Aromatic nitration under neutral conditions using N-bromosuccinimide/silver(I) nitrate

The use of N-bromosuccinimide and silver nitrate as a convenient reagent system for the nitration of aromatic compounds under neutral and environmentally safer reaction conditions is described.     

A theoretical study on nitration mechanism of benzene and solvent effects

Aromatic nitration is an important and canonical example of electrophilic substitution in organic chemistry. The research on nitration mechanism is also very important for synthesis of explosives since benzene molecule is a basic unit to build up into the energetic material. Besides the electrophilic substitution mechanism, there is an electron transfer mechanism[1,2]. The nitronium ion (NO+ 2), however, is a generally accepted active nitrating agent in the aromatic nitration. Therefore, the …     

Ozonation of hydrocarbon diene elastomers: A mechanistic study

A study of the effects of ozonation on polybutadiene, polyisoprene, and several related hydrocarbon elastomers has shown that elastomers containing di-substituted double bonds (e.g., cis-1,4-polybutadiene) give crosslinked products as well as chain scission products in nonpolar solvents, whereas those containing tri-substituted double bonds (e.g., cis-1,4-polyisoprene) give chain scission products only. Both types of elastomer, however, give only chain scission products in polar solvents. Further investigation of the ozonation of elastomers, including the effect of ozonides of monoolefins and the solvent effect has led us to postulate that the chain scission involves the attack of a second ozone molecule on the preformed ozonide, and, the crosslinking is due to the attack of the biradical carbonyl oxide on the rubber.     

Aromatic nitration using nitroguanidine and EGDN

Acid catalyzed nitration has been examined using a variety of novel nitration agents: guanidine nitrate (GN) and nitroguanidine (NQ) as well as the simple nitrate ester, ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN). Reactions with either activated or deactivated aromatic substrates proceed rapidly and in high yield. Regioselectivity was similar for all nitrating agents examined. The synthetic advantages of liquid EGDN include high solubility in organic solvents, strong nitration activity and ease of preparation.     

The Curtius rearrangement of cyclopropyl and cyclopropenoyl azides. A combined theoretical and experimental mechanistic study

A combined experimental and theoretical study addresses the concertedness of the thermal Curtius rearrangement. The kinetics of the Curtius rearrangements of methyl 1-azidocarbonyl cycloprop-2-ene-1-carboxylate and methyl 1-azidocarbonyl cyclopropane-1-carboxylate were studied by (1)H NMR spectroscopy, and there is close agreement between calculated and experimental enthalpies and entropies of activation. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations (B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p)) on these same acyl azides suggest gas phase barriers of 27.8 and 25.1 kcal/mol. By comparison, gas phase activation barriers for the rearrangement of acetyl, pivaloyl, and phenyl azides are 27.6, 27.4, and 30.0 kcal/mol, respectively. The barrier for the concerted Curtius reaction of acetyl azide at the CCSD(T)/6-311+G(d,p) level exhibited a comparable activation energy of 26.3 kcal/mol. Intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) analyses suggest that all of the rearrangements occur by a concerted pathway with the concomitant loss of N2. The lower activation energy for the rearrangement of methyl 1-azidocarbonyl cycloprop-2-ene-1-carboxylate relative to methyl 1-azidocarbonyl cyclopropane-1-carboxylate was attributed to a weaker bond between the carbonyl carbon and the three-membered ring in the former compound. Calculations on the rearrangement of cycloprop-2-ene-1-oyl azides do not support pi-stabilization of the transition state by the cyclopropene double bond. A comparison of reaction pathways at the CBS-QB3 level for the Curtius rearrangement versus the loss of N2 to form a nitrene intermediate provides strong evidence that the concerted Curtius rearrangement is the dominant process.     

Kinetics of benzonitrile nitration with mixed acid under homogeneous conditions

Chemical kinetics of benzonitrile nitration with mixed acid is investigated in the temperature range 283–299 K. Pseudo-first-order rate constants are evaluated by means of rate experiments on homogeneous reacting mixtures having large stoichiometric excesses of nitric acid. The second-order kinetic constants for nitronium ion attack to the aromatic substrate are derived on the basis of the assessed nitration mechanism. An activation energy of 604 ± 37 kJ mol^?1 is calculated for this reaction step. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A theoretical study of the effect of silicon substitution on hydrocarbon acidity

Ab initio molecular orbital calculations with double-zeta basis sets show the relative stabilities of three tautomers on the C₂SiH₄ energy hypersurface to be 3-silapropyne > 1-silaallene > 1-silapropyne. Comparison with literature values shows 1-silaallene to be more stable than 2-silaallene. Assuming deprotonation at carbon then the order of acidity is 1-silapropyne > 10-silaallene > 3-silapropyne > silaethane > silaethylene. For silaethylene and silaethane deprotonation occurs more easily at silicon than at carbon, while for both silapropynes and 1-silaallene carbon deprotonation is slightly favoured. The α-silyl group enhances the acidity of the adjacent methyl group and a silyl group in conjugation with a carboncarbon triple bond enhances the acidity of the alkynyl proton. The methyl, ethyl, and 2-silaethyl groups all weakly decrease the acidity of the alkynyl proton.     

