Thianthrenium, 5- , dication

For the purpose of this review the term heteroaromatic is applied to 7r-radical species when they may be regarded as arising from aromatic heterocyclic molecules or ions by addition or removal of an odd number (usually one) of electrons. Thus, entities such as the anion- and cation-radicals of pyridine (1 and 2) are clearly heteroaromatic. The dilemma whether or not to regard thianthrene (3) as aromatic (its central ring possessing eight electrons) does not arise for the thianthrene cation radical (4) it is heteroaromatic on the grounds that it may formally arise by one-electron reduction of the aromatic thianthrenium dication (5). 

Redox processes involving 178 have also been studied.Anodic oxidation of thianthrene has been eifected in a wide variety of solvents. Use of trifluoracetic acid gives stable solutions of 178 and, if perchloric acid is included, the solid perchlorate salt may be isolated on evaporation of the solvent after electrolysis. Dichloromethane at low temperatures has been used and, at the opposite extreme, fused aluminum chloride-sodium chloride mixtures. " Propylene carbonate permits the ready formation of 178, whereas the inclusion of water in solvent mixtures gives an electrochemical means of sulfoxidizing thianthrene. Reversible oxidation of 178 to thianthrenium dication may be brought about in customary solvents such as nitriles, nitro compounds, and dichloromethane if the solvent is treated with neutral alumina immediately before voltammetry addition of trifluoracetic anhydride to trifluoracetic acid equally ensures a water-free medium. The availability of anhydrous solvent systems which permit the reversible oxidation and reduction of 178 has enabled the determination of the equilibrium constants for the disproportionation of the radical and for its equilibria with other aromatic materials. ... 

In comparison with hydrocarbons, aromatic amines easily transform into cation radicals. Structures of these cation radicals are well documented on the basis of their ESR spectra and MO calculations (see, e.g., Grampp et al. 2005). The stable cation radical of A/,A,A, A -tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine (the so-called Wuerster s blue) was one of the first ion radicals that was studied by ESR spectroscopy (Weissmann et al. 1953). The use of this cation radical as a spin-containing unit for high-spin molecules has been reported (Ito et al. 1999). Chemical oxidation of N,N -bis [4-(dimethylamino)-phenyl-A/,A -dimethyl-l,3-phenylenediamine with thianthrenium perchlorate in -butyronitrile in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid at 78°C led to the formation of the dication diradical depicted in Scheme 3.58. 

Depending on the amount of thianthrenium perchlorate, /V,/V,/V, /V, /V",/V"-hexakis (anisyl)-l,3,5-triaminobenzene gives its cation radical, dication diradical, and trication triradical as well (Stickley et al. 1997). These species are stable in methylene chloride at low temperatures (at 298 K they can exist for several days). Spin and charge are localized at each oxidized nitrogen atom. The dication diradical and trication triradical structures are ground-state triplet and quartet molecules (Sato et al. 1997). 

The thianthrene cation-radical (56) shows enhanced stability in trifluoro-acetic acid, which is recommended generally as a solvent in which to prepare cation-radicals. Thianthrenium perchlorate (56 C10 as counter-ion) reacts with substituted benzenes PhR at the para position, rapidly where R = MeO, more slowly where R = Me. The product is a sulphonium salt (58). Kinetic studies show that the reaction is second-order in the thianthrene cation-radical (56). The suggested mechanism features the thianthrene dication (57) as the reactive species, formed in low concentration by disproportionation of the thianthrene cation-radical. 

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