Sodium hydrazoate

Sodium hydrazoate, NaN3.—The hydrazoate is formed by neutralizing hydrazoic acid with sodium hydroxide 6 by the interaction of sodamide and nitrous oxide 7... 

Sodium hydrazoate forms colourless crystals, which melt without decomposition, but explode at a temperature higher than the melting-point. At 10° C. 100 grams of water dissolve 40 16 grams, at 17° C. 41 7 grams. 

Cupric hydrazoate, Cu(Ns)a.—The only cupric nitride known is the hydrazoate, a highly explosive substance of deep reddish-brown colour. It is formed by dissolving copper in hydrazoic acid, and by the action of sodium hydrazoate on cupric sulphate.4... 

The intermediates in making amines are isocyanates (0==C==N) just like the Hofmann Rearrangement. The isocyanates are decomposed with water, just like the Hofmann. In fact, there is a lot of similarity between the Hofmann and the Schmidt reactions. Before I detail the synthesis steps, I should note that if you wish to generate the Hydrazoic Acid in the flask by adding Sodium Azide, you might need a powder addition funnel. This bit of equipment is quite pricey and it s likely you won t have one, so the first part of the synthesis details how to make the Hydrazoic Acid separately. 

By fai the largest (ca 85% of the total) volume chemical blowing agent is azodicaibonamide (44), made by the oxidation of hydiazodicaiboxamide [110-21 -4] (51) using chlorine or sodium chlorate. The hydrazo precursor is made by refluxing an aqueous solution of urea and hydrazine (172) ... 

A solution of hydrazoic acid (prepared from about 30 g sodium azide) in ca. 200 ml chloroform is prepared in a well-ventilated hood. Cholesterol (15 g) is dissolved in the hydrazoic acid solution and 3.5 ml of triethylamine is added. The reaction mixture is then stirred at room temperature while 7 g of A-chlorosuccinimide is added. The reaction mixture is allowed to stand overnight and then the chloroform solution is washed successively with dilute sodium bisulfite, dilute soldium bicarbonate solutions and finally with water. The chloroform extract is then dried (Na2S04) and the solvent removed in vacuo. The residue is crystallized from ethanol to yield ca. 8.5 g of (101) in colorless needles mp 138-139°. The chloro azide is reduced to the aziridine by lithium aluminum hydride according to the foregoing procedure. 

As shown by Oliveri-Mandalli,and by Lieber et al., 5-sub-stituted-amino-l,2,3,4-thiatriazoles are also formed by reaction of isothiocyanates with hydrazoic acid. When sodium azide is used instead of the free acid the isomeric mercaptotetrazoles are formed. 

The Schmidt reaction of ketones works best with aliphatic and alicyclic ketones alkyl aryl ketones and diaryl ketones are considerably less reactive. The reaction is only seldom applied to aldehydes as starting materials. The hydrazoic acid used as reagent is usually prepared in situ by treatment of sodium azide with sulfuric acid. Hydrazoic acid is highly toxic, and can detonate upon contact with hot laboratory equipment. 

Caution The reaction should be carried out in a good hood because hydrazoic acid is very toxic. Care should also be taken in handling sodium azide. 

CAUTION All azides, particularly low molecular weight acyl and alkyl azides, are explosive, and great care should be taken while preparing and handling these materials. In addition, hydrazoic acid, which is liberated from unbuffered aqueous solutions of sodium azide, is highly toxic and all operations involving its use should be carried out in an efficient fume hood. 

It has already been known that the reaction of primary amines with alkaline hypobromite gives nitriles, and the reaction of hydrazo compounds with bromine affords azo compounds. Recently, we also found that the reaction of primary amines and hydrazo compounds with BTMA Br3 in aq. sodium hydroxide or in water gave corresponding nitriles and azo compounds in satisfactory yields, respectively (Fig. 27) (ref. 35). 

Nitro compounds can be further reduced to hydrazo compounds with zinc and sodium hydroxide, with hydrazine hydrate and Raney nickel,or with LiAlH4 mixed with a metal chloride such as TiCU or VCl3. The reduction has also been accomplished electrochemically. 

Nitrilium salts, e.g., 66, prepared from the alkylation of nitriles, react with sodium azide to yield 1,5-disubstituted tetrazoles, e.g., 67 (Scheme 7).121 The Schmidt reaction,122 a versatile method for the preparation of 1,5-disubstituted tetrazoles from ketones and hydrazoic acid, can now be regarded as a special case of azide addition to nitrilium salts.123... 

Use of sodium azide to introduce the nitrogen atom Safety issues surrounding sodium azide and hydrazoic acid... 