Equilibrium constants of cellulose nitration by nitric acid under quasi-homogeneous conditions

The equilibrium of nitration of cellulose was studied at 13.1 and 20 °C in aqueous solutions of HNO₃ (77.3–80.5 wt.%) forming quasi-homogeneous solutions with cellulose. At 20 °C under quasi-homogeneous conditions, the rates of cellulose nitration are comparable to those of homogeneous nitration of alcohols. The effective nitration constants differ substantially for heterogeneous and homogeneous reactions. Using IR spectra, the partial conversions in the nitration to the 2, 3 and 6 positions of the glucopyranose cycle and the effective equilibrium constants of formation of different isomeric nitrates were estimated. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 66–70, January, 1999.     

A kinetic and mechanistic study of the reactions of OH radicals and Cl atoms with 3,3,3-trifluoropropanol under atmospheric conditions

Product distribution studies of the OH radical and Cl atom initiated oxidation of CF3CH2CH2OH in air at 1 atm and 298 +/- 5 K have been carried out in laboratory and outdoor atmospheric simulation chambers in the presence and absence of NOx. The results show that CF3CH2CHO is the only primary product and that the aldehyde is fairly rapidly removed from the system. In the absence of NOx the major degradation product of CF3CH2CHO is CF3CHO, and the combined yields of the two aldehydes formed from CF3CH2CH2OH are close to unity (0.95 +/- 0.05). In the presence of NOx small amounts of CF3CH2C(O)O2NO2 were also observed (<15%). At longer reaction times CF3CHO is removed from the system to give mainly CF2O. The laser photolysis-laser induced fluorescence technique was used to determine values of k(OH + CF3CH2CH2OH) = (0.89 +/- 0.03) x 10(-12) and k(OH + CF3CH2CHO) = (2.96 +/- 0.04) x 10(-12) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1). A relative rate method has been employed to measure the rate coefficients k(OH + CF3CH2CH2OH) = (1.08 +/- 0.05) x 10(-12), k(OH + C6F13CH2CH2OH) = (0.79 +/- 0.08) x 10(-12), k(Cl + CF3CH2CH2OH) = (22.4 +/- 0.4) x 10(-12), and k(Cl + CF3CH2CHO) = (25.7 +/- 0.4) x 10(-12) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1). The results from this investigation are discussed in terms of the possible importance of emissions of fluorinated alcohols as a source of fluorinated carboxylic acids in the environment.     

Aromatic dienophiles. 1. A theoretical study of an inverse-electron demand Diels-Alder reaction between 2-aminopyrrole and 1,3,5-triazine

This study is devoted to a detailed theoretical study of an inverse-electron demand Diels-Alder reaction (IDA) with 1,3,5-triazine as the diene and 2-aminopyrrole 1A(alpha) as the dienophile, which is a key step in a cascade reaction for the one-pot synthesis of purine analogues. Geometries were optimized with the B3LYP/6-31G* method and energies were evaluated with the MP2/6-311++G** method. This IDA reaction occurs through a stepwise mechanism, where the first step corresponds to the nucleophilic attack of 2-aminopyrrole to triazine to form a zwitterionic intermediate, which is in equilibrium with a neutral intermediate through a hydrogen transfer process, followed by a rate-determining ring-closure step. It is shown that the B3LYP method significantly overestimates the activation energy, whereas the MP2 method offers a reasonable activation barrier of 27.9 kcal/mol in the gas phase. The solvation effect has been studied by the PCM model. In DMSO, the calculated activation energy of the IDA reaction is decreased to 24.0 kcal/mol with a strong endothermicity of 17.4 kcal/mol due to the energy penalty of transforming two aromatic reactants into a nonaromatic IDA adduct. The possible stepwise [2+2] pathway is ruled out based on its higher activation and reaction energies than those of the [4+2] pathway. By comparing the IDA reactions of triazine to 2-aminopyrrole and pyrrole, we address two crucial roles of the alpha-amino substituent in lowering activation and reaction energies and controlling the reaction regiochemistry.     

