Tetranitromethane, donor-acceptor complexes

Having shown that the enol silyl ethers are effective electron donors for the [D, A] complex formation with various electron acceptors, let us now examine the electron-transfer activation (thermal and photochemical) of the donor/ acceptor complexes of tetranitromethane and quinones with enol silyl ethers for nitration and oxidative addition, respectively, via ion radicals as critical reactive intermediates. 

Various a-nitro ketones, widely used as synthetic intermediates, have been prepared by reaction of silyl enolates with tetranitromethane in the dark at room or low temperature or under photochemical conditions. The highly coloured solutions are due to intermolecular 1 1 electron donor-acceptor complexes formed between the enolate and tetranitromethane. The formation of similar vividly coloured complexes with electron acceptors such as chloranil, tetracyanobenzene and tetracyanoquinonedimethane readily establishes silyl enolates as electron donors. The formation of radical cations as reactive intermediates has been confirmed. 

As an example, photochemical excitation of donor-acceptor complexes may be considered. Irradiaiion into the CT band of the anthracene-tetracyano-ethylene complex leads directly to the radical ion pair, the components of which are identifiable from their UV-visible spectra. The transient absorptions decay in 60 ps after excitation, as the radical ion pairs undergo rapid back electron transfer to afford the original donor-acceptor complex (Hilinski et al., 1984). With tetranitromethane as acceptor, however, an addition product is obtained in both high quantum and chemical yield. This is due to the fact that the tetranitromethane radical anion undergoes spontaneous fragmentation lo a NO, radical and a trinitromethyl anion, which is not able to reduce the anthracene radical cation (Masnovi et al., 1985) ... 

Tetranitromethane produces strongly coloured electron donor-acceptor (EDA) complexes with derivatives of the anthracene213, in dichloromethane. Specific irradiation of the charge transfer absorption band at X > 500 nm produces a rapid fading of the colour of the solutions. From these solutions, adduct 91 is obtained (reaction 24) its structure is ascertained by X-ray crystallographic diffraction. 91 is derived from an anti-addition of fragments of tetranitromethane by a multistep pathway214. 

The nitration reagents (NO2 Y) for electrophilic aromatic nitration span a wide range and contain anions Y such as nitric acid (Y = OH-), acetyl nitrate (Y = OAc-), dinitrogen pentoxide (Y = NO3-), nitryl chloride (Y = Cl-), TV-nitropyridinium (Y = pyridine) and tetranitromethane [Y = C(N02)3-]. All reagents contain electron-deficient species which can serve as effective electron acceptors and form electron donor-acceptor (EDA) complexes with electron-rich donors including aromatic hydrocarbons107 (ArH, equation 86). Excitation of the EDA complexes by irradiation of the charge-transfer (CT) absorption band results in full electron transfer (equation 87) to form radical ion... 

Complexes between tetranitromethane (which is a powerful electron acceptor) and different electron donors (aromatic substrates, alkenes, amines, sulphides, ethers) may be observed and isolated as moderately stable coloured complexes (if stored in the dark). These complexes are usually classified as CT complexes. Irradiation of complexes between alkenes and trinitromethane forms interesting products, which are derived from the nucleophilic attack of the trinitromethide. 

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