Sodium azide production

Acetanilide from acetophenone. Dissolve 12 g. of acetophenone in 100 ml. of glacial acetic acid containing 10 g. of concentrated sulphuric acid. To the stirred solution at 60-70°, add 9 8 g. of sodium azide in small portions at such a rate that the temperature does not rise above 70°. Stir the mixture with gentle heating until the evolution of nitrogen subsides (2-3 hours) and then allow to stand overnight at room temperature. Pour the reaction mixture on to 300 g. of crushed ice, filter the solid product, wash it with water and dry at 100°. The yield of crude acetanilide, m.p. 111-112°, is 13 g. Recrystallisation from water raises the m.p. to 114°. 

Alkvl Azides from Alkyl Bromides and Sodium Azide General procedure for the synthesis of alkyl azides. In a typical experiment, benzyl bromide (360 mg, 2.1 mmol) in petroleum ether (3 mL) and sodium azide (180 mg, 2.76 mmol) in water (3 mL) are admixed in a round-bottomed flask. To this stirred solution, pillared clay (100 mg) is added and the reaction mixture is refluxed with constant stirring at 90-100 C until all the starting material is consumed, as obsen/ed by thin layer chromatographv using pure hexane as solvent. The reaction is quenched with water and the product extracted into ether. The ether extracts are washed with water and the organic layer dried over sodium sulfate. The removal of solvent under reduced pressure affords the pure alkyl azides as confirmed by the spectral analysis. ... 

This following article was sent to Strike by Osmium and Feck (are they the same person ). It involves the direct addition of azide to a terminal alkene (you-know-who) by the in situ production of the reactant mercury (II) azide from mercuric acetate and sodium azide (please don t ask) [80]. 

Azide ion ( N=N=N ) Sodium azide IS a reagent used for carbon-nitrogen bond formation The product IS an alkyl azide... 

Acrolein (H2C=CHCH=0) reacts with sodium azide (NaNj) in aqueous acetic acid to form a compound C3H5N3O in 71% yield Propanal (CH3CH2CH=0) when subjected to the same reaction conditions is recovered unchanged Suggest a structure for the product formed from acrolein and offer an explanation for the difference in reactivity between acrolein and propanal... 

Corrosion products and deposits. All sulfate reducers produce metal sulfides as corrosion products. Sulfide usually lines pits or is entrapped in material just above the pit surface. When freshly corroded surfaces are exposed to hydrochloric acid, the rotten-egg odor of hydrogen sulfide is easily detected. Rapid, spontaneous decomposition of metal sulfides occurs after sample removal, as water vapor in the air adsorbs onto metal surfaces and reacts with the metal sulfide. The metal sulfides are slowly converted to hydrogen sulfide gas, eventually removing all traces of sulfide (Fig. 6.11). Therefore, only freshly corroded surfaces contain appreciable sulfide. More sensitive spot tests using sodium azide are often successful at detecting metal sulfides at very low concentrations on surfaces. 

A mixture of the epoxide ca. 5 mmol), sodium azide (6 g, activated by the method of Smith) and 0.25 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid in 70 ml of dimethyl sulfoxide is heated in a flask fitted with a reflux condenser and a drierite tube on a steam bath for 30-40 hr. (Caution carry out reaction in a hood.) The dark reaction mixture is poured into 500 ml of ice water and the product may be filtered, if solid, and washed well with water or extracted with ether and washed with sodium bicarbonate and the water. The crude azido alcohols are usually recrystallized from methanol. 

The nucleophilic attack of nitrogen bases leads to a variety of products as the result of addition or addition-elimination reactions The regioselectivity resembles that of attack by alcohols and alkoxides an intermediate carbanion is believed to be involved In the absence of protic reagents, the fluorocarbanion generated by the addition of sodium azide to polyfluonnated olefins can be captured by carbon dioxide or esters of fluonnated acids [J 2, 3] (equation I)... 

No other compounds which were considered to be thiatriazoles had been prepared at this time. However, one other thoroughly investigated compound, the reaction product of carbon disulfide and sodium azide, which had generally been considered as azidodithiocarbonic acid, was shown by Lieber et al. to be a thiatriazole. 