A kinetic and mechanistic study of the formation of alkyl nitrates in the photo-oxidation of n-heptane studied under atmospheric conditions

The photo-oxidation of n-heptane in synthetic air containing methyl nitrite and nitric oxide has been ivestigated in an atmospheric flow reactor. By measuring the total yields of heptyl nitrate products, relative to the depletion of the n-heptane, the rate constant ratio, k_3b/k_3a has been determined for the reactions: (1) Over the temperature range 253–325 K and at a total pressure of 730 Torr, the following relative Arrhenius equation has been obtained from the present study together with literature data: These results confirm that the formation of alkyl nitrates from the photo-oxidation of n-alkanes arise from a primary reaction between the alkylperoxy radicals and nitric oxide. Furthermore the present experiments show that the lifetime of the intermediate in this type of reaction, presumed to be an alkyl peroxynitrite, ROONO, must be less than a few seconds.     

The kinetics of vapor-phase nitration of cellulose 2. Nitration with nitric acid under static conditions

The regularities of vapor-phase nitration of cellulose with HNO₃ under conditions of natural convection and hindered heat removal in the absence of air were studied using the nonisothermal kinetic method. It was established that the nitration rate at the depth of conversion of 0.08 to 0.7 is described by the kinetic law d/dt =k ₁ p/(1+), wherek ₁ = 10^4.49±0.6 exp(–A/RT) s^–1 atm^–1, = 10^{–35.5±15.7}exp(B/RT),A = 36.6±3.8 kl mol^–1, andB = 203±88 kJ mol^–1. The diffusion mechanism of vapor-phase nitration of cellulose, which explains the high value of activation energies, is discussed. The effective diffusion coefficient of HNO₃ in cellulose at 25 °3.7 · 10^–7 cm² s^–1) and the activation energy of diffusion (38.3±4.2 kJ mol^–1) were estimated.For Part 1, see Ref. l.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1981–1985, August, 1996.     

Insights into the cycloaddition reaction mechanism between ketenimine and unsaturated hydrocarbon: A theoretical study

The cycloaddition reaction mechanisms between interstellar molecule ketenimine and unsaturated hydrocarbon (ethyne and ethylene) have been systematically investigated employing the second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) method. Geometry optimizations and vibrational analyses have been performed for the stationary points on the potential energy surfaces of the system. The calculated results show that it can be produced the five-membered cyclic carbene intermediates through pericyclic reaction processes between ketenimine and ethyne (or ethylene). For the reaction between ketenimine and ethyne, through the following H-transferred processes, carbene intermediate can be isomerized to the pyrrole compounds. For the reaction between ketenimine and ethylene, carbene intermediate can be isomerized to the pyrroline compounds. The present study is helpful to understand the reactivity of nitrogenous cumulene ketenimine and the formation of prebiotic species in interstellar space.     

Mechanism and kinetics of the water-assisted formic acid + OH reaction under tropospheric conditions

In this work, we have revisited the mechanism of the formic acid + OH radical reaction assisted by a single water molecule. Density functional methods are employed in conjunction with large basis sets to explore the potential energy surface of this radical-molecule reaction. Computational kinetics calculations in a pseudo-second-order mechanism have been performed, taking into account average atmospheric water concentrations and temperatures. We have used this method recently to study the single water molecule assisted H-abstraction by OH radicals (Iuga, C.; Alvarez-Idaboy, J. R.; Reyes, L.; Vivier-Bunge, A. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2010, 1, 3112; Iuga, C.; Alvarez-Idaboy, J. R.; Vivier-Bunge, A. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2010, 501, 11; Iuga, C.; Alvarez-Idaboy, J. R.; Vivier-Bunge, A. Theor. Chem. Acc. 2011, 129, 209), and we showed that the initial water complexation step is essential in the rate constant calculation. In the formic acid reaction with OH radicals, we find that the water-acid complex concentration is small but relevant under atmospheric conditions, and it could in principle be large enough to produce a measurable increase in the overall rate constant. However, the water-assisted process occurs according to a formyl hydrogen abstraction, rather than abstraction of carboxylic hydrogen as in the water-free case. As a result, the overall reaction rate constant is considerably smaller. Products are different in the water-free and water-assisted processes.     

