Quinoline N-oxides

In many instances, beginning a synthesis with quinoline N-oxide [1613-37-2] faciHtates the preparation of difficult compounds. Quinoline is converted to the N-oxide using hydrogen peroxide in acetic acid, and later reduced to the substituted quinoline. Warm mixed acid gives 4-rutroquinoline... 

Oxidation. The synthesis of quinolinic acid and its subsequent decarboxylation to nicotinic acid [59-67-6] (7) has been accompHshed direcdy in 79% yield using a nitric—sulfuric acid mixture above 220°C (25). A wide variety of oxidants have been used in the preparation of quinoline N-oxide. This substrate has proved to be useful in the preparation of 2-chloroquinoline [612-62-4] and 4-chloroquinoline [611 -35-8] using sulfuryl chloride (26). The oxidized nitrogen is readily reduced with DMSO (27) (see Amine oxides). 

Excellent yields of the former product are also obtained with quinoline N-oxide. Improved yields of Reissert compounds are found under phase-transfer conditions (29). The regiochemistry of the method changes dramatically with /V-alkyl quin olinium salts, eg, /V-methy1quino1inium iodide [3947-76-0] (12), which form 4-cyanoquinoline [23395-72-4] (13) (30), through the intermediary in this example of A[-methyl-4-cyano-l,4-dihydroquinoline... 

While pyridine and quinoline N-oxides do not react directly with enamines, they have been found to form a-pyridyl and 2-quinolinyl-2 -cyclohexanones in good yields after prior acylation (371,372). 

Analogously, reaction of quinoline N-oxide 877 with ben2yltrimethylsilane 83 affords 65% 2-benzylquinoUne 951 and HMDSO 7 and toluene (Scheme 7.17) [60]. 

As already discussed in Section 7.4, hexamethyidisiiane 857 (which is produced on a technical scale), in the presence of catalytic amounts of tetrabutylammonium fluoride di- or trihydrate in THF, reduces aromatic heterocyclic N-oxides such as pyridine N-oxide 860, quinoline N-oxide 877, or isoquinoline N-oxide 879 to the heterocycles [95] and nitrones to Schiff-bases. Aromatic nitro compounds such as nitrobenzene are reduced analogously to azo compounds such as azobenzene [96]. As mentioned in Section 7.5, secondary aliphatic nitro groups are reduced to oximes. 

Other nucleophile-electrophile pairs for which the pm-disubstituted naphthalene system has been used to monitor potential bonding interactions are illustrated in [35] and [36], The methoxynitrile [35], for example, shows the same sort of evidence for a bonding interaction, marked by a 7° distortion from linearity at the nitrile carbon, in plane, and exactly away from the methoxyl oxygen (Procter et al., 1981) so also does the bipyridyl dinitrile [37] (Baxter et al., 1991). In the unique case of the 8-diazonium quinoline-N-oxide [36] the proximity of a formally negatively charged oxygen induces a distortion from linearity of 10.4° in the diazonium group (Wallis and Dunitz, 1984). 

Benzoylation constitutes the first step of the Reissert and Reissert-Henze reactions of quinoline and quinoline 1-oxides respectively, but as the benzoyl intermediates are rarely isolated this topic will be dealt with in Section 2.05.4.7. Pyridine and quinoline N-oxides react easily with p-toluenesulfonyl chloride in pyridine solution to give a variety of products which closely resemble those from the last two reactions discussed (equations 22 and 23). These belong to a family of reactions that have considerable synthetic potential and much mechanistic interest (B-67MI20501) which will be discussed collectively in Section 2.05.4.5. 

Quinoline N-oxide is brominated in the 3- and 6-positions on treatment with bromine in acetic anhydride, the mechanism probably involving an addition process in the hetero ring (65YZ62). 

Mercuration of quinoline N-oxide in acetic acid or perchloric acid gives the 8-mercurio-chloride (26) as the main product and small amounts of the 3-, 5-, 6- and 7-isomers. In the absence of solvent mercury(II) sulfate gives all the possible isomers although the total yield is poor. 6-Methylquinoline N-oxide gives the 8-substituted derivative (27). The preferential 8-orientation is accounted for in terms of preliminary coordination of the mercury atom at the oxygen of the N-oxide. When the 8-position is blocked, as in 8-bromoquinoline N-oxide, mercuration is reported to occur at the 4-position (55YZ490, 69CPB906). 

Another example is the reaction of indoles with nitrosoarenes in the presence of acids. The redox potentials of the reactants cannot justify an outer-sphere ET process, thus the formation of the phenylaminoxyl detected for the reaction carried out in the ESR cavity, could be more likely justified by an inner-sphere ET mechanism95. In fact the reaction of quinoline N-oxide with primary alkyl Grignards for which an outer-sphere mechanism was earlier proposed, takes place through classical nucleophilic addition96. 

Th(N03)4(quinoline N- oxide)3,1165 ThC2iiHif,N8S4 Th(NCS)4(phen)2,1140 ThC28H20O8 Th(tropolonate)4,1149 Th(2-OQH4CHO)4,1148 ThC28H2209... 

The intramolecular cyclization of a nitro group with a triple bond has been extended to the synthesis of six- and seven-membered ring compounds analogous to isatogens. Thus, the reaction of the acetylene group with the nitro group in 39 yields 2-phenyl-3-oxobenzo[prepared from the corresponding biphenyl derivative.19... 

Table 6 Indoles by Photochemical Ring Contraction of Quinoline N-Oxides...

Quinolinecarboxylic acid, AQ73 Quinoline N-oxide, AO83 Quinoline N -oxide, A084... 

Recently37, the importance of CT complexes in the chemistry of heteroaromatic N-oxides has been investigated in nucleophilic aromatic substitutions. Electron acceptors (tetracyanoethylene and p-benzoquinones) enhance the electrophilic ability of pyridine-N-oxide (and of quinoline-N-oxide) derivatives by forming donor-acceptor complexes which facilitate the reactions of nucleophiles on heteroaromatic substrates. 

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