in each case, 38 (R = Et) in 40% yield.181 In contrast, irradiation of phenyl azide in aniline with trimethylamine as cosolvent furnishes jV-phenyl-377-azepin-2-amine (32, R = Ph) in only low yield (2%).35... 

Early efforts to effect the photoinduced ring expansion of aryl azides to 3H-azepines in the presence of other nucleophiles met with only limited success. For example, irradiation of phenyl azide in hydrogen sulfide-diethyl ether, or in methanol, gave 17/-azepine-2(3//)-thione35 (5% mp 106—107 " O and 2-methoxy-3//-azepine (11 %),2 3 respectively. Later workers194 failed to reproduce this latter result, but found that in strongly basic media (3 M potassium hydroxide in methanol/dioxane) and in the presence of 18-crown-6, 17/-azepin-2(3//)-one was produced in 48% yield. In the absence of the crown ether the yield of azepinone falls to 35%. 

Practicable yields of 5-substituted 2-methoxy-3//-azepines 94 can be obtained by photolysis of aryl azides 56 bearing an electron-withdrawing group para to the azide function, although irradiation times tend to be longer and, in general, yields lower than with the corresponding 2-substituted azides.197... 

The photolysis of aryl azides in water or aqueous tetrahydrofuran provides access to 1 //-azepin-2(37/)-ones. 136.197.199.202... 

Nucleophilic displacement of the butoxy group in 2-butoxy-3//-azepine (1) by the use of excess secondary amine is preferred by some workers64 to the photolysis or thermolysis of aryl azides, or the deoxygenation of nitro- or nitrosoarenes in amine solution, as a preparative route to Ar,Ar-dialkyl-3//-azcpin-2-amines, e.g. 2,... 

The reaction of arenediazonium ions with hydroxylamine is known, but has been little investigated (Gattermann and Ebert, 1916). The l-aryl-3-hydroxytriazene (6.23) formed initially is in most cases unstable (except if Ar = anthraquinonyl). Under alkaline conditions elimination of N20 yields the amine, whereas the aryl azide is formed in the presence of acid (Scheme 6-15). There are, however, better methods for the synthesis of aryl azides (review Biffin et al., 1971, p. 147). 

The most interesting TV-coupling reaction of this subsection is that with azide ions, which has been known since the end of the last century. This reaction is frequently used for the preparation of aryl azides. Two examples can be found in Organic Syntheses (Smith and Boyer, 1963 Mendenhall and Smith, 1973). As Scheme 6-20... 

The reaction of azide ions with diazonium ions is preferable to the classical synthesis of aryl azides which was found by Griess (1864d, 1866b) in the reaction of benzenediazonium tribromide with ammonia (see discussion in Sec. 6.4). 

Other iron-imido complexes have also been reported. Holland and coworkers reported the synthesis of the imidoiron(III) complex [L FeNAd] [40, 41]. This imidoiron(III) complex has not been isolated and was found to convert to a purple high-spin iron(III) complex. It has an S = 3/2 ground state from EPR measurement. Based on the results of QM/MM computations, [L EeNAd] is a three-coordinated complex with an Fe-N distance of 1.68 A and has a nearly linear Fe=N-C unit with Fe-N-C angle of 174.1°. Chirik and coworkers made use of liable ligands to prepare iron-imido complexes by treatment of C PDI)-Fe(N2)2 ( PDI = (2,6- Pr2CgH3N = CMe)2C5H3N) with a series of aryl azides [47]. 

McMahan, S.A., and Burgess, R.R. (1994) Use of aryl azide cross-linkers to investigate protein-protein interactions An optimization of important conditions as applied to Escherichia coli RNA polymerase and localization of a tr70-a cross-link to the C-terminal region of a. Biochemistry 33, 12092-12099. 

The most frequent synthetic approaches, summarized in Scheme 4, are towards the primary photophores. The preparation of aryl azide derivatives follows the typical retro-synthetic pathway in the majority of the reported cases (Scheme 4 A), and, practically, diazotation is the most commonly used procedure [24 - 29]. In the case of diazirines only one major synthetic sequence is repeated ammonolysis of oximes followed by dehydrogenation (Scheme 4B) [30-32]. There are various ways of preparing diazo- or diazocarbonyl-compounds most frequently the Forster and Bamford-Stevens reactions (Scheme 4C) are employed [33-37]. 

Cyclononadiene reacted with aryl azides 91 regioselectively to give triazolines 92 [87]. In the cycloaddition reactions of aryl azides with tetramethylallene (excess), electron-deficient azides afforded better yields of triazolines [88]. 

