Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2002
OXIDATIVE COUPLING OF
4α,9-DIAZA-1,2,4α,9α-TETRAHYDRO-
FLUORENES. 5*. REACTION WITH
o
o
-AMINOPHENOL AND -AMINOTHIOPHENOL
O. Yu. Slabko, N. V. Ageenko, G. A. Verbitski, and V. A. Kaminski
Oxidative coupling of 4α,9-diaza-1,2,4α,9α-tetrahydro-9H-fluorenes with o-aminophenol and
o-aminothiophenol
in
the
presence
of
MnO2
gives
o-hydroxyphenyl-
and
o-mercaptophenylquinonediimines, cyclization of which gives derivatives of phenoxazine and
phenothiazine.
Keywords: phenoxazines, phenothiazines, quinonediimines, oxidative coupling.
The oxidative coupling of 4α,9-diaza-1,2,4α,9α-tetrahydro-9H-fluorenes with primary amines gives
quinonediimines of the 4α,9-diaza-1,2,4α,9α-tetrahydro-6H-fluorene series [2]. It is of interest to study similar
oxidative coupling with primary amines containing additional O-, S-, and N- nucleophilic centers since, in this
case, there is the possibility of an intramolecular cyclization to give phenoxa(thia)zine structures possessing
potential biological activity [3].
We have examined the reaction of the compound 1a,b derivatives with aromatic o-binucleophiles
(o-aminophenol, o-aminothiophenol, and anthranilic acid) in the presence of MnO2 to give the quinonediimines
2a,b, 3a,b, 4a. Along with compounds 3a,b there were formed in small amounts the disulfides 7a,b and 8a,b but
it was not possible to separate them from compounds 3a,b due to their very similar chromatographic properties.
Treatment of compounds 2a,b with acetic acid (and compounds 3a,b with NaOH in ethanol) caused an
intramolecular cyclization to form the phenoxazine 5b and phenothiazine 6a,b products. The cyclization product
from compound 2a could not be isolated although a reaction did occur. Compound 5b had been prepared before
by the reaction of the corresponding quinonemonoimine of the diazatetrahydrofluorene series with
o-aminophenol but in significantly lower yield [4]. Compound 4 did not cyclize in the conditions indicated
above.
The IR spectra of all of the compounds prepared (Table 1) showed absorption bands for enamine
[C(3)–C(4)] bonds and a quinoid structure typical of the quinoid system of diazatetrahydrofluorene. The spectra of
compounds 2a,b showed a band for a hydrogen bonded OH group and the spectrum of compound 4a an
absorption for the carboxylic C=O group. There are also weak absorption bands for an NH2 group in the spectra
of compounds 3a,b due to the admixture of compounds 7a,b.
_______
* For Communication 4 see [1].
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Far Eastern State University, Vladivostok 690600, Russia; e-mail: slabko@chem.dvgu.ru. Translated
from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 2, pp. 248-252, February, 2002. Original article submitted
January 20, 2000.
226
0009-3122/02/3802-0226$27.00©2002 Plenum Publishing Corporation