Uncatalyzed transfer hydrogenation of quinones and related systems: a theoretical mechanistic study

Quantum chemistry calculations have been used to study the uncatalyzed transfer hydrogenation between a range of hydrogen donors and acceptors, in the gas phase and in solution. Our study shows in the first place that in order to obtain reliable condensed-phase transition structures, it is necessary to perform geometry optimization in the presence of a continuum. In addition, the use of a free energy of solvation obtained with the UB3-LYP/6-31+G(d,p)/IEF-PCM/UA0 combination, in conjunction with UMPWB1K/6-311+G(3df,2p)//B3-LYP/6-31+G(d,p) gas-phase energies, gives the best agreement with experimental barriers. In condensed phases, the geometries and energies of the transition structures are found to relate to one another in a manner consistent with the Hammond postulate. There is also a correlation between the barriers and the energies of the radical intermediates in accord with the Bell-Evans-Polanyi principle. We find that in the gas phase, all the transfer-hydrogenation reactions examined proceed via a radical pathway. In condensed phases, some of the reactions follow a radical mechanism regardless of the solvent. However, for some reactions there is a change from a radical mechanism to an ionic mechanism as the solvent becomes more polar. Our calculations indicate that the detection of radical adducts by EPR does not necessarily indicate a predominant radical mechanism, because of the possibility of a concurrent ionic reaction. We also find that the transition structures for these reactions do not necessarily have a strong resemblance to the intermediates, and therefore one should be cautious in utilizing the influence of polar effects on the rate of reaction as a means of determining the mechanism.     

Gas-phase reaction of n-butyl acetate with the hydroxyl radical under simulated tropospheric conditions: Relative rate constant and product study

The gas-phase reaction of n-butyl acetate with hydroxyl radicals has been studied in an environmental smog chamber at 298 K atmospheric pressure, and simulated tropospheric concentrations. The rate constant for this reaction has been determined by a relative method and the experimental result, relative to n-octane used as reference compound, is This value appears to be about 25% higher than absolute rate constants found in the literature, but agrees very well with the other relative determination. Two reaction products have been identified and their production yield has been estimated, each accounting for about (15 ± 5)% of the overall OH reaction processes. The two observed products are \centerline{ 2--oxobutil acetate ($\rm CH_3$--C0--0--$\rm CH_2$--CO--$\rm CH_2$--$\rm CH_3$)} and \centerline{ 2--oxobutil acetate ($\rm CH_3$--C0--0--$\rm CH_2$--$\rm CH_2$--CO--$\rm CH_3$)} The accuracy of the relative rate constant obtained is examined considering the evolution of the reactivity of the alkoxy end of the esters. Formation mechanisms for the two observed products are proposed and the likely other degradation channels are discussed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Uptake of small oxygenated organic molecules onto ammonium nitrate under upper tropospheric conditions

The uptake of formic (C1), propanoic (C3), butanoic (C4), and pentanoic (C5) acids onto ammonium nitrate (AN) has been investigated as a function of temperature and relative humidity using a Knudsen cell flow reactor coupled with FTIR-reflection absorption spectroscopy (FTIR-RAS). The uptake of acetone and methanol onto AN was also briefly studied. Initial uptake coefficients (gamma) were determined over the temperature range 200-240 K. Formic, propanoic, and butanoic acids exhibited efficient but temperature-dependent uptake on AN, with larger uptake coefficients observed at lower temperatures. Pentanoic acid was not taken up by AN under any of the conditions studied. Uptake of acetone and methanol onto AN was observed, but in insignificant amounts under atmospherically relevant conditions. Infrared spectra revealed that propanoic and butanoic acids ionized on the surface, despite the fact that the AN films were effloresced. Formic acid reacted with the AN film to produce ammonium formate and ionized nitric acid. Adding small amounts of water vapor (4% RH) to the chamber resulted in dramatically increased gamma values for all of the acids. Furthermore, the IR spectra showed the formation of a liquid layer when propanoic and butanoic acids adsorbed on the surface at RH = 20% and greater. Liquid water features were not observed at a similar relative humidity in the absence of the acids. These results show that small organic acids can be efficiently scavenged by AN and lead to enhanced water uptake under upper tropospheric conditions.     

Regioselective C5 nitration of N-protected indolines using ferric nitrate under mild conditions

An efficient and facile process has been developed for the regioselective C5 nitration of the N-protected indolines using ferric nitrate as the nitrating reagents. The reaction proceeded smoothly in moderate to excellent yields with high efficiency and broad substrate scope under mild conditions. In addition, the synthesized nitration products can be further transformed to 5-nitroindolines and C5-nitroindole derivatives. The method is operationally simple, efficient, and might have potential application in industry production.