Pyridines reactivity

The main principles of pyridine reactivity and how they influence attack at ring atoms have been stated briefly. The most important examples of these reaction types will now be examined in some detail. It will be seen that the principles provide an invaluable, though not infallible, guide to understanding and classification. However, each reaction will have nuances of its own, and some will provide occasional surprises. 

In Table 8 rates of nucleophilic reactions with p-nitrophenyl acetate in water are collected. It should be kept in mind that relative reactivities vary with solvent. For example, in aqueous dioxane the relative reactivity of pyridine, as compared with acetate, towards acetic anhydride drops by many powers often as the solvent becomes less aqueous (Koskikallio, 1963). In 50 %, 25 %, 8 %, 2 %, and 0-4 % aqueous dioxane the ratio of pyridine reactivity to acetate reactivity is 14,0-34, 9-5 x 10 , 2-4 X 10 and < 3 x 10 , respectively. 

Continuing the analogy with pyridine reactivity, methyl groups at the 2-positions of 1,3-azoles and the... 

One of the motivations for studying new pyridine reactivity is to find efficient routes to biologically active pyridine-containing compounds. A number of interesting imidazo[l,2-a]pyridine deritatives were found to have promising activity. For example, a couple of imidazo[l,2-rt]pyridine-... 

The sulphonic acids are usually prepared by the action of sulphuric acid upon a compound. The concentration of the acid and the temperature of reaction are varied according to the reactivity of the compound. Often oleum is used or even chiorosulphonic acid. Alternatively sulphur trioxide complexed to pyridine or dioxan can be used with reactive substrates. Aminosulphonic acids such as sulphanilic and naphthionic acids are most conveniently prepared by heating the sulphate of the amine at ISO C. 

These compounds are soluble in ether, are comparatively stable, and exhibit many of the reactions of Grignard reagents but are more reactive. Because of their greater reactivity, organohthium compounds can often be used where Grignard reagents fail thus they add to the azomethine linkage in pyridines or... 

In peptide syntheses, where partial racemization of the chiral a-carbon centers is a serious problem, the application of 1-hydroxy-1 H-benzotriazole ( HBT") and DCC has been very successful in increasing yields and decreasing racemization (W. Kdnig, 1970 G.C. Windridge, 1971 H.R. Bosshard, 1973), l-(Acyloxy)-lif-benzotriazoles or l-acyl-17f-benzo-triazole 3-oxides are formed as reactive intermediates. If carboxylic or phosphoric esters are to be formed from the acids and alcohols using DCC, 4-(pyrrolidin-l -yl)pyridine ( PPY A. Hassner, 1978 K.M. Patel, 1979) and HBT are efficient catalysts even with tert-alkyl, choles-teryl, aryl, and other unreactive alcohols as well as with highly bulky or labile acids. 

We shall describe a specific synthetic example for each protective group given above. Regiosdective proteaion is generally only possible if there are hydroxyl groups of different sterical hindrance (prim < sec < tert equatorial < axial). Acetylation has usually been effected with acetic anhydride. The acetylation of less reactive hydroxyl groups is catalyzed by DMAP (see p.l44f.). Acetates are stable toward oxidation with chromium trioxide in pyridine and have been used, for example, for protection of steroids (H.J.E. Loewenthal, 1959), carbohydrates (M.L. Wolfrom, 1963 J.M. Williams, 1967), and nucleosides (A.M. Micbelson, 1963). The most common deacetylation procedures are ammonolysis with NH in CH OH and methanolysis with KjCO, or sodium methoxide. 

This reaction sequence is much less prone to difficulties with isomerizations since the pyridine-like carbons of dipyrromethenes do not add protons. Yields are often low, however, since the intermediates do not survive the high temperatures. The more reactive, faster but less reliable system is certainly provided by the dipyrromethanes, in which the reactivity of the pyrrole units is comparable to activated benzene derivatives such as phenol or aniline. The situation is comparable with that found in peptide synthesis where the slow azide method gives cleaner products than the fast DCC-promoted condensations (see p. 234). 

The reactivity of the amino radical has not yet been investigated. Alkaline hypochlorite oxidation, known in the pyridine series to yield azo derivatives (155,156). and photolysis of N,N-dichloro derivatives, which may be obtained by action of sodium hypochlorite on amino derivatives in acidic medium (157). should provide interesting insight on this reactivitv. 

