Phthalic anhydride reduction

An isoindol1 none moiety forms part of the aromatic moiety of yet another antiinflammatory propionic acid derivative. Carboxylation of the anion from -nitro-ethylbenzene (45) leads directly to the propionic acid (46). Reduction of the nitro group followed by condensation of the resulting aniline (47) with phthalic anhydride affords the corresponding phthalimide (48). Treatment of that intermediate with zinc in acetic acid interestingly results in reduction of only one of the carbonyl groups to afford the isoindolone. There is thus obtained indoprofen (49). ... 

The analgesic and anti-inflammatory Indoprofene (42) can be made by several routes, two of which involve cyclisations. Treatment of phthalic anhydride with amino acid (43) gives imide (45) in one step - the cyclisatlon of (44) must be faster than the inter-molecular reaction by which it is formed. Reduction of (45) give.s Indoprofene as the reactive imide is easily reduced as far as the unreactive amide. 

The first examples of a homogeneous reduction of this type were reported in 1971. Cobalt carbonyl was found to reduce anhydrides such as acetic anhydride, succinic anhydride and propionic anhydride to mixtures of aldehydes and acids. However, scant experimental details were recorded [94]. In 1975, Lyons reported that [Ru(PPh3)3Cl2] catalyzes the reduction of succinic and phthalic anhydrides to the lactones y-bulyrolaclone and phthalide, respectively [95], The proposed reaction sequence for phthalic anhydride is shown in Scheme 15.15. Conversion of phthalic anhydride was complete in 21 h at 90 °C, but yielded an equal mixture of the lactone, phthalide (TON = 100 TOF 5) and o-phthalic acid, which is presumably formed by hydrolysis of the anhydride by water during lactoniza-tion. Neither acid or lactone were further hydrogenated to any extent using this catalyst system, under these conditions. 

Selective reduction at a Pb cathode in H2S04 of phthalic anhydride (1) to... 

Phthalic anhydride initially reacts with ammonia, which in turn is liberated, for instance, by decomposition of urea. Diiminophthalimide is then produced via phthalimide and monoiminophthalimide. Subsequent self-condensation (as in the phthalonitrile process) under cleavage of ammonia affords polyisoindolenines, which form complexes with copper ions. Ring closure is achieved through further release of ammonia, and copper phthalocyanine is finally obtained by reduction. 

Popper and Bariska (1972) studied the moisture sorption properties of wood chemically modified with acetic (or phthalic) anhydride and analysed the results using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) theory and the H-H model. Acetylation was found to reduce the number of sorption sites, whereas little effect was noted with phthaloylation. By dividing the sorption isotherm into a monolayer component and a multilayer component using the H-H model, it was shown that there was a large reduction in the... 

In addition to oxidation and reduction reactions, naphthalene readily undergoes substitution reactions such as nitration, halogenation, sulfonation, and acylation to produce a variety of other substances, which are used in the manufacture of dyes, insecticides, organic solvents, and synthetic resins. The principal use of naphthalene is for the production of phthalic anhydride, CgbLO,. 

Thiophthalide (452) is the oxo form of l-hydroxybenzo[c]thiophene. It is a stable compound, being intermediate in oxidation level between o-xylene and phthalic acid. It can be formed from o-xylene by oxidation with a mixture of sulfur and water at high temperatures it can also be formed by reduction of phthalic anhydride with H2S + H2 (72AHC( 14)331). It reacts with vinyllithium to form a complex which on hydrolysis undergoes ring expansion to 4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-2//-benzo[c]thiepin-5-one (453), as shown in Scheme 154. 

Naphtho[2,3-b jthiophene derivatives (316) have been synthesized by this scheme, starting with phthalic anhydride, which could be reacted with thiophene under Friedel-Crafts conditions to give (315) (52JA4353). By the same scheme, anthra[2,3-bjthiophene (318) was obtained from (317) in 51% yield, by reduction of the acid to aldehyde and cyclization in PPA (81JHC967). 

Two sources of naphthalene exist in the U.S. coal tar and petroleum. Coal tar was the traditional source until the late 1950s, when it was in short supply. In 1960, the first petroleum-naphthalene plant accounted for over 40% of total naphthalene production. The availability of large quantities of o-xylene at competitive prices during the 1970s affected the position of naphthalene as the prime raw material for phthalic anhydride. Production for 1992 was less than 50% of Ihe levels in the early 1980s. The last dehydroalkylation plant for petroleum naphthalene was shut down late in 1991. Coal tar has stabilized at around 85 x 103 t/yr, and petroleum-naphthalene production is around 6—8 x 103 t/yr. The reduction of petroleum production has opened the door for imported naphthalene, mainly from Canada. 

On the other hand, the reduction of phthalic anhydride to phthalide is simpler. The key step in this synthesis is the electrochemical reduction of ammonium phthalamates... 

Most reported phthalocyanine derivatives (sulfo-, nitro-, amino-, triphenylmethyl-, polymeric, etc.) are copper complexes, although at present the synthetic chemistry of other d- and /-metal Pc derivatives is being rapidly developed (Examples 30-36) [5,6,116-118]. Some of them (in particular, copper phthalocyanine sulfonic acids) are of industrial interest because of their usefulness as dyes. Phthalocyanine sulfonic acids themselves are prepared both by urea synthesis from sulfonated phthalic anhydride and by the sulfonation of the phthalocyanine [6], Some substituted metal phthalocyanines can be obtained by chemical or electrochemical reduction [118e]. Among a number of reported peculiarities of substituted phthalocyanines, the existence of three electronic isomers for magnesium derivative PcMn was recently confirmed [118f]. 

N-Substituted phthalimides are easily synthesized via solvent-free condensation of phthalic anhydrides with amines or via coupling methods [3]. The phthalimide moiety has a reversible reduction potential in dimethylformamide (DMF) which is... 

An attempt to scale up the synthesis of 2-thiophthalide by the reduction of phthalic anhydride with hydrogen sulfide gave 3,3 -bithiophthalide (106a), which arises by condensation of 2-thiophthalide (98) with phthalic thioanhydride (104) (Scheme III).118... 

Electrochemical reduction of phthaloyl dichloride (73) at a carbon or mercury cathode in acetonitrile containing TEAP led to a complex array of products. Six cathodic waves observed in the CV for the reduction of phthaloyl dichloride arise from the reductions of different electrolysis products, as well as from hydrolytically formed phthalic anhydride (74),. caused by the presence of residual water in the solvent/supporting electrolyte (equation 45). From controlled potential electrolyses of phthaloyl dichloride, a variety of products including 3-chlorophthalide (75), phthalide (76), biphthalyl (77) and dihydrobiph-thalide (78) can be obtained69,70. Reduction of glutaryl dichloride (79) at a mercury cathode in acetonitrile containing 0.1M TEAP results in the formation of 5-chlorovalerolactone (80) and valerolactone (81) as minor products, and a polymeric material (equation 46)68. 

Reagents i, reductive animation ii, phthalic anhydride iii, Collins reagent iv, Wittig reaction v, hydra-zinolysis vi, Hg(OAc)2... 

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