Quinonimines and aminoquinones, the reaction products of 3,6-di(tert-butyl)-o-benzoquinone with primary and secondary amines

Reactions of 3,6-di(tert-butyl)-o-benzoquinone with primary amines occur by the nucleophilic 1,4-addition mechanism and lead to the corresponding 2-hydroxy-p-quinonimines, which exist in solutions in equilibrium with tautomeric 4-amino-o-quinones. The thermodynamic parameters of this prototropic isomerism were determined by NMR spectroscopy. In the case of a secondary amine (piperidine), a derivative of 4-amino-o-quinone was obtained; the corresponding o-semiquinone complexes were studied in solution by ESR spectroscopy. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 7, pp. 1151–1155, July, 2006.