Tetrahedron Letters
An effective and regioselective bromination of 1,4,5,8-naphthalene-
tetracarboxylic dianhydride using tribromoisocyanuric acid
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Y. V. Suseela, M. Sasikumar, T. Govindaraju
Bioorganic Chemistry Laboratory, New Chemistry Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Jakkur P.O., Bangalore 560064, India
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 16 July 2013
Revised 5 September 2013
Accepted 11 September 2013
Available online 17 September 2013
A highly efficient and cost-effective reagent for the bromination of 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic
dianhydride under mild reaction conditions is reported. Bromination of 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxy-
lic dianhydride using tribromoisocyanuric acid (TBCA) in concentrated H2SO4 is very effective and regio-
selective. 1,4,5,8-Naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydride was brominated smoothly under optimized
reaction conditions to give mono-, di- and tetra-brominated products in good to excellent yields using
TBCA. As a proof of principle, the potential of this bromination methodology is demonstrated by
converting brominated naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydrides into N-imide and core functionalized
1,4,5,8-napthalenetetracarboxylic diimides by treating with n-butylamine to yield corresponding
mono-, di- and tetra-(n-butylamino)-naphthalene diimides in good yields in one-step reactions.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Bromination
Tribromoisocyanauric acid
Naphthalene dianhydride
Core substitution
Naphthalene diimide
Fluorescence
Naphthalene diimides (NDIs) are the rapidly emerging class of
aromatic compounds with significant implications in organic, bio-
supramolecular chemistry, biomedicine and materials science ow-
ing to their remarkable electronic, spectroscopic and self-assembly
properties.1 The imide substituted NDIs and core substituted NDIs
(cNDIs) have been shown to have wide-ranging applications in the
field of supramolecular chemistry1,2 and biomedicine that is gener-
ation of nanostructures,2,3 DNA intercalation,4 supramolecular chi-
rality,5 artificial photosynthesis,6 self-cleaning,7 sensors,8 organic
solar cell applications,9 host–guest systems,10a,b synthetic ion
channels10c and n-type organic field effect transistors (OFETs).11
Functionalization through imide nitrogens or via core substitution
(substitution on the naphthalene core) produces analogues that al-
ter their electrical, optical and redox properties.12 Varying the nat-
ure of substituents either electron donating or withdrawing on
cNDIs has been shown to exhibit colourful rainbow fluorescence.13
The versatility in structure and properties of NDIs is responsible for
its wide spread application in various fields.
on NDIs including supramolecular chemistry, organic electronics
and biomedicine. Therefore developing an efficient and econom-
ical brominating reagent for the regioselective synthesis of bro-
mo-derivatives of NDA is of high priority. Various bromination
methods known till date in the literature for bromination of
NDA involve (i) molecular bromine as a brominating reagent in
the presence of catalytic amount of iodine either in oleum or mix-
ture of conc. H2SO4 and oleum as a solvent,14 (ii) use of sodium
bromide (NaBr) as a brominating agent in oleum15 and (iii) dibro-
moisocyanuric acid (DBI) in oleum as a source of bromine.16
However all these literature methods suffer from many draw-
backs like molecular bromine involved reactions produce low
yields and handling bromine is a difficult task due to its toxicity
and high vapour pressure. Moreover, hazardous and corrosive
nature of molecular bromine makes it difficult to handle as a bro-
minating reagent under milder reaction conditions. Furthermore,
prolonged reaction time and high reaction temperatures were
needed to carry out the reaction (i.e., the tetra-bromo NDA was
synthesized at 140 °C). The NaBr method required harsh reaction
conditions and a special equipment to carry out the reaction.15
DBI is highly expensive, not readily available in large quantities,
reactions were performed at high temperature (130 °C)16b and
gave mixture of brominated products.16d Moreover, purification
and isolation of the bromo-derivatives of NDA have not been de-
scribed with full details in the literature reports. All the above
discussed methods typically report purification and characteriza-
tion of bromo-derivatives of NDAs by converting them into corre-
sponding imides. These drawbacks further reiterate the need for
The bromo-derivatives of 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic
dianhydride (NDA) serve as precursors for the preparation of
numerous functionalized NDIs. The area of NDIs has been wit-
nessing a rapid progress due to interesting properties and novel
functional applications of N-imide and core functionalized NDIs.
The availability of precursor materials in abundance to prepare
functionalized NDIs accelerates the ongoing research activities
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Corresponding author.
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