Quinolinium salts quinolines, 1,4-dihydro

Acids and Lewis acids react with quinoline at the basic nitrogen atom to form quinolinium salts, and there is a question over the nature of the substrate for electrophilic attack, i.e. is it quinoline or the quinolinium cation The answer is not a simple one and appears to depend upon the reagents and reaction conditions. Thus, whereas acetyl nitrate at 20 °C gives mainly 3-nitroquinoline (Scheme 3.2), fuming nitric acid in concentrated sulfuric acid containing sulfur trioxide at 15-20 °C yields a mixture of 5-nitroquinoline (35%) and 8-nitroquinoline (43%) (Scheme 3.3). In the case of acetyl nitrate, the reaction may proceed by the 1,4-addition of the reagent to quinoline, followed by electrophilic attack upon the 1,4-dihydro derivative. 

Heteroaromatic cations undergo reduction when treated with 1,4-dihydronicotinamide. An early study showed that the 10-methylacridinium ion (87) was rapidly reduced in a redox reaction to the 9,10-dihydro adduct by 1,4-dihydronicotinamides (M Scheme 18). A variety of systems including py-ridines, isoquinolines, quinolines and phenanthridines have been studied using this and related procedures. The selective reduction of pyridinium and quinolinium salts with 1-benzyl-1,2-dihydro-isonicotinamide (89) has been achieved. The selective conversion to the thermodynamically more stable 1,4-dihydro species (90 Scheme 18) is rationalized by the reversibility in the formation of the kinetic products (i.e. the 1,2-adducts) in the presence of pyridinium ions. In the pyridinium case 1,6-di-hydro adducts were also observed in some cases. Reactivity in such systems is sometimes hindered due to hydration of the dihydropyridine system. This is particularly so in aqueous systems designed to replicate biological activity. Dihydroazines derived from isoquinolines and 3,5-disubstituted pyridines have been reported to overcome some of these difficulties. ... 

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