1,2,5-Oxadiazole 2-oxide Subject

The benzofuroxtin [benzofurazan oxide, 3,4-benzo-l,2,6-oxa-diazole-2-oxide, or 2,1,3-benzoxadiazole-l-oxide (1)] ring system has been reviewed briefly on several occasions, notably by Kaufman and Picard,Boyer, and Behr. The mqst recent of these covers the literature until 1959, and since that date there have been many advances in the subject. This, we feel, justifies the field being covered once more, and its separation from the monocyclic 1,2,5-oxadiazole oxides—the furoxans. We consider also other furoxano-fused compounds in this chapter, subject to the limitation that the ring adjacent to the furoxan is aromatic and six-membered. 

Dioximes of a-diketones such as benzil on oxidation with IBTA are converted into 1,2,5-oxadiazole-A-oxides (furoxans) in high yields (75S445) (Eq. 35). Benzo- (Scheme 46) and pyrido-oxadiazoles (Eq. 36) are formed when o-nitroaniline and 3-amino-2-nitropyridine are subjected to similar oxidation. 

The 1,2,5-oxadiazole ring system has been the subject of intensive investigation since the first examples were reported in the 1850s. While much of the early work involved structure elucidation, particularly for the iV-oxides, current interest centers mainly on their reactivity and synthetic applications of their chemistry. 

Although not particularly well known, nitrosoimidazoles appear to be quite stable compounds. The nitroso function can be reduced to amino, or oxidized to nitro. When 5-nitroso-2,4-diphenylimidazole is subjected to dropwise treatment with phenylhydrazine there is some reduction, but ring modification with the formation of the oxadiazole (224) accompanies this reaction (Scheme 123) (60G831). The nitroso function is able to take part in condensation reactions with compounds which possess active methylene groups, and related species (B-76MI40701). 

The transition-metal complexes with unsymmetrical binucleating ligands based on substituted azole moieties are of interest as subjects for mechanistic studies of oxidation. A good example is the oxadiazole-based ligand (71) that has been reported.103... 

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