A reaction of sodium azide with l,4-dichlorobut-2-yne (diacetylene equivalent) has been described (89CB1175). When the monosubstitution product is treated with sodium hydroxide in methanol, 4-ethynyl-l//-l,2,3-tiiazole (93) is formed. 

Iodine azide, generated in situ from an excess of sodium azide and iodine monochloride in acetonitrile, adds to ethyl l//-azepine-l-carboxylate at the C4 — C5 and C2 —C3 positions to yield a 10 1 mixture of the rw-diazidodihydro-l//-azepines 1 and 2, respectively.278 The as stereochemistry of the products is thought to be the result of initial trans addition of the iodine azide followed by an SN2 azido-deiodination. The diazides were isolated and their stereochemistry determined by conversion to their bis-l,3-dipolar cycloadducts with dimethyl acetylene-dicarboxylate. 

Theoretically there remains about 22% of product to be isolated. Some of this material can be recovered indirectly by converting it to the diazide. With 500 ml. of methanol the submitters diluted the mother liquor, which contains at most 23 g. (0.08 mole) of 2,5-dichloro-3,6-di-ter -butyl-l,4-benzoquinone, and then added, with swirling, a solution of 10.4 g. (0.16 mole) of sodium azide in 30 ml. of water over a 2-minute period. The yellow solution turns orange in color. It is cooled to —5° to —10°, and the resulting orange precipitate is collected to yield 12 g. of the diazide. The minimum yield is thus 88%. 

Treatment of dibromides 2 with sodium azide in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) at room temperature resulted in the formation of two products, 3-(a-azidobenzyOchromones 2a-c,g or -1-thiochromones 2d-f and the 3-arylidenechromanones la-c,g,h or -1-thiochromanones Id-f, respectively (eqn. 2). As shown by yield data given in Table 2, the substituent at position 2 plays decisive role in the product ratio. Dibromides unsubstituted at position 2 tended to give almost exclusively azides 3a-f and only a small amount of 1 was obtained. On the contrary, the reaction of flavanone derivatives 2gjh gave 3-arylideneflavanones... 

The detection depends on the iodine azide reaction that normally takes place very slowly and during the course of which sodium azide reacts with iodine to form sodium iodide with the production of nitrogen ... 

The aziridine aldehyde 56 undergoes a facile Baylis-Hillman reaction with methyl or ethyl acrylate, acrylonitrile, methyl vinyl ketone, and vinyl sulfone [60]. The adducts 57 were obtained as mixtures of syn- and anfz-diastereomers. The synthetic utility of the Baylis-Hillman adducts was also investigated. With acetic anhydride in pyridine an SN2 -type substitution of the initially formed allylic acetate by an acetoxy group takes place to give product 58. Nucleophilic reactions of this product with, e. g., morpholine, thiol/Et3N, or sodium azide in DMSO resulted in an apparent displacement of the acetoxy group. Tentatively, this result may be explained by invoking the initial formation of an ionic intermediate 59, which is then followed by the reaction with the nucleophile as shown in Scheme 43. 

Treatment of 51 with an excess of sodium benzoate in DMF resulted in substitution and elimination, to yield the cyclohexene derivative (228, 36%). The yield was low, but 228 was later shown to be a useful compound for synthesis of carba-oligosaccharides. <9-Deacylation of228 and successive benzylidenation and acetylation gave the alkene 229, which was oxidized with a peroxy acid to give a single epoxide (230) in 60% yield. Treatment of 230 with sodium azide and ammonium chloride in aqueous 2-methoxyeth-anol gave the azide (231,55%) as the major product this was converted into a hydroxyvalidamine derivative in the usual manner. On the other hand, an elimination reaction of the methanesulfonate of 231 with DBU in toluene gave the protected precursor (232, 87%) of 203. 