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... 

Dehydrogenation of hydrazo compounds with bromine, 32, 16 Dehydrohalogenation by sodium amide, 30, 72... 

The material is impact-sensitive when dry and is supplied and stored damp with ethanol. It is used as a saturated solution and it is important to prevent total evaporation, or the slow growth of large crystals which may become dried and shock-sensitive. Lead drains must not be used, to avoid formation of the detonator, lead azide. Exposure to acid conditions may generate explosive hydrazoic acid [1], It has been stated that barium azide is relatively insensitive to impact but highly sensitive to friction [2], Strontium, and particularly calcium azides show much more marked explosive properties than barium azide. The explosive properties appear to be closely associated with the method of formation of the azide [3], Factors which affect the sensitivity of the azide include surface area, solvent used and ageing. Presence of barium metal, sodium or iron ions as impurities increases the sensitivity [4], Though not an endothermic compound (AH°f —22.17 kJ/mol, 0.1 kj/g), it may thermally decompose to barium nitride, rather than to the elements, when a considerable exotherm is produced (98.74 kJ/mol, 0.45 kJ/g of azide) [5]. 

The reaction of the -C(Hal)=N-function with azide ion or hydrazoic acid is known to give the tetrazole system. As part of a mechanistic study of the one-pot synthesis of an azadibenzoporphyrine in 84% isolated yield from reaction of a 1-bromobenzopyrromethene hydrobromide 74 with sodium azide at 140 °C, 74 was treated with azide at lower temperature (60 °C) in an attempt to isolate the proposed azide mechanistic intermediate 75 however, the fused tetrazole 76 was isolated in 47% yield (identified by X-ray analysis) (Equation 4) <1999MI530>. Upon heating a dimethyl formamide (DMF) solution of tetrazole 76 to 140°C for 1 h, the desired porphyrin was indeed obtained in 14% yield, consistent with the temperature-dependent equilibrium between tetrazole and azide that has been observed with some fused tetrazoles. 

The Schmidt reaction is also applied to a variety of 1-tetralones, yielding (51). The use of sodium azide in acetic acid and sulphuric acid [7, 12, 13, 30, 34, 36, 37, 72, 73, 84] is preferable to the procedure in the earlier stage, in which hydrazoic acid, sulphuric acid and chloroform are employed [115]. Other acidic reagents such as polyphosphoric acid [116, 117], sulphuric acid [116, 118], methasulphonic acid [119] and trichloroacetic acid [116] are used in some cases. Variation of substituents affects the course of the rearrangement 6-methoxytetralones are rather liable to afford the isomeric 2-benzazepine-l-ones in preference to the desired (51) [ 7, 116, 118]. The Schmidt reaction is also conveniently applied to various 1,4-naphthoquinones and yields a wide range of 2,5-dihydro-l-benzazepin-2,5-diones [85, 120-122]. 

The reduction of azo compounds to hydrazo compounds is also achieved by means of aryltellurols or sodium hydrogen telluride. The last reagent (generated from NaBH4 and... 

P25 Each of these [previous methods] involves one or more of the following drawbacks uses expensive and toxic metals, demonstrates severe water sensitivity, or produces hydrazoic acid, which is highly toxic and explosive as well as volatile. The few methods that seek to avoid hydrazoic acid liberation during the reaction, by avoiding acidic conditions, require a very large excess of sodium azide. In addition, ah of the known methods use organic solvents, in particular, dipolar aprotic solvents such as DMF. This is one of the solvent classes that process chemists would rather not use. (Adapted from Demko and Sharpless, 2001)... 

Thiatriazole-5-thiol and its salts are readily obtained from the water-soluble alkali or alkaline earth azides with CS2 at 40 °C <64AHC(3)263>. However, these salts should be handled with extreme care as violent explosions have been reported when the alkali salts are spread on a porous plate or rubbed with a spatula. The slightly soluble heavy-metal salts are very sensitive to shock even under water. An improved method for the preparation and storage of sodium thiatriazole-5-thiolate has been reported. The free acid is obtained by addition of concentrated hydrochloric acid to a chilled solution of the sodium salt but can also be prepared from hydrazoic acid and carbon disulfide (Scheme 38). 

Hydrazoic acid is prepared by reacting sulfuric acid with sodium azide H2SO4 + NaNs — HN3 -I- Na2S04 or by treating hydrazine with nitrous acid ... 

Sodium azide is used to make lead azide and hydrazoic acid, and as a propellant for automotive safety bags. It also is used as an antihypertensive agent to control blood pressure. 

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