REDUCTION OF DIAZONIUM COMPOUNDS. ARYL HYDRAZINES

Phenylhydrazine may be prepared by reducing phenyldiazonium chloride solution with excess of warm sodium sulphite solution, followed by acidification with hydrochloric acid, when the hydrochloride crystallises out on cooling. Treatment of the latter with excess of sodium hydroxide solution liberates the free base. The reaction is believed to proceed through the following stages — 

It may also be prepared by the reduction of phenyldiazonium chloride with the calculated amount of a solution of stannous chloride in hydrochloric acid, but the yield is not so high as that obtained by the above sulphite method  

This method cannot be applied to polynitro amines, since these are so weakly basic that they can be diazotised only under special conditions in strongly acidic solutions. In such cases use may, however, be made of the mobility oonfared upon halogen atoms by the presence of nitro groups in the orlko and para positions. Thus the valuable reagent 2 4-dinitrophenylhydrazine is readily prepared by the condensation of 2 4-dinitrochlorobenzene with hydrazine  

The reaction represented is that with hydrazine solution, produced from hydrazine sulphate and sodium acetate in the presence of aqueous alcohol. Excellent results are also obtained by interaction of the commercially available 60-64 per cent, hydrazine solution with a solution of 2 4 dinitrochloro-benzene in triethylene glycol or in diethylene glycol at about 20°. 

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