Tautomerism general

Elguero, I., Katritzky, A. R., Denisko, O. V., Phototropic Tautomerism of Heterocycles Heteroaromatic Tautomerism—General Overview and Methodology, 76, 1. 

The ketone is added to a large excess of a strong base at low temperature, usually LDA in THF at -78 °C. The more acidic and less sterically hindered proton is removed in a kineti-cally controlled reaction. The equilibrium with a thermodynamically more stable enolate (generally the one which is more stabilized by substituents) is only reached very slowly (H.O. House, 1977), and the kinetic enolates may be trapped and isolated as silyl enol ethers (J.K. Rasmussen, 1977 H.O. House, 1969). If, on the other hand, a weak acid is added to the solution, e.g. an excess of the non-ionized ketone or a non-nucleophilic alcohol such as cert-butanol, then the tautomeric enolate is preferentially formed (stabilized mostly by hyperconjugation effects). The rate of approach to equilibrium is particularly slow with lithium as the counterion and much faster with potassium or sodium. 

These relationships are general Hydroxyl substituted purines and pyrimidines exist in their keto forms ammo substituted ones retain structures with an ammo group on the ring The pyrimidine and punne bases m DNA and RNA listed m Table 28 1 follow this general rule Beginning m Section 28 7 we 11 see how critical it is that we know the cor rect tautomeric forms of the nucleic acid bases... 

In mordant dyes, phenols, naphthols, and enolizable carbonyl compounds, such as pyrazolones, are generally the couplers. As a rule, 2 1 metal complexes are formed ia the afterchroming process. A typical example of a mordant dye is Eriochrome Black T (18b) which is made from the important dyestuff iatermediate nitro-l,2,4-acid, 4-amiQO-3-hydroxy-7-nitro-l-naphthalenesulfonic acid [6259-63-8]. Eriochrome Red B [3618-63-1] (49) (Cl Mordant Red 7 Cl 18760) (1, 2,4-acid — l-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone) is another example. The equiUbrium of the two tautomeric forms depends on the nature of the solvent. 

Stmctural variations of the reagents used in these reactions have been a primary source of progress in dye synthesis. Acetylenic reagents for cyanine dye synthesis include the weU-known acetylenic quartemary salts as general electrophilic reagents for the preparation of carbocyanine dyes. A number of tautomeric pairs of acetylenic dyes have been prepared and their tautomeric equiUbria determined (dyes (26a), (26b)) (29). 

In many cases, substituents linked to a pyrrole, furan or thiophene ring show similar reactivity to those linked to a benzenoid nucleus. This generalization is not true for amino or hydroxyl groups. Hydroxy compounds exist largely, or entirely, in an alternative nonaromatic tautomeric form. Derivatives of this type show little resemblance in their reactions to anilines or phenols. Thienyl- and especially pyrryl- and furyl-methyl halides show enhanced reactivity compared with benzyl halides because the halogen is made more labile by electron release of the type shown below. Hydroxymethyl and aminomethyl groups on heteroaromatic nuclei are activated to nucleophilic attack by a similar effect. 

Dihydroazoles can exist in at least three forms (cf. Section 4.01.1.3), which in the absence of substituents are tautomeric with each other. The forms in which there is no hydrogen on at least one ring nitrogen normally predominate because imines are generally more stable than vinylamines in aliphatic chemistry. Thus for dihydropyrazoles the stability order is A" (hydrazone) (288) > A (azo) (289) >A (enehydrazine) (290). 

Compounds of this type are tautomeric in general, the 7V-oxide form (e.g. 570) is favored by polar media, the 7V-hydroxy form e.g. 569) by non-polar media. 

For )V-unsubstituted pyrazoles the tautomeric proton was generally located without ambiguity. 3-Substituted tautomers were favoured in the solid state (45), (46) and (48) (Table 5). For the pyrazolyltriazole (47) the authors (77JHC65) concluded that the X-ray analysis indicates that the proton on the pyrazole ring populates either nitrogen atom to... 

The use of UV spectroscopy as an identification method is continuously decreasing in relative importance compared to the use of NMR or mass spectrometry. However, due to the general validity of Beer s law, it continues to be an appropriate method for quantitative studies such as the measurement of ionization constants (Section 4.04.2.1.3(iv) and (v)) and the determination of tautomeric equilibrium constants (Section 4.04.4.1.5). 

From a general point of view, the tautomeric studies can be divided into 12 areas (Figure 20) depending on the migrating entity (proton or other groups, alkyl, acyl, metals. ..), the physical state of the study (solid, solution or gas phase) and the thermodynamic (equilibrium constants) or the kinetic (isomerization rates) approach. 

Aromatic pyrazoles and indazoles, in the broad sense defined in Sections 4.04.1.1.1 and 4.04.1.1.2, will be discussed here. Tautomerism has already been discussed (Section 4.04.1.5) and acid-base equilibria will be considered in Section 4.04.2.1.3. These two topics are closely related (Scheme 10) as a common anion (156a) or a common cation (156b) is generally involved in the mechanism of proton transfer (e.g. 78T2259). For aromatic pyrazoles with exocyclic conjugation there is also a common anion (157) for the three tautomeric forms... 

Prototropic tautomerism of isoxazole derivatives has been well studied over a number of years and has recently been reviewed in context with similar behavior in other five-membered heterocycles (70C134, 76AHC(Sl)l, 79AHC(25)147, p. 202). Several generalizations are summarized below. 

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