The high reactivity of the exocyclic 4-NH- group is again illustrated by the reaction of 2-imino-3-phenyl-4-amino-5-(ethoxycarbonyl)-4-thiazoline with EtOjCCH SCN, which yields 134 (296), and by the intramolecular preparation of the dihydrothiazolo[4,5-h]pyridine derivative 136 (297) (Scheme 89). 

The 5-position is the preferred site for sulfonation (58. 392). This position is more reactive than any of the pyridine ring in. V-[pyridyl-(2)]-thiazolyl-(2)-amine (178) (132, 382, 383). 

Here again the question of reactive species in the acidic medium remains open. It must be noted that bromination of 2-amino-5-methyl-pyridine (pK = 7) and 2-amino-5-nitropyridine (pJC = 2.8) in N sulfuric acid takes place on the free base (443). 

A comparison of the reactivity of the heterocycles, selenazoie, thiazole. and pyridine, was made by Ochiai (41), who used theoretical considerations to show that the degree of aromaticity was ... 

Despite its V excessive character (340), thiazole, just as pyridine, is resistant to electrophilic substitution. In both cases the ring nitrogen deactivates the heterocyclic nucleus toward electrophilic attack. Moreover, most electrophilic substitutions, which are performed in acidic medium, involve the protonated form of thiazole or some quaternary thiazolium derivatives, whose reactivity toward electrophiles is still lower than that of the free base. 

Grignard reagent comes from the substitution products it gives with various reactive substrates. When the low-temperature adduct is heated in an autoclave at 90 to 170 C for 3 to 6 hr, it does not rearrange to 2-ethylthiazole (12) as is the case in the pyridine series (436). 

In all its reactions the lone pair of thiazole is less reactive than that of pyridine. Table 1-61 shows three sets of physicochemical data that illustrate this difference. These are (1) the thermodynamic basicity, which is three orders of magnitude lower for thiazole than for pyridine (2) the enthalpy of reaction with BF3 in nitrobenzene solution, which is 10% lower for thiazole than for pyridine and (3) the specific rate of quaterni-zation by methyl iodide in acetone at 40°C, which is about 50% lower for... 

The protonation of the nitrogen atom of thiazole induces a large increase in reactivity of the 2-position (193, 194). This is in contrast to the pyridine series, where the reactivity of both positions adjacent to the nitrogen atom are enhanced (194). The phenylation of conjugate acid of 5-alkylthiazoles may then be considered as a preparative route to alkyl-thiazoles. The results (isomer percent and overall reactivity) are indicated in Tables III-31 (196) and 01-32 (196). 

TABLE III-37. COMPARISON OF THE RELATIVE REACTIVITIES (WITH RESPECT TO BENZENE) OF VARIOUS PYRIDINE SUBSTRATES towards PHENYL AND 2-THIAZOLYL RADICALS AT 70 TO... 

The higher reactivity of 2-halogenothiazoles with respect to halogenopyridines can be related to the different aromaticity of the two systems, less for thiazole than for pyridine, for example, the relatively stronger fixation of the tt bond in the thiazole than in the case of pyridine. As the data reported in Table V-1 (footnote a) indicates, the free thiophenol is more reactive than the thiolate anion toward the 2-halogenothiazoles. This fact should be considered when one prepares the thiazolyl sulfides. 

One reason for the low reactivity of pyridine is that its nitrogen atom because it IS more electronegative than a CH in benzene causes the rr electrons to be held more tightly and raises the activation energy for attack by an electrophile Another is that the nitrogen of pyridine is protonated in sulfuric acid and the resulting pyndinium ion is even more deactivated than pyndine itself... 

Section 12 18 Heterocyclic aromatic compounds may be more reactive or less reactive than benzene Pyridine is much less reactive than benzene but pyrrole furan and thiophene are more reactive... 

Chain-Growth Associative Thickeners. Preparation of hydrophobically modified, water-soluble polymer in aqueous media by a chain-growth mechanism presents a unique challenge in that the hydrophobically modified monomers are surface active and form micelles (50). Although the initiation and propagation occurs primarily in the aqueous phase, when the propagating radical enters the micelle the hydrophobically modified monomers then polymerize in blocks. In addition, the hydrophobically modified monomer possesses a different reactivity ratio (42) than the unmodified monomer, and the composition of the polymer chain therefore varies considerably with conversion (57). The most extensively studied monomer of this class has been acrylamide, but there have been others such as the modification of PVAlc. Pyridine (58) was one of the first chain-growth polymers to be hydrophobically modified. This modification is a post-polymerization alkylation reaction and produces a random distribution of hydrophobic units. 

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