The nitroolefinic behavior of 4-nitrobenzodifuroxan

Nitro compounds as the core structures of promising energetic materials and versatile reagents for organic synthesis

This review addresses some promising areas of chemistry of nitro compounds extensively developed in recent years in Russia (particularly at the N.D.Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences) and worldwide. The most important results in the synthesis of novel energetic N-, C- and O-nitro compounds are summarized. New environmentally friendly approaches to the preparation of known compounds of this series, used as components of energetic compositions, are considered. Methods for selective transformations of various nitro compounds to valuable products of organic synthesis, primarily biologically active products and their precursors, are systematically analyzed.

The bibliography includes 446 references.

Superelectrophilicity of the Nitroolefinic Fragment of 4-Nitrobenzodifuroxan in Michael-Type Reactions with Indoles: A Kinetic Study in Acetonitrile

The kinetics of the coupling of 4-nitrobenzodifuroxan (NBDF) with a series of indoles 8 a-e to give the expected Michael-type adducts 9 a-e have been investigated in acetonitrile solution. No significant influence of the nature of the isotopic substitution at C-3 of the indole ring has been found, indicating that the NBDF addition step is the rate limiting step of the SEAr substitution of the indole moiety. This implies that the measured second-order rate constants (k) for the reactions are identical to the second order rate constants (k1NBDF) associated to the C--C coupling step. By using the known N and s parameters characterizing the nucleophilicity of indoles, the k1NBDF rate constants are found to fit nicely to the three parameters equation logk1=s(N+E) introduced by Mayr to describe the feasibility of nucleophilic-electrophilic combinations. Based on this, the electrophilicity parameter E of NBDF could be determined as E=-6.15. This corresponds to a positioning of the reactivity of the nitroactivated double bond of NBDF in the domain of superelectrophilicity previously defined for nitrobenzofuroxans, in accord with the finding that the rates of coupling of 8 a-e with NBDF are only one order of magnitude lower than those for the coupling of these indoles with 4,6-dinitrobenzofuroxan (DNBF). The theoretical scale of electrophilicity introduced by Domingo et al. on the basis of the global electrophilicity index omega defined by Parr is also a very useful tool to discuss the relative reactivities of NBDF, DNBF, and a number of differently activated C==C double bonds.