Kinetics of the dissociation and cis-trans isomerization of o,o'-azodioxytoluene (dimeric o-nitrosotoluene)

The dimer-monomer reactions were investigated for the system cis and transo,o'-azodioxytoluene-o-nitrosotoluene in acetonitrile solvent. For the reaction cis dimer-monomer the following thermodynamic and activation parameters have been derived: ΔH°=58.5±2.5 kJ mole^?1, ΔS°=206.2±3.8 J mole^?1 K^?1, ΔH^≠=63.6±3.3 kJ mole^?1, ΔS^≠=6.3±0.3 J mole^?1 K^?1. The corresponding values for the reaction trans dimer-monomer are: ΔH°=45.6±2.1 kJ mole^?1, ΔS°=162.7±7.1 J mole^?1 K^?1, ΔH^≠=80.8±2.9 kj mole^?1, ΔS^≠=-13.4±0.8 mole^?1 K^?1. There is no evidence of a direct cis-trans isomerization (i.e. a reaction not proceeding via the monomer). NMR and various perturbation techniques monitoring the visible absorption of the monomer were employed.