A new intramolecular transformation of aromatic nitroso oxides

The possibility of intramolecular interaction of a nitroso oxide group with an aromatic ring is investigated at the UB3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) and G3MP2B3 levels of theory for a wide series of aromatic nitroso oxides. It is found that this reaction leads to the formation of a dioxazole cycle, its subsequent decay resulting in opening of the benzene ring and formation of nitriloxide and carbonyl functional groups. The activation enthalpy of the transformation of phenylnitroso oxide is 75.1 kJ/mol. It is shown that various sub-stituents at ortho-position (with respect to the nitroso oxide fragment) considerably lower the activation barrier of the investigated transformation, particularly in case of o,p-dimethoxyphenylnitroso oxide ΔH ^≠ = 43.7 kJ/mol. It is concluded that in the case of polyaromatic nitroso oxides, for which intramolecular cyclization is more typical (ΔH ^≠ ∼ 50 kJ/mol), a factor favoring the attack on the ortho-carbon atom is the stabilization of the product’s diene group due to its inclusion in the polyaromatic system. It is established that sum of these effects leads to a low activation barrier for the transformation of nitroso oxide that forms during the photooxidizing of 2-azido-1-methoxyphenazine, ΔH ^≠ = 19 kJ/mol. It is proposed that due to the low activation energy of some nitroso oxides, their intramolecular cyclization may be the primary channel of their unimolecular decay.