Change in regioselectivity in the monoreduction of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene with titanium(III) and vanadium(II) ions in the presence of iron(II) and copper(II) salts

Small additives of iron(II) or copper(II) salts change the regioselectivity of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene monoreduction with titanium(III) chloride affording predominantly less accessible 2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene over 4-amino-2,6-dinitrotoluene (from 25% when the reduction occurs in the absence of the iron and copper salts to 70% in the presence of these salts). A possible mechanism of the process is discussed. Dedicated to Academician N. K. Kochetkov on the occasion of his 90th birthday. __________ Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 5, pp. 1172–1176, May, 2005.