Transfer nitration

Olah and co-workers ° conducted a comprehensive study into the use of N-nitropyridinium salts for nitration. Such salts are easily prepared from the slow addition of the appropriate heterocyclic base to an equimolar suspension of nitronium tetrafluoroborate in acetonitrile. Olah studied the effect on nitration of changing both the structure of the heterocyclic base and the counter ion. Three of these salts (20, 21, 22) illustrated above have been synthesized and used for the 0-nitration of alcohols with success. Transfer nitrations with Al-nitropyridinium salts are particularly useful for the preparation of nitrate esters from acid-sensitive alcohols and polyols because conditions are essentially neutral. 

A mixture of anhydrous lithium nitrate and trifluoroacetic anhydride in acetonitrile in the presence of sodium carbonate has been used to convert alcohols to nitrate esters for a range of peptide, carbohydrate and steroid substrates. Yields are good to high but products need puritication to remove trifluoroacetate ester impurities, which can be signiflcant in the absence of the carbonate. A similar system used for the nitration of electron-rich aromatic heterocycles employs trifluoroacetic anhydride with ammonium or potassium nitrate.  

Thionyl chloride nitrate and thionyl nitrate are prepared in situ from the reaction of a solution of thionyl chloride in THF with one and two equivalents of silver nitrate respectively, during which time silver chloride precipitates from solution.  

Both reagents are efficient for the 0-nitration of primary and secondary hydroxy groups. 

Thionyl chloride nitrate can be used for the selective nitration of primary hydroxy groups in the 

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We also found N-nitropyridinium salts such as C5HjN N02BF4 as convenient transfer nitrating reagents in selective, clean reaetions. Transfer nitrations are equally applicable to C- as well as to 0-nitra-tions, allowing, for example, safe, acid-free preparation of alkyl nitrates and polynitrates from alcohols (including nitroglycerine). 

It has been mentioned ( 4.4.2) that nitronium tetraffuoroborate reaets with pyridine to give i-nitropyridinium tetraffuoroborate. This compound and several of its derivatives have been used to effect what is called the transfer nitration ofbenzeneandtoluene. i-Nitropyridinium tetraffuoroborate is only sparingly soluble in acetonitrile, but its homologues are quite soluble and ean be used without isolation from the solution in which they are prepared. i-Nitropyridinium tetra-fluoroborate did nitrate toluene in boiling aeetonitrile slowly, but not at 25 In eontrast, i-nitro-2-pieolinium tetraffuoroborate readily... 

Entry 5 is an example of nitration in acetic anhydride. An interesting aspect of this reaction is its high selectivity for the ortho position. Entry 6 is an example of the use of trifluoroacetic anhydride. Entry 7 illustrates the use of a zeolite catalyst with improved para selectivity. With mixed sulfuric and nitric acids, this reaction gives a 1.8 1 para ortho ratio. Entry 8 involves nitration using a lanthanide catalyst, whereas Entry 9 illustrates catalysis by Sc(03SCF3)3. Entry 10 shows nitration done directly with N02+BF4, and Entry 11 is also a transfer nitration. Entry 12 is an example of the use of the N02—03 nitration method. 

Charge-transfer nitration of aromatic donors with tetranitromethane 237 Simultaneous electrophilic and charge-transfer nitration of aromatic donors with A-nitropyridinium ion 241... 

CHARGE-TRANSFER NITRATION OF AROMATIC DONORS WITH TETRANITROMETHANE... 

As useful as tetranitromethane is as a charge-transfer nitrating agent, it is generally too unreactive to effect the comparable electrophilic nitration of most aromatic donors, except the most electron-rich ones. Thus in order to make the direct comparison between the photochemical and thermal nitration of the same ArH, we now turn to the A-nitropyridinium acceptor (PyNOj) as the alternative nitrating agent (Olah et al., 1965, 1980). For example, PyNO can be readily prepared as a colourless crystalline salt, free of any adventitious nitrosonium impurity, and used under essentially neutral conditions. Most importantly, the electrophilic reactivity of this... 

Charge-transfer nitration of aromatic donors by the direct irradiation of EDA complexes with N-nitropyridinium ion... 

The charge-transfer nitrations of the aromatic donors are generally carried out to rather low actinic conversions to avoid complications from light absorption by the nitroarene products, and in duplicate sets (with a dark control) to monitor simultaneously any competition from thermal processes. For example, the yellow solution of anisole and Me2PyN02 in acetonitrile at — 40°C is irradiated with the aid of the cut-off filter that effectively removes all excitation light with Aexc<400nm. After reasonable photochemical conversions are attained, the H NMR spectrum is found to be virtually identical to that of the reaction mixture obtained by electrophilic (thermal) nitration (60). 

Temporal evolution of aromatic cation radicals to the Wheland intermediate and the nucleophilic adduct in charge-transfer nitration... 

A similar (but somewhat less obvious) dichotomy results in the simultaneous ring and sidechain substitution of durene. Thus in this charge-transfer nitration, the addition of N02 to the cation radical DUR+- (72) occurs in competition with its deprotonation (73), in which the pyridine has been shown to act as a base (Masnovi et al., 1989) (Scheme 15). [Note that deprotonation of DUR+- also leads to aromatic dimers via the subsequent (oxidative) substitution of the benzylic radical formed in (73) (Bewick et al., 1975 Lau and Kochi, 1984).]... 

