The chemistry of polycyclic arene imines. VII. Reactions of phenanthrene 9,10-imine with aromatic carboxaldehydes,carboxylic acids and acetylenic esters

The reactions of phenanthrene 9,10-imine ( 1 ) with aromatic aldehydes, benzoic acids and acetylenedi-carboxylic esters were investigated. The aldehydes were shown to give 1-N-(arylmethylidene)-9-phenanthreneamine-10-yl]-1a,9b-dihydrophenanthro9,10-b]azirine 2. The ‘dimeric’ structure of these products was established by X-ray diffraction analysis. The carboxylic acids proved to form in the presence of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, N-aroylphenanthrene 9,10-imines 7 , that readily undergo rearrangement to N-aroyl-9-phenanthrenamines 8. Esters of acetylenedicarboxylic acid gave the corresponding esters of (Z)-2-(1a,9b-dihydrophenanthro9,10-b]azirine-1-yl)-2-butendioic acid 10 .