With a common intermediate from the Medicinal Chemistry synthesis now in hand in enantiomerically upgraded form, optimization of the conversion to the amine was addressed, with particular emphasis on safety evaluation of the azide displacement step (Scheme 9.7). Hence, alcohol 6 was reacted with methanesul-fonyl chloride in the presence of triethylamine to afford a 95% yield of the desired mesylate as an oil. Displacement of the mesylate using sodium azide in DMF afforded azide 7 in around 85% assay yield. However, a major by-product of the reaction was found to be alkene 17, formed from an elimination pathway with concomitant formation of the hazardous hydrazoic acid. To evaluate this potential safety hazard for process scale-up, online FTIR was used to monitor the presence of hydrazoic acid in the head-space, confirming that this was indeed formed during the reaction [7]. It was also observed that the amount of hydrazoic acid in the headspace could be completely suppressed by the addition of an organic base such as diisopropylethylamine to the reaction, with the use of inorganic bases such as... 

N-benzylaniline with phosgene, and then with sodium azide to produce carbonyl azide 52. On heating, nitrogen is evolved and a separable mixture of nitrene insertion product 53 and the desired ketoindazole 54 results. The latter reaction appears to be a Curtius-type rearrangement to produce an N-isocyanate (54a), which then cyclizes. Alkylation of the enol of 54... 

B. m-Nitrobenzazide. In a 2-1. round-bottomed flask fitted with an efficient mechanical stirrer is placed a solution of 78 g. (1.2 moles) of commercial sodium azide in 500 ml. of water (Note 3). The flask is surrounded by a water bath kept at 20-25°. The stirrer is started, and over a period of about 1 hour a solution of 185.5 g. (1 mole) of m-nitrobenzoyl chloride in 300 ml. of acetone (previously dried over anhydrous potassium carbonate) is added from a dropping funnel. wz-Nitrobenzazide separates at once as a white precipitate. Stirring is continued for 30 minutes after the addition is complete then 500 ml. of water is added and the reaction mixture stirred for an additional 30 minutes. The azide is separated on a suction filter, washed with water, and dried in the air. The yield of crude product, m.p. 68°, is 189 g. (98%) (Note 4). It may be recrystallized from a mixture of equal parts of benzene and ligroin (b.p. 100-140°), when the temperature is kept below 50° (Note 5). The product thus obtained consists of almost colorless crystals, m.p. 68-69° (Note 6), the recovery being 80-90% (Note 7). 

Commercially, lead azide is usually manufactured by precipitation in the presence of dextrine, which considerably modifies the crystalline nature of the product. The procedure adopted is to add a solution of dextrine to the reaction vessel, often with a proportion of the lead nitrate or lead acetate required in the reaction. The bulk solutions of lead nitrate and of sodium azide are, for safety reasons, usually in vessels on the opposite sides of a blast barrier. They are run into the reaction vessel at a controlled rate, the whole process being conducted remotely under conditions of safety for the operator. When precipitation is complete, the stirring is stopped and the precipitate allowed to settle the mother liquor is then decanted. The precipitate is washed several times with water until pure. The product contains about 95% lead azide and consists of rounded granules composed of small lead azide crystals it is as safe as most initiating explosives and can readily be handled with due care. 

The later publication [1] reveals that the title compound is in fact a relatively stable compound. The previously attempted preparation of the then unknown compound from trichloroacetonitrile, sodium azide and ammonium chloride (0.14 0.42 0.2 mol) by an analogous established method [2], but at lower initial temperature because of the exothermic reaction, gave, after vacuum evaporation of solvent, an oily product. When sampled with a pipette, this evolved gas and then exploded violently. It was thought that an azidomethyltetrazole may have been formed by displacement of chloro-substituent(s) by the excess azide employed [3], An alternative hypothesis which involved isomerisation of the title compound to the open chain azidoazomethine [4] was discounted, because no trace of this could be detected [1]. 

A standard literature method [1,2] had been used frequently and uneventfully to prepare the azide from trimethylsilyl chloride and sodium azide in presence of aluminium chloride as catalyst. A recent duplication led to a violent detonation during distillation of the product, and this was attributed to carry-over of traces of aluminium azides into the distillation flask. Precautions are detailed [3]. 

During the preparation of this explosive liquid by interaction of sulfuryl chloride fluoride and sodium azide, traces of chlorine must be eliminated from the former to avoid detonation. The product is nearly as shock-sensitive as glyceryl nitrate and may explode on rapid heating. Solutions (25 wt%) in solvents may be handled safely. The corresponding fluoride is believed to behave similarly. 

---