D. Yousif, M. Monti, A. Papagni et al.
Tetrahedron Letters 61 (2020) 152511
Table 1
our purposes we used the commercially available surfactant Kol-
liphor EL (2% w/w in water), giving better results than those
obtained in an organic solvent [14]. Moreover, there was no need
for an inert atmosphere, as the use of this surfactant demonstrated
unprecedented resistance to oxygen permeability of the reaction
environment [17]. In order to apply the micellar methodology to
the synthesis of phenazines, we planned to substitute the nucle-
ophilic aromatic substitution with a micellar type B-H amination,
therefore using ortho-bromo azobenzenes as key intermediates
instead of highly fluorinated azo compounds, resulting in a more
general protocol allowing the production of a wide range of non–
symmetric phenazines.
Optimization of the micellar B-H between 3 and 1.
N
NH2
N
N
N
NH
+
Br
1
3
7
Entry
Temperature
Reaction time
Yield 7 (%)a
1
2
3
4
5
6
60 °C
60 °C
80 °C
80 °C
80 °C
80 °C
2 h
20 h
2 h
4 h
20 h
48 h
–
trace
10
23
91
89
Results and discussion
In an initial effort to prove our synthetic strategy we first pre-
pared 1-(2-bromophenyl)-2-phenyldiazene 3 (Scheme 1), starting
from the oxidation of aniline 1 with CuBr/pyridine under air to give
azobenzene 2 in 77% yield [18], and subsequent selective palla-
dium catalysed mono ortho bromination by the method of Tian
and co-workers [19].
Reagents and conditions: 3 (0.5 mmol), 1 (0.5 mmol), Pd2(dba)3 (2 mol%), dppf
(4 mol%), t-BuONa (0.75 mmol), Kolliphor EL (1.97% H2O, 1.8 mL), toluene (0.2 mL),
stirring (500 rpm). aIsolated yield.
Initially, we examined the B-H reaction under micellar condi-
tions between 3 and aniline 1 (Table 1). As a starting point we
selected the previously reported conditions used for the amination
of ortho-bromo benzaldehydes [14], i.e. 3 and 1 in a 1:1 ratio, Pd2(-
dba)3 as precatalyst, dppf as ligand, sodium tert-butoxide as base in
a mixture of 1.97% aqueous Kolliphor EL and toluene in a 9:1 ratio,
at 60 °C, with 500 rpm stirring, under air (Table 1, entry 1). Under
these conditions no traces of the desired product 7 (Scheme 2)
were detected, and the starting reactants 1 and 3 remained unal-
tered. Upon increasing the reaction time from 2 h to 20 h (Table 1,
entry 2), barely detectable traces of the product were found. We
hypothesized that the activation energy for this transformation
could be higher with respect to the B-H on ortho-bromo benzalde-
hydes, thus we considered further increasing the reaction temper-
ature. Running the reaction at 80 °C for 2 h (Table 1, entry 3) was
beneficial and afforded 7 in 10% isolated yield. At this point we
decided not to further raise the temperature to avoid exceeding
the cloud point, and therefore the phase separation of the micellar
reaction media. Maintaining the temperature at 80 °C the reaction
was run for 4 h (Table 1, entry 4), and the yield increased to 23%.
Finally, with a reaction time of 20 h under these conditions, we
were able to obtain 7 in 91% isolated yield (Table 1, entry 5). The
use of a longer reaction time was unfruitful (Table 1, entry 6).
With these optimized conditions for the micellar B-H amina-
tion of 3, we synthesized ortho aminated azo compounds 8, 9
and 10, using 2-methoxyaniline 4, 2,4,5-trifluoroaniline 5 and 2-
aminophenol 6, respectively (Scheme 2). Our choice to use ortho
oxygenated anilines was driven by their interesting biological
activity against resistant bacteria demonstrated by phenazines
possessing the hydroxy functionality in position 1 [5,7,8]. More-
over, 4 and 5 were selected as electron-rich and an electron-poor
aminating agents. Due to steric hindrance, a decreased yield was
observed with both 4 and 5, which was more pronounced using
NH2
N
N
1
NH2
4
NH
(91%)
7
OMe
N
N
NH
OMe
NH2
(85%)
8
F
a
N
N
F
N
Br
N
F
5
3
NH
F
F
F
9
NH2
(71%)
OH
N
N
6
NH
NH2
OH
a
b
N
N
N
N
Br
(70%)
10
1
(77%)
(94%)
3
2
Scheme 2. Micellar B-H amination of 3 with anilines. Reagents and conditions: (a)
3 (0.5 mmol), aniline (0.5 mmol), Pd2(dba)3 (2 mol%), dppf (4 mol%), t-BuONa
(0.75 mmol), Kolliphor EL (1.97% H2O, 1.8 mL), toluene (0.2 mL), 80 °C, 20 h, stirring
(500 rpm).
Scheme 1. Preparation of 1-(2-bromophenyl)-2-phenyldiazene 3. Reagents and
conditions: (a) CuBr (6 mol%), pyridine (18 mol%), toluene, 60 °C, air (1 atm.), 20 h;
(b) NBS (1.2 equiv.), Pd(OAc)2 (5 mol%), TsOH (0.5 equiv.), CH3CN, r.t., 20 h.
2