The ambiphilic reactivity of aromatic cation radicals, as described in Schemes 12 and 13, is particularly subtle in the charge-transfer nitration of toluene and anisole, which afford uniformly high (>95%) yields of only isomeric nitrotoluenes and nitroanisoles, respectively, without the admixture of other types of aromatic byproducts. Accordingly, let us consider how the variations in the isomeric (ortho meta para) product distributions with... 

Mechanistic relevance of charge-transfer nitration to the electrophilic nitration of various aromatic donors... 

Thermal (electrophilic) and photochemical (charge-transfer) nitrations share in common the rapid, preequilibrium formation of the EDA complex [ArH, PyNO ]. Therefore let us consider how charge-transfer activation, as established by the kinetic behaviour of the reactive triad in Scheme 12, relates to a common mechanism for electrophilic nitration. Since the reactive intermediates pertinent to the thermal (electrophilic) process, unlike those in its photochemical counterpart, cannot be observed directly, we must rely initially on the unusual array of nonconventional nitration products (Hartshorn, 1974 Suzuki, 1977) and the unique isomeric distributions as follows. 

Bromoanisole. The competition between ortho and ipso attack (83) is also pertinent to the simultaneous nitration and transbromination of 4-bromoani-sole (Perrin and Skimer, 1971). Charge-transfer nitration leads to mixture of 2-nitro-4-bromoanisole and 2,4-dibromoanisole (and 4-nitroanisole), the relative amounts of which are equivalent to those obtained in the electrophilic nitration of 4-bromoanisole. 

Methylanisole. The competition between ortho and ipso attack [analogous to that depicted in (83)] applies to the simultaneous nitration and demethyla-tion of 4-methylanisole. The identification of 4-nitro-4-methylcyclohexa-2,5-dienone as the metastable intermediate in charge-transfer nitration (Kim et al., 1993) is particularly diagnostic of the ipso adduct (84) that is also apparent in the electrophilic nitration of 4-methylanisole (Sankararaman and Kochi, 1991). The common bifurcation of nitration pathways resulting from para (ortho) and ipso attack on the various aromatic donors, as noted above, indicates that the activation step leading to the Wheland intermediate and... 

Since electron transfer (log kE) represents the adiabatic counterpart to the photochemical process (hvcr), the triad in (87) is (stoichiometrically) equivalent to that in (63) and its collapse to the Wheland intermediate will lead to nitration products that are the same as those formed in charge-transfer nitration. When such a comparison of electrophilic and charge-transfer nitrations is carried out in quantitative detail, the aromatic donors fall roughly into two categories. 

Finally, we ask, if the reactive triads in Schemes 1 and 19 are common to both electrophilic and charge-transfer nitration, why is the nucleophilic pathway (k 2) apparently not pertinent to the electrophilic activation of toluene and anisole One obvious answer is that the electrophilic nitration of these less reactive [class (ii)] arenes proceeds via a different mechanism, in which N02 is directly transferred from V-nitropyridinium ion in a single step, without the intermediacy of the reactive triad, since such an activation process relates to the more conventional view of electrophilic aromatic substitution. However, the concerted mechanism for toluene, anisole, mesitylene, t-butylbenzene, etc., does not readily accommodate the three unique facets that relate charge-transfer directly to electrophilic nitration, viz., the lutidine syndrome, the added N02 effect, and the TFA neutralization (of Py). Accordingly, let us return to Schemes 10 and 19, and inquire into the nature of thermal (adiabatic) electron transfer in (87) vis-a-vis the (vertical) charge-transfer in (62). 

Since electrophilic and charge-transfer nitrations are both initiated via the same EDA complex and finally lead to the same array of nitration products, we infer that they share the intermediate stages in common. The strength of this inference rests on the variety of aromatic substrates (with widely differing reactivities and distinctive products) to establish the mechanistic criteria by which the identity of the two pathways are exhaustively tested. On this basis, electrophilic nitration is operationally equivalent to charge-transfer nitration in which electron-transfer activation is the obligatory first step. The extent to which the reactive triad in (90) is subject to intermolecu-lar interactions in the first interval (a few picoseconds) following electron transfer will, it is hoped, further define the mechanistic nuances of dissociative electron transfer in adiabatic and vertical systems (Shaik, 1991 Andrieux et al., 1992), especially when inner-sphere pathways are considered (Kochi, 1992). 

Single electron transfer nitration of epoxides with ceric ammonium nitrate... 

Olah" has conducted extensive studies into transfer nitration with A-nitro heterocycles. Studies were conducted into the effect of the heterocycle and its counterion on reactivity towards aromatic substrates. 

The efficient At-nitration of secondary amines has been achieved by transfer nitration with 4-chloro-5-methoxy-2-nitropyridazin-3-one, a reagent prepared from the nitration of the parent 4-chloro-5-methoxypyridazin-3-one with copper nitrate trihydrate in acetic anhydride. Reactions have been conducted in methylene chloride, ethyl acetate, acetonitrile and diethyl ether where yields of secondary nitramine are generally high. Homopiperazine is selectively nitrated to At-nitrohomopiperazine or At, At -dinitrohomopiperazine depending on the reaction stoichiometry. At-Nitration of primary amines or aromatic secondary amines is not achievable with this reagent. 

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