Tautomery and acid-base properties of some azoderivatives of benzoylacetone

The structural, tautomeric and acid-base properties of the new 1-phenyl-2-(2-hydroxy-3-sulfo-5-chlorophenylhydrazo)butane-1,3-dione (H₂L¹), 1-phenyl-2-(2-hydroxy-3,5-disulfophenylhydrazo)butane-1,3-dione (H₂L²), 1-phenyl-2-(2-hydroxy-3-sulfo-5-nitrophenylhydrazo)butane-1,3-dione (H₂L³) and 1-phenyl-2-(2-hydroxy-4-nitrophenylhydrazo)butane-1,3-dione (H₂L⁴) were studied using IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopies and potentiometry. The study reveals that H₂L^1-4 and the known 1-phenyl-2-(2-hydroxyphenylhydrazo)butane-1,3-dione (H₂L⁵) exist in solution as a mixture of Z-enol-azo-II and hydrazo-III tautomeric forms and that an increase in the solvent polarity shifts the tautomeric balance to the enol-azo form. The thermodynamic parameters of the proton dissociation in H₂L^1-5 were determined showing that this process is unspontaneous, endothermic and entropically unfavorable.