Phenothiazine formation Smiles rearrangement

Chloro-5-nitrobenzaldehyde, -acetophenone, or -benzophenone derivatives treated with 2-aminothiophenol under alkaline conditions provided good yields of the corresponding dibenzo[(3,/][l,4]thiepins. Similar treatment of 2-chloro-3,5-dinitrobenzophenone (318) provided 58% of dibenzo[(3,/][l,4]thiepin 321 and 20% of phenothiazine 323. Its formation can be easily explain by the Smiles rearrangement of the initially formed intermediate 320 into diphenylamine derivative 322, followed by denitrocyclization reaction leading to the corresponding product of denitrocyclization 323 (Scheme 49). When the reaction was done in pyridine, only this product was isolated in 50% yield (57JCS3818). 

Nowhere, perhaps, is this phenomenon better illustrated than in the phenothiazine class. The earlier volume devoted a full chapter to the discussion of this important structural class, which was represented by both major tranquilizers and antihistamines. The lone phenothiazine below, flutiazin (130), in fact fails to show the activities characteristic of its class. Instead, the ring system is used as the aromatic nucleus for a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agent. Preparation of 130 starts with formylation of the rather complex aniline 123. Reaction with alcoholic sodium hydroxide results in net overall transformation to the phenothiazine by the Smiles rearrangement. The sequence begins with formation of the anion on the amide nitrogen addition to the carbon bearing sulfur affords the corresponding transient spiro intermediate 126. Rearomatization... 

Skraup quinoline synthesis, 443 Smiles rearrangement, phenothiazine, 534 Spiroalkylation, 222, 280 Spirocyclization, conjugate addition, 386 Spiroimidazolone formation, 335 Spiropyrazolopiperidine, 375 Stannylation, alkyne, 15 Stereoselective dehydration, 198 Grignard addition, 198, 199 reduction, 129, 226 hydroxyketone, 400 iminoketone beta, 553 oxazaborohydride, 585 transfer chirality, 321 Stilbene formation, self alkylation, 525 Stobbe condensation, benzophenone, 103... 

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