PM3 calculations of the 2 + 3-cycloaddition of t-butylphosphaacetylene with 2,4,6-triazidopyridine are consistent with the dipole-LUMO-controlled reaction type. An FTIR spectroscopic study of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of aryl azides with acetylenes shows that the rate of reaction increases logarithmically with pressure (below 1 GPa). The 3 -I- 2-cycloaddition between an azide (69) and a maleimide (70) has been greatly accelerated by utilizing molecular recognition between an amidopyridine and a carboxylic acid [see (71)] (Scheme 24). ... 

Kamal A, Prasad BR, Ramana AV, Babu AH, Reddy KS (2004) FeCl3-NaI mediated reactions of aryl azides with 3,4-dihydro-2 //-pyran a convenient synthesis of pyrano-quinolines. Tetrahedron Lett 45 3507-3509... 

Kamal A, Prasad BR, Khan MNA (2007) TMSCl-Nal-mediated reaction of aryl azides with cyclic enol ethers an efficient one-pot synthesis of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines. J Mol Catal A Che 274 133-136... 

An alternative approach to N-S bond formation involves the aza-Wittig-type reaction of sulfoxides (Scheme 26) <2004SL101>. Initial Staudinger ligation of aryl azide 195 with triphenylphosphine afforded iminophosphorane 196, which was purified by column chromatography and then heated in anhydrous toluene, producing benzothiazines 62 and 197. The N-S bond was found to be rather sensitive to hydrolysis and cleavage to 198 was observed upon treatment of benzothiazines 62 or 197 with wet THF. 

Benati et al. (17) reported intermolecular cycloadditions of aryl azides with 1,4-naphthoquinone (72) at ambient temperature. The triazohne intermediate 73 was unstable even at room temperature, leading to the formation of a mixture of products 74—77 (Scheme 9.17). 

Lin and Kadaba (23) reported the intermolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of aryl azides (110) with vinyl pyridines (111) to give a mixture of pyridyltriazolines (112) and aziridines (113) (Scheme 9.23). 

Wedegaertner and Kattak (27) reported the intermolecular cycloaddition of aryl azides with allenes (Scheme 9.27). Cycloaddition of an aryl azide with the 1,2-propanediene 131 produced a mixmre of the isomeric triazolines 132 and 133, whereas when the cycloaddition was conducted with cyclonona-1,2-diene 134, the triazoline 135 was the sole product. X-ray crystallographic analysis confirmed the stmcture of 135. 

Ciufolini et al. (61) reported a facile assembly of the benzazocenone 307 as a part of the total synthesis of the antitumor alkaloids mitomycin C (309) and FR 900482 (310) based on intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of aryl azides with electron-rich alkenes (Scheme 9.61). Azide 305 was heated in refluxing toluene with a catalytic amount of K2CO3 to give the triazoline 306 in 55% yield. Irradiation of a solution of the triazoline 306 in wet THF with a sun lamp gave an 84% yield of the required benzazocene 308, which was converted to the target molecules 309 and 310. 

The decomposition of aryl azides in aqueous acid was known to produce para-aminophenols even before Bamberger began his work on the rearrangement of N-arylhydroxylamines. Bamberger recognized that N-arylhydroxyl-amines and aryl azides produced identical product mixtures when decomposed under the same conditions in aqueous acid, and he proposed a... 

In subsequent work, the protonation of fluoro-substituted singlet arylnitrenes 16f and 16g was studied in 1 4 water-acetonitrile mixture on the nanosecond timescale. LFP studies of aryl azides 15f and 15g in the presence of HCl demonstrated that the decay of the arylnitrene absorption was accompanied by the formation of transient absorption with maximum at... 

Historically the first fully unsaturated azepine was obtained by Wolff in 1912 by the decomposition of phenyl azide in aniline. However, the actual structure of this product, named dibenzamil , remained unknown until 1955, when Huisgen and coworkers showed it to be an anilinoazepine, originally formulated as the 7-anilino-2H-azepine, but later corrected, mainly on the basis of HNMR evidence, to the 2-anilino 3H-tautomer (221 R1=PhNH R2 = H). Subsequently, the thermolysis and photolysis of aryl azides in primary, secondary and, in certain instances, tertiary amine solution has become a standard method for the preparation of 2-amino-3/f-azepines (79AG(E)900,8lAHC(28)23l). 

Despite patient and exhaustive effort by many researchers, all attempts to isolate or trap a benzazirine intermediate (214) have so far failed, and unequivocal evidence for their participation in either the photolytic or thermal decomposition of aryl azides is still awaited. Evidence in favor of the proposed reaction pathway (Scheme 22) comes from the work of Sundberg and coworkers, who succeeded in identifying 3-alkyl-2-diethylamino-lff-azepines as oxygen-sensitive, metastable intermediates in the photolysis of o-alkylphenyl azides in diethylamine (72JA513). Later studies on the flash photolysis of aryl azides in dialkylamine solution provided kinetic data which not only confirmed the Iff- to 3/f-azepine tautomer-ism, but also strongly supported the involvement of a benzazirine intermediate (74JA7491). 

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