Dediazoniation of Arenediazonium Ions. Part XIX. Effect of thiocyanate ion in the reactions of 2,4,6-trimethylbenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol

The dediazoniation of 2,4,6-trimethylbenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate ( 1 ) in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE) was studied in the presence of potassium thiocyanate. The effect of added salt on the dediazoniation rate, the N_α-N_β rearrangement (Eqn. 2), the exchange of the ¹⁵N-labelled diazo group with molecular nitrogen (Eqn. 3), and the reaction products was determined. With 0.3_M KSCN a dediazoniation-rate increase of 16.5% was achieved, and the amounts of rearranged and exchanged product were reduced to 88% and 70%, respectively, of the values found in pure TFE. The dediazoniation products formed are ArF ( 3 ), ArOCH₂CF₃ ( 4 ), ArSCN ( 5 ), ArNCS ( 6 ) and traces of 5, 7-dimethylindazole ( 7 ). All the data are in agreement with, and support the previously proposed mechanism (Equ. 1) of heterolytic dediazoniation of arenediazonium salts.