| Abstract: | Some comments on the synthesis of 3-aminotoluene-5-sulfonic acid and 2-aminotoluene-3-sulfonic acid. Sulfonation of 3-nitrotoluene ( 5 ) yields predominantly the unsymetrical isomer 5-nitrotoluene-2-sulfonic acid ( 7 ), and lesser amounts of 5-nitrotoluene-3-sulfonic acid ( 6 ), previously reported as the major product. The desired 5-aminotoluene-3-sulfonic acid ( 3 ) was synthesized in preparative amounts from 6-aminotoluene-3-sulfonic acid (4) via the following sequence of reactions: diazotation and Sandmeyer replacement of 6-chlorotoluene-3-sulfonic acid ( 13 ), nitration of the sulfonyl chloride 14 under suitable conditions to give isomer free 6-chloro-5-nitrotoluene-3-sulfonyl chloride ( 15 ), hydrolysis to the sulfonic acid 16 and finally, simultaneous hydrogenolysis and reduction to 3 . The isomeric 7 was unequivocally prepared from 2-amino-5-nitrotoluene ( 9 ) via two routes: (1) diazotation, Sandmeyer thiocyanatation to 5-nitro-2-thiocyanatotoluene ( 10 ), Na2S reduction to the di(2-methyl-4-nitro-phenyl)-disulfide ( 11 ), treatment with nitric acid and chlorine to give 5-nitrotoluene-2-sulfonyl chloride ( 12 ) and finally alkaline hydrolysis to 7 ; (2) Meerwein's SO2 treatment of the diazonium salt derived from 9 leads directly to 12 and thence to 7 . 2-Aminotoluene-3-sulfonic acid ( 1 ) was prepared from the key intermediate 3-amino-2-nitrotoluene ( 18 ) via the same two routes used to prepare 7 from 9 . Both reaction sequences provided 2-nitrotoluene-3-sulfonly chloride, the hydrolysis product of which was reduced to 1 . Intermediate 18 was prepared in the following four steps from m-toluic acid ( 19 ): nitration to the 2-nitroderivative ( 20 ), whose acid chloride ( 21 ) was converted to 2-nitro-m-toluamide ( 22 ), and Hoffmann rearrangement to